Luxury

LUXURY. The word luxury is derived from the Latin luxus, which may be translated "superfluous abundance." As generally used, it implies the notion of a relatively large consumption of wealth for unessential pleasures. But there is no absolute defini tion of luxury, for the conception is essentially relative to both time and person. It is a commonplace of history that the superflu ities of one generation may become the necessaries of a subse quent period ; there is no hard and fast line which can be drawn between luxuries, comforts and necessaries. The private bath was one of the greatest luxuries of the Roman empire; in the 19th century its use was largely confined to the wealthy; to-day it may be ranked amongst the necessaries of life.

Perhaps the nearest approach to a precise definition of luxury is to say that it is any expenditure which is in excess of the cus tomary standard of living of the class to which the individual concerned belongs, and which does not contribute proportionately towards his economic efficiency or to the ultimate well-being of the community.

The problem of luxury is one which involves economic, social and ethical considerations.

The Economic Aspect.

Viewed from the economic stand point luxury has undoubtedly played a great role in the history of economic development. Sombart in his Luxus and Kapitalismus has shown that the luxurious expenditure of the papacy and of the courts in the middle ages had a not unimportant share in the growth of modern capitalism. The rentals of distant estates were concentrated at some central spot ; wealth was accumulated there; a relatively large market was created for the products of certain industries; and the necessary conditions for the development of capitalist enterprise were fulfilled. In France, the classic land of luxury, the continual drain of wealth from the countryside to Paris and Versailles, combined as it was with a vicious system of taxa tion and the burdensome restrictions of feudal tenure, produced, on the one hand, a considerable amount of industrial activity, carefully fostered by the mercantilist policy of Colbert and his successors ; but on the other hand, it led eventually to the dis ruption of the old social order amidst the turmoil of the French Revolution. It is one of the paradoxes of history that a precisely

opposite view and method of life—that of the Puritans, with their strong moral condemnation of luxury and their emphasis on the value of hard work and abstinence from all unnecessary consump tion—should have contributed even more notably to the growth of capital and to the expansion of industry and commerce.

In other directions, also, luxury has made its influence felt. Thus in Italy, the rise of the merchant princes gave a new direc tion to the whole course of art, for the mediaeval church ceased to be the chief patron of the artist, who now had to conform in his work to the standards and tastes of those who provided the market for his products. The simple piety of the Primitives gave place to the sumptuous paganism of the Renaissance period, and that in turn to the elaborate ornamentation and decorative in ventiveness which was perhaps at its best in the metal work of Benvenuto Cellini, until at length the over-refinements of a deca dent social life killed all artistic inspiration.

Luxury is the inevitable concomitant of the growth of wealth, which brings with it the increase and the differentiation of wants. The fact that the fundamental needs of mankind for a minimum of food, clothing and protection from the weather are relatively soon satisfied gives rise to a demand for greater variety and finer qualities as soon as income rises above the bare subsistence level. This demand, which is especially strong among the female section of the human race, has, in the past, been a great stimulus to economic progress, for it has provided an enormously strong in centive to work and effort. Without this incentive the history of inventions would have been a very different one, even though it would be foolish to deny the existence of the disinterested inventor dominated by a creative impulse which will not be repressed. The forcible abolition of luxury under a regime of strict communism would not merely impoverish life by reducing every one to a uni form level of standardized consumption, but it would, in the ab sence of some alternative and equally powerful incentive, remove one of the main springs of economic activity.