“金钱换头衔”:镀金时代“美元公主”与英国贵族的跨洋联姻

“Cash for Title”:Transatlantic Marriages Between“Dollar Princesses”and English Aristocrats in the Gilded Age

镀金时代,数百名“美元公主”携带丰厚嫁妆,嫁给了英国贵族,成了有头衔的贵族夫人。这种跨洋联姻是从现实出发各取所需的互惠互利:美国新兴富豪将女儿嫁给英国没落贵族,通过金钱换头衔,实现地位提升和阶层跨越;经济窘迫的英国贵族迎娶美国富家女而获得丰厚嫁妆,用头衔换财富,以维系家族生存,重振家族荣耀。交通技术的进步、美国财富的增加和英国贵族的经济困难导致了跨洋联姻的盛行。这种交易性质的婚姻,受到了当时舆论的广泛批评。跨洋联姻产生了婚姻之外的重要影响,尤其是在经济、社会、政治和外交领域。跨洋联姻违背了启蒙运动以来“为爱而婚”的爱情婚姻潮流。这种婚姻也是跨大西洋交流史的一个呈现,深刻影响了英美两国的精英阶层,并在一定程度上重塑了英美两国的上层社会。

Hundreds of“dollar princesses”with large dowries married British aristocrats and became ladies in the Gilded Age.Transatlantic marriages were based on mutual benefits:the New Money in the United States would marry their daughters to the declining aristocrats to achieve status promotion by“cash for titles”;poor British nobles married rich American girls and got their dowries to maintain family survival and revive family glory by“titles for cash”.Advances in transportation technology,the increase in American wealth,and the economic difficulties of the English aristocracy led to the popularity of transatlantic marriages.Transatlantic marriages were widely criticized by the public at that time.It had important influences beyond marriage,especially in the economic,social,and diplomatic fields.It is a retrogressive act in the history of human marriage,which violates the marriage trend of“marriage for love”since the Enlightenment.It is also a manifestation of the history of transatlantic exchange,which has deeply influenced the elites of Britain and the US,and reshaped the upper society of the two countries to a certain extent.