The Importance of Autonomy

Hierarchy exchange implies formal equality, or at least the potential for it. Within communities there is almost always a reluctance to allow things to cancel out. In some contexts even praising another's possession might be interpreted as a demand of this sort. The king must have known about this, he didn't object, since the whole point was to show that his wealth exceeded all possible equivalents. They knew that the really important game was not economic, but one of status, and his was absolute.