Chapter LVII: Part IV: Of the Expense of supporting the Dignity of the Sovereign

Over and above the expenses necessary for enabling the sovereign to
perform his several duties, a certain expense is requisite for the support
of his dignity. This expense varies, both with the different periods of
improvement, and with the different forms of government.

In an opulent and improved society, where all the different orders of
people are growing every day more expensive in their houses, in their
furniture, in their tables, in their dress, and in their equipage; it
cannot well be expected that the sovereign should alone hold out against
the fashion. He naturally, therefore, or rather necessarily, becomes more
expensive in all those different articles too. His dignity even seems to
require that he should become so.

As, in point of dignity, a monarch is more raised above his subjects than
the chief magistrate of any republic is ever supposed to be above his
fellow-citizens; so a greater expense is necessary for supporting that
higher dignity. We naturally expect more splendour in the court of a king,
than in the mansion-house of a doge or burgo-master.