Although light industry had begun to dominate Hoxton, Georgian Hackney was still overwhelmingly agricultural, over two thirds was of the area was farmland at the beginning of the Georgian period. Agricultural products were sold in the city of London as well supplying the local markets. The main products were beef and hay but there were some arable crops; oats, peas, wheat and barley were also grown.

Around Mare Street market gardens and nurseries were abundant. Many had been pushed northward from Hoxton as the spread of the City forced farming out; until the Georgian period Hoxton had been the centre of the market gardening in the area. The Loddiges nursery, which was on Mare Street, became known as something of a visitor attraction, due to its huge steam heated greenhouses and exotic plants.

Around the Kingsland Road area watercress was grown. The area next to Balmes House, which was set back from the road, was supposedly the first place where watercress was grown commercially. In 1759 a tragic story was reported in the press of a young boy who drowned in the beds whilst his mother worked there.

Brickfields, another source of employment in Hackney, could be found in the Kingsland Road area, although over the course of the Georgian period the encroaching suburbs gradually pushed them northward to Clapton. In 1806 brickfields covered 170 acres of Hackney. In 1821 more than 70 labourers and their families were found to be actually living in the brickfields.

For women domestic service was a major employer. The 1801 census for Stoke Newington shows that there were many large households but that the female population was more than double that of male, which is a strong indicator that there were many women in domestic service. The many asylums, hospitals and schools located in Hackney, also created some employment for women.

The vast majority of the 600-700 strong workforce at the Hackney Wick silk mill would also have been women. This was one of the two major manufacturing industries in Hackney during this period. The other was Berger's colouring works. Mr Berger established his business in 1760 in Shadwell, but in 1780 he bought a new house in Homerton on Shepherds Lane and built a factory in a field to the rear of his house. Water was diverted from Hackney Brook through his garden to provide water for the factory.

A major difference to the Hackney of today, where many people travel from their immediate area to go to work and to large shopping centres, can be seen by the type of shops on the streets of Georgian Hackney. In 1826, in the Hackney parish area, there were two bookshops, four wine merchants, seven toyshops, thirty butchers and thirty-six grocers - there were two perfume shops on Church Street alone.

Likewise many small industries existed whose services today would be swallowed up by larger businesses. In Shoreditch artisans operated from small workshops where they lived. Tailors, ironworkers, leather workers such as saddlers and cordwainers (shoe and boot makers) were all common. Printing and furniture makers were another two predominant industries in this area, particularly in the later period. The furniture industry boomed in the south Hackney area when the Regents Canal was completed in 1820, as this eased the transport of heavy goods and materials. The furniture trade provided work for many small specialist trades such as french polishing and veneering, likewise with printing there was work for bookbinders and stationers.

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