In the preface to the second edition I mentioned that since the publishing of this work in the year 1960 cottage industry – under the new terminology ‘proto-industry’ – has received increased attention in social and economic historical reasearch, a tendency that still continues today. Therefore, the publisher's wish to take this historiographic situation into account and to summarise in a longer postscript the more recent research history as well as the latest research results is quite legitimate. Two reasons prevent me, however, from writing such an outline myself. First of all, I feel more like the grandfather of the youngest research generation which is presently working on proto-industrial subjects and problems. Secondly, my teaching commitments as well as my own research interest have, for many years now, led me away from the subject of proto-industry so that I have not followed the most recent developments closely and intensively enough. I have, therefore, asked one of my assistants, Ulrich Pfister, to write the requested postscript. He is part of the younger research generation and works in the field of proto-industrialisation on his own projects. Thus, the pen is passed on to the grandson.