Several recent studies on the household structure and the demographic evolution of protoindustrial communities in early modern Europe contradict important tenets of protoindustry theory as it has emerged from the writings of Braun, Mendels, Medick, and Levine. The present study develops a conceptual framework of the protoindustrial household economy based on a simple model of the decision-making process by which rural households allocate their labor to agricultural and protoindustrial activities. Its application to the class-specific location of protoindustrial activities, to the demographic corollaries of protoindustrialization, to age- and gender-specific work roles as well as to patterns and strategies of life cycles suggests its capacity to interpret in a coherent fashion a wide variety of seemingly contradictory empirical evidence.
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