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If that's the case, then it can be said that smallfolk are free, even if extremely poor, I suppose.

Back to the matter, serfdom (so, the status of smallfolk) can be understood as a form of slavery, certainly it was institution criticised by early classical liberals as such (...do not confuse with modern US "liberalism" - from modern point of view early classical liberalism is pretty...

I think then that Adam Smith is better. "A person who can acquire no property, can have no other interest but to eat as much, and to labour as little as possible." A free subsistence farmer, even at income equivalent to our 40$ per month at rough purchasing power parity, had entirely...

Frédéric Bastiat, laissez-faire proponent of the 1840' France. xd My point is, historically many people recognized difference between free poor and slaves, though admittedly during early industrial revolution.

XIX century classical liberals would say pretty much the same things that I said, so maybe read Bastiat (he would say nothing about motorcycles or electricity obviously, but my point about individual choice is not about these XX century luxuries).

"Wage slaves"? Ugh. The above words can make sense only to a pretty rich person with not enough perspective (or, ironically, to a radical leftist). Actual poor people could easily see difference between slavery and low-paid free work. Factory workers in sweatshops are much above true...

Stopping power of "gunfire", as in gunpowder weapon, is extremely significant. I thought about specifically repeating crossbow, that were OTL used in China.

I need to mention that's a nice toy to kill or at least maim civilians, or bandits. It's not especially useful in european-late-medieval-style war. Really poor stopping power, practically opposite of the usual crossbow.

Explosives, highly possibly needed, but decent rifles and Maxim guns? Doubt. Because gunpowder-era Russian Empire was able to deal with nomads just fine, without any Maxim guns yet. Surely there were reasons as to why nomads were broken much before late XIX century.