The Marriage Preference And Kinship Of Merchants In Early Modern England

Early modern England witnessed the transformation from an agriculture-oriented society to a commercialized society. Kinship was flexible and wide-extended, which played a great role in the social economic life in England. Kinship was cherished by all levels of people including merchants. Kinship consisted of blood kin and affinal kin and it established and extended chiefly through marriage. The intermarriage, either between the business community, or between merchants and other social stratums such as aristocracy or gentry, improved the development of the strength of the merchants, speeded up the social mobility of the merchants and enhanced the social integration as a whole. There are undoubtedly something in common between the vital role of the merchants in the economic life and the merchants' kinship network, whose important role including accumulating capital, training personnel, avoiding risk, cornering market, strengthening force etc.