Social assimilation into the colonial elite mattered more to financiers than wealth itself.

Evidence

Barnato sold his shares to Rhodes in order to be introduced to the Kimberley Club. “This is no mere money transaction,” Rhodes is reported to have told Barnato, “I propose to make a gentleman of you.” Barnato enjoyed his life as a gentleman for eight years and then committed suicide. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 2346

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s broader scaffolding on how the colonial outcast/excluded figure sought entry into the ruling class — parallels themes in the Islamophobia reading list on social exclusion and assimilation.