Answer by
tmoney (176)
Before the rise of the capitalist system, people were either peasants that worked all day doing manual labor, or nobility that owned all of the land. As more and more trade took place, a new group known as the bourgeoisie or "town-dwellers" formed from the merchants and business-owners that were not nobility but lived more comfortably than the peasants. The bourgeoisie became what we call the middle class today.