Early modern labour, roughly spanning from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, was embedded in agrarian economies, guild-based production, and emerging commercial capitalism. Around 1500, most workers were engaged in agriculture, tied to feudal or semi-feudal systems in which labour obligations were often defined by custom, status, and land tenure rather than formal contracts. Serfdom in parts of Europe bound peasants to landlords, while in other regions tenant farming and sharecropping prevailed. Labour was largely unfree or semi-free, and remuneration was often in kind rather than wages. Household-based production was central, with families acting as units of both production and consumption. The early modern period also witnessed the gradual erosion of feudal relations and the expansion of wage labour. Population growth, commercialization of agriculture, and the enclosure movement displaced many peasants from common lands, creating a growing class of landless labourers. This transformation contributed to the emergence of labour markets where individuals sold their labour power for wages. The putting-out system or domestic system became prominent, especially in textile production, where merchants supplied raw materials to rural households and collected finished goods. While this system allowed flexibility, it also increased dependency on merchant capital and reduced workers’ control over production. Guilds, which had regulated skilled trades in medieval towns, began to decline in influence during this period. Although they had provided training, quality control, and some protection for artisans, they also restricted entry and innovation. With the rise of capitalist enterprise, guild structures weakened, and labour became more commodified. Workers experienced increasing differentiation based on skill, gender, and region, with women and children often employed in lower-paid and more precarious forms of work. The transition to industrial capitalism in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries marked a profound shift in labour practices and experiences. The Industrial Revolution introduced mechanized production, factory systems, and large-scale urbanization. Labour moved from rural households to urban factories, fundamentally