Chapter LXXXVII: Section CCXXIX

EXTENT OF LUXURY IN HIGHLY CIVILIZED TIMES.

The luxury of this second period fills the whole of life and permeates every class of people. Hence we may most easily determine the degree of development a people have attained by the quantity of commodities of a finer quality which are, indeed, not indispensable to life, but which it is desirable should be consumed on as extensive a scale as possible by the nation, for the sake of the fullness of life and the freshness[229-1] of life to which they minister.

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 2-1/2 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 cultivated only 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]

[Footnote 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.]

[Footnote 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.
Compare _Moreau 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 of _M. Chevalier_, Cours.,
I, 113 seq., and Journal des Economistes, Mars, 1856, 438
ff.]

[Footnote 229-3: _Ch. Smith_, Tracts on the Corn Trade,
1758, 182. _Eden_, State of the Poor, I, 563, seq. In
_McCulloch_, Statist, I, 316, 466 ff., 548. Moreover,
_Rogers_ says 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 12 _malters_ of 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; compare _Plin._, H. N. XVIII, 14.
_Heracl._, Pont, fr. 2. _Athen._, IV., 137, 141. _Plutarch_,
Alcib., 23. As to how, in Rome, the transition from _far_ to
the much more costly _triticum_, was connected with the
extension of the hide of land from 2 to 7 _jugera_, see _M.
Voigt_ in the Rhein. Museum f. Philol., 1868.]

[Footnote 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, _Schmoller_ estimated 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.)]

[Footnote 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 even _Boisguillebert_, 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. Similarly _J. J.
Becher_, Physiologie, 1678, 202, 248, on the great
consumption of meat and sugar in England.]

[Footnote 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
22-3/4. (_Porter._)]

[Footnote 229-7: In Henry IV.'s time, in France, sugar was
sold by the apothecaries by the ounce!]

[Footnote 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 13-1/2 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 67-3/4 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 to
_Rogers_ (I, 415) 1-1/3 to 2 shillings per pound.]

[Footnote 229-9: Present state of England, 1683, III, 529;
compare _Storch_, Handbuch, II, 337 seq.]

[Footnote 229-10: _Dieterici_, Statist. Uebersicht, 321 ff.,
363, 399.]

[Footnote 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 to _Ammian. 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.]