new population congregated in two major groups. One of the groups was the urban proletariat, which was a highly combustible element in times of scarcity, as it was clearly seen in the last years of the Ancien Regime, The second part of the increase found a better niche in society, what we would call today the lower Middle Class. The increase of population in general and that of the cities in particular demanded an increase of supply of goods and services. However poor, the members of the increased population were consumers. They were cut off from their origin where they were producers and consumers, in the towns they were only consumers, and someone had to fill their needs. Bakers, butchers, grocers, drapers, bistros, etc. had to be expanded or new enterprises added. It only added to the numbers of the Middle Class. In addition there were the factories too, as creators of the new Middle Class. Despite the ingrained image of the 'satanic mills' with emaciated women and children working around the clock for a pittance, the actual picture was more prosaic and less satanic. There were factories that conformed to that picture, especially in the textiles, but even those enterprises could not survive only on the work of women and children. In modern times, the number of people who actually work in production is a small fraction of the people mployed by the enterprise. There are foremen, maintenance workers, clerks, accountants, salesmen, gatekeepers and uncounted other categories ...
