Gentry in the context of "John Graves Simcoe"

Gentrification is the process whereby the character of a neighborhood changes through the influx of more affluent residents (the "gentry") and investment. There is no agreed-upon definition of gentrification. In public discourse, it has been used to describe a wide array of phenomena, sometimes in a pejorative connotation.

Gentrification is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and planning. Gentrification often increases the economic value of a neighborhood, but can be controversial due to changing demographic composition and potential displacement of incumbent residents. Gentrification is more likely when there is an undersupply of housing and rising home values in a metropolitan area.

The gentry, or landed gentry in China was the elite who held privileged status through passing the Imperial exams, which made them eligible to hold office. These literati, or scholar-officials, (shenshi 紳士 or jinshen 縉紳), also called 士紳 shishen "scholar gentry" or 鄉紳 xiangshen "local gentry", held a virtual monopoly on office holding, and overlapped with an unofficial elite of the wealthy. The Tang and Song dynasties expanded the civil service exam to replace the nine-rank system which favored hereditary and largely military aristocrats. As a social class they included retired mandarins or their families and descendants. Owning land was often their way of preserving wealth.

Aristocracy (from Ancient Greek ἀριστοκρατίᾱ (aristokratíā) 'rule of the best'; from ἄριστος (áristos) 'best' and κράτος (krátos) 'power, strength') is a form of government that places power in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocrats.

Across Europe, the aristocracy exercised immense economic, political, and social influence. In Western Christian countries, the aristocracy was mostly equal with magnates, also known as the titled or higher nobility, however the members of the more numerous social class, the untitled lower nobility (petty nobility or gentry) were not part of the aristocracy.

The landed gentry (also known as the squirearchy or simply gentry) is a largely historical British and Irish social class of landowners who could live entirely from rental income, or at least owned a country estate. The British element of the wider European class of gentry, while part of Britain's nobility and usually armigers, the gentry ranked below the British peerage in social status. Nevertheless, their economic base in land was often similar, and some of the landed gentry were wealthier than some peers. Many gentry were close relatives of peers, and it was not uncommon for gentry to marry into peerage. With or without noble title, owning rural land estates often brought with it the legal rights of the feudal lordship of the manor, and the less formal name or title of squire, in Scotland laird.

Generally lands passed by primogeniture, while the inheritances of daughters and younger sons were in cash or stocks, and relatively small. Typically the gentry farmed some of their land through employed managers, but leased most of it to tenant farmers. They also exploited timber and minerals (such as coal), and owned mills and other sources of income. Many heads of families also had careers in politics or the military, and the younger sons of the gentry provided a high proportion of the clergy, military officers, and lawyers. Successful burghers often used their accumulated wealth to buy country estates, with the aim of establishing themselves as landed gentry.

Nouveau riche (French for 'new rich'; French: [nuvo ʁiʃ]), new rich, or new money (in contrast to old money; French: vieux riche [vjø ʁiʃ]) is a social class of the rich whose wealth has been acquired within their own generation, rather than by familial inheritance. These people previously had belonged to a lower social class and economic stratum (rank) within that class and the term implies that the new money, which constitutes their wealth, allowed upward social mobility and provided the means for conspicuous consumption, the buying of goods and services that signal membership in an upper class. As a pejorative term, nouveau riche affects distinctions of type, the given stratum within a social class; hence, among the rich people of a social class, nouveau riche describes the vulgarity and ostentation of the newly rich person who lacks the worldly experience and the system of values of old money, of inherited wealth, such as the patriciate, the nobility, and the gentry. Though people who came from lower social classes are beginning to see it as a compliment rather than an insult, viewing it as recognition that they built their own wealth and status.

The imperial examination (Chinese: 科舉) was a civil service examination system in Imperial China administered for the purpose of selecting candidates for the state bureaucracy. The concept of choosing bureaucrats by merit rather than by birth started early in Chinese history, and the first earnest use of written examinations as a method of recruitment appeared under the Sui dynasty (581–618). Its systematic implementation began during the Tang dynasty (618–907), when examinations became a regular channel for bureaucratic appointment and the dominant path to high office. It was further expanded during the Song dynasty (960–1279). The system lasted for 1,300 years until its abolition during the late Qing dynasty reforms in 1905. The key sponsors for abolition were Yuan Shikai, Yin Chang, and Zhang Zhidong. Aspects of the imperial examination still exist for entry into the civil service of both China and Taiwan.

The exams served to ensure a common knowledge of writing, Chinese classics, and literary style among state officials. This common culture helped to unify the empire, and the ideal of achievement by merit gave legitimacy to imperial rule. The examination system played a significant role in tempering the power of hereditary aristocracy and military authority, and in the rise of a gentry class of scholar-bureaucrats.

The Russian nobility or dvoryanstvo (Russian: дворянство) arose in the Middle Ages. In 1914, it consisted of approximately 1,900,000 members, out of a total population of 138,200,000 (1.38% of the population). Up until the February Revolution of 1917, the Russian noble estates staffed most of the Russian government and possessed a self-governing body, the Assembly of the Nobility.

The Russian word for nobility, dvoryanstvo derives from Slavonic dvor (двор), meaning the court of a prince or duke (knyaz), and later, of the tsar or emperor. Here, dvor originally referred to servants at the estate of an aristocrat. In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, the system of hierarchy was a system of seniority known as mestnichestvo. The word dvoryane described the highest rank of gentry, who performed duties at the royal court, lived in it (Moskovskie zhiltsy, "Moscow dwellers"), or were candidates to it, as for many boyar scions (dvorovye deti boyarskie, vybornye deti boyarskie). A nobleman is called a dvoryanin (plural: dvoryane). Pre-Soviet Russia shared with other countries the concept that nobility connotes a status or social category rather than a title. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, the title of the nobleman in Russia gradually became a formal status, rather than a reference to a member of the aristocracy, due to a massive influx of commoners via the Table of ranks.