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Social Background.
19th century England had serious social problems from the heyday of Royalty and Nobility. In the time of the Regency, Britain was at the period of transition form the earlier stage of Capitalism Industrialization. As the development of Capitalism and the expand of the rank of rich people, the distinction between social stratum was becoming smaller and smaller, while money was getting more and more important in people's mind about social value. A western literature critic once said that "even David Ricardo (a British economist) had a unlikely clearer understanding about the functin of money in daily life as Jane Austen had." It is exactly because of the secure pledge in finance that the country squire society could be existing strongly and solidly. One of the most significant of these was the tendency to marry for money. A person sought a partner based on the dowry receivable and their allowance. This process went both ways: a beautiful woman might be able to snag a rich husband, or a charring and handsome man could woo a rich young girl.
Next is the introduction about Mr. Bingley and his two sisters.
"They were in fact very fine ladies; not deficient in good humor when they pleased, nor in power of being agreeable when they chose it, but proud and conceited. They were very handsome, had been educated in one of the first private seminaries in town, had a fortune of twenty thousand pounds, were in the habit of spending more than they ought, and of associating with people of rank, and were therefore in every respect entitled to think well of themselves, and meanly of others. They were of a respectable family the north of England; a circumstance more deeply impressed on their memories than that their brother's fortune and their own had been acquired by trade.
Mr. Bingley inherited property to the amount of nearly an hundred thousand pounds from his father, who had intended to purchase an estate, but did not live to it.