As screwed as the peasants were through all the ages, all the upper classes in the world won't make much progress if you don't have a relatively "free" peasantry from which to procure armies that can actually defend anything. Throughout history, when the free peasants (small farmers who could actually fend for themselves on land they lived on) became actual serfs (more or less slaves to the lords), their empires crumbled.

Until England worked this all out by creating the age of imperial commerce where the peasants became wage laborers who got paid before the harvest was taken. This is the creation story of the British Empire. The U.S. adopted it after Shays Rebellion.

The last unanswered question here: if all you have to participate in a market is to sell your body (brains and all), are you really free?