Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tonguez" data-source="post: 9394092" data-attributes="member: 1125">Yeah largesse is pretty fundamental to maintaining social relations and status across all cultures, even moreso in subsistence agrarian societies where the generosity of the lord could be the difference between survival and starvation (and being given an extra shilling is great at any time).One of the interesting things about the rise of the Squirearchy is that it was a phenomena that arose after the dissolution of the monasteries in 1535 where by Henry VIII seized the assets of some 600+ monastic communities and sold off their estates. Many of the buyers were Lawyers, Merchants and Government Officials seeking to both invest in property and gain prestige as land owners, however in order to claim that prestige they were not permitted to be 'in the trade' as farmers (which was beneath a gentlemen) and thus were required to both go into rent-gouging and rely on urban investments. The gentry was thus a major cultural phenomena binding the rural and urban parts of England as well as the noble and commoner classes. They were also fundamental to the rise of capitalism as an idle 'investor' class socially barred from working for a living except as lawyers/government, military officers or clergy and as investors we eventually see the rise of chartered companies and company colonialism .</blockquote>