If we’re going by the historical use of the term, yes.
At the beginning of the early modern period, you had two classes: peasants and aristocrats. You were born into your class and that was that. But early industrialization lead to a funny thing; people who were born peasants, yet through owning things like mines or factories, had amassed enough wealth to rival (and sometimes surpass) the aristocracy. Aristocrats derisively refereed to these wealthy peasants as “The Middle Class”.
If you were to show an aristocrat our present world, they’d tell you we’re ruled by their middle class.
At the beginning of the early modern period, you had two classes: peasants and aristocrats.
IDK, I think that’s a bit of an oversimplification. Not everyone was either an aristocrat or a peasant, there were also tradespeople, craftsmen, innkeepers, merchants, traders, bankers, and of course the clergy (who would often wield enormous power themselves, even over the aristocrats, because they generally had to give their blessing to whatever the rulers decided to do).
None of these really fit neatly into the peasant/aristocrat dichotomy (except perhaps for the clergy), but I suppose one could lump the rest of them all in together and call them middle class (or townsfolk). Not all of them were rich, of course (in fact, many were probably not), but some of them did quite well for themselves.
If we’re going by the historical use of the term, yes.
At the beginning of the early modern period, you had two classes: peasants and aristocrats. You were born into your class and that was that. But early industrialization lead to a funny thing; people who were born peasants, yet through owning things like mines or factories, had amassed enough wealth to rival (and sometimes surpass) the aristocracy. Aristocrats derisively refereed to these wealthy peasants as “The Middle Class”.
If you were to show an aristocrat our present world, they’d tell you we’re ruled by their middle class.
IDK, I think that’s a bit of an oversimplification. Not everyone was either an aristocrat or a peasant, there were also tradespeople, craftsmen, innkeepers, merchants, traders, bankers, and of course the clergy (who would often wield enormous power themselves, even over the aristocrats, because they generally had to give their blessing to whatever the rulers decided to do).
None of these really fit neatly into the peasant/aristocrat dichotomy (except perhaps for the clergy), but I suppose one could lump the rest of them all in together and call them middle class (or townsfolk). Not all of them were rich, of course (in fact, many were probably not), but some of them did quite well for themselves.