How to Size Up a Single Man of Large Fortune | Jane Austen, Money & Marriage

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I love her videos!! she gives a lot of great information as to the social class and general living of the regency era.

edit: another good video she has was about marrying up and social climbs. gives great insight how rigid social classes are to break into.

👍︎︎ 9 👤︎︎ u/xoxolove4ever 📅︎︎ Sep 08 2021 🗫︎ replies

the fl won`t marry you if you are not the most powerfull man in the empire

👍︎︎ 6 👤︎︎ u/Financial_Complex_96 📅︎︎ Sep 08 2021 🗫︎ replies

Great one! I watched a similar video talking about how rich the characters in Pride and Prejudice actually were. Looking at it in both monetary terms and social terms

👍︎︎ 2 👤︎︎ u/where_is_carmen 📅︎︎ Sep 08 2021 🗫︎ replies
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- So when Mr. Bingley shows up at the beginning of "Pride and Prejudice," everybody's so excited, why? Because he's a single man of large fortune. Yup, he has money. And during the Regency era money was essential to marriage. In fact, it was one of the most important factors to weigh when choosing a marriage mate. In today's video, we're going to be delving into how much money was needed in order to get married in the Regency era? And people's different approach to money when it comes to marriage. So if you're interested in learning more about that, then definitely stay tuned for today's video. So my name is Ellie Dashwood and this is my channel where we talk about history and literature and Regency era economics, actually a lot for some reason, I guess money really was important in the Regency era. But if you are interested in any of those things, then please subscribe. So in today's video, we're going to be talking about the two very important purposes money in marriage served. One was survival and comfort and the other was social standing. And at the end of this video, we're also going to be addressing this question that's come up of whether Elizabeth Bennett was ultimately selfish when she turned down Mr. Collins because Mr. Collins had great prospects of money. So that should be an interesting conversation. Anyway, first up, when it comes to money and marriage in the Georgian and Regency era, one of the most important things to remember is that romance during this time period often gets hugely, hugely oversimplified. I've heard a lot of this concept that essentially says that people only married for money, especially among the wealthy it was just the merging of two family fortunes. And while there were definitely some families that viewed marriage that way, and we're gonna talk about them in a little bit, the vast majority of the upper class still wanted to marry someone they liked. The big difference here is they obviously needed to make sure that they only ended up liking somebody that had enough money. And this was done through several different ways. One is by limiting the social sphere that especially young ladies of money were introduced to. So for example, a young lady in the upper class would only go to bowls with young men of the upper class and her parents would be screaming any potential suitors for their financial background. So that way that when their daughter did fall in love, because she was only exposed to young men of wealth, she would naturally fall in love with a young man of money, which if you've seen my video on the Victorian era marriage season, this was a concept that was held through even then, because that's the entire point of the marriage season was to get all of the rich young people together so that they could fall in love under acceptable circumstances. And of course the vast majority of parents did this, not because they were money hungry, but because they cared their children, they wanted their children to have the first important aspect of money in marriage, which is a survival and comfort. So let's listen to what Elizabeth Bennett has to say on this topic when she's talking about Mr. Wickham hitting on Ms. King with her £10,000 and how exactly Lydia and Kitty are responding to that. It says, "They're young in the ways of the world, and not yet open to the mortifying conviction that handsome young men must have something to live on as well as the plain." So as Elizabeth Bennett points out, everybody needs something to live on. And I mean, this is still true today. When a young couple gets married, it's like, "Okay, how are you gonna pay for the apartment? How are you gonna pay for food?" And so just as marrying today without being able to support a family would be ridiculous, marrying without money in the Regency era was seen as ludicrous and just foolish. Not only that, but they thought it was a sure way to end up in marital unhappiness because of course, marital bliss left the second that deprivation set in, and this was a viewpoint that we even see Jane Austen hold, for example, in one of her letters, when she's gossiping with her sister about a young man they know that married a penniless girl, and now they're living quite poor. Well, this is what she has to say about them. "Earle and his wife live in the most private manner imaginable at Portsmouth, without keeping a servant of any kind. What a prodigious innate love of virtue she must have to marry under such circumstances!" That's right, this family couldn't even keep one servant, which for the class they were from was pretty serious. So here we see definitely a couple needing enough money to marry on, but exactly how much money was that? Well, the absolute minimum to maintain any sort of claim to gentility would be £200 to £250 a year. Though obviously most people would be shooting for far above that. For example, in Northanger Abbey, Isabella Thorpe claims that £400 is "Income hardly enough to find one in the common necessaries of life." Meanwhile, in "Sense and Sensibility" when Mary Anne says that she hopes to have £2,000 a year when she marries, she says that that is quite a moderate income. We definitely see there's a range of opinions on how much money was actually necessary. And there is a pretty simple equation to find out exactly how much a couple would need for their personal circumstance. And that was figuring out how much money they would need in order to maintain a lifestyle they were raised to. And to learn more about that, let's listen to what Colonel Fitzwilliam, Mr. Darcy's cousin has to say to Elizabeth Bennett about this while they're walking in the Gardens of Rosings. So Elizabeth says to him, "In my opinion, the younger son of an earl can know very little of either. Now seriously, what have you known of self-denial independence? When have you been prevented by one of money from going wherever you choose or procuring anything you had a fancy for?" Then he says, "These are home questions. And perhaps I can not say that I've experienced many hardships of that nature, but in matters of greater weight, I may suffer from want type of money. Younger sons cannot marry where they like. Unless where they like women of fortune, which I think they very often do. Our habits of expense make us too dependent, and there are not many in my rank of life who can afford to marry without some attention to money." So do you see the part where it says, "Our habits of expense?" Here he's talking about the fact that he's used to living this expensive lifestyle. His lifestyle has to be maintained by his wife's fortune whenever he marries, but the most basic thing to know about where money did come from in marriage during this era is the fact that most families had dual incomes, which is a very important point to remember this need for dual incomes in most families in order to maintain that lifestyle. So I think often we think of dual incomes as a more modern concept, but of course, back in this era, they were the standard among the rich. Here we have the husband bringing in some sort of income, perhaps from an estate, if he's a land owner, from a profession possibly such as his pay in the Navy or Army, if he's an officer, what he gets from tithes as a clergyman. So that is where the husband is bringing in money from. The wife also usually brought in money in the form of her fortune or dowry. And that dowry could literally be invested money that's earning interest. Some families gave their daughters land, or also some daughters were actually heiresses. For example, Ms. Anne de Bourgh in "Pride and Prejudice" is going to inherit Rosings which means she is bringing a lot of money into the marriage. So then this comes down to a very simple math equation to figure out if a young couple has enough money to marry, which is where they add the income the husband is bringing in plus the income that the wife is bringing in, they add them together and they ask the question, "Can we live to the lifestyle we're accustomed to on this amount of money?" And if the answer is yes, then green light, like they are good financially. However, if the answer is no, that is where some problems come in. Either one of them is going to have to take a hit in lifestyle, or they might have to wait. For example, for the husband, if he's a clergyman to be able to take on additional parishes, earn more tithes and have a larger income that then he may be able to marry on. So some young couples did wait quite a few years to be able to marry so that they would have enough money. And we see in Jane Austen's novels, this consistently happening, none of her heroines marry into poverty. Rather many of them actually marry up financially or at least maintain their own lifestyle. So Jane Austen's works are definitely upholding this level of comfort and survival when it comes to money, which makes sense because she obviously did not approve of people marrying without enough to live on. So now let's talk about the second factor that some families used marriage for, which was social standing and social climbing. Just like today, how rich can never get rich enough back then, the rich also never felt they were rich enough and they always wanted to get more money. And one way for the upper class to do this in an era where they also didn't actually want to work was by marrying money. And while all families would love for their child to fall in love with someone with a lot of money, some families took this to the next extreme of saying, "You know what? I don't care if you love the person. You're marrying them anyway 'cause they got money." And I think a perfect example of this we see in Jane Austen's works is the Ferrars Family in "Sense and Sensibility" and how they're always trying to push Edward to marry rich, like they don't want him to marry Elinor, even though he certainly has enough money for them to live a comfortable lifestyle together. They would meet the survival and comfort equation standard. However, they want him to marry for money. They want him to marry for social standing, whether he loves Ms. Morton or not. Now, like I said, there were definitely some families that viewed marriage this way, but that was just what they were. There were some families, I feel like the more average view was the one of, "Yes, money's important. Make sure to only fall in love with money, but also fall in love, love is important." And I think it's the difference between saying, "Eat green leafy vegetables for your health and only eat green leafy vegetables." There's a big difference between saying, "Don't marry without money and marry only for money." And those families that promoted marrying only for money were of course, satirized in the press. And also just generally seen as mercenary by the ideals of the day, which when we're talking about these mercenary versus romantic ideals, I think this is a perfect lead into, was Elizabeth selfish when she turned down Mr. Collins? And I think this is a question one of you guys asked in the comments a while ago. So I do see where the idea is coming from. Like she could have totally helped her family by marrying Collins, but she turned him down. So Regency society must have thought She was selfish. But again, that's going back to this idea that the Georgian era was all about money. Because really Elizabeth Bennett in "Pride and Prejudice" in general, holds up so many of the ideals of society. Of course, does everyone live up to ideals? No, but that doesn't mean that they're still not the standard to which people in society hope to aspire or judge people's behavior by. So from a Regency perspective, Elizabeth and Mr. Collins were a horrible personality match. She did not love or esteem him at all. If she had accepted him, that would have actually been seen as a very mercenary and in a negative light. In fact, a popular conduct guide of the time period said this about marrying without love, "Far be it for me to advise you to marry where you do not love; a mercenary marriage is detestable prostitution." That is right, even in 1806, they were calling mercenary marriages, detestable prostitution. And even on top of this, when "Pride and Prejudice" came out, it was a very popular book and it was reviewed by a major reviewer at the time. And they actually praised Elizabeth Bennett's characterization and how she handled herself. In fact, they had to say this about her, "Elizabeth sense in conduct are of a superior order to those of the common heroines of novels. From her independence of character, which is kept within the proper lines of decorum and her well-timed sprightliness, she teaches the man of Family-Pride to know himself." So here we see that Elizabeth has kept within the proper lines of decorum and that she's generally praised as a good heroine. And in fact, Jane Austen's overall sentiments when it comes to romance, are also met with approval in this review. They have to say about her, "The sentiments, which are dispersed over the work, do great credit to the sense and sensibility of the authoress. The line she draws between the prudent and the mercenary and matrimonial concerns, may be useful to our fair readers." So here we see them even specifically praising how Jane Austen drew that line between prudent and mercenary when it comes to marriage. And also when it comes down to Elizabeth turning down Collins on a financial aspect, I've heard a lot of people say like, "Oh, well, Elizabeth is just so brave to do that during the time." And it's true that takes so much bravery and courage, but I think sometimes people take it to this next level of like, "Oh, she was setting this whole new precedent. Nobody turned down guys before her." And that is definitely not the case. Plenty of women were turning down matches that would have been financially good, but loveless long before Elizabeth Bennett did. As somebody who does research this time a lot, I do see it quite often. Sometimes young women were even at this point in their life where they had to choose marry this guy I don't love for financial security or go and become a governess. And they would pick, go and become a governess over marry this guy they don't love. And yes, Elizabeth was totally courageous in the stand she took there, however, she wasn't revolutionary in any sense of the word. Instead, she was behaving as a young lady of Georgian era would. So basically to sum all of this up, they wanted love, but they made sure to only fall in love with someone who had enough money to help them maintain the lifestyle they were raised to. And also some families totally wanted to social climb regardless of love, but they were satirized and condemned as mercenary, of course, some of them still did it anyway, 'cause people, no matter the era are gonna do what they want. And Elizabeth Bennett was doing a great job of living up to all of the romantic ideals of society. Anyway, let me know in the comments below, if you lived during this era, how much money do you think you would need to be able to maintain your lifestyle? Would you need £200 a year, £2,000, £10,000 and a beautiful estate at Pemberley? Hmm, I might have to opt for the beautiful estate of Pemberley. Yeah, anyway, I hope you have enjoyed watching this video and keep having an awesome day, 'cause you're awesome. Bye. (jazz music)
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Channel: Ellie Dashwood
Views: 54,355
Rating: 4.9748797 out of 5
Keywords: jane austen, pride and prejudice, pride & prejudice, pride & prejudice 2005, pride & prejudice 1995, classic literature, classic books, northanger abbey, northanger abbey analysis, regency era, regency, georgian era, 18th century, 19th century, english history, marriage, dowry, what is a dowry, dual income household, dual income, two incomes, marrying for money, mr bingley, jane bennet, elizabeth bennet, mr collins, money and marriage, personal finance, Jane austen movies
Id: i6eduJy8iNk
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Length: 16min 0sec (960 seconds)
Published: Fri Jul 23 2021
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