Birth of the middle class?

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Lagrangian
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My mind has failed me (curse it <.<) but the english middle class was born during the renaissance era wasn't it? Or at least the first major expansion of it, or did that occur a bit after the renaissance?
 

ad_lucem

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My mind has failed me (curse it <.<) but the english middle class was born during the renaissance era wasn't it? Or at least the first major expansion of it, or did that occur a bit after the renaissance?

I'm not sure about the birth of the middle class, but I tend to associate the expansion of it with the Victorian era.

I could be totally wrong.
 

Cella

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BL is right.
 

Silver King

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My guess, based upon unreliable sources such as what I recall from my drug-fueled days spent in college, would place such a birthing around the fourteenth century.

Lucky for you, and the rest of us, we can ask our friends over in the Experts forum for a definitive answer, so we'll move this thread there now. :)
 

hammerklavier

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In general, the middle class grew out of business ownership, whether it was merchants, bankers, or skilled artisans. As they were allowed to actually own land or buildings, and work for themselves (especially in the case of artisans) instead of a feudal lord. These sorts of reforms did begin to occur more in the renaissance, but were not complete until sometime in the early 20th century. It was the industrial age, coupled with the great war that finally ended the remnants of the feudal system. Also, the machines and manufacturing processes of the industrial age helped create more professions from which you could advance to middle class.
 

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My mind has failed me (curse it <.<) but the english middle class was born during the renaissance era wasn't it? Or at least the first major expansion of it, or did that occur a bit after the renaissance?

It depends on what you mean by "born."

In medieval terms there were four estates:

Church
Aristocrats/royalty (hereditary class)
Merchants
Peasants/Serfs (tied to specific estates)

Merchants mostly came from the aristocrats.

The middle class blossomed after the medieval plagues--peasants were in short supply and desperately needed to deal with crops; peasants with skills (cooper, smithing, carpenter, brewer . . .) were mobile and could move to the city or to another landlord and thus were eagerly sought.

I'm really crudely skipping over a lot of stuff here--including the fact that while Italy was enjoying the Renaissance, England was languishing in the middle ages--

It's best to think of it as Venn diagrams, perhaps, with some circles shrinking and some growing . . .
 

Shakesbear

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Medievalist I agree with most of your post. But I am not sure that merchants mostly came from the aristocracy, as I thought that the aristocracy made their money mainly from land rents. Though, on reflection, I can see that they could be merchants as well. Successful merchants were not middle class as they had the money and influence to move up the social scale. Literacy also had a part to play in the growth and development of the middle class.
 

stephenf

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I think the problem is the word ,Middle class, is constantly being redefined and has a different meaning to different people.A lot of what has been said maybe true to us liberal minded, looking back at the past.My dad was a bricklayer,he was skilled,employed labours to work for him and earn lots of money.But was considered to be ,by the middle class, working class and thats in the twentieth century .Have look at http://www.answers.com/topic/middle-class I think the question is how old is snobbery and you my be closer to your answer.
 

Robin

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I remember reading that the Reformation had a huge impact on the beginnings of the middle class as well, due to people no longer giving all of their money to the Church. There was suddenly a large population of people outside the aristocracy that had discretionary income, not to mention the emergence of the "Protestant work ethic".
 

PeterL

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It is largely a matter of definitions. The Middle Class was not born; it was there all along. The middle class was composed of free people who were not tied to an estate. The influence and importance of the middle class was very small in England until after the Plague, but even before then there were very important middle class people.
 

StephanieFox

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The Black Death had something to do with this. When the disease killed off the rich landowners and much of the serf labor force, the surviving serfs saw opportunity. They left their masters (who wasgoing to stop them) and went to work for the person who would pay them the most.

Some of these former serfs simply moved into the abandoned estates of their former masters and became landed gentry. Others moved into towns and/or started working in businesses and the trade.

The successful members of these groups were the beginning of the merchant or middle classes.

It wasn't until the industrial revolution when the middle class really took off and it grew again in the USA after WW II. It's kinda scaling back, now.

Interestingly, most people except for the super rich and the very poor consider themselves middle class. (There are folks who are making upwards of $500k a year who think that they are middle class, as do those making $25k a year.)