| Sumario: | The putting-out system of production served as a bridge between traditional handicraft production and modern manufacturing. Before centralized factories, merchants put out raw materials to formerly independent craftsmen and to subsistence farmers. The process of making the materials into finished goods was divided into steps, and the work paid different piece rates, depending on the skill required. The workers would today be classified as independent contractors, since they generally owned their own tools and set their own hours. This system, dismissed by many as a relic, has resurfaced in some advanced industrial societies, and under certain conditions is an attractive alternative to the centralized factory. In Modena, the center of Italy's knitwear industry, the great majority of the “manufacturers” rely on external networks of small independent artisanal firms to make their garments. A study of modern putting-out in Modena's knitwear industry is presented.
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