...remember a family of merchants and tradesmen, however devoutly they paid their taxes, attended church, gave to the poor, refrained from running away with other men's wives and whatever else you wish to include the word respectable?

This is what I don't get about the belief that the Bingley family tree mostly consisted of merchants. Lovely though sobriety and church-going behaviour may be from an objective position, I can't see it mattering to the Bingley sisters.