Editing Upper class (section)

==Historical meaning==
[[File:Retrato de familia Fagoaga Arozqueta - Anónimo ca.1730.jpg|thumb|
Portrait of the family Fagoaga Arozqueta, about 1730. Painter unknown. The family was part of the upper class in Mexico City, New Spain.
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Historically in some cultures, members of an upper class often did not have to work for a living, as they were supported by earned or inherited investments (often [[real estate]]), although members of the upper class may have had less actual money than merchants.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-1257,00.html |title=How should we define working class, middle class and upper class? |year=2011 |access-date=15 September 2018 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |publisher=[[Guardian News and Media Limited]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180915121855/https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-1257,00.html |archive-date=15 September 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref> Upper-class status commonly derived from the social position of one's family and not from one's own achievements or wealth. Much of the population that composed the upper class consisted of aristocrats, ruling families, titled people, and [[ecclesiastical polity|religious hierarchs]]. These people were usually born into their status and historically there was not much movement across class boundaries.
[[File:Baile del Santiago antiguo.jpg|thumb|Ball in [[Captaincy General of Chile|colonial Chile]] by [[Pedro Subercaseaux]]. In [[Spanish Empire|Spain's American colonies]], the upper classes were made up of Europeans and [[Criollo people|American born Spaniards]] and were heavily influenced by European trends.]]  
In many countries, the term "upper class" was intimately associated with hereditary land ownership. Political power was often in the hands of the landowners in many [[pre-industrial society|pre-industrial societies]] despite there being no legal barriers to land ownership for other social classes. Upper-class landowners in Europe were often also members of the titled [[nobility]], though not necessarily: the prevalence of titles of nobility varied widely from country to country. Some upper classes were almost entirely untitled, for example, the [[Szlachta]] of the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]].<ref>{{cite journal
| last = Skwarczyński
| first = Paweł
| date = June 1956
| title = The Problem of Feudalism in Poland up to the Beginning of the 16th Century
| jstor = 4204744
| journal = [[The Slavonic and East European Review]]
| location = Salisbury House, Station Road, [[Cambridge]], [[Cambridgeshire|Cambridgeshire county]], [[England|ENGLAND]]
| publisher = [[Modern Humanities Research Association]]
| volume = 34
| issue = 83
| page = 302
| quote = In 1459 [[Ostroróg family|Ostroróg]] submitted a memorandum to the parliament (sejm), suggesting that the [[Voivodes of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|palatines, or provincial governors]], should be given the title of prince and their sons the titles of barons and counts. The title of count was suggested by him for a [[Castellans of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|castellanus]]. But all these suggestions were not accepted.}}</ref>