Abstract
This chapter explores the centrality of money and property in the regulation and practices of citizenship since ancient times. It explains how possessions have historically drawn boundaries between different groups of people within and across communities, and highlights examples in which this practice was not possible. The chapter starts with a discussion of the relationship between property and statuses during Greek ad Roman times, hinting at the roots of the practice of wealth-based admission. It then looks at the evolution of the link between citizenship and money in feudal times, during various stages of capitalism, and in socialist societies. The final section of the chapter looks at how globalization since the late twentieth century has created an entirely new environment for a market in citizenship.
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Notes
- 1.
Aristotle criticised the Spartan way of life believing it to be conducive to unidimensionality of character and limited contribution to communal life (Forest 1968).
- 2.
See examples and details in Chapter 4.
- 3.
Although there is some historical ambiguity on whether this happened or not, some sources indicate that Lysias may have obtained Athenian citizenship later on, in 401 bc, when the decree IG II was adopted conferring isopoliteia to metics on the grounds of merit (Loening 1981).
- 4.
The Roman Republic fell in 27 bc and was substituted by the Roman Empire, which lasted until the abdication of the last Emperor, Romulus Augustus, in 476 ad.
- 5.
Plebeians have progressively been granted suffrage in ancient Rome. Between 494 and 287 bc, a period referred to as the Conflict of the Orders, the plebeians sought political equality with the patricians. Over two centuries, they won rights such as the right to hold office or priesthood, establishment of plebeian offices, or intermarriage (with the patricians).
- 6.
Holy Bible. New International Version. 1978. Ephesians 2:19. Colorado Springs, CO: Biblica.
- 7.
Throughout the Middle Ages the Ottoman society was divided in askeri (upper class, administrators and governors), rajah (lower class) and kul (slaves). Religious conversion was frequently used for the reduction of taxes or advancement in the societal hierarchy. For example, a converted slave could advance to become a janissar, a member of elite infantry in the military.
- 8.
Author’s translation from Italian.
- 9.
In (English) common law citizenship was a prerequisite for the possession and inheritance of property. This differentiation between aliens and subjects became most apparent in Calvin’s Case (1608). The case dealt with the question of whether children born in Scotland after the Union of the Crowns in 1603 could be considered English subjects and thus hold and transmit property. This right had been given, in 1606, to the colonists of Virginia by a charter, which subsequently became the roots of the American ius soli (Price 1997).
- 10.
Author’s translation. Deputazione sopra la nobiltà e cittadinanza, 31 July 1750, Archivio di Stato di Firenze Inventario 1951, filze 225. http://guidagenerale.maas.ccr.it/document.aspx?uri=/repertori/SP059600.
- 11.
It would be difficult to translate the value of florins in contemporary currencies. For the sake of comparison, Filippo Brunelleschi, the architect of the Florence cathedral was paid 100 florins per year; and almost 2000 litres of wine could be purchased for 10 florins.
- 12.
A notable exception were the short-lived revolutionary periods (e.g. France in 1789), or fully fledged revolutions that instituted republicanism (American Revolution 1775–1783).
- 13.
The effects of Renaissance expansionism are present to this day, in the form of special statuses, granted for example to commonwealth citizens, or special rights (yet not full citizenship) granted to citizens of the French and Dutch overseas territories.
- 14.
This historical period has been characterised by revolutions, unifications, the rise and fall of empires, and doing justice to all of these processes in this short book would not be possible.
- 15.
The analysis here by no means considers the nation as a fixed relationship based on blood and culture. Nations are fluid, changeable and malleable. The national bond, however, is imagined as being composed of ephemeral commonalities even if the latter are changed and reinvented in light of new sociopolitical circumstances.
- 16.
The history of slavery in the United States and its relationship with property and citizenship is exceptionally complex. Prior to the abolition, which took place at different times in different states, slaves were deprived of civil rights despite being taxed (Finkelman 2012). Even after the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the US Constitution, a number of US federal states adopted legislation that did not explicitly apply to certain ethnic and racial communities or social classes, but had adverse effects on the marginalised or the poor, and effectively excluded them from political processes.
- 17.
Policy suspended after a few months due to pressure from immigrant aid societies.
- 18.
An exception was the Yugoslav passport, which was ‘one of the most convenient in the world, as it was one of the few with which a person could travel freely through both the East and West’ during the cold war (van Dijk et al. 2008, 898).
- 19.
See Chapter 4 for details.
- 20.
This refers to legislation that explicitly regulates the exchange of the status of citizenship and money. See above for informal programmes.
- 21.
Legally, modern democratic states should not discriminate against different social strata in the process of attribution of the rights of citizenship. However, marginalised communities are frequently faced with economic barriers preventing them in the exercise of their rights (Sardelić 2017).
- 22.
See Chapter 4 for details.
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Džankić, J. (2019). Citizenship and Money: Historical Snapshots. In: The Global Market for Investor Citizenship. Politics of Citizenship and Migration. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17632-7_2
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