opinion as good be-[end of page #142]
cause it is general, and its prevalence in ignorant times is considered
as a mark of its being erroneous; yet, observation and common sense
have never been wanting at any period, and it is from those sources
that such maxims and opinions arise. Any man who had travelled, first
through Italy and Spain, and then through England and America,
would be very likely to invent sumptuary laws, if he had never heard
of such a thing before. In the application of sumptuary laws, as a
device, for preventing decline, the traveller might, perhaps, be very
whimsical; sometimes forbidding what would never be attempted; but
there would be nothing at all ridiculous in his general intention. {117}

It will certainly be found that, in all the causes of the decay of nations,
the increase of consumption, and decrease of production, takes the
greatest variety of forms, and disguises itself the most; it is,
therefore, one that is much to be guarded against, particularly as its
effects seem to be difficult to remedy.

As the manner in which a country acquires riches has a considerable
influence on the habits of the people, a country acquiring riches by
conquest, or colonies, must naturally expend it in splendour and
magnificence.

Merchants are less splendid than conquerors and planters. Their
ostentation is of a different sort; and, as the fortunes made in that way
are rather more equally divided, they cannot launch out quite so far.
Besides, merchants are seldom entirely independent of credit and
industry; at least, when acquiring their fortunes they were not so; and,
therefore, whether the necessity continues or not, the habit, once
contracted, is never quite effaced.

Manufacturers, again, are still less splendid than merchants. With
them, the gifts of fortune are more equally divided than with either of
the other three, and they seldom arrive at more than an ordinary
degree of affluence; which affords the means of gratifying personal
wants, of living with hospitality, ease, and comfort.

---
{117} If, for example, it were a law at Manchester or Birmingham,
that no man should keep above fifty servants in livery, or burn more
than three-dozen wax-lights at a time, it would be like mockery, and
would be perfectly useless; at Rome it would be very useful.
-=-

[end of page #143]

The greatest part of manufacturing wealth, and that, indeed, is divided
with a pretty equal hand, is that which goes to