Would it have been smarter or easier for Egg to push pro small folk reforms via economic means rather than legalistic ones? City charters, better roads, all those canals etc.

My issue with the social progress through economic development strategy is that it really depends what the issues were that the smallfolk were dealing with: if the major issue of the day was famines and high prices, large numbers of landless younger sons, etc. than pushing economic development is a good idea. But if the issue is the nobility rampaging over the peasantry, pursuing a strategy of “let’s wait a few generations for the merchant classes to rise before doing anything about it” doesn’t seem great.