- In the countryside poor peasants and artisans began looking for merchants. This was a time when open fields were disappearing and commons were closed.
- Cottagers and poor peasants, who had earlier depended on common lands for their survival, had to now look for alternative sources of income.
- Many had small land holdings, which could not provide work for all the members of the family.
- So merchants came around and offered advances to produce goods for them, peasants eagerly agreed.
- By working for the merchants, they could remain in the countryside and continue to cultivate their small plots.
- So income from proto-industrialisation supplemented their shrinking income from cultivation and raised their standard of living.