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> Surely Cato the Elder's writing Cato was, incidentally, a novus homo, not born into a Patrician family. His father was a pleb and a soldier and a farmer, and
by dmreedy 4y ago
> Surely Cato the Elder's writing
Cato was, incidentally, a novus homo, not born into a Patrician family. His father was a pleb and a soldier and a farmer, and he was as well.
> Other fictional writing I read suggests engagement in "trade" was beneath the senatorial classes [...] Oddly, not entirely unlike the British Landed classes
Yeah, the vibe I get was that this was a feature of most? pre-capitalist societies.
- thaumasiotes 3y ago> Yeah, the vibe I get was that this was a feature of most? pre-capitalist societies. Yes, commerce and labor are both taboo for elites in most premodern societies. There are some obvious exceptions; the Phoenicians wouldn't have seen anything wrong with engaging in commerce.
- inawarminister 3y agoYeah, many trading cultures never had this injunction: for example Malay sultans rise and fall with the prosperity of their entrepots, exporting spices and rice and importing chinaware and Indian riches. * On the other hand... Confucianism puts merchants as one of the lower members of society, because they do not add value as artisans. Edo Japan famously had caste of samurai on the top, farmers on the middle, and merchants on the lowest.
- scns 3y ago> a feature of most? pre-capitalist societies My prejudice would be that new money (by trade) is still looked down upon by old money (inherited/landowners/dynasties). By those with low self-esteem.
- dmreedy 3y ago> By those with low self-esteem Exactly the prejudice such old money would (and to your point, still does) hold against "merchants".