Thus, for instance, as civilization has advanced, there has been almost everywhere a transition to a finer quality of the material of which bread is made. The number of consumers of white bread in France in 1700, was 33 per cent. of the population; in 1760, 40; in 1764, 39; in 1791, 37; in 1811, 42; in 1818, 45; in 1839, 60 per cent.[229-2]About 1758, in England and Wales, 3,750,000 of people lived on wheat bread; on barley bread, 739,000; on rye bread, 888,000; on oat bread, 623,000. The cultured southeastern population had almost nothing but wheat bread, while in the north and northwest, oat bread continued to be used a long time; and in Wales only 10 per cent. of the population ate wheat bread. This condition of things in England has since been much improved. But, at the extremities of the Hebrides, nine-tenths of the population still live on barley bread; and in Ireland it was estimated, in 1838, that with 8,000,000 inhabitants, potatoes were the chief article of food of 5,000,000, and oat bread of 2,500,000.[229-3]
And so, the consumption of meat in cities is uniformly much larger than in the country. In the cities of the Prussian monarchy and subject to the slaughter-house tax, it amounted in 1846, per capita: in East Prussia, to 61 lbs.; in Pommerania, to 66; in Posen, to 70; in West Prussia, to 71; in Saxony, to 75; in the Rhine Province, to 83; in Silesia, to 86; in Brandenburg, to nearly 104; in Berlin alone, to 114: an average in the whole country, however, of scarcely 40 lbs. per capita. (Dietrici.) In the kingdom of Saxony, the average consumption of beef and pork was, shortly before 1866, about 50 lbs.; in Dresden alone, 86.7; in Leipzig, 136.9 lbs.[229-4]The consumption of meat in England is exceedingly great, so that, for instance, in several orphan asylums in London, the daily meat ration amounts to an average of from 0.23 to 0.438 lbs. The meat-consumption of a well-to-do family, children and servants included, Porter estimates at 370 lbs. per capita per annum. The meat ration of soldiers in the field amounts in England to 676 grammes a day; in France, to 350.[229-5]
The consumption of sugar in 1734, in England, was about 10 lbs. per capita; in 1845, in the whole of the British Empire, 20-1/3 lbs.; in 1849, almost 25 lbs.; in 1865, over 34 lbs.; but it must not be overlooked here, that in Ireland the consumption of sugar per capita was scarcely over 8 lbs.[229-6]In the German Zollverein, the consumption of sugar, in 1834, amounted to an average of 2½ lbs. per capita; in 1865, to more than 9 lbs. In France, the consumption of the same article rose from 1.33 kilogrammes, the average from 1817 to 1821, to 7.35 lbs. in 1865.[229-7]The population of the Zollverein rose 25.8 per cent. between 1834 and 1847, while the importation of coffee increased 117.5 per cent.; of spices, 58.2; southern fruits, 34.5, and cocoa, 246.2 per cent.[229-8]
A great many of vegetables and fruits, which seem to us to be almost indispensable articles of subsistence, have been cultivatedonly a short time. Thus the English have been acquainted with artichokes, asparagus, several kinds of beans, salad, etc. only since 1660.[229-9]Even in France, the finer kinds of fruits have appeared on the tables of the middle class only since the beginning of the last century.
The per capita consumption of wool in England, about a generation ago, amounted to about 4 lbs. a year; in Prussia to 1.67; of cloth, to 5.76 and 2.17 ells; of leather, to 3.03 and 2.22 lbs. respectively.[229-10]Of silk goods, England consumes half as much as the rest of all Europe, and an Englishman from 5 to 6 times as much as a Frenchman, although England does not produce a single pound of raw silk.[229-11]
[229-1]Thus, for instance, the modern enjoyments of coffee, tea, newspapers, tobacco etc., promote domesticity with which antiquity was so little acquainted.Zaccharia, Vierzig Bücher, VI, 60.
[229-2]The food of the French people has improved also in point of quantity. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, of cereals there were 472 liters per capita, at present there are 541 liters; and in addition, now, 240 liters of potatoes and vegetables more than then. CompareMoreau de Joannès, Statistique de l'Agriculture de la France, 1848, and the same writer's Statistique céréale de la France, in the Journal des Economistes, 1842, Janv. On the recent decrease or increase in the consumption of meat, see the very different estimates ofM. Chevalier, Cours., I, 113 seq., and Journal des Economistes, Mars, 1856, 438 ff.
[229-3]Ch. Smith, Tracts on the Corn Trade, 1758, 182.Eden, State of the Poor, I, 563, seq. InMcCulloch, Statist, I, 316, 466 ff., 548. Moreover,Rogerssays that English workmen in the middle ages, for the most part, consumed wheat bread. (Statist. Journal, 1864, 73.) About the middle of the 13th century, only from 11 to 12maltersof wheat were produced on the estates of the bishop of Osnabrück; about 470 of oats, 300 of rye, and 120 of barley. (J. Möser, Osnabrück, Gesch., Werke, VII, 2. 166.) Even beer was brewed from oats in the earlier part of the middle ages. (Guérard, Polyptiques, I, 710 ff.) The ancients, also, in their lower stages of civilization, lived on barley bread by way of preference, and went over to wheat only at a later period; comparePlin., H. N. XVIII, 14.Heracl., Pont, fr. 2.Athen., IV., 137, 141.Plutarch, Alcib., 23. As to how, in Rome, the transition fromfarto the much more costlytriticum, was connected with the extension of the hide of land from 2 to 7jugera, seeM. Voigtin the Rhein. Museum f. Philol., 1868.
[229-4]To this, in Saxony, must be added about from 6 to 7 pounds of veal and mutton. The recent increase in the consumption of meat in Saxony is very encouraging: 1840, about 30 lbs. of beef and pork per capita; 1851-57, 40 lbs. (Sächs. Statist. Ztschr., 1867, 143 seq.) On the other hand,Schmollerestimated the consumption of meat in general in Prussia, in 1802, at 33.8; in 1816, at 22.5; in 1840, at 34.6; in 1867, at 34.9 lbs. (Fühling, N. Landw. Zeitg., XIX; Jahrg. Heft., 9 seq.) Paris consumed, in 1850, 145 pounds of butcher's meat per capita; in 1869, 194 pounds. In the year of the revolution, 1848, the consumption declined 45 per cent.; the consumption of wine in barrels, 16 per cent.; in bottles, 44 per cent.; of sea-fish, 25 per cent.; of oysters, 24 per cent.; of beer, 20 per cent.; of eggs, 19 per cent.; of butter, 13 per cent.; of fowl, 6 per cent. (Cl. Juglar, in the Journal des Economistes, March, 1870.)
[229-5]Porter, Progress of the Nation, V, 5, 591 ff.;Hildesheim, Normaldiet, 52 ff. Well-known English popular song: "Oh, the roast beef of old England" etc. Even at the end of the 17th century one-half of the nation partook of fresh meat scarcely once or twice a week; most of that consumed was salted. (Macaulay, History of England, ch. 3.) But evenBoisguillebert, Traité des Grains, II, 7, characterizes the English as great beer-drinkers and meat-eaters, from the highest class to the lowest, while the French consumed almost nothing but bread. SimilarlyJ. J. Becher, Physiologie, 1678, 202, 248, on the great consumption of meat and sugar in England.
[229-6]Anderson, Origin of Commerce, a. 1743;Porter, Progress, V, 4, 350 ff.; Meidinger, 154 ff.; Memorandum respecting British Commerce, etc., before and since the Adoption of Free Trade, 1866. On men-of-war each man gets 35-45 lbs. a year; in the poorhouse, old men 22¾. (Porter.)
[229-7]In Henry IV.'s time, in France, sugar was sold by the apothecaries by the ounce!
[229-8]Deiterici, Statist. Uebersicht des Verkehrs, etc. im Zollvereine, 4; Fortsetzung, 168 ff., 208, 265, 599. Thus, in Great Britain, the population between 1816 and 1828 grew, from 13½ million to nearly 16 million. On the other hand, consumption, when the average from 1816 to 1819 is compared with that from 1824 to 1828, increased in a much greater proportion: soap, from 67¾ to 100 million pounds; coffee, from 7,850,000 to 12,540,000 pounds; starch, from 3-1/5 to 6-1/3 million pounds. (Quart. Rev., Nov., 1829, 518.) The consumption of tea per capita in 1801 was 1.5 lbs., in 1871, 3.93 lbs. (Statist. Journ., 1872, 243.) In the matter of illumination, a very beneficent luxury has been obtained, inasmuch as, spite of the fact that gas-light is so generally used in recent times, i. e., since 1804, the consumption of oil has very much increased, on account of the lamps now so much in favor; and that of candles also has increased, relatively speaking, more rapidly than the population. The illumination produced is much richer now than formerly, a fact which, besides its sanitary advantages, has had a good influence in diminishing street robberies. (Julius, Gefängnisskunde, XXII.) During the middle ages, candles were very dear; according toRogers(I, 415) 1-1/3 to 2 shillings per pound.
[229-9]Present state of England, 1683, III, 529; compareStorch, Handbuch, II, 337 seq.
[229-10]Dieterici, Statist. Uebersicht, 321 ff., 363, 399.
[229-11]Bernouilli, Technologie, II, 223. It is a striking symptom of the wealth or ostentation of the later period of the Empire that, according toAmmian. Marcell, (XXIII, 258-ed. Paris, 1636) silk goods were a want even among the lower classes, notwithstanding the fact that they had to be imported from China.
SECTION CCXXX.
EQUALIZING TENDENCY OF LATER LUXURY.
The whole social character of this luxury has something equalizing[230-1]in it; but it supposes particularly that there is not too marked a difference in the resources of the people.
A proper gradation of national wants is best guarantied by a good distribution of the national resources.[230-2]The more unequal the latter is, the more is there spent on vain wants instead of on real ones; and the more numerous are the instances of rapid and even immoral consumption. Where there are only a few over-rich men, more foreign products and productsof capital are wont to be called for than home products and productions of labor; and luxury especially despises all those commodities manufactured in large institutions.[230-3]Every change in the consumption-customs of a people, in this respect, should be most carefully observed; thus, for instance, whether brandy is exchanged for beer, tobacco for meat, cotton for cloth, or the reverse.[230-4]
One of the characteristics of this period is the endeavor to possess the best quality of whatever is possessed at all, and to be satisfied with less of it rather than purchase more of an inferior quality. This is, essentially, to practice frugality, inasmuch as certain production-services remain the same whether the commodity is of the best or the worst quality, and that commodities of the best quality are more superior to the worst in intrinsic goodness than they are in price. But this course supposes a certain well-being already existing.
In this period, also, the luxury of the state is wont to take the direction of those enjoyments which are accessible to all.[230-5]
[230-1]Formerly the dress of citizens was a weak imitation of the court costume: at present the reverse is the case, and the court costume is only a heightening of the citizen costume. CompareRiehl, Bürgerl. Gesellschaft, 191.
[230-2]Helvetius, De l'Homme, 1771. sec. VI, ch. 5.
[230-3]J. B. Say, Traité, II, 4;Sismondi, N. P., IV, ch. 4. As early a writer asLauderdale, Inquiry, 358 ff., thought the social leveling of modern times would promote English industry. In the East Indies, on the other hand, only the most expensive watches, rifles, candelabras[TN 52]etc. were sold, because the nabobs were the only persons who created any demand for European commodities (312 ff.).Adam Smith, Wealth of Nat., II, ch. 3, draws a very correct distinction between the luxury of durable goods and that of those which perish rapidly; the former is less calculated to impoverish an individual or a whole nation; and hence it is much more closely allied to frugality. Similarly evenIsocrates, ad Niccol., 19;Livy, XXIV, 7;Plin., H. N., XIII, 4;Mariana, 1598, De Rege et Regis Institutione, III, 10;Sir W. Temple, Works, I, 140 seq., who found this better kind of luxury in Holland:Berkeley, Querist, No. 296 ff.
[230-4]Schmoller, loc. cit., considers it no favorable symptom, that in Prussia, between 1802 and 1867, the per capita consumption of milk decreased and that of wool increased. According toL. Levi, the consumption of brandy in England decreased from 1854 and 1870, from 1.13 to 1.01 gallons per capita; but, on the other hand, the consumption of malt increased from 1.45 to 1.84 bushels, and the consumption of wine from 0.23 to 0.45 gallons. The number of licenses to retail spirituous liquors was, in 1830, 6.30 per thousand of the population; in 1860-69, only 5.57. (Statist. Journal, 1872, 32 ff.)
[230-5]CompareCicero, pro Murena, 36. The Athenians under Pericles, in times of peace, spent more than one-third of their state-income on plastic and architectural works of art. The annual state-income amounted to 1,000 talents (Xenoph., Exp. Cyri, VII, 1, 27), while the propylea alone cost, within 5 years, 2,012 talents. (Böckh, Staatsh., I, 283.) On the other hand,Demosthenescomplains of the shabbiness of public buildings, and the magnificence of private ones in his time. (adv. Aristocr., 689, Syntax., 174 seq.)
Demetrius Phalereusblames even Pericles, on account of his extravagance on the propylea, although Lycurgus had been, not long before, addicted to luxury after the manner of Pericles. (Cicero, De Off., II, 17.)
SECTION CCXXXI.
THE ADVANTAGES OF LUXURY.
The favorable results which many writers ascribe to luxury in general are true evidently only of this period. And thus luxury, inasmuch as it is a spur to emulation, promotes production in general; just as the awarding of prizes in a school, although they can be carried away only by a few, excites the activity of all its attendants. A nation which begins to consume sugar will, as a rule, unless it surrenders some previous enjoyment, increase its production.[231-1]In countries where there is little or no legal security, in which, therefore, people must keep shy of making public the good condition they are in, this praise-worthy side of luxury is for the most part wanting.[231-2]
All rational luxury constitutes a species of reserve fund fora future day of need. This is especially true of these luxuries which take the form of capital in use (Nutzkapitalien.) Where it is customary for every peasant girl to wear a gold head-dress,[231-3]and every apprentice a medal, a penny for a rainy day is always laid by among the lower classes. The luxury which is rapidly consumed has a tendency in the same direction. Where the majority of the population live on potatoes, as in Ireland, where, therefore, they are reduced to the smallest allowance of the means of subsistence, there is no refuge in case of a bad harvest. A people on the other hand, who live on wheat bread may go over to rye bread, and a people who live on rye bread to potatoes. The corn that in good years is consumed in the making of brandy may, in bad years, be baked into bread.[231-4]And the oats consumed by horses kept as luxuries may serve as food for man. Pleasure-gardens (Lustgärten) may be considered as a kind of last resort for a whole people in case of want of land.[231-5][231-6]
[231-1]CompareBenjamin Franklin'scharming story, Works I, 134 ff.; ed. Robinson.Colbertrecommended luxury chiefly on account[TN 53]of its service to production.
[231-2]Turkish magnates who keep several magnificent equipages ride to the sultan's in a very bad one. Risa Pascha, when at the height of his power, had his house near a villa of the sultan painted in the plainest and most unsightly manner possible. The walls of a park in Constantinople painted half in red and half in blue, to give it the appearance of being twogardens. (Alg. Zeitung, 16 Juli, 1849.) In Saxony, between 1847 and 1850, the number of luxury horses diminished from 6.11 to 5.64 per cent. of the total number of horses in the kingdom. (Engel, Jahrbuch, I, 305.) In the same country there were coined in 1848 over 64,000 silver marks, derived from other sources than the mines. (Engel, Statis. Zeitschr. I, 85.) In England, on the other hand, the number of four-wheeled carriages increased more than 60 per cent. between 1821 and 1841, while the population increased only 30 per cent. (Porter, Progress, V, 3, 540.)
[231-3]Such a head-dress may very easily be worth 300 guldens in Friesland. Gold crosses worn by the peasant women about Paris. (Turgot, Lettre sur la Liberté du Commerce des Grains.)
[231-4]So far it is of some significance, that nearly all not uncivilized nations use their principal article of food to prepare drinks that are luxuries. Thus, the Indians use rice, the Mexicans mais, the Africans the ignam-root. It is said that in ancient Egypt, beer-brewing was introduced by Osiris. (Diodor., I, 34.) CompareJeremy Bentham, Traité de Législation, I, 160.Malthus, Principle of Population, I, ch. 12; IV, ch. 11.
[231-5]While in thinly populated North America, space permits the beautiful luxury in cemeteries of ornamenting surroundings of each grave separately (Gr. Görtz, Reise, 24), the Chinese garden-style seeks to effect a saving in every respect. In keeping with this is the fact that animal food has there been almost abolished. Compare, besides,Verri, Meditazioni, XXVI, 3.
[231-6]Garvethinks that luxury, when it takes the direction of a great many trifles, little conveniences, etc., has the effect of distracting the people. Here there are few men of towering ambition or of inextinguishable revenge, but at the same time, few entirely unselfish and incorruptible patriots. (Versuche, I, 232.)
SECTION CCXXXII.
LUXURY IN DECLINING NATIONS.
In declining nations, luxury assumes an imprudent and immoral character. Enormous sums are expended for insignificant enjoyments. It may even be said that costly consumption is carried on there for its own sake. The beautiful and the true enjoyment of life makes place for the monstrous and the effeminate.
Rome, in the earlier part of the empire, affords us an example of such luxury on the most extensive scale.[232-1]Nero paid three hundred talents for a murrhine vase. The two acres (Morgen) of land which sufficed to the ancient citizens for a farm (Acker) were not now enough to make a fish-pond for imperial slaves. The sums carried by the exiles with them, to cover their traveling expenses and to live on for a time, were now greater than the fortunes of the most distinguished citizens had been in former times.[232-2]There was such a struggle among the people to surpass one another in procuring the freshest sea-fish that, at last, they would taste only such as they had seen alive on the table. We have the most exalted descriptions of the beautiful changes of color undergone by the dying fish; and a special infusion was invented to enable the epicure better to enjoy the spectacle.[232-3]Of the transparent garments of his time, Seneca says that they neither protected the body nor covered the nakedness of nature. People kept herds of sheep dyed in purple, although their natural white must have been much more agreeable toany one with an eye for the tasteful.[232-4]Not only on the roofs of houses were fish-ponds to be seen, but gardens even hanging on towers, and which must have been as small, ugly and inconvenient as they were costly.[232-5]Especially characteristic of the time was the custom of dissolving pearls in wine, not to make it more palatable,[TN 54]but more expensive.[232-6]The emperor Caligula, from simple caprice, caused mountains to be built up and cut away:nihil tam efficere concupiscebat, quam, quod posse effici negaretur.[232-7]This is the real maxim of the third period of luxury! People changed their dress at table, inconvenient as it was to do so, occasionally as often as eleven times. Perfumes were mixed with the wine that was drunk, much as it spoiled its taste, only that the drinkers might emit sweet odors from every pore. There were many so used to being waited on by slaves that they required to be reminded by them at what times they should eat and when they should sleep. It is related of one who affected superiority over others in this respect, that he was carried from his bath and placed on a cushion, when he asked his attendant: "Am I sitting down now?"[232-8]It is no wonder, indeed, that an Apicius should reach out for the poisoned cup when his fortune had dwindled to onlycenties sestertium,i. e., to more than half a million thalers.[232-9]
In this last period, the coarse debauchery of the earlier periods is added to the refined. Swarms of servants, retinuesof gladiators who might be even politically dangerous,[232-10]monster banquets, at which Cæsar, for instance, entertained the whole Roman people, colossal palaces such as Nero'saurea domus, which constituted a real city; annoying ostentation in dress[232-11]again becomes the order of the day. The more despotic a state becomes, the more is the craving for momentary enjoyment wont to grow; and for the same reason that great plagues diminish frugality and morality.[232-12]
[232-1]Meierotto, Sitten und Lebensart des Römer, II, 1776;Boettiger, Sabina, II, 1803;Friedländer, Darstellungen aus der Sittengeschichte Roms, Bd. III, 1868; which latter work has been written with the aid of all that modern science can afford.
[232-2]Plin., H. N., XXXVII, 7; XVIII, 2;Seneca, Quaest. Natur., I, 17; Consol. ad. Helviam, 12.
[232-3]Seneca, Quaest. Natur., III, 18;Plin., H. N., IX, 30.
[232-4]Seneca, De Benef., VII, 9;Plin., N. N., VIII, 74.
[232-5]Valer. Max., IX, 1;Seneca, Epist, 122. Thus Hortensius sprinkled his trees with wine.Macrob., Sat., III, 13.
[232-6]Besides Cleopatra, Caligula especially did this frequently. Compare alsoHorat., Serm., II, 3, 239 ff. Similarly, the luxury of the actor Aesopus, when he placed a dish worth 6,000louis d'orbefore his guests, consisting entirely of birds which had been taught to sing or speak.Pliny, H. N., X, 72. CompareHorat., loc. cit., 345.
[232-7]Sueton.., Caligula, 37.Hoc est luxuriae propositum, gaudere perversis. Seneca., Epist., 122. According to the same letter of Seneca, the luxury of Nero's time had its source rather in vanity than in sensuality and gluttony.
[232-8]Martial, V, 79;Plin., H. N. XIII, 5.Seneca, De Brev. Vitæ. I, 12.
[232-9]Seneca, Cons. ad Helviam 10,Martial, III, 22.
[232-10]Hence, early limited by law.Sueton.. Caes. 10. Augustus limited the exiles to taking 20 slaves with them:Dio Cass.VII, 27. Special value attached to dwarfs, buffoons, hermaphrodites, eunuchs, precisely as among the moderns in the times of the degenerated absolutist courts, the luxury of which is closely allied in many respects to that of declining nations.
[232-11]Caligula's wife wore, on ordinary occasions, 40,000,000 sesterces worth of ornaments.Plin.H. N. IX, 58.
[232-12]Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ch. 27. What a parallel between this later Roman luxury and the literary taste represented for instance by Seneca!
Let any one who would embrace the three periods of luxury in one view, compare the funeral ceremonies of the Greek age of chivalry (Homer, Il.), with those inThucyd.(II, 34, ff.),Demosth.(Lept., 499 seq.), and the interment of Alexander the Great and, of his friend Hephaestion (Diodor., XVII, 115, XVIII, 26 ff.) Sullas (Serv. adVirgil, Æneid VI, 861.Plutarch, Sulla, 38), and that of the wife of the emperor Nero (Plin., H. N. XII, 41).Roscher, loc. cit. 66 ff.
SECTION CCXXXIII.
LUXURY-POLICY.
Sumptuary laws (die Luxusgesetzgebung) have been aimed, at all times, principally at the outlay for clothing, for the table and for funerals.[233-1]In most nations the policy of luxuryhas its beginning in the transition from the first to the second period of luxury above described.[233-2]The extravagant feasts, which remain of the first period, seem vulgar to the new public opinion which is created. On the other hand, the conveniences of life, the universality, the refinement and variety of enjoyments characteristic of the second period are not acceptable to the austerity of old men, and are put down as effeminacy. In this period the bourgeoisie generally begin to rise in importance, and the feudal aristocracy to decay. The higher classes see the lower approximate to them in display, with jealous eyes. And, hence, dress is wont to be graded in strict accordance with the differences of class.[233-3]But theselaws must be regarded as emanating from the tendency, which prevails in these times, of the state to act as the guardian of its wards, its subjects. The authority of the state waxes strong in such periods; and with the first consciousness of its power, it seeks to draw many things into its sphere, which it afterwards surrenders.
[233-1]Which of these three kinds of luxury specially preponderated has always depended on the peculiarities of national character. Thus, among the ancient Romans, it was the second; among the French, the first. In Germany the prohibitions relating to "toasts," or drinking one another's health have played a great part. Thus the well-known Cologne reformation of 1837. CompareSeb. Münster, Cosmogr., 326.
[233-2]In Greece,Lycurgus'legislation seems to have contained the first prohibition relating to luxury. No one should own a house or household article which had been made with a finer implement than an ax or a saw; and no Spartan cook should use any other spice than salt and vinegar. (Plut., De Sanitate, 12;Lycurg., 13. On Periander, seeEphorus, ed.Marx, fr. 106.Heracb., Pont. ed.;Köhler, fr. 5;Diog. Laert., I, 96 ff.) The luxury-prohibitions of Solon were aimed especially at the female passion for dress and the pomp of funerals. Those who had the surveillance of the sex watched also over the luxury of banquets.Athen., VI, 245;Demosth.inMacart., 1070. In Rome, there were laws regulating the pomp of and display at funerals, dating from the time of the Kings; but especially are such laws to be found in the twelve tables. Lex Oppia de Cultu Mulierum in the year 215 before Christ. A very interesting debate concerning the abolition of this law inLivy, XXXIV, 1 ff. About 189, prohibition of several foreign articles of luxury.Plin., H. N., XIII, 5, XIV, 16. Measures of Cato the censor. (Livy, XXXIX, 44.) First law relating to the table, L. Orchia, in the year 187; afterwards L. Fannia, 161, L. Didia, 143 before Christ. (Macrob., Sat. V, 13;Gellius, N. A., II, 24.Plin., H. N., X, 7.) After a long pause, sumptuary laws relating to food, funerals and games of chance, constitute an important part of Sulla's legislation.
[233-3]Latus clavusof the Roman senators;annulusof the knights. In the latter middle age, the knights were wont to be allowed to wear gold, and esquires only silver; the former, damask; the latter, satin or taffeta; but when the esquires also used damask, velvet was reserved for the knights alone.St. Palaye, Das Ritterwesen, byKlüber, IV, 107; II, 153 seq. But towards the end of the middle ages many sumptuary laws were enacted in cities by plebeian jealousy of the rich. The Venetian sumptuary laws were passed on account of the anxiety of the state that some rich men might shine above the rest of the oligarchs.
SECTION CCXXXIV.
HISTORY OF SUMPTUARY LAWS.
As in Italy, Frederick II., in Aragon, Iago I., in 1234, in England, Edward III., by 37, Edward III., c. 8 ff., so in France Philip IV. was the first who busied himself seriously with sumptuary legislation;[234-1]that is the same king who had introduced in so many things the modern political life into France. (For instance, the ordinance of 1294, regulating apparel and the luxury of the table.) In the 14th century, we find sumptuary laws directed mainly against expense for furs, and in the 16th mainly against that for articles of gold and silver. From the descriptions left us in such laws of the prohibited luxuries, we may learn as much of the history of technology and of fashion, as we may of the history of classes from the gradation of the things permitted. The fines imposed for violations of these laws, under Philip IV. went for the most part to the territorial lord; and in the 16th and 17th centuries to the foundation of charitable institutions. The state, as a rule, took no share of them; doubtless to avoid the odium which might attach to this kind of revenue.
Beginning with the end of the 16th century, the sumptuary laws of France relating to the luxuries permitted to the several classes of the people disappear. The legislator ceases to be guided by moral considerations and begins to be influenced by reasons partaking of a commercial and police character; and here we may very clearly demonstrate the origin of the so-called mercantile or protective system. Thus, in the declaration of Louis XIV. dated December 12, 1644, we find a complaint, that not only does the importation of foreign articles of luxury threaten to rob France of all its gold and silver, but also that the home manufacture of gold cloth, etc., which at Lyons alone ate up 10,000 livres a week, had the same effect. Under Colbert, in 1672, it was specially provided for, in the prohibition of coarser silver ware, that all such ware should be brought to the mint.[234-2]In the edict of 1660, the king even says that he has in view especially the higher classes, officers, courtiers, etc., in whom it was his duty to be most deeply interested. To preserve the latter from impoverishment was the main object of the law.
Under Louis XV. all sumptuary laws were practically a dead letter.[234-3]Their enforcement is, indeed, exceedingly difficult,as it is always harder to superintend consumption than production. The latter is carried on in definite localities, not unfrequently even in the open air. The former is carried on in the secrecy of a thousand homes. Besides, sumptuary laws have very often the effect to make the forbidden fruit all the sweeter. Where they are based on a difference of class, not only the passion for pleasure, but the vanity of the lower classes is an incentive to their violation.[234-4]Spite of the severity of the penalties attached to the violation of these laws, of redoubled measures of control, which are dreadful burdens on the intercourse between man and man,[234-5]the French government has been compelled to admit, after almost every internal commotion, and almost every external war, that its sumptuary laws fell into disuse.
[234-1]Ordonnances de France, I, 324, 531. Worms law of 1220. (Riehl, Pfälzer, 246.) Braunschweig law of 1228, that at weddings there should not be over 12 plates nor more than three musicians. (Rehtmeyer, Chron., 466.) Danish sumptuary law of 1269. First law regulating dress in Prussia in 1269. (Voigt, Gesch. von Preussen, V, 97.) On Henry II., seev. Raumer, Hohenstaufen, VI, 585. Some of the earlier restrictions on luxury, such as that of 190 in England and France, against scarlet ermine, etc., may have been related to the religious fervor of the crusades.St. Louis, during the whole period of his crusades wore no articles of luxury.
[234-2]The English prohibition against the wearing of silk on hats, caps, stockings etc. (1 and 2 Phil. and Mary, ch. 2.) was promulgated with the intention of promoting the home manufacture of wool. And soSully, Economics, L, XII, XVI, was in favor of laws regulating outlay mainly from "mercantilistic" reasons, that the country might not be impoverished by the purchase of foreign expensive articles. The police ordinance of the Empire of 1548, tit. 9, desired to guard against both the "excessive" exportation of money and the obliteration of class differences; that of 1530, tit. 9, and the Austrian police ordinance of Ferdinand I. had only the second object in view. (Mailath, Gesch., von Oesterreich, II, 169 ff.) How, in Denmark, prohibitions of luxury grew very soon into prohibitions of imports with a protective intention, see inThaarup, Dänische Statistik, I, 521 seq. On the mercantilistic object of the greater number of prohibitions of coffee, in the 18th century, seeDohm, über Kaffeegesetzgebung, in the D. Museum, Bd., II, St. 8, No. 4.
[234-3]Des Essart, Dictionnaire universel de Police, VI, 146. In Great Britain, the Scotch luxury-law of 1621 is the last. (Anderson, Origin of Commerce, a. 1621.) In Germany, there were some such laws until the end of the 18th century; and the laws regulating mourning have lasted longest. Compare that of Frederick the Great of 1777, the Bamberg and Wurzberg laws of 1784, inSchlözer, Staatsanzeigen, IX, 460; fol. 141 ff. There are many men who have no desire to go to any heavy expense in mourning, but do not dare to give expression thereto in certain cases, and therefore look with favor on a law to which they may appeal as an[TN 55]excuse.
[234-4]CompareN. Montaigne, 1580, Essais, I, 63. A striking instance in antiquity:Macrob., II, 13; most recently inLotz, Revision, I, 407.
[234-5]Compare especially the French sumptuary law of 1567. Zaleucos went so far in his severity as to punish with death the drinking of unmixed wine, without the prescription of a physician. (Athen., IX, 429.) The effort has sometimes been made to enlist the feeling of honor of the people in the controlling of luxury. Thus old Zaleucos forbade the wearing of gold rings or Milesian cloth unless the wearer desired to commit adultery, or to be guilty of sins against nature (Diodor., XII, 21); but such laws are scarcely attended with success.
SECTION CCXXXV.
DIFFICULTY OF ENFORCING SUMPTUARY LAWS.
The impossibility of enforcing sumptuary laws has been most strikingly observed, where it has been attempted to suppress the consumption of popular delicacies in the first stagesof their spread among the people. Thus, an effort was made in this direction in the sixteenth century, as regards brandy; in the seventeenth, as regards tobacco; in the eighteenth, as regards coffee; all which three articles were first allowed to be used only as medicines.[235-1]When governments discovered after some time the fruitlessness of the efforts, they gave up the prohibition of these luxuries and substituted taxes on them instead.[TN 56][235-2]Thus an effort was made to combine a moral and a fiscal end. But it should not be lost sight of that the lower these taxes are, the greater the revenue they bring in; that is, the less the moral end is attained, the more is the fiscal end. Even Cato took this course. His office of censor, which united the highest moral superintendence with the highest financial guidance, must of itself have led him in this direction.[235-3]In modern times the most important excises and financial duties of entry have been evolved out of sumptuary laws. Even the Turks, after having long tried to prohibit tobacco-smoking in vain, afterwards found in the duties they imposed on that plant a rich source of income. That such taxes are among the best imposed, where they do not lead to frauds on the government,become excessive, or diminish consumption to too great an extent, is universally conceded.
Beyond this there is, on the whole, little left of the old police regulations relating to luxury. Thus, governmental consent is, in most countries, required for the establishment of places where liquors are sold at retail, for the maintenance of public places of amusement, for shooting festivals, fairs, etc.; and this consent should not be too freely granted. The police power prescribes certain hours at which drinking places shall be closed. Games of chance are wont to be either entirely prohibited or restricted to certain places and times (bathing places), or are reserved as the exclusive right of certain institutions, especially state institutions. The object of this is, on the one hand, to facilitate their supervision, and on the other, to diminish the number of seductive occasions. Here, too, belongs the appointment of guardians to spendthrifts, which is generally done on the motion of the family by the courts; but which, indeed, occurs too seldom to have any great influence on the national resources, or on national morals.[235-4]
[235-1]Hessian law that only apothecaries should retail brandy, 1530. English tobacco laws of 1604;Rymer, Fœdera, XVI, 601. Papal excommunication fulminated in 1624, against all who took snuff in church, and repeated in 1690. A Turkish law of 1610 provided that all smokers should have the pipe broken against their nose. A Russian law of 1634, prohibiting smoking under penalty of death. In Switzerland, even in the 17th century, no one could smoke except in secret. Coffee had a hard struggle even in its native place. (Ritter, Erdkunde, XIII, 574 ff.) Prohibited in Turkey in 1633, under pain of death.v. Hammer, Osmanische Staatsverwaltung, I, 75. In 1769, coffee was still prohibited in Basel, and was allowed to be sold by apothecaries only, and as medicine. (Burkhardt, C. Basel, I, 68.) Hanoverian prohibition of the coffee trade in the rural districts in 1780:Schlözer, Briefwechsel, VIII, 123 ff.
[235-2]According tov. Seckendorff, Christenstaat, 1685, 435 seq., a decidedly unchristian change.
[235-3]Livy, XXXIX, 44. In Athens, too, the highest police board in the matter of luxury was the areopagus, which was at the same time a high financial court. Sully transformed the prohibition of luxury in regard to banquets into a tax on delicacies. Similarly, in regard to funeral-luxuries, at an earlier date. (Cicero, ad. Att., XII, 35.)
[235-4]Customary even in the early Roman republic, and adjudgedexemplo furioso. (Ulpian, in L. 1 Digest, XXVII, 10.) The immediate knights of the empire were in this respect very severe towards those of their own order. SeeKerner, Reichsrittersch. Staatsrecht, II, 381 ff.Sullyordered the parliaments to warn spendthrifts, to punish them and place them under guardianship. (Economies royales, L, XXVI.) According toMontesquieu, it is a genuine aristocratic maxim to hold the nobility to a punctual payment of their debts. (Esprit des Lois, V, 8.)
SECTION CCXXXVI.
EXPEDIENCY OF SUMPTUARY LAWS.
To judge of the salutariness of sumptuary laws, we must keep the above three social periods in view throughout. At the close of the first period, every law which restricts the excesses of the immediately succeeding age (the middle age) is useful because it promotes the noble luxury of the secondperiod.[236-1]And so, in the third period, legislation may at least operate to drive the most immoral and most odious forms of vice under cover, and thus to diminish their contagious seduction. It is a matter of significance that, in Rome, the most estimable of the emperors always endeavored to restrict luxury.[236-2]But too much should not be expected of such laws.Intra animum medendum est; nos pudor in melius mutet.[236-3]It is at least necessary, that the example given in high places should lend its positive aid, as did that of Vespasian, for instance, who thus really opposed a certain barrier to the disastrous flood of Roman luxury.[236-4]
But a strong and flourishing nation has no need of such leading strings.[236-5]Where an excrescence has to be extirpated, the people can use the knife themselves. I need call attention only to the temperance societies of modern times (Boston, 1803), which spite of all their exaggeration[236-6]may have a verybeneficial effect on the morally weak by the solemn nature of the pledge, and the control their members mutually exercise over one another. It is estimated that, of all who enter them, in the British Empire, at least 50 per cent. remain true to the pledge. In Ireland the government had endeavored for a long time to preserve the country from the ravages of alcohol by the imposition of the highest taxes and the severest penalties for smuggling. Every workman in an illegal distillery was transported for seven years, and every town in which such a one was found was subjected to a heavy fine. But all in vain. Only numberless acts of violence were now added to beastly drunkenness. On the other hand, the temperance societies of the country decreased the consumption of brandy between 1838 and 1842, from 12,296,000 gallons to 5,290,000 gallons. The excise on brandy decreased £750,000; but many other taxable articles yielded so much larger a revenue, that the aggregate government income there increased about £91,000.[236-7][236-8]The Puritanical laws which some of the United States of North America have passed prohibiting all sales of spirituous liquors except for ecclesiastical, medical or chemical purposes, have been found impossible of enforcement.[236-9][236-10]
[236-1]Commendable laws relating to luxury in Florence in the beginning of the 15th century. The outlay for dress, for the table, for servants and equipages was limited; but, on the other hand, it was entirely unrestricted for churches, palaces, libraries, and works of art. The consequences of this legislation are felt even in our day. (Sismondi, Gesch. der Ital. Freistaaten im M. A., VIII, 261. CompareMachiavelli, Istor. Fior., VII, a., 1472.)
[236-2]Thus Nerva (Xiphilin., exc. Dionis, LXVIII, 2); Hadrian (Spartian V. Hadrian, 22); Antoninus Pius (Capitol, 12); Marcus Aurelius (Capitol, 27); Pertinax (Capitol, 9); Severus Alexander (Lamprid, 4); Aurelian (Lamprid, 49); Tacitus (Vopisc, 10 seq).
[236-3]Extracted from the remarkable speech made by the personally frugal Tiberius (Sueton., Tib., 34) against sumptuary laws:Tacit., Annal., III, 52 ff. Compare, however, IV, 63.
[236-4]Tacit., Ann., III, 55: but the differences in fortune had, at the same time, become less glaring. Henry IV. also dressed very simply for example's sake, as did also Sully, and ridiculed thosequi portaient leurs moulins et leur bois de haute-futaie sur leurs dos. (Péréfixe, Histoire du Roi Henry le grand, 208.)
[236-5]The gross luxuries of drunkenness and gluttony are a direct consequence of universal grossness, and disappear of themselves when higher wants and means of satisfying them are introduced. (v. Buch, Reise durch Norwegen und Lappland, 1810, I, 166; II, 112 ff.)
[236-6]While, formerly, they cared only to abstain from spirits, the so-called "total abstinence" has prevailed since 1832. Most teetotallers compare moderate drinking to moderate lying or moderate stealing; they even declare the moderate drinker worse than the drunkard, because his example is more apt to lead others astray, and he is harder to convert. (But, Psalm, 104, 15!) The coat of arms of the English temperance societies is a hand holding a hammer in the act of breaking a bottle. (Temperance poetry!)
[236-7]McCulloch, On Taxation, 342 ff. Speech ofO'Connellin the House of Commons, 27 May 1842. The more serious crimes decreased 1840-44, as compared with the average number during the five previous years by 28, and the most grievous by 50 per cent. (Rau, Lehrbuch, II, § 331.) Recently, the first enthusiasm awakened by Father Matthew has somewhat declined, and the consumption of brandy therefore increased. Yet, in the whole United Kingdom in 1853, only 30,164,000 gallons were taxed; in 1835, 31,400,000; although the population had in the meantime increased from 10 to 11 per cent. In 1834, there were in the United States 7,000 temperance societies with a membership of 1,250,000. The members of these societies are sometimes paid higher wages in factories; and ships which allow no alcohol on board are insured at a premium of five per cent. less. (Baird, History of the Temperance Societies in the United States, 1837.)
[236-8]In the princedom of Osnabrück, the number of distilleries was noticeably diminished under the influence of the temperance societies; but the consumption of beer was rapidly increased twenty-fold. (Hannoverisches Magazin, 1843, 51.Böttcher, Gesch. der M. V. in der Norddeutschen Bundestaaten, 1841.)
[236-9]Even in 1838, Massachusetts had begun to restrict the sale at retail. The agitation for the suppression of the liquor shops begins in 1841. According to the Maine law of 1851, a government officer alone had the right to sell liquor, and only for the purposes mentioned in the text. The manufacture or importation of liquor for private use was left free to all. A severe system of house-searching, imprisonment and inquisitorial proceedings in order to enforce the law. Similarly in Vermont, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Michigan. (Edinburg Rev., July, 1854.) There are, however, numberless instances related in which the law has been violated unpunished since 1856, and still more since 1872. SeeR. Russell, North America, its Agriculture and Climate, and Edinburg Rev., April, 1873, 404.
[236-10]From the foregoing, it is intelligible why most modern writers, even those otherwise opposed to luxury, are not favorably inclined towards sumptuary laws. "It is the highest impertinence and presumption in kings and ministers, to pretend to watch over the economy of private people and to restrain their expense, either by sumptuary laws or by prohibiting the importation of foreign luxuries. They are themselves always, and without any exception (?) the greatest spendthrifts in the society. If their own extravagance does not ruin the state, that of their subjects never will." (Adam Smith, I, ch. 3.) CompareRau, Lehrbuch II, § 358 ff.R. Mohl, Polizeiwissenschaft, II, 434 ff.
Montesquieu'sopinion that in monarchies luxury is necessary to preserve the difference of class but that in republics it is a cause of decline, is very peculiar. In the latter, therefore, luxury should be restricted in every way: agrarian laws should modify the too great difference in property and sumptuary laws restrain the too glaring manifestations of extravagance. (Esprit des Lois, VII, 4.) As an auxiliary to the history of sumptuary laws, compareBoxmann, De Legibus Romanorum sumptuarias, 1816.Sempere y Guarinos,Historia del Luxo y de las Leyes sumtuarias de Espana, II, 1788;Vertot, Sur l'Establissement des Lois somptuaires parmi les Français, in the Mémoires de l'Academie des Inscr., VI, 737 seq, besides the sections on the subject inDelamarre, Traité de la Police, 1772 ff.;Penning, De Luxu et Legibus sumtuariis, 1826. (Holland.)
SECTION CCXXXVII.
INSURANCE IN GENERAL.
The idea of societies for mutual assistance intended to divide the loss caused by destructive accidents which one person would not be able to recover from among a great many is very ancient. The insurance of their members against causes of impoverishment was one of the principal elements[237-1]of the strength of the medieval communities (Gemeinden und Körperschaften.) If we compare these insurance institutions of the middle ages with those of the present, we discover the well-known difference between acorporationand anassociation. There the members stand to one another in the relation ofpersonswho, therefore, seek to guaranty their entire life in the one combination; here, they appear only as the representatives of limited portions of capital confronted with a definiterisk, the average of which may be accurately determined. Hence, the former are of small extent, mostly local; the latter may extend over whole continents, and even over the whole earth. The former have uniformly equal members; the latter embrace men of the most different classes. While the former, therefore, simply govern themselves, often only on the occasion of their festive gatherings, the latter need a precise charter, an artificial tariff and a board of officers.
As the absolute monarchical police-state constitutes, generally, the bridge between the middle ages and modern times, so too the transition from the medieval to the modern system of insurance has been frequently introduced by state insurance.[237-2][237-3]This was very natural at a time when the guilds of the middle ages had lost their importance, and private industry was not ripe enough to supply the void left by them. The government of a country, far in advance intellectually of the majority of its subjects, may, by force, induce them to participate in the beneficent effects of insurance, and immediately provide institutions extensive enough to guaranty real safety. While it may be called a rule that mature private industrysatisfies wants more rapidly, in greater variety, and more cheaply than state industry; in the case of insurance against accidents, especially of insurance against fire, there are many peculiarities found which would make the entire cessation of the immediate action of the state in this sphere, or its limitation simply to a legislative and police supervision of insurance, seem a misfortune. A dwelling is one of the most universal and urgent of wants, and indeed a governing one in all the rest of the arrangements of life. If it be destroyed, it is especially difficult to find a substitute for it, or to restore it. And to the poorest class of those who need insurance, private insurance will, perhaps, be never properly accessible.[237-4]If German fire insurance and the German system of fire prevention be so superior to the English and North American, etc., one of the principal causes is that German governmental institutions so powerfully participate in it.[237-5]
[237-1]The Icelandicreppsconsisting as a rule of 20 citizens subject to taxation, who mutually insured one another against the death of cattle (to the extent of at least one-fourth the value), and against damage from fire. After every fire three chambers of each house were replaced; so also the loss of clothing and of the means of subsistence, but not other goods or articles of display. (Dahlmann, Danisch Gesch., II, 281 ff.) Scandinavian parish-duty, (Gemeindepflicht),of assistance in case of damage by fire:Wilda, Gesch. des deutschen Strafrechts, I, 142. Similarly Capitul. a. 779 inPertz, Leges, I, 37. This matter plays an important part in the guilds out of which a large portion of the ancient cities were evolved: compareWilda, Gildenwesen in M. Alter. 123.
[237-2]Proposed national fire insurance (Landesbrandversicherung) in which for the time being several villages should form a company, the surplus of which was to go to the ærarian,[TN 57]and the deficit to be made up by the same:Georg Obrecht, Fünf unterschiedliche Secreta, Strasburg, 1617, No. 3. A similar proposition made on financial grounds in 1609, and rejected in Oldenburg. (Beckmann, Beitr. zur Gesch. der Erfind, I, 219 ff.) The idea sometimes suggested in our day, of making the system of insurance a government prerogative, arises as much from the passion for centralization as from socialistic tendencies. Compare the Belgian Bulletin de la Commission de Statist. IV, 210, andOberländer, Die Feuerversicherungsanstalten vor der Ständeversammlung des k. Sachsen, 1857.
[237-3]Maritime insurance is much older than insurance against risks on land; the Dutch institutions of Charles V.'s time seem to have existed long before. (Richesse de Hollande, I, 81 ff.) On Flemish, Portuguese and Italian maritime insurance in the 14th century, seeSartorius, Gesch. der Hanse, I, 215;Schäfer, Portug. Gesch. II, 103 ff., andF. Bald. Pegolotti, Tratato della Mercatura in Della decima, etc., della Moneta e della Mercatura dei Fiorentini, 1765. The class engaged in maritime commerce are indeed especially and early rich in capital, speculative and calculating.
[237-4]In Berlin, in 1871, the movable property of 30.4 per cent. of all dwellings was insured; but with this great difference, that of the smallest (without any heatable rooms) only 5.3 per cent. were insured; while of dwellings having 5-7 heatable rooms, 84 per cent. had taken this precaution. (Schwabe, Volkszahlung von 1871, 169) But it should not be forgotten that private insurance, especially when speculative, is not in favor of having much to do with persons of small means, while public institutions are, for the most part, obliged to reject no proposition for insurance in their own line, except when coming from a few manufacturing quarters especially exposed to fire.
[237-5]Outside of Germany, public fire insurance is to be still found only in German Austria, in Denmark, Switzerland and Scandinavia. The Germans had, in 1871, an insurance-sum of 5,908,760,000 thalers, while the mutual private insurance companies had about 1,435,000,000 (of which, at most, 200,000,000 to 300,000,000 were on immovable property), and joint-stock insurance companies, after deducting re-insurance (Rückversicherung), about 7,000,000,000. (Mittheilungen der öff. F. V. Anstalten, 1874, 84 ff.) Between 1865 and 1870, it was estimated that the per capita insurance of the population was: in Saxony, 407 thalers; in Würtemberg, 410; in Baden, 365; in Prussia, 332; in Switzerland, 425. On the other hand, in the much wealthier British Empire, only 325 per capita; in North America, 215. (loc. cit., 92.) Even in the case of joint-stock insurance companies, the average receipts of premiums (1867-70) were, in Germany, 2 per 1,000 of the insurance-sums; in the United Kingdom, 4.06 per 1,000; in the United States, 10.77; and the damage respectively 1.25, 2.28, 5.92 per 1,000 of the insurance-sum. (loc. cit., 93.)