I think the short (or maybe trite) answer is land. The aristocratic "investment thesis" held true in the long term. The UK hasn't had land reform since the civi

I think the short (or maybe trite) answer is land. The aristocratic "investment thesis" held true in the long term. The UK hasn't had land reform since the civil wars, so big landholdings didn't changed much except in Ireland. To pick a sentence amlost at random: "More than a quarter of all Scottish estates of more than 5,000 acres are held by a list of aristocratic families." Today the dominant economic institution is companies. You could make statements like the one above and replace one with the other. Besides that, it's largely similar. The moral mythology is completely different, but the politics and economics largely hold true. Tryagainbro brings up primogeniture, which is important. Companies have that built in.