About thirty years ago Miss Maria Ward, of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park, in the county of Northampton, and to be thereby raised to the rank of a baronet’s lady, with all the comforts and consequences of an handsome house and large income. All Huntingdon exclaimed on the greatness of the match, and her uncle, the lawyer, himself, allowed her to be at least three thousand pounds short of any equitable claim to it. She had two sisters to be benefited by her elevation; and such of their acquaintance as thought Miss Ward and Miss Frances quite as handsome as Miss Maria, did not scruple to predict their marrying with almost equal advantage. But there certainly are not so many men of large fortune in the world as there are pretty women to deserve them.

From “Mansfield Park” by Jane Austen

It sounds bad, doesn’t it?  It is a form of woman trafficking: “All Huntingdon exclaimed on the greatness of the match, and her uncle, the lawyer, himself, allowed her to be at least three thousand pounds short of any equitable claim to it.” We should be glad we live in a country and a century where women are not just a commodity— unless they choose to be.  Unfortunately, this human trade still goes on. Love is often such a fleeting affair that, to fill the emptiness, quite a few discouraged or cynical women and men resort to money. Little do they know that wealth can never replace the tenderness and caring that genuine affection brings.