Due to the rising cost of fielding a full-time standing army, Louis XIV sold noble titles to commoners with enough money. Although many of the landed nobility looked down upon the new nobles, the institution was mutually beneficial for the king and for the emerging middle class. Prior to this institution, vertical social mobility was rare and was typically confined to marriage or acts of extreme heroism. Given the diffusion of wealth due to the implementation of the capitalist economic system implemented to fund the army and the availability of nobility on the market, social mobility was more readily obtainable. Thus, modern concepts of “rage to riches” and the “American Dream,” both common modern institutions, have their origins in the sale of nobility by Louis
Due to the rising cost of fielding a full-time standing army, Louis XIV sold noble titles to commoners with enough money. Although many of the landed nobility looked down upon the new nobles, the institution was mutually beneficial for the king and for the emerging middle class. Prior to this institution, vertical social mobility was rare and was typically confined to marriage or acts of extreme heroism. Given the diffusion of wealth due to the implementation of the capitalist economic system implemented to fund the army and the availability of nobility on the market, social mobility was more readily obtainable. Thus, modern concepts of “rage to riches” and the “American Dream,” both common modern institutions, have their origins in the sale of nobility by Louis