Chapter LXXXIX: 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 for a 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]

[Footnote 231-1: Compare _Benjamin Franklin's_ charming
story, Works I, 134 ff.; ed. Robinson. _Colbert_ recommended
luxury chiefly on account of its service to production.]

[Footnote 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 two _gardens_. (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.)]

[Footnote 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.)]

[Footnote 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.) Compare
_Jeremy Bentham_, Traité de Législation, I, 160. _Malthus_,
Principle of Population, I, ch. 12; IV, ch. 11.]

[Footnote 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.]

[Footnote 231-6: _Garve_ thinks 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.)]