More like they didn't have political power, because they didn't have money and influence. I'd argue that peasants had more political power than wealth back the

More like they didn't have political power, because they didn't have money and influence. I'd argue that peasants had more political power than wealth back then. Peasants uprisings were a thing. Rulers had to work with that by either crushing them or giving them a wee better treatment. Yet they didn't have any wealth. Once peasants got some wealth thanks to industrial revolution, they soon broke into wider political scene.