Chapter LXXXIII: Section CCXXV

THE HISTORY OF LUXURY.--IN THE MIDDLE AGES.

During the middle ages, industry and commerce had made as yet but little progress. Hence it was as difficult then for luxury to be ministered to by fine furniture as by the products of foreign countries. Individual ornamental pieces, especially arms and drinking cups,[225-1] were wont to be the only articles of luxury. We have inventories of the domains of Charlemagne from which we find that in one of them, the only articles of linen owned were two bed-sheets, a table-cloth and a pocket handkerchief.[225-2] Fashion is here very constant; because clothing was comparatively dearer than at present. And so now in the East. In the matter of dwellings, too, more regard was had to size and durability, than to elegance and convenience. The palaces of Alfred the Great were so frailly built that the walls had to be covered with curtains as a protection against the wind, and the lights to be inclosed in lanterns.[225-3]

Hence the disposition to use the products of the home soil as articles of luxury was all the greater, but more as to quantity than to quality.[225-4] Since the knight could personally neither eat nor drink a quantity beyond the capacity of his own stomach, he kept a numerous suite to consume his surplus. It is well known what a great part was played among the ancient Germans by their retinues of devoted servants (_comitatus_), which many modern writers have looked upon as constituting the real kernel of the migration of nations.

In England, it was a maxim of state policy with Henry VII., whose reign there terminated the middle age, to prohibit the great liveried suites of the nobility (19 Henry VII., ch. 14) as Richard II., Henry IV. and Edward IV. had already attempted to do. But even under James I., we find ambassadors accompanied by a suite of 500 persons or 300 noblemen.[225-5]

The rich man welcomed every opportunity which enabled him to make others share in a dazzling manner the magnitude of his superfluous wealth: hence the numberless guests at weddings who were frequently entertained for weeks.[225-6] These festivities are memorable not because of the delicacies or great variety of the dishes, but because of their colossal magnitude. Even William of Orange, 1561, entertained at his wedding guests who had brought with them 5,647 horses; and he appeared himself with a suite of 1,100 men on horseback. There were consumed on the occasion 4,000 bushels of wheat, 8,000 of rye, 11,300 of oats, 3,600 _eimers_ of wine, 1,600 barrels of beer.[225-7] In the ordinance of Münden regulating weddings, promulgated in the year 1610, it is provided, that, at a large wedding there should not be over 24 tables, nor at a small one over 14, with 10 persons at each table.[225-8]

The hospitality of the lower stages of civilization[225-9] must be ascribed as well to this peculiar kind of luxury as to mere good nature. Arabian chiefs have their noon-day table set in the street and welcome every passer-by to it.[225-10] (_Pococke._) And so, distinguished Indians keep an open cauldron on the fire cooking all the time, from which every person who comes in may help himself. (_Catlin._)

Compared with this luxury of the rich, the poverty found side by side with it appears less oppressive. There is no great gap between the modes of life of the different classes.[225-11] This is the golden age of aristocracy, when no one questions its legitimateness. When, later, the nobleman, instead of keeping so many servants, begins to buy costly garments for himself, he, indeed, supports indirectly just as many and even more men; but these owe him nothing. Besides, in this last kind of luxury, it is very easily possible for him to go beyond his means, which is scarcely ever the case in the former.[225-12]

[Footnote 225-1: Here, as a rule, the value of the metal was
greater than the form-value; and hence the medieval
monasteries frequently made loans of silver vessels, where
of course, the form could not be taken into consideration.
On the other hand, in the case of the table service,
presented by the king of Portugal to Lord Wellington, the
metal cost £85,000 and the workmanship £86,000. (_Jacob_,
Gesch. der edlen Metalle, translated by Kleinschrod, II, 5.)
Compare _Hume_, History of England, ch. 44, App. 3.
Similarly under Louis XIV. (_Sismondi_, Hist. des Français,
XXVII, 45.) When Rome was highly civilized, C. Gracchus paid
for very good silver ware, 15 times the value of the metal,
and L. Crassus, (consul 95 before Christ) 18 times its
value. _Mommsen_, R. Gesch. II, 383.]

[Footnote 225-2: _Specimen breviarii fiscalium Caroli
Magni_; compare _Anton_, Gesch. der deutschen Landwirthsch.
244 ff.]

[Footnote 225-3: _Turner_, History of the Anglo Saxons, VII,
ch. 6.]

[Footnote 225-4: In _Homer_, the kings live on nothing but
meat, bread and wine: compare _Athen._, I, 8. In the
saga-poetry of Iceland, _H. Leo_ does not remember to have
heard any other food mentioned except oat-pap, milk, butter
and cheese, fish, the flesh of domestic animals, and beer.
(_Raumer's_ Taschenbuch, 1835, 491)]

[Footnote 225-5: _Hume_, History of England, ch. 49, Append.
Similarly among all nations which have still preserved much
of the medieval. Thus the duke of Alba, about the end of the
last century, had not a single commodious hall in his
immense palace, but 400 rooms for his servants, since at
least all his old servants, and even their widows and
families, continued to live with him. In Madrid alone, he
paid £1,000 a month wages to his servants; and the son of
the duke, Medina-Celi, £4,000 per annum. (_Townsend_, II,
155, 158.) In many palaces in Moscow, previous to 1812,
there were 1,000 and more servants, unskillful, clad for the
most part as peasants, badly fed, and with so little to do
that perhaps one had no service to perform but to fetch
drinking water at noon, and another in the evening. Even
poor noblemen kept 20 and 30 servants, (_v. Haxthausen_,
Studien, I, 59.) _Forster_, Werke, VII, 347, explains Polish
luxury in servants, by the poorness of the servants there: a
good German maid could do more than three Polish servants.
Thus, in Jamaica, it was customary to exempt from the
slave-tax persons who kept fewer than 7 negroes. (_B.
Edwards_, History of the W. Indies, I, 229.) Compare _Livy_,
XXXIX, 11. The luxury of using torch-bearers instead of
candelabra lasted until Louis XIV.'s time. (_Rocquefort_,
Hist. de la Vie privée des Français, III, 171.) Compare _W.
Scott_, Legend of Montrose, ch. 4.]

[Footnote 225-6: A Hungarian magnate, under king Sigismund,
celebrated his son's wedding for a whole year. (_Fessler_,
Gesch. von Ungarn, IV, 1267.)]

[Footnote 225-7: _Müller_, Annal. Saxon, 68. Several
examples in _Sckweinichen's_ Leben von Büsching, I, 320 seq.
_Krünitz_, Enclycopædie, Bd. 82, 84 ff. The wedding of the
niece of Ottakar II. in 1264, has long been considered a
most brilliant event in the history of medieval luxury.
(_Palacky_, Gesch. von Böhmen, II, 191 ff.) Even yet, in
Abyssinia, on the occasion of royal feasts, only meat and
bread are eaten and mead drunk; but not only the great, but
even common soldiers are entertained one after the other.
(Ausland, 1846, No. 79.) Magnificent as was the table of a
West Indian planter, it was in some respects very simple. A
large ox was slaughtered for the feast, and everything had
to be prepared from that: roast beef, beef steaks, beef
pies, stews, etc. (_Pinckard_, Notes on the W. Indies, II.
100 ff.)]

[Footnote 225-8: _Spittler_, Geschichte Hanovers, I, 381.]

[Footnote 225-9: _Tacitus_, Germ., 21 Leg., says of the
Germans: _Convictibus et hospitiis non alia gens effusius
indulget. Quemcunque mortalium arcere tecto, nefas habetur.
Diem noctemque continuare potando, nulli probrum._]

[Footnote 225-10: Entirely the same among the ancient
Romans: _Valer. Max._, II, 5. Compare per _contra_,
_Euripid._, Herc. fur., 304 seq.]

[Footnote 225-11: Think of nomadic races especially, where
the rich can employ their wealth only to increase the number
of their partisans, for war purposes, etc.]

[Footnote 225-12: _Ferguson_, Hist. of Civil Society, VI, 3;
_Adam Smith_, Wealth of Nat., IV, ch. 4. Compare _Contzen_,
Politicorum, 1629, 662. As to how in the lower stages of
civilization, guests are used to supply the place of the
post-office service, see _Humboldt_, Relation hist., II,
61.]