Marriages are first and foremost an economic arrangement, and the 19th century practice of wife selling only bolsters that argument.
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A husband takes his wife and baby to the local market , intending to trade them both to the high bidder . Yes , this is the introduction to the 1886 Thomas Hardy novelThe Mayor of Casterbridge , but it was also a commonly practiced custom among the hapless of old England .
Back in the early - to - mid 1800s , “ wife selling ” bid itself to many Brits as an easier and less dear alternative to a traditional divorce .
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Before 1857 , the year that the first divorcement court would appear in England , divorcing one ’s partner was a tough and costly endeavor . In parliamentary law to lawfully lodge for the dissolution of a married couple , you ’d need a private Act of Parliament and the boon of a church — necessities that would , today , be around $ 15,000 .
Because the average workings - class man typically could not open such rates , he would simply change “ possession ” of his married woman to the highest bidder in a public auction , much the same way one would trade a moo-cow or a goat .
In fact , the item of these public auction sale exactly resemble the purchasing and selling of any other such trade good . walk together to the public market or local cattle auction sale , the husband would simplypay a grocery store tollbefore placing his married woman upon a outdoor stage , tethered to her seller from the wrist or waist by a thick strand of rope .
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Now display at the auction closure for all to see , buyers would sometimes haggle with the trafficker until reach an agreed - upon price . And just like that , the infelicitous couple was together no more .
Of course , this entrepreneurial arrangement was n’t exactly effectual , though because this was typically a practice of the pitiful , bureau most often turn a blind centre .
While the custom seems especially unknown and even nauseating to most mass today , it is authoritative to think back that , before theMarriage Act of 1753 , the legal philosophy did not require a conventional wedding observance , making the married union of a duet fundamentally nothing more than an agreed - upon arrangement . The married man and married woman would , however , be formally consider as one sound important person , with the man now incorporating the woman ’s rights .
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While woman were certainly reckon as the commodity in such an arrangement , it was n’t always a disgruntled , “ upgrade”-seeking husband who would lead to the sale . Quite often , women themselves would near the topic , insist on the dealing as a means to terminate an unhappy union .
Wives would bear or refuse a buyer at their own discretion , and could even nix a finicky sale if they found the buyer unsympathetic . Most often , the parties agree upon the term of the sales event workweek before the public sale take lieu , making the mart exchange not much unlike than a spousal relationship ceremonial occasion itself .
While the praxis of wife - selling has pretty much subsided since the implementation of modern divorcement royal court , some case of the old ways rest . Even as recently as 2009,poor Farmer living in sealed function of rural Indiahave been forced to trade their wife in an seek to keep affluent money lenders felicitous .
The pattern has also shown up in the human race ’s gravid market , eBay , when in 2016 a human beings offered up his “ unsympathetic ” wife . The prankster — who discover his wife as “ physical structure work and paint oeuvre still in decent shape and has some skill in the kitchen ” — landed bids as high as $ 65,000 before the situation took the poster down .
For more married oddities like married woman selling , read up on the recitation ofghost marriage .
