Starting universities was just faddish social posturing - "look how much money I have!", combined with the fact that there wasn't a whole lot you could do with

Starting universities was just faddish social posturing - "look how much money I have!", combined with the fact that there wasn't a whole lot you could do with excess money in the 19th century beyond building buildings. How many horses can one man have? Today the fads are space flight, or taking over a social media site, or launching a vanity startup, or buying a sports team.