As the bourgeoisie grew in power, what happened to the other old feudal classes like the aristocracy and the peasants?

The rise of the bourgeoisie, otherwise known as the merchant class or middle class, created a third socio-economic stratum within European societies, which complicated the political landscape and put further pressure on the aristocracy. In France and England, the merchant classes grew out of the pool of skilled laborers (artisans) and shopkeepers, who in most cases had come from peasant families at some point along the way. For the peasant class, who were still mostly struggling to subsist, the emergence of the bourgeoisie was notable mostly because the richest of the merchants pressed for direct political representation in parliaments, such as the House of Commons in England. Although peasants did not generally (or at least initially) gain seats in the lower houses of parliament, they rightly saw that those "lower houses" could act as a counterweight to the "upper chambers," which were dominated by members of the aristocracy.

So while the interests of peasants and merchants did not always line up, peasants did benefit indirectly by the policies of economic liberalization that the lower houses of parliaments advocated. In England, for instance, the House of Commons initiated reforms that allowed peasants the right to have their animals graze on underutilized land belonging to local aristocracy, which became known as "commons." Peasants could also grow crops on these common lands, as they were known, without having to give all of the fruits of their labor to the aristocrats whose land they farmed. Other reforms to the legal system (such as curbs on debtor’s prisons) gave peasants and workers more rights, and made them less subject to the whim of local aristocrats. As a result, peasants in England fared much better than did those in France, where such land and legal reforms were not enacted proactively. In fact, the lack of progress on these points contributed the conditions that made the French Revolution possible.

In this way and in others, the impact of the rise of the bourgeoisie on the aristocracy was less positive. Many aristocratic families had become impoverished or "land rich, cash poor," as a result of mismanaging their estates and spending lavishly without thought to balancing their books. As a result, in many western European countries, to pay off their debts or simply to gain wealth, many noblemen and noblewomen began to marry the sons and daughters of the merchant class. In this way, the merchants got the nobility they wanted, while the aristocrats gained the cash infusions that they needed in order to stay afloat. In France, the government actually began to sell titles of nobility to rich merchants in order to shore up state finances. Acts such as these further undermined the prestige of the aristocracy, and laid bare the lie that aristocrats were inherently superior to those born of “common birth.”

All in all, the rise of a non-titled, independently wealthy class of men and women (the bourgeoisie) undercut the power and clout of aristocrats, who had to cede political and economic power to the bourgeoisie either through political reforms or violent revolution. Factory workers and servants (who had previously been peasants) became more willing to speak up for themselves and to advocate for increased political representation, largely because they had seen the merchants do so, and were emboldened by their example.