Maurice, your idea reminded me of something in Acts 22:25-29 about the arrest of Paul the apostle in Roman occupied Jerusalem for being the occasion of a riot that broke out at the Jewish temple.
And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said to the centurion who stood by, "Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman, and uncondemned?" When the centurion heard that, he went and told the commander, saying, "Take care what you do, for this man is a Roman." Then the commander came and said to him, "Tell me, are you a Roman?" He said, "Yes." The commander answered, "With a large sum I obtained this citizenship." And Paul said, "But I was born a citizen." Then immediately those who were about to examine him withdrew from him; and the commander was also afraid after he found out that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him.
The Roman commander bought his citizenship for a great sum, much like you propose for a tradable one in your theoretical nation. I can only imagine it means he was of a conquered people and he wanted in. It was powerful enough to make him afraid of his free-born prisoner. But, this passage brings up the question in my mind about what conditions would have to be in place first in a nation before anyone would want to buy one of their tradable citizenships. There is a reason why becoming a Roman citizen was so prized. They were a great superpower militarily. To make any citizenship today worth buying it must be, for starters, deemed just as safe from threat as Rome was. |
