How did the bourgeoisie emerge in the Middle Ages?

It was in the late Middle Ages, that is, around the 11th - 12th century, when a new social group emerged belonging to the group of the underprivilegedyes, the bourgeoisie. It was composed mainly of merchants, free artisans and liberal professionals (such as doctors, lawyers or bankers) persons, who, as a rule, were not subject to the manorial authority of years previous.

Next, in this lesson from a TEACHER, we'll see how the bourgeoisie arises in the Middle Ages, a new social class that ended up becoming the main axis of the political, economic and social life of the cities.

Everything revolves around the economy of the time. As you know, both in the Ancient Ages and in the High Middle Ages (5th - 12th century), the economy was based mainly on the rural world, so they lived from agriculture and livestock. In addition to subsistence, that is, everything they produced was for their own consumption, they did not generate surpluses, for What there were no products with which to trade and the closest thing to this was what we know as barter.

With the cessation of the waves of invasions that Europe suffered in the eleventh century, new developments took place, among them in the field of agriculture, in which, thanks to the introduction of new cultivation techniques (such as plowing the land with horse-drawn mechanisms, rotation systems, the use of the water mill ...) favored the increase in the production of the land and in turn in livestock, in which they not only improved in quantity but also in quality.

All this led to a greater demographic growth in the populations and to the generation of that surplus in which times ago they did not have, which meant the rise of trade.

Little by little and thanks to this boom in trade, the population began to migrate from the countryside to the cities, so also at this time the rebirth of these was seen. The cities arose mainly in those places where greater numbers of people converged, and they used to be localities close to the ports, because through them you could both import and export the products, as well as at the crossings of roads. Some of the main centers of commerce were the cities of Genoa and Bruges.

In this way, cities over time became the main sources of money, here, the bourgeoisie, that is, those first merchants and artisans, they began to group with the few free artisans who were in these. These, being disconnected from the rural population, as well as from the nobles, managed to be given the permission by the feudal lords, to become independent from these and thus achieve the self-government; giving rise to the birth of the bourgeoisie.

Therefore, we could define the bourgeoisie as a new social class that is characterized by not developing manual work and for maintaining a status wealthy economic. They ended up becoming owners of the means of production, and for that they had manpower, that were the workers and peasants, who in exchange for their work were paid a salary, although miserable, Hence, there were often peasant revolts, who rebelled against these injustices.

In the case of the bourgeoisie, their source of wealth came from surplus value, that is, what generated the work that was not paid to the peasant.

In this other lesson we show you a summary on trade in the Middle Ages.

The bourgeoisie, as we have already commented previously, was the new social group that broke with the ancient medieval society. Well, within the bourgeoisie you can distinguish three groups and they are:

• The haute bourgeoisie: they are the ones that are, in the highest part of the social pyramid. They were in charge of controlling commerce, industries, banking, and those who were in charge of more important positions in the administration of the State. They are the ones who took over many lands that previously belonged to the Church and the impoverished nobility.
• The middle bourgeoisie: It was made up of great qualified professionals such as engineers, lawyers, university professors, as well as wealthy merchants and farmers.
• The petty bourgeoisie: Constituted by small merchants, civil servants with a medium-low level and artisans.