A History of Modern Europe - From the Renaissance to the Present

534 Ch. 14 • The Industrial Revolution

of bankers, manufacturers,

or merchants; their fathers

brought them into the business

or loaned them enough money

to get started on their own. At

the bottom of the pyramid

stood the “petty bourgeoisie/’

at whose expense nobles and

wealthy bourgeois made cruel

jokes. This stratum included

shopkeepers of modest means

and expectations, wine mer­

chants, minor officials, school­

teachers, cafe owners, and some

craftsmen—especially those in

luxury trades, such as gold­

smiths and silversmiths—who

proudly considered themselves

middle class.

A middle-class couple out on a walk in Many wealthy merchants and

Vienna. industrialists hungered for

social prestige, which was still

closely tied to owning land. The proportion of land owned by the middle

class increased rapidly during the first half of the nineteenth century in

Britain, France, and the German and Italian states. Since ownership of land

(specifically the taxes paid on it) remained the basis of electoral enfran­

chisement in much of Western Europe, this further increased the political

influence of the middle classes.

The landed elite—noble and non-noble—remained at the pinnacle of

social status in Britain, although its share of the nation’s wealth fell from

about 20 percent to about 10 percent between 1800 and 1850. Some En­

glish “country gentlemen” still looked down their noses at those they scorned

as mere “calico printers” and “shopkeepers,” even if some peers now owed

their titles to family fortunes made in commerce or industry a century ear­

lier. Likewise, because in Britain the eldest son still inherited the entire

family fortune, some second and third sons left country life to become busi­

nessmen, without feeling the sense of humiliation that their counterparts

might have felt in Prussia. Many noble families were delighted to have their

offspring marry the sons and daughters of wealthy businessmen.

The Entrepreneurial Ideal and Social Mobility

The entrepreneur emerged as a man to be revered and emulated. The

Scottish philosopher and economist James Mill (1773—1836) became the

political champion of the middle class, which he called “both the most