Expansion of Social Classes

1
Expansion of Social Classes

• AP European
• Agricultural and First Industrial Revolutions

2
What classes existed?

• from 16th late 19th, early 20th century
• landed aristocracy
• peasantry/agricultural workers
• misc. middle classes
• urban poor

3
Government

• contribute to rise of capitalism business class
  through trading companies
• governmental jobs often secured (upper)
  middle-class or aristocractic position
• titles of nobility could be granted
• tax exemption of higher classes
• royal court at top of social pyramid

4
Aristocracy

• 1-5 former feudal/noble class
• held offices in kings army, government or
  prestigious offices of the church
• became more interested in education of children,
  civilian pursuits
• from impoverished nobles to grands seigneurs
• bloodline became increasingly important as
  financial status fell
• began buying shares in overseas trading companies
  and also taking products to market

5
Bourgeoisie Upper Middle Class

• bourgeois French burgher English Bürger
  German
• person living in a chartered town and enjoying
  its liberties
• began buying land in the country and living off
  the rent
• some economic crossover with aristocracy, but
  social consciousness remained distinct

6
Middle Classes

• urban elites sometimes intermarried w/ nobility
• merchants, bankers, ship-owners, lawyers,
  doctors, judges, tax officials, other government
  employees
• most clergy came from middle classes
• Artisans members of trade guilds
• diverse professions goldsmiths, tanners, barrel
  makers, retail shopkeepers, innkeepers, workshop
  owners

7
Agricultural Prices Rise

• Landowners peasants with land holdings profit
• class of yeoman (small freeholders) develops
• rural workers w/o land suffer
• Food prices rise but wages remain static
• Landowners affected
• After enclosure must accept cash payments vs.
  crop payments Cash cant buy as much as it used
  to.

8
Working Class Poor

• majority of population, included
• unskilled wage laborers worked the land, the
  sea, or in the domestic realm
• unemployed, unemployable
• prices rose, wages didnt
• English Poor Laws
• charitable relief, workhouses, hospices
• poor worse off, due to growth of social
  differentiation

9
Eastern vs. Western Europe

• Western Europe middle class benefits from
  commercial revolution falling value of money
• Eastern Europe (Germany, Bohemia, Poland, Russia,
  Hungary) Aristocrats benefit as they own
  majority of land and workers, hereditary
  subjection (serfdom) still strong
• Robot / barschchina weekly forced unpaid labor
• could not leave manor, marry or learn a trade
  with permission of lord

10
Industry Population 18c Europe
11
18cPopulationGrowthRate
12
Population Takeoff in Europe
13
European Urbanization
14
Gin LaneWilliam Hogarth1751
15
Beer StreetWilliam Hogarth1751