hundred; a good cook four talents; and for boys no price was reckoned too great. When the whole world, impelled by the force of a general corruption, is immerfed in voluptuousness,* what must then become of virtue ? CHA P. III. Of Sumptuary Laws in an Ariftocracy. THERE is this inconveniency in an ill conftituted ariftocracy, that the wealth centers in the nobility, and yet they are not allowed to fpend; for as luxury is contrary to the fpirit of moderation, it must be banished thence. This government comprehends therefore only people that are extremely poor and cannot acquire, and people that are vaftly rich and cannot spend, Such In Venice, they are compelled by the laws to moderation. They are fo habituated to parfimony, that none but courte fans can make them part with their money. is the method made ufe of for the fupport of induftry; the moft contemptible of women fpend freely their money without danger, whilft those who fupport them, confume their days in the greateft obfcurity. Admirable in this refpect were the inftitutions of the principal republics of Greece. The rich employed their money in feftivals, mufical chorufes, chariots, horferaces and chargeable offices. Wealth was therefore as burthenfome there as poverty. CHAP. IV. Of Sumptuary Laws in a Monarchy. TACITUS fays,+"That the Suiones, a German nation, have a particular respect for riches; for which rea * Cum maximus omnium impetus ad luxuriam effet. Ibid. + De morib, German. fon fon they live under the government of one perfon." This fhews that luxury is extremely proper for monarchies, and that under this government there must be no fumptuary laws. As riches, by the very conftitution of monarchies, are unequally divided, there is an abfolute neceffity for luxury. Were the rich not to spend their money freely, the poor would ftarve. It is even necessary here, that the expenses of the rich should be in proportion to the inequality of fortunes; and that luxury, as we have already obferved, fhould increase in this proportion. The augmentation of private wealth is owing to its having deprived one part of the citizens of their neceffary fupport; this must therefore be restored to them. For the preservation therefore of a monarchical state, luxury ought continually to increase and to grow more extensive, as it rifes from the laborer to the artificers, to the merchants, to the magiftrates, to the nobility, to the great officers of state up to the very prince; otherwise the nation will be undone. In the reign of Auguftus, a propofal was made in the Roman fenate, which was compofed of grave magiftrates, learned civilians, and of men whose heads were filled with the idea of the primitive times, to reform the manners and luxury of women. It is curious to fee in Dio,* with what art this prince eluded the importunate folicitations of thofe fenators. This was because he was founding a monarchy, and diffolving a republic. Under Tiberius, the ediles proposed in the fenate the reeftablishment of the ancient fumptuary laws.t This prince, who did not want fenfe, oppofed it. "The ftate," faid he, "could not poffibly fubfift in the present fituation of things. How could Rome, how could the provinces live? We were frugal while we were inhabitants of a fingle city; now we confume the riches of the universe, and employ both masters and flaves in our fervice." He plainly faw that fumptuary laws would not fuit the prefent form of government. When a propofal was made under the fame emperor to the fenate, to prohibit the governors from carrying their wives with them into the provinces, because of the diffo Dio Caffius, lib. 54.. luteness lutenefs and irregularities which followed thofe ladies, the propofal was rejected. It was faid," that the examples of ancient aufterity had been changed into a more agreeable method of living."* They found there was a neceffity for different manners. Luxury is therefore abfolutely necessary in monarchies ; and neceffary alfo in defpotic ftates. In the former it is the ufe people make of what fhare of liberty they poffefs; in the other it is the abufe they make of the advantages of their flavery. A flave fingled out by his mafter to tyrannize over the other flaves, uncertain of enjoying tomorrow the bleffings of today, has no other felicity than that of glutting the pride, the paffions and voluptuousness of the prefent moment. Hence arifes a very natural reflection. with luxury; monarchies with poverty.t CHAP. V. Republics end In what Cafes Sumptuary Laws are useful in a Monarchy. WHETHER it was from a republican fpirit, or from fome other particular circumftances, in the middle of the thirteenth century, fumptuary laws were made in Arragon. James I ordained, that neither the king nor any of his fubjects fhould have above two forts of difhes at a meal, and that each difh fhould be dreffed only one way, except it were game of their own killing. In our days, fumptuary laws have been alfo enacted in Sweden, but with a view different from thofe of Arragon. A government may make fumptuary laws with a view to abfolute frugality; this is the fpirit of fumptuary laws in republics; and the very nature of the thing fhews that fuch was the defign of those of Arragon. Sumptuary laws may likewife be made with a defign to promote a relative frugality: When a government, perceiving that foreign merchandises being at too high a price,will require * Multa duritiei veterum melius et lætius mutata. Tacit. Annal. lib. iii, + Opulentia paritura mox egeftatem. Florus, lib. iii. Conftitution of James I, in the year 1234, art. 9, in Marca Hispanica, P. 1429. require fuch an exportation of the home manufactures, as to deprive them of more advantages by the lofs of the latter, than they can receive from the poffeffion of the former, they will forbid their being introduced. And this is the fpirit of the laws that in our days have been paffed in Sweden.* Such are the fumptuary laws proper for mon archies. In general, the poorer a flate is, the more it is ruined by its relative.luxury; and confequently the more occafion it has for relative fumptuary laws. The richer a ftate is, the more it thrives by its relative luxury; for which reason it must take particular care not to make any relative fumptu. ary laws. This we shall better explain in the book on commerce ;+ here we treat only of absolute luxury. SUMPTUARY laws may, in fome governments, be neceffary for particular reasons. The people, by the influence of the clime, may grow so numerous, and the means of fubfifting may be fo uncertain, as to render an univerfal application to agriculture extremely neceffary. As luxury in those countries is dangerous, their fumptuary laws should be very fevere. In order therefore to be able to judge whether luxury ought to be encouraged or profcribed, we fhould examine firft what relation there is between the number of people, and the facility they have of procuring fubfiftence. In England, the foil produces more grain than is neceffary for the maintenance of those who cultivate the land, and of those who are employed in the woollen manufactures. This country may be therefore allowed to have fome trifling arts, and confequently luxury. In France likewife there is corn enough for the fupport of the huf. bandman and of the manufacturer. Befides, a foreign trade may bring in fo many neceffaries in return for toys, that there is no danger to be apprehended from luxury. * They have prohibited rich wines, and other coftly merchandises. + See book xx, chap. 20. On On the contrary, in China the women are fo prolific, and the human fpecies multiplies fo faft, that the lands, though ever fo much cultivated, are scarce fufficient to fupport the inhabitants. Here therefore luxury is pernicious, and the fpirit of induftry and economy is as requifite as in any republic.* They are obliged to purfue the necessary arts, and to fhun thofe of luxury and pleasure. This is the spirit of the excellent decrees of the Chinese emperors. "Our ancestors," fays an emperor of the family of the Tangs,t "held it as a maxim, that if there was a man who did not work, or a woman that was idle, fomebody muft fuffer cold or hunger in the empire." And, on this principle, he ordered an infinite number of monafteries of bonzes to be deftroyed. The third emperor of the one and twentieth dynasty, to whom fome precious ftones were brought that had been found in a mine, ordered it to be fhut up, not choofing to fatigue his people with working for a thing that could neither feed nor clothe them. "So great is our luxury," fays Kiaventi, "that people adorn with embroidery the fhoes of boys and girls, whom they are obliged to fell." Is employing fo many people in making clothes for one perfon, the way to prevent a great many from wanting clothes? There are ten men who eat the fruits of the earth to one employed in agriculture; and is this the means to preserve numbers from wanting nourishment ? CHAP. VII. Fatal Confequences of Luxury in China. IN the hiftory of China, we find it has had twen tytwo fucceffive dynafties, that is, it has experienced twen tytwo general, without mentioning an infinite number of particular Luxury has been here always prohibited. + In an ordinance, quoted by Father du Halde, tom. ii. p. 497. Hiftory of China, 21ft dynafty, in Father du Halde's work, tom, i. In a difcourfe cited by Father du Halde, tom. ii. p. 418.' |