This collection of essays provides an up-to-date introduction to "protoindustrialization": the growth of rural export industries that took place all over Europe between about 1500 and 1800. Since the 1970s some historians have argued that protoindustrialization broke down traditional society and prepared the way for the industrial revolution. These studies survey the resulting debates and research and provide an essential guide to an important, yet often confusing field of economic and social history.