What you say is true......to a degree. Marriage was about business in many aspects. But, I disagree with you about "until lately when we began to marry for love". Love has always been part of marriage, for the most part. It just wasn't the driving force, behind it. I've said this before; but, to borrow a verse from an old song, "Your love gives me such a thrill; but your love don't pay my bills"
Material care was top priority, especially when it came to women. So was financial compensation for the family of the bride (hence the reason for the dowry).
It's safe to say that, if two youngsters fell in love and wanted to get hitched, they politicked with their respective parents to seal the deal. A guy, sprung over his girl, undoubtedly bugged dear old Dad to cough up some cattle, with a chicken thrown in for good measure, to get the girl of his dreams.
Have you ever read "The Age of Innocence"? Edith Wharton.

MCWAY, I'm gonna disagree with you back a little.

If two families were poorer than dust on the ground, it probably was easier for kids who loved each other to get hitched. But if the boy's family had an extra goat, and the girl's had an influential elder, chances are they'd be shoved into matrimony even if both loved others. Twas just the way it was. Up until maybe the 1930's and post-war?
Love has always been around, but all the reams and reams of poetry and literature we've inherited, shows mostly it was unrequited. Old Celtic songs are filled with girls throwing themselves into the river, and boys pining away. John Donne... oy. People married through arrangement, and few really expected to marry whomever they loved. Love was something of dreams.
I think back in the days of yore, it was easier to marry the one you loved, if you got in the family way. (If the families didn't kill you first.)
