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PUTTING-OUT SYSTEM

The putting-out system was a production method that was used in New England from the mid-1700s to the early 1800s. Under the system, merchants supplied raw materials (cotton, for example) to families, especially women and young girls, who would make partially finished goods (yarn) or fully finished goods (cloth) for the merchant. These manufactured goods were then sold by the merchant. Homeworkers who "put out" goods provided the needed manufacturing labor of the day. But the factory system of manufacturing was on the horizon.

In 1813 the Boston Manufacturing Company opened the first textile factory, in Waltham, Massachusetts, in which laborers operated spinning and weaving machines to produce woven cloth from start to finish. The advent of machinery had given rise to the factory system, and laborers were shifted from working in their homes to working in factories. While native New Englanders continued to provide the labor for the textile industry for the next two decades, an influx of immigrants in the mid-1800s provided the hungry manufacturers with a steady supply of laborers who were willing to work for lower wages and longer hours.

See also: Andrew Jackson, Lowell System, Samuel Slater, Samuel Slater Builds First Factory, Spinning Mills, Textiles