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One thing to keep in mind is that most of our primary sources are incredibly hostile towards the merchant class. (For much of history, the merchant class had an
by whakim 6y ago
One thing to keep in mind is that most of our primary sources are incredibly hostile towards the merchant class. (For much of history, the merchant class had an incredible stigma attached to them.)
- titzer 6y agoMaybe there's a good reason for that? (and not anti-semitism)
- whakim 6y agoWell, there is a reason for that. The vast majority of primary sources were written by members of a nobility who inherited their wealth, and the nobility viewed wealth that wasn't inherited as ill-gotten. There's also the fact that pre-modern societies didn't have modern economic theories to help them understand exactly what value the merchant class was providing to society. I'm not necessarily siding with the nobility here. Simply pointing out that when our aristocratic sources write about the terrible upheaval that occurred when people outside the nobility acquired great wealth, we should be pretty skeptical.