Pre-industrial society refers to social attributes and forums of political and cultural organization that were prevalent before the advent of the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

, which occurred from 1750 to 1850. ''Pre-industrial'' refers to a time before there were machines and tools to help perform tasks ''en masse''. Pre-industrial civilization dates back to centuries ago, but the main era known as the pre-industrial society occurred right before the

industrial society In sociology, industrial society is a society driven by the use of technology and machinery to enable mass production, supporting a large population with a high capacity for division of labour. Such a structure developed in the Western world i ...

. Pre-Industrial societies vary from region to region depending on the culture of a given area or history of social and political life. Europe was known for its

feudal system Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structur ...

and the

Italian Renaissance The Italian Renaissance ( it, Rinascimento ) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Europe and marked the trans ...

. The term "pre-industrial" is also used as a benchmark for environmental conditions before the development of industrial society: for example, the

Paris Agreement The Paris Agreement (french: Accord de Paris), often referred to as the Paris Accords or the Paris Climate Accords, is an international treaty on climate change. Adopted in 2015, the agreement covers climate change mitigation, Climate change a ...

Climate Change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

, adopted in Paris on 12 December 2015 and in force from 4 November 2016, "aims to limit

global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees

celsius The degree Celsius is the unit of temperature on the Celsius scale (originally known as the centigrade scale outside Sweden), one of two temperature scales used in the International System of Units (SI), the other being the Kelvin scale. The ...

, compared to ''pre-industrial'' levels." The date for the end of the "pre-industrial era" is not defined.

Common attributes

* Limited

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

* Extreme agricultural economy * Limited

division of labor The division of labour is the separation of the tasks in any economic system or organisation so that participants may specialise (specialisation). Individuals, organizations, and nations are endowed with, or acquire specialised capabilities, and ...

. In pre-industrial societies, production was relatively simple and the number of specialized crafts was limited. * Limited variation of

social class A social class is a grouping of people into a set of Dominance hierarchy, hierarchical social categories, the most common being the Upper class, upper, Middle class, middle and Working class, lower classes. Membership in a social class can for ...

es *

Parochialism Parochialism is the state of mind, whereby one focuses on small sections of an issue rather than considering its wider context. More generally, it consists of being narrow in scope. In that respect, it is a synonym of "provincialism". It may, pa ...

—

Communication Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inquir ...

s were limited between communities in pre-industrial societies. Few had the opportunity to see or hear beyond their own village. Industrial societies grew with the help of faster means of communication, having more

information Information is an abstract concept that refers to that which has the power to inform. At the most fundamental level information pertains to the interpretation of that which may be sensed. Any natural process that is not completely random ...

at hand about the world, allowing

knowledge transfer Knowledge transfer is the sharing or disseminating of knowledge and the providing of inputs to problem solving. In organizational theory, knowledge transfer is the practical problem of transferring knowledge from one part of the organization t ...

and cultural diffusion between them. * Populations grew at substantial rates Cipolla, Carlo M. Before the Industrial Revolution: European Society and Economy, 1000-1700. New York: Norton, 1976 * Social classes: peasants and lordsPersson, Karl Gunnar. Pre-industrial Economic Growth: Social Organization, and Technological Progress in Europe. Oxford: Blackwell, 1988. * Subsistence level of living * Population dependent on peasants for food * People were located in villages rather than in cities

Economic systems

Hunter gather society A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fungi, ...

* Commodity market *

Mercantilism Mercantilism is an economic policy that is designed to maximize the exports and minimize the imports for an economy. It promotes imperialism, colonialism, tariffs and subsidies on traded goods to achieve that goal. The policy aims to reduce a ...

Subsistence agriculture Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow food crops to meet the needs of themselves and their families on smallholdings. Subsistence agriculturalists target farm output for survival and for mostly local requirements, with little or no su ...

* Subsistence * Primitive communism

Labor conditions

Social structure and working conditions

Harsh working conditions were prevalent long before the Industrial Revolution took place. Pre-industrial society was very static and often cruel –

child labour Child labour refers to the exploitation of children through any form of work that deprives children of their childhood, interferes with their ability to attend regular school, and is mentally, physically, socially and morally harmful. Such e ...

, dirty living conditions, and long working hours were not equally as prevalent before the Industrial Revolution.R.M. Hartwell, ''The Industrial Revolution and Economic Growth'', Methuen and Co., 1971, pp. 339–41

References

Bibliography