Chapter LXV: Section CCVII

NATURE AND KIND OF CONSUMPTION.--THE MOST USUAL KIND.

The commonest kind of consumption is that caused by the use of a thing, or by the employing of it for the purpose of acquisition or of enjoyment.[207-1] From time immemorial, enjoyment-consumption has been, preponderantly, the affair of women, as acquisition-consumption has been the business of men.[207-2] Other circumstances being equal, the degree or extent of consumption by use (use-consumption) is determined by national character. Thus, for instance, the cleanliness and love of order characteristic of the Dutch have contributed greatly to the long preservation in good condition of their dwellings and household articles.[207-3]

In the higher stages of civilization, the use of goods is wont to be divided more and more into special branches, according to the different peculiarities of the goods themselves, and of the different wants of men; a course of things which is, both as cause and effect, intimately related to the division of labor. I here speak of a principle of _division of use_ (differentiation and specialization). Thus, for instance, Lorenz Lange, in 1722, found only one kind of tea in the trade between Russia and China; Müller, in 1750, found seven; Pallas, in 1772, ten; and Erman, in 1829, about seven hundred.[207-4] As the number of gradations of different kinds of the same goods increases with civilization, there is, in times of war, a retrogression in this respect, to a lower economic stage.[207-5]

Opposed to this, we have the principle of the combination of use. There are numberless kinds of goods which may serve a great many just as well as they can one exclusive user; and this either successively or simultaneously, inasmuch as there is no necessity why, with the increasing use of the object, the size of the object itself should increase in an equal proportion. (According to Marlo: wealth usable by one; wealth usable by many; wealth usable by all.) Thus, for instance, a public library may be incomparably more complete, and accessible in a still higher degree than ten private libraries which together cost as much as it did. And so, a restaurant-keeper may serve a hundred guests at the same time, with a much greater table-variety, more to their taste, and at a more convenient time, than if each person made the same outlay for his private kitchen.[207-6] While formerly, only the great could travel rapidly, combination of use has enabled even the lower classes to do so in our own days. There is, doubtless, a dark side to this picture, too. Combination of use requires frequently great sacrifices of personal independence, which should not be underestimated when they affect individuality of character, or threaten the intimacy and closeness of family life. It is, however, a bad symptom when the division of use increases without any corresponding combination of use.[207-7] [207-8]

[Footnote 207-1: We should also mention here destructive
consumption, where the defenders of a country destroy
buildings, supplies, etc., only that the enemy may not use
them.]

[Footnote 207-2: Compare Die Lebensaufgabe der Hausfrau,
Leipzig, 1853; _von Stein_, Die Frau auf dem Gebiete der
National Oekonomie, 1875, and the beautiful remarks of
_Schäffle_, N. Oek., 166; and _Lotz_, Mikrokosmus, II, 370
ff.]

[Footnote 207-3: In Germany horses are said to last, on an
average, 18 years; in England 25; in France and Belgium,
only 12 years. (See for the proofs of this _Rau_, Handbuch
II, § 168.) The more civilized a people are, the less do
they completely destroy values by use; and the more do they
use their old linen, etc. as rags; their remains of food as
manure, etc. (_Roesler_, Grunds., 552.)]

[Footnote 207-4: _Ritter_, Erdkunde, III, 209. Thus, the
French in the 13th century were acquainted with only three
kinds of cabbage; in the 16th, with six, about 1651, with
12; they are now acquainted with more than 50; in the 16th
century they knew only 4 kinds of sorrel; in 1651, 7; about
1574, only 4 kinds of lettuce; to-day they know over 50;
under Henry II., they were acquainted with 2 or 3 kinds of
melons; in the 17th century, with 7; now they are acquainted
with over 40. (_Roquefort_, Histoire de la Vie privée des
Fr., I, 179 ff.) Instead of the four kinds of pears
mentioned by de Serre (1600), there were, in 1651, about
400. (I, 272.) Liebaud, 1570, knew only 19 kinds of grapes;
de Serre, 41. (_Roquefort_, III, 29 ff.) According to the
"Briefen eines Verstorbenen," IV, 390, the first
kitchen-gardener in London had 435 kinds of salad, 240 of
potatoes, and 261 of pease.

And so precisely in ancient times. While the earlier Greeks
speak of but one oinos, even at the most sumptuous feasts
(compare, however, _Homer_, Il. XI, 641;) and while even in
the time of Demosthenes only very few kinds of wine were
known (_Becker_, Charicles, I, 455), _Pliny_, H. N. XIV, 13,
was acquainted with about 80. In this respect the moderns
have never returned to ancient simplicity; at least the
fabliau, La Bataille des Vins, introduces us to 47 kinds of
French wine in the 13th century. (Compare also _Wackernagel_
in _Haupt's_ Zeitschrift für deutsches Alterth., VI. 261
ff., and _Henderson_, History of ancient and modern Wines,
1824.) The Lacedemonians, with their intentional persistence
in a lower stage of civilization, used the same garment in
winter and summer (_Xenoph._, De Rep. Laced., II, 4); while
the contemporaries of Athenæos (III, 78 ff.) were acquainted
with 72 kinds of bread. With what a delicate sense for good
living the Romans in Caesar's time had discovered the best
supply places for chickens, peacocks, cranes, thunny-fish,
muraena, oysters and other shell-fish, chestnuts, dates,
etc., may be seen in _Gellius_, N. A., VII, 16. Compare
_Athen._, XII, 540.

In the middle age of Italy, the houses had almost always
three rooms: _domus_ (kitchen), _thalamus_, _solarium_.
(_Cibrario_, E. P. del medio Evo, III, 45.) The manors or
masters' houses built on the estates of Charlemagne had 3
and 2 rooms, sometimes only 1, and sometimes 2 rooms and 2
bedrooms. According to an old document of 895, a shed was
worth 5 sols, a well-built manor 12. (_Anthon_, Geschichte
der deutschen Landwirth., I, 249 ff., 311.) The Lex
Alamanorum, tit. 92, provided that a child, in order to be
considered capable of living, should have seen the roof and
four walls of the house! See an able essay, capable of being
still further developed, by _E. Herrmann,_ in which he
endeavors to explain the _division of use_ and of labor on
Darwin's hypothesis of the origin of species in the D.
Vierteljahrsschrift, Januar., 1867.]

[Footnote 207-5: Thus, 1785-1795, the best Silesian wool
cost 60, the worst 26, thalers per cwt.; in 1805, on account
of the great demand for cloth to make military uniforms, the
former cost 78, the latter 50 thalers. (_Hoffmann_,
Nachlass, 114.)]

[Footnote 207-6: The one large kitchen naturally requires
much less place, masonry, fuel, fewer utensils, etc., than
100 small ones. Think of the relatively large savings
effected by the use of one oven kept always heated! Even the
Lacedemonians called their meal associations pheidtia, i.
e., save-meals. Dainties proper can be consumed only in very
small portions, but cannot well be prepared in such
quantities. A guest at a first class Parisian restaurant
has, at a moderate price, his choice of 12 _potâges_, _24
hors d'oeuvres_, _15-20 entrées de boeuf_, _20 entrées
de mouton_, _30 entrées de volaille et gibier_, _15-20
entrées de veau_, _12 de pâtisserie_, _24 de poisson_, _15
de rôts_, _50 entremets_, _50 desserts_; and, in addition,
perhaps 60 kinds of French wine alone. What more can a
princely table offer in this respect? Compare
_Brillat-Savarin_, Physiologie du Goût, Médit., 28.]

[Footnote 207-7: In Diocletian's time, there was purple silk
worth from 2-1/2 thalers to 250 thalers per pound.
(_Marquardt_, Röm. Privatalterthümer, II, 122.)]

[Footnote 207-8: Concerning the application of the above
principle in industry and in the care of the poor, see
_infra_. The advantages afforded by consumption in common,
or the combination of use, have been enthusiastically dwelt
upon by _Fourier_, and the organization of his phalansteries
is based essentially on that principle. In these colossal
palaces, which, spite of all their magnificence, cost less
than the hundred huts of which they take the place, a ball
is given every evening, because it is cheaper to light one
large hall, in which all may congregate. The division of
use, or of consumption also, is here developed in a high
degree. When 12 persons eat at the same table they have 12
different kinds of cheese, 12 different kinds of soup, etc.
Even little children are allowed to yield to the full to
their gluttonous propensities, since on them depends the
productive activity of the so-called _séries passionnées_.
Compare Nouveau Monde, 272. The Saint-Simonists also
characterize the _association universelle_ as the highest
goal of human development. (_Bazard_, Exposition, 144 ff.)
On the danger of this development to family life, see
_Sismondi_, Etudes I, 43.]