In the later barbarian culture society attained settled methods of acquisition and possession under the quasi-peaceable regime of status.

Simple aggression and unrestrained violence in great measure gave place to shrewd practice and chicanery, as the best approved method of accumulating wealth.

A different range of aptitudes and propensities would then be conserved in the leisure class.

Masterful aggression, and the correlative massiveness, together with a ruthlessly consistent sense of status, would still count among the most splendid traits of the class.

These have remained in our traditions as the typical "aristocratic virtues." But with these were associated an increasing complement of the less obtrusive pecuniary virtues; such as providence, prudence, and chicanery.