The industrialists were not responsible for the conditions of late medieval agriculture. Again, would the rural folk have been better off without the factories

The industrialists were not responsible for the conditions of late medieval agriculture. Again, would the rural folk have been better off without the factories altogether? An alternative way to look at things was that industrialism saved Europe (and later the rest of the world) from waves of famine. It allowed, for the first time since centuries, the possibility for ordinary people to travel to work and to move up in society. Conditions were not agreeable to a modern eye, but compared to the past were a great improvement.