"Compte du Whatevertheheck" and his English fellow fictional counterpart Lord Fitzwilliam, Earl of ------ (an Earl's wife is a Countess), weren't mere landed ge

"Compte du Whatevertheheck" and his English fellow fictional counterpart Lord Fitzwilliam, Earl of ------ (an Earl's wife is a Countess), weren't mere landed gentry - they were part of the hereditary aristocracy. An aristocrat could be rather poor if he or previous generations had mismanaged the family holdings. The Bennets and Darcys from Pride and Prejudice were the landed gentry, with the Bennets being in the middle of it, albeit very precariously for the Bennet women, as Mr. Bennet failed to father a son. Their interests very famously clashed with those of the up-and-coming merchant class, and of course, those of the tenant farmers and hired laborers. (Charles Bingley, son of a very prosperous merchant, was not yet part of the landed gentry, but would be as soon as he used his cash to buy an estate and started receiving that sweet sweet land rent from his new tenants.) We certainly have "landed gentry" in the US - have you ever noticed that auto dealerships tend to be handed down from father to son? It's a good deal of why Tesla can't sell direct in a lot of states. Also: family farms. Most agricultural workers worked land they didn't own, both now and in the previous two centuries.