I know this may seem like a naive question, but what types of industrial production existed back in medieval times? I need to know so that I can describe a highly industrialized society better in my campaign. So far, i have mining, metal production, cloth weaving/textile manufacturing, and food milling. Please help me to expand this list.
Herding animals, religion, slaves, importing other goods, brothels, guides, sawmill, glass blowing, wine/beer,making, carpentry, toy making/tinkering, clockworks, printing press, paper mills, universities, stone quarry, butcher, baker....
just to name a few
Well, those are more just general jobs. I'm talking about industry, or more specifically manufacturing requiring non organic mechanisms. Thank you though, there were some in there I could use.
Tried it. Didn't get much.
Oh that was a link. Nevermind, yes that is helpful.
There's very little that could be considered "industrial production" in the medieval (European) period. For example, metal production was largely done by localized, individual, blacksmiths. Blacksmiths would produce the iron and steel goods for their local community and if you bought nails from the blacksmith in the next village over they'd most likely be of a different size and quality than the ones you're used to purchasing from your village's blacksmith (same with blades, tools, etc.).
Ceramics/pottery has been around on large scales for a very long time (thousands of years) with "pottery towns/wards/burrows/enclaves" being found in many ancient archaeological sites from China to the Near East showing production on huge scales. But by the medieval period in Europe, it seems to largely have been reduced to small local scales save for high-quality ceramics imported from other locations for the aristocracy.
Agriculture is another big scale "industry" that kept most of the population busy and in the medieval period is probably the one and only endeavor that could be called an industrial production if one allows for serfs working for nobles in their fields as being an industry.
Stone-masonry and architecture would be next on the list as one of the few near-industrial productions but it is highly limited in that most medieval homes are being constructed locally and the only "industrial" works are the castles, keeps, and churches. This includes quarrying the stone, sizing the lumber, and so on. But in a medieval period an overseer would send one of his own to the quarry to make sure the stone was cut specifically for the current project and may spend more to transport lumber to specific mills that they are used to working with (to ensure same size and quality of timber).
Strictly speaking, a "highly industrialized" medieval society is still creating goods by hand. Very little is "standardized" so that if one of your wagon wheels gets destroyed you're going to want to go back to the cartwright that made the four your using or you risk having another cartwright make a different sized wheel or have to take longer to make one match your other 3.
Take the ceramics above, even if there's a whole pottery-district in a large city that's owned and run by a single individual or group; in a medieval setting the qualities of the ceramics are going to largely be dependent upon each individual craftperson, each tending to guard their styles and methods from their next-door neighbors.
The medieval textile "industry" was almost only focused on the upper class; a select few skilled craftpersons creating fabrics and clothing specifically for the aristocracy. The vast majority of fabrics used by the common people were created by themselves for themselves or their families, or possibly their neighbors or village.
One the soft-markers between medieval and Renaissance is the emergence of merchant guilds; guilds that begin standardizing production methods, quality, weights and measures, etc. Then another soft-marker in history is around the late 1700's, early 1800's, from the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution which brings with it not only more standardization, but machines that guarantee each part will be the same size, weight, and quality and produced at a faster rate than if done by hand.
So "highly industrialized," at least in Earth's history, typically comes about through an organized central authority; whether it's a merchant guild, church, or governmental authority. Some individual or group will be enforcing a standardized method to produce a good on large scales and ensure there is a market for it.
All the above being loose generalizations, of course, with the basic idea being, for medieval settings, if you or your next-door neighbor can't make it by hand then you probably can't afford it and/or don't have access to it unless your a noble, royal, or high up in "the church."
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In a 3.5 game, one of our players invented 'Toilet Scrolls'. These could be used for the obvious purpose and then mages could use them for other things. We actually invested party money into this venture. :D