peasants for support.
The Peasantry. In the rural districts, the peasantry occupies a position closely akin to that occupied by the petty bourgeoisie in the towns. It too, properly speaking, does not constitute a single class, for under capitalism it is continually splitting up into classes. In every village and hamlet we find that some of the peasants go to look for work in the towns, and thus in time become completely transformed into proletarians; others develop into wealthy and usurious peasants. The “middle” peasants form an unstable stratum. Many of them are ruined in course of time; they become “horseless men,” and eventually seek work as agricultural labourers or as factory hands; others are more successful, “get on in the world,” gather wealth, become “master peasants,” hire agricultural labourers, make use of machinery — in a word, they are transformed into capitalist entrepreneurs. That is why we are entitled to say that the peasantry does not properly speaking form a single class. Among the peasants we must distinguish at least three groups. First we have the rich peasants, the master peasants, who constitute a rural bourgeoisie, for they are exploiters of wage labour. Next come the middle peasants, who work their own little farms and do not exploit wage labour. Thirdly and lastly, we have the poor peasants forming the rural semi-proletariat and proletariat.