[† ] See the 3d law, §. legis ad leg. Cornel. de sicariis, and a vast number of others in the Digest and in the Codex.
[‡ ] Sublimiores.
[∥ ] Medios.
[§ ] Infimos, leg. 3. §. legis ad leg. Cornel. de sicariis.
[¶ ] Jul. Cap. Maximini duo.
[* ] Hist. of Nicephorus, patriarch of Constantinople.
[† ] In Nicephorus’s history.
[‡ ] Duhalde, tom. i. p. 6.
[∥ ] Present state of Russia, by Perry.
[§ ] The English.
[¶ ] The citizens of Athens could not be put to the rack (Lysias, orat. in Agorot.) unless it was for high-treason. The torture was used within thirty days after condemnation.
(Curius Fortunatus, Rhetor. Schol. lib. 2.) There was no preparatory torture. In regard to the Romans, the 3d and 4th law ad leg. Jul. majest. shew, that birth, dignity, and the military profession, exempted people from the rack, except in cases of high-treason.
See the prudent restrictions of this practice made by the laws of the Visigoths.
[* ] See Kempfer.
[† ] It is established in the Koran. See the chapter of the cow.
[‡ ] Si membrum rupit, ni cum eo pacit, talio esto. Aul. Gellius, lib. 20. c. 1.
http://oll.libertyfund.org/Texts/Montesquieu0187/CompleteWorks/0171-01_Bk.html
4/22/2004
The Complete Works of M. de Montesquieu (1777) - Vol. 1 The Spirit of Laws: The ... Page 121 of 335
[∥ ] See Kempfer.
[§ ] See also the law of the Visigoths, book 6. tit. 4. §. 3. and 5.
[¶ ] See Garcilasso, history of the civil wars of the Spaniards.
[* ] Instead of punishing them, says Plato, they ought to be commended for not having followed their father’s example. Book 9. of Laws.
[† ] Evagr. hist.
[‡ ] Fragments of Suidas, in Constant. Porphyrog.
BOOK VII. CONSEQUENCES OF THE DIFFERENT PRINCIPLES OF THE
THREE GOVERNMENTS, WITH RESPECT TO SUMPTUARY LAWS,
LUXURY, AND THE CONDITION OF WOMEN.
CHAP. I.
Of Luxury.
LUXURY is ever in proportion to the inequality of fortunes. If the riches of a state are equally divided, there will be no luxury; for it is founded merely on the inconveniences acquired by the labour of others.
In order to have this equal distribution of riches, the law ought to give to each man only what is necessary for nature. If they exceed these bounds, some will spend, and others will acquire; by which means an inequality will be established.
Supposing what is necessary for the support of nature to be equal to a given sum, the luxury of those who have only what is barely necessary will be equal to a cypher: if a person happens to have double that sum, his luxury will be equal to one: he that has double the latter’s substance will have a luxury equal to three: if this be still doubled, there will be a luxury equal to seven: so that the property of the subsequent individual being always supposed double to that of the preceding, the luxury will increase double, and an unit will be always added, in this progression, 0, 1, 3, 7, 15, 31, 63, 127.
In Plato’s republic∥ luxury might have been exactly calculated. There were four sorts of censuses, or rates of estates. The first was exactly the term beyond poverty; the second was double; the third triple; the fourth quadruple to the first. In the first census luxury was equal to a cypher; in the second, to one; in the third, to two; in the fourth, to three; and thus it followed in an arithmetical proportion.
http://oll.libertyfund.org/Texts/Montesquieu0187/CompleteWorks/0171-01_Bk.html
4/22/2004
The Complete Works of M. de Montesquieu (1777) - Vol. 1 The Spirit of Laws: The ... Page 122 of 335
Considering the luxury of different nations with respect to one another, it is, in each state, in a compound proportion to the inequality of fortunes among the subjects, and to the inequality of wealth in different states. In Poland, for example, there is an extreme inequality of fortunes: but the poverty of the whole hinders them from having so much luxury as in a more opulent government.
Luxury is also in proportion to the populousness of the towns, and especially of the capital; so that it is in a compound proportion to the riches of the state, to the inequality of private fortunes, and to the number of people settled in particular places.
In proportion to the populousness of towns, the inhabitants are filled with notions of
§
vanity, and actuated by an ambition of distinguishing themselves by trifles . If they are very numerous, and most of them strangers to one another, their vanity redoubles, because there are greater hopes of success. As luxury inspires these hopes, each man assumes the marks of a superior condition: but, by endeavouring thus at distinction, every one becomes equal, and distinction ceases; as all are desirous of respect, nobody is regarded.
Hence arises a general inconvenience. Those who excel in a profession set what value they please on their labour: this example is followed by people of inferior abilities; and then there is an end of all proportion between our wants and the means of satisfying them. When I am forced to go to law, I must be able to fee council: when I am sick, I must have it in my power to fee a physician.
It is the opinion of several, that the assembling so great a multitude of people in capital cities is an obstruction to commerce, because the inhabitants are no longer at a proper distance from each other: but I cannot think so; for men have more desires, more wants, more fancies, when they live together.
CHAP. II.
Of sumptuary Laws in a Democracy.
WE have observed, that, in a republic where riches are equally divided, there can be no
¶
such thing as luxury; and, as we have shewn, in the 5th book, that this equal
distribution constitutes the excellency of a republican government, hence it follows, that, the less luxury there is in a republic, the more it is perfect. There was none among the old Romans, none among the Lacedæmonians; and, in republics where this equality is not quite lost, the spirit of commerce, industry, and virtue, renders every man able and willing to live on his own property, and consequently prevents the growth of luxury.
The laws concerning the new division of lands, insisted upon so eagerly in some http://oll.libertyfund.org/Texts/Montesquieu0187/CompleteWorks/0171-01_Bk.html
4/22/2004
The Complete Works of M. de Montesquieu (1777) - Vol. 1 The Spirit of Laws: The ... Page 123 of 335
republics, were of the most salutary nature. They are dangerous only as they are subitaneous. By reducing instantly the wealth of some, and increasing that of others, they form a revolution in each family, and must produce a general one in the state.
In proportion as luxury gains ground in a republic, the minds of the people are turned towards their particular interests. Those, who are allowed only what is necessary, have nothing but their own reputation and their country’s glory in view: but a soul depraved by luxury has many other desires, and soon becomes an enemy to the laws that confine it. The luxury in which the garrison of Rhegio began to live was the cause of their massacring the inhabitants.
No sooner were the Romans corrupted than their desires became boundless and
immense. Of this we may judge by the price they set on things. A pitcher of Falernian
*
wine was sold for a hundred Roman denarii; a barrel of salt meat from the kingdom of Pontus cost four hundred; a good cook four talents; and, for boys, no price was reckoned too great. When the whole world, impelled by the force of corruption, is
†
immersed in voluptuousness, what must then become of virtue?
CHAP. III.
Of sumptuary Laws in an Aristocracy.
THERE is this inconvenience in an ill-constituted aristocracy, that the wealth centers in the nobility, and yet they are not allowed to spend; for, as luxury is contrary to the spirit of moderation, it must be banished from thence. This government comprehends, therefore, only people who are extremely poor, and cannot acquire; and people who are vastly rich, and cannot spend.
In Venice they are compelled by the laws to moderation. They are so habituated to parsimony, that none but courtezans can make them part with their money. Such is the method made use of for the support of industry: the most contemptible of women may be profuse without danger, whilst those who contribute to their extravagance consume their days in the greatest obscurity.
Admirable, in this respect, were the institutions of the principal republics of Greece. The rich employed their money in festivals, musical choruses, chariots, horse-races, and chargeable offices. Wealth was therefore as burthensome there as poverty.
CHAP. IV.
http://oll.libertyfund.org/Texts/Montesquieu0187/CompleteWorks/0171-01_Bk.html
4/22/2004
The Complete Works of M. de Montesquieu (1777) - Vol. 1 The Spirit of Laws: The ... Page 124 of 335
Of sumptuary Laws in a Monarchy.
‡
TACITUS says, “That the Suiones, a German nation, have a particular respect for riches; for which reason they live under the government of one person.” This shews that luxury is extremely proper for monarchies, and that under this government there must be no sumptuary laws.
As riches, by the very constitution of monarchies, are unequally divided, there is an absolute necessity for luxury. Were the rich not to be lavish, the poor would starve. It is even necessary here that the expences of the opulent should be in proportion to the inequality of fortunes, and that luxury, as we have already observed, should increase in this proportion. The augmentation of private wealth is owing to its having deprived one part of the citizens of their necessary support; this must therefore be restored to them.
Hence it is, that, for the preservation of a monarchical state, luxury ought continually to increase, and to grow more extensive, as it rises from the labourer to the artificer, to the merchant, to the magistrate, to the nobility, to the great officers of state, up to the very prince; otherwise the nation will be undone.
In the reign of Augustus a proposal was made in the Roman senate, which was
composed of grave magistrates, learned civilians, and of men whose heads were filled with the notion of the primitive times, to reform the manners and luxury of women. It is curious to see, in Dio,∥ with what art this prince eluded the importunate sollicitations of those senators. This was because he was founding a monarchy, and dissolving a
republic.
Under Tiberius, the ædiles proposed, in the senate, the re-establishment of the ancient
§
sumptuary laws. This prince, who did not want sense, opposed it. “The state (said he) could not possibly subsist in the present situation of things. How could Rome, how could the provinces, live? We were frugal while we were only masters of one city: now we consume the riches of the whole globe, and employ both the masters and their slaves in our service.” He plainly saw that sumptuary laws would not suit the present form of government.
When a proposal was made, under the same emperor, to the senate, to prohibit the governors from carrying their wives with them into the provinces, because of the dissoluteness and irregularity which followed those ladies, the proposal was rejected. It was said, “that the examples of ancient austerity had been changed into a more
¶
agreeable method of living.” They found there was a necessity for different manners.
Luxury is therefore absolutely necessary in monarchies; as it is also in despotic states.
In the former, it is the use of liberty; in the latter, it is the abuse of servitude. A slave, appointed by his master to tyrannize over other wretches of the same condition, http://oll.libertyfund.org/Texts/Montesquieu0187/CompleteWorks/0171-01_Bk.html
4/22/2004
The Complete Works of M. de Montesquieu (1777) - Vol. 1 The Spirit of Laws: The ... Page 125 of 335
uncertain of enjoying, to-morrow, the blessings of to-day, has no other felicity than that of glutting the pride, the passions, and voluptuousness, of the present moment.
Hence arises a very natural reflexion. Republics end with luxury; monarchies with
*
poverty.
CHAP. V.
In what Cases sumptuary Laws are useful in a Monarchy.
WHETHER it was from a republican spirit, or from some other particular circumstance, sumptuary laws were made in Arragon, in the middle of the thirteenth century. James the First ordained, that neither the king, nor any of his subjects, should have above two sorts of dishes at a meal, and that each dish should be dressed only one way, except it
†
were game of their own killing.
In our days sumptuary laws have been also enacted in Sweden; but with a different view from those of Arragon.
A government may make sumptuary laws with a view to absolute frugality. This is the spirit of sumptuary laws in republics; and the very nature of the thing shews that such was the design of those of Arragon.
Sumptuary laws may likewise be established with a design to promote a relative
frugality. When a government, perceiving that foreign merchandizes, being at too high a price, will require such an exportation of home manufactures, as to deprive them of more advantages, by the loss of the latter, than they can receive from the possession of the former, they will forbid their being introduced: and this is the spirit of the laws
‡
which in our days have been passed in Sweden. Such are the sumptuary laws proper for monarchies.
In general, the poorer a state, the more it is ruined by its relative luxury, and consequently the more occasion it has for relative sumptuary laws. The richer a state, the more it thrives by its relative luxury; for which reason, it must take particular care not to make any relative sumptuary laws. This we shall better explain in the book on
*
commerce ; here we treat only of absolute luxury.
CHAP. VI.
Of the Luxury of China.
http://oll.libertyfund.org/Texts/Montesquieu0187/CompleteWorks/0171-01_Bk.html
4/22/2004
The Complete Works of M. de Montesquieu (1777) - Vol. 1 The Spirit of Laws: The ... Page 126 of 335
SUMPTUARY laws may, in some governments, be necessary, for particular reasons. The people, by the influence of the climate, may grow so numerous, and the means of subsisting may be so uncertain, as to render an universal application to agriculture extremely necessary. As luxury, in those countries, is dangerous, their sumptuary laws should be very severe. In order, therefore, to be able to judge whether luxury ought to be encouraged or proscribed, we should examine, first, what relation there is between the number of people and the facility they have of procuring subsistence. In England, the soil produces more grain than is necessary for the maintenance of such as cultivate the land, and of those who are employed in the woollen manufactures. This country may be therefore allowed to have some trifling arts, and consequently luxury. In France, likewise, there is corn enough for the support of the husbandman and of the manufacturer. Besides, a foreign trade may bring in so many necessaries, in return for toys, that there is no danger to be apprehended from luxury.
On the contrary, in China, the women are so prolific, and the human species multiplies so fast, that the lands, though never so much cultivated, are scarcely sufficient to support the inhabitants. Here, therefore, luxury is pernicious, and the spirit of industry
*
and œconomy is as requisite as in any republic . They are obliged to pursue the necessary arts, and to shun those of luxury and pleasure.
This is the spirit of the excellent decrees of the Chinese emperors. “Our ancestors (says
†
an emperor of the family of the Tangs ) held it as a maxim, that, if there was a man who did not work, or a woman that was idle, somebody must suffer cold or hunger in the empire.” And on this principle he ordered a vast number of the monasteries of bonzes to be destroyed.
‡
The third emperor of the one-and-twentieth dynasty , to whom some precious stones were brought that had been found in a mine, ordered it to be shut up, not choosing to fatigue his people with working for a thing that could neither feed nor clothe them.
“So great is our luxury, says Kiayventi∥, that people adorn with embroidery the shoes of boys and girls whom they are obliged to sell.” Is employing so many people in making cloaths for one person the way to prevent a great many from wanting cloaths? There are ten men who eat the fruits of the earth to one employed in agriculture; and is this the means to preserve numbers from wanting nourishment?
CHAP. VII.
Fatal Consequences of Luxury in China.
IN the history of China, we find it has had twenty-two successive dynasties; that is, it http://oll.libertyfund.org/Texts/Montesquieu0187/CompleteWorks/0171-01_Bk.html
4/22/2004
The Complete Works of M. de Montesquieu (1777) - Vol. 1 The Spirit of Laws: The ... Page 127 of 335
has experienced twenty-two general, without mentioning a prodigious number of
particular, revolutions. The three first dynasties lasted a long time, because they were wisely administered, and the empire had not so great an extent as it afterwards obtained. But we may observe, in general, that all those dynasties began very well.
Virtue, attention, and vigilance, are necessary in China; these prevailed in the commencement of the dynasties and failed in the end. It was natural, that emperors, trained up in military toil, who had compassed the dethroning of a family immersed in pleasure, should adhere to virtue, which they had found so advantageous, and be afraid of voluptuousness, which they knew had proved so fatal to the family dethroned. But, after the three or four first princes, corruption, luxury, indolence, and pleasure, possessed their successors; they shut themselves up in a palace; their understanding was impaired; their life was shortened; the family declined; the grandees rose up; the eunuchs gained credit; none but children were set on the throne; the palace was at variance with the empire; a lazy set of people, that dwelled there, ruined the
industrious part of the nation; the emperor was killed or destroyed by an usurper, who founded a family, the third or fourth successor of which went and shut himself up in the very same palace.
CHAP. VIII.
Of public Continency.
SO many are the imperfections that attend the loss of virtue in women, and so greatly are their minds depraved when this principal guard is removed, that, in a popular state, public incontinency may be considered as the last of miseries, and as a certain fore-runner of a change in the constitution.
Hence it is that the sage legislators of republican states have ever required of women a particular gravity of manners. They have proscribed not only vice, but the very appearance of it. They have banished even all commerce of gallantry; a commerce that produces idleness, that renders the women corrupters even before they are corrupted, that gives a value to trifles, and debases things of importance; a commerce, in fine, that makes people act entirely by the maxims of ridicule, in which the women are so perfectly skilled.
CHAP. IX.
Of the Condition or State of Women in different Governments.
http://oll.libertyfund.org/Texts/Montesquieu0187/CompleteWorks/0171-01_Bk.html
4/22/2004
The Complete Works of M. de Montesquieu (1777) - Vol. 1 The Spirit of Laws: The ... Page 128 of 335
IN monarchies women are subject to very little restraint; because, as the distinction of ranks calls them to court, there they assume a spirit of liberty, which is almost the only one tolerated in that place. Each courtier avails himself of their charms and passions, in order to advance his fortune: and, as their weakness admits not of pride, but of vanity, luxury constantly attends them.
In despotic governments, women do not introduce, but are themselves an object of, luxury. They must be in a state of the most rigorous servitude. Every one follows the spirit of the government, and adopts in his own family the customs he sees elsewhere established. As the laws are very severe and executed on the spot, they are afraid lest the liberty of women should expose them to danger. Their quarrels, indiscretions, repugnances, jealousies, piques, and that art, in fine, which little souls have of interesting great ones, would be attended there with fatal consequences.
Besides, as princes, in those countries, make a sport of human nature, they allow themselves a multitude of women; and a thousand considerations oblige them to keep those women in close confinement.
In republics women are free by the laws, and restrained by manners; luxury is banished from thence, and with it corruption and vice.
In the cities of Greece, where they were not under the restraint of a religion, which declares, that, even amongst men, regularity of manners is a part of virtue; where a blind passion triumphed with a boundless insolence, and love appeared only in a shape which we dare not mention, while marriage was considered as nothing more than
*
simple friendship ; such was the virtue, simplicity, and chastity, of women, in those cities, that, in this respect, hardly any people were ever known to have had a better
†
and wiser polity .
CHAP. X.
Of the domestic Tribunal among the Romans.
THE Romans had no particular magistrates, like the Greeks, to inspect the conduct of women. The censors had not an eye over them but as over the rest of the republic. The
§
institution of the domestic tribunal supplied the magistracy established among the Greeks∥.
‡
The husband summoned the wife’s relations, and tried her in their presence . This tribunal preserved the manners of the republic, and, at the same time, those very manners maintained this tribunal. For it decided not only in respect to the violation of the laws, but also of manners: now, in order to judge of the violation of the latter, http://oll.libertyfund.org/Texts/Montesquieu0187/CompleteWorks/0171-01_Bk.html
4/22/2004
The Complete Works of M. de Montesquieu (1777) - Vol. 1 The Spirit of Laws: The ... Page 129 of 335
manners are requisite.
The penalties inflicted by this tribunal ought to be, and actually were, arbitrary: for all that relates to manners, and to the rules of modesty, can hardly be comprised under one code of laws. It is easy, indeed, to regulate by laws what we owe to others, but it is very difficult to comprise all we owe to ourselves.
The domestic tribunal inspected the general conduct of women. But there was one crime, which, beside the animadversion of this tribunal, was likewise subject to a public accusation: this was adultery: whether that, in a republic, so great a depravation of manners interested the government; or whether the wife’s immorality might render the husband’s suspected; or whether, in fine, they were afraid lest even honest people might choose that this crime should rather be concealed than punished.
CHAP. XI.
In what Manner the Institutions changed at Rome together with the
Government.
AS manners were supposed by the domestic tribunal, they were also supposed by the public accusation: and hence it is that these two things fell together with the public
*
manners, and ended with the republic .
The establishing of perpetual questions, that is, the division of jurisdiction among the prætors, and the custom, gradually introduced, of the prætors determining all causes
†
themselves , weakened the use of the domestic tribunal. This appears by the surprize of historians, who look upon the decisions, which Tiberius caused to be given by this tribunal, as singular facts, and as a renewal of the ancient course of pleading.
The establishment of monarchy and the change of manners put, likewise, an end to public accusations. It might be apprehended, lest a dishonest man, affronted at the slight shewn him by a woman, vexed at her refusal, and irritated even by her virtue, should form a design to destroy her. The Julian law ordained, that a woman should not be accused of adultery till after her husband had been charged with favouring her
‡
irregularities; which limited greatly, and annihilated, as it were, this sort of accusation .
Sixtus Quintus seemed to have been desirous of reviving the public accusation∥. But there needs very little reflection to see that this law would be more improper in such a monarchy as his than in any other.
http://oll.libertyfund.org/Texts/Montesquieu0187/CompleteWorks/0171-01_Bk.html
4/22/2004
The Complete Works of M. de Montesquieu (1777) - Vol. 1 The Spirit of Laws: The ... Page 130 of 335
CHAP. XII.
Of the Guardianship of Women among the Romans.
THE Roman laws subjected women to a perpetual guardianship, except they were under
*
cover and subject to the authority of a husband . This guardianship was given to the
†
nearest of the male relations; and, by a vulgar expression , it appears they were very
‡
much confined. This was proper for a republic, but not at all necessary in a monarchy .
That the women among the ancient Germans were likewise under a perpetual tutelage,
§
appears from the different codes of the laws of the barbarians . This custom was communicated to the monarchies founded by those people, but was not of a long
duration.
CHAP. XIII.
Of the Punishments decreed by Emperors against the Incontinency of
Women.
THE Julian law ordained a punishment against adultery. But so far was this law, any more than those afterwards made on the same account, from being a mark of regularity of manners, that, on the contrary, it was a proof of their depravation.
The whole political system, in regard to women, received a change in the monarchical state. The question was no lon