of the Middle Ages--feudal lords, vassals, guild-masters, journeymen, apprentices, and serfs--with these classes also divided further into subordinate gradations. In the present epoch, this system has been simplified to the two great antagonistic classes. In subsequent history, the warfare between these two classes will lead to one great class in the dictatorship of the proletariat, finally producing the classless society Marx says history has always been moving toward.
These changes are tied to the economic system, which in turn is dependent on the prevailing means of production and how that is controlled. The feudal system had sufficed to provide the degree of production needed for society at the time, but as new markets developed, manufacturing took the place of the feudal system and produced new class relations. Marx sees this as tied to the developme
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