Peers, Buccaneers and Downton Abbey: An economic analysis of 19th century British aristocratic marriages

The decline in late 19th century agricultural prices, by reducing the incomes of aristocratic landed estates and of non-aristocratic landed families, led to richly dowried American heiress brides being substituted for brides from landed families in British aristocratic marriages. This reflected a wider 19th century phenomenon of aristocratic substitution of foreign brides for landed brides and the substitution of daughters of British businessmen for daughters of landed families when agricultural prices declined. The results are consistent with positive assortative matching with lump-sum transfers (dowries), where landowning family dowries are cash constrained in periods of agricultural downturn.