BOOK II. THE revenue of an individual may be spent, either in things which are confumed immediately, and in which one day's expence can neither alleviate nor support that of another; or it may be spent in things more durable, which can therefore be accumulated, and in which every day's expence may, as he chufes, either alleviate or support and heighten the effect of that of the following day. A man of fortune, for example, may either spend his revenue in a profuse and fumptuous table, and in maintaining a great number of menial fervants, and a multitude of dogs and horfes; or contenting himself with a frugal table and few attendants, he may lay out the greater part of it in adorning his house or his country villa, in useful or ornamental buildings, in useful or ornamental furniture, in collecting books, ftatues, pictures; or in things more frivolous, jewels, baubles, ingenious trinkets of different kinds; or, what is most trifling of all, in amaffing a great wardrobe of fine clothes, like the favourite and minifter of a great prince who died a few years ago. Were two men of equal fortune to spend their revenue, the one chiefly in the one way, the other in the other, the magnificence of the person whose expence had been chiefly in durable commodities, would be continually increasing, every day's expence contributing fomething to fupport and heighten the effect of that of the following day that of the other, on the contrary, would be no greater at the end of the period than at the beginning. The former too would, at the end of the period, be III. be the richer man of the two. He would have CHA P. a stock of goods of fome kind or other, which, though it might not be worth all that it coft, would always be worth fomething. No trace or veftige of the expence of the latter would remain, and the effects of ten or twenty years profufion would be as completely annihilated as if they had never existed. As the one mode of expence is more favourable than the other to the opulence of an individual, fo is it likewife to that of a nation. The houses, the furniture, the clothing of the rich, in a little time, become useful to the inferior and middling ranks of people. They are able to purchase them when their fuperiors grow weary of them, and the general accommodation of the whole people is thus gradually improved, when this mode of expence becomes univerfal among men of fortune. In countries which have long been rich, you will frequently find the inferior ranks of people in poffeffion both of houses and furniture perfectly good and entire, but of which neither the one could have been built, nor the other have been made for their ufe. What was formerly a feat of the family of Seymour, is now an inn upon the Bath road. The marriage-bed of James the First of Great Britain, which his Queen brought with her from Denmark, as a present fit for a fovereign to make to a fovereign, was, a few years ago, the ornament of an alehoufe at Dunfermline. In fome ancient cities, which either have been long stationary, or have gone fomewhat to decay, you will fometimes fcarce BOOK fcarce find a fingle houfe which could have been II. built for its prefent inhabitants. If you go into thofe houses too, you will frequently find many excellent, though antiquated pieces of furniture, which are still very fit for ufe, and which could as little have been made for them. Noble palaces, magnificent villas, great collections of books, ftatues, pictures, and other curiofities, are frequently both an ornament and an honour, not only to the neighbourhood, but to the whole country to which they belong. Verfailles is an ornament and an honour to France, Stowe and Wilton to England. Italy ftill continues to command some fort of veneration by the number of monuments of this kind which it poffeffes, though the wealth which produced them has decayed, and though the genius which planned them seems to be extinguished, perhaps from not having the fame employment. any THE expence too, which is laid out in durable commodities, is favourable, not only to accumulation, but to frugality. If a person should at time exceed in it, he can easily reform without exposing himself to the cenfure of the public. To reduce very much the number of his fervants, to reform his table from great profufion to great frugality, to lay down his equipage after he has once fet it up, are changes which cannot escape the observation of his neighbours, and which are fuppofed to imply fome acknowledgement of preceding bad conduct. Few, therefore, of those who have once been fo unfortunate as to launch out too far into this fort of expence, III. have afterwards the courage to reform, till ruin CHA P. and bankruptcy oblige them. But if a person has, at any time, been at too great an expence in building, in furniture, in books or pictures, no imprudence can be inferred from his changing his conduct. Thefe are things in which further expence is frequently rendered unneceffary by former expence; and when a perfon ftops fhort, he appears to do fo, not because he has exceeded his fortune, but because he has fatisfied his fancy. THE expence, befides, that is laid out in durable commodities, gives maintenance, commonly, to a greater number of people, than that which is employed in the most profuse hospitality. Of two or three hundred weight of provifions, which may sometimes be served up at a great festival, one-half, perhaps, is thrown to the dunghill, and there is always a great deal wasted and abused. But if the expence of this entertainment had been employed in fetting to work mafons, carpenters, upholsterers, mechanics, &c. a quantity of provifions, of equal value, would have been diftributed among a still greater number of people, who would have bought them in penny-worths and pound weights, and not have loft or thrown away a fingle ounce of them. In the one way, befides, this expence maintains productive, in the other unproductive hands. In the one way, therefore, it increases, in the other, it does not increase, the exchangeable value of the annual produce of the land and labour of the country. I WOULD BOOK II. I WOULD not, however, by all this be underftood to mean, that the one fpecies of expence always betokens a more liberal or generous fpirit than the other. When a man of fortune fpends his revenue chiefly in hofpitality, he fhares the greater part of it with his friends and companions; but when he employs it in purchafing fuch durable commodities, he often spends the whole upon his own perfon, and gives nothing to any body without an equivalent. The latter fpecies of expence, therefore, especially when directed towards frivolous objects, the little ornaments of dress and furniture, jewels, trinkets, gewgaws, frequently indicates, not only a trifling, but a base and selfish difpofition. All that I mean is, that the one fort of expence, as it always occafions fome accumulation of valuable commodities, as it is more favourable to private frugality, and, confequently, to the increase of the public capital, and as it maintains productive, rather than unproductive hands, conduces more than the other to the growth of public opulence. CHAP. |