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“Is not the Hope of one day being able to
purchase and enjoy Luxuries a great Spur to Labour
and Industry?”
Letter to
Benjamin Vaughn, from France, 26 July 1784 (excerpts)
I have not indeed yet thought of a Remedy for
Luxury. I am not sure that in a great State [nation] it is capable of a
Remedy. Nor that the Evil is in itself always so
great as it is represented. Suppose we include in the Definition of Luxury
all unnecessary Expense, and then let us consider whether Laws to prevent
such Expense are possible to be executed in a great Country; and whether if
they could be executed, our People generally would be happier or even richer.
Is not the Hope of one day being able to purchase and enjoy Luxuries a great
Spur to Labour and Industry? May not Luxury
therefore produce more than it consumes, if without such a Spur People would
be, as they are naturally enough inclined to be, lazy and indolent?
To this purpose I remember a Circumstance. The
Skipper of a Shallop employed between Cape May and
Philadelphia had done us some small Service for which he refused Pay. My
Wife, understanding that he had a Daughter, sent her as a Present a
new-fashioned Cap. Three Years After, this Skipper, being at my House with an
old Farmer of Cape May, his Passenger, he mentioned the Cap and how much his
Daughter had been pleased with it; but, says he, it proved a dear Cap to our
Congregation — How so?
When my Daughter appeared in it at Meeting, it was
so much admired that all the Girls resolved to get such Caps from
Philadelphia; and my Wife and I computed that the whole could not have cost
less than a hundred Pound.
True, says the Farmer, but you do not tell all the
Story; I think the Cap was nevertheless an Advantage to us; for it was the
first thing that put our Girls upon Knitting worsted Mittens for Sale at
Philadelphia, that they might have wherewithal to buy Caps and Ribbons there;
and you know that that Industry has continued and is likely to continue and
increase to a much greater Value, and answers better Purposes. Upon the whole
I was more reconciled to this little Piece of Luxury; since not only the
Girls were made happier by having fine Caps, but the Philadelphians by the
Supply of warm Mittens.
In our Commercial Towns upon the Seacoast, Fortunes
will occasionally be made. Some of those who grow rich will be prudent, live
within Bounds, and preserve what they have gained for their Posterity.
Others, fond of showing their Wealth, will be extravagant and ruin
themselves. Laws cannot prevent this, and perhaps it is not always an Evil to
the Publick.
A Shilling spent idly by a Fool, may be picked up by
a Wiser Person who knows better what to do with it. It is therefore not lost.
A vain silly Fellow builds a fine House, furnishes it richly, lives in it
expensively, and in a few Years ruins himself, but the Masons, Carpenters,
Smiths and other honest Tradesmen have been by his Employ assisted in
maintaining and raising their Families, the Farmer has been paid for his Labour and encouraged, and the Estate is now in better
Hands. . . .
The vast Quantity of Forest Lands we yet have to
clear and put in order for Cultivation, will for a long
time keep the Body of our Nation laborious and frugal. Forming an
Opinion of our People and their Manners by what is seen among the Inhabitants
of the Seaports is judging from an improper Sample. The People of the Trading
Towns may be rich and luxurious, while the Country possesses all the Virtues
that tend to private Happiness and publick
Prosperity. . . It has been computed by some Political Arithmetician that if
every Man and Woman would work four Hours each Day on something useful, that Labour would produce sufficient to procure all the
Necessaries and Comforts of Life. Want and Misery would be banished out of
the World, and the rest of the 24 Hours might be Leisure and Pleasure. What
occasions then so much Want and Misery? It is the Employment of Men and Women
in Works that produce neither the Necessaries nor Conveniences of Life, who,
with those who do nothing, consume the Necessaries raised by the
Laborious—To explain this—
The first Elements of Wealth are obtained by Labour from the Earth and Waters. I have Land and raise
Corn. With this if I feed a Family that does nothing, my Corn will be consum’d and at the End of the YearI
shall be no richer than I was at the Beginning. But if while I feed them I
employ them, some in Spinning others in hewing Timber and sawing Boards,
others in making Bricks &c for Building; the Value of my Corn will be
arrested, and remain with me, and at the End of the Year we may all be better
clothed and better lodged. And if instead of employing a Man I feed in making
Bricks, I employ him in fiddling for me, the Corn he eats is gone, and no
Part of his Manufacture remains to augment the Wealth and the Conveniencies of the Family. I shall therefore be the
poorer for this fiddling Man, unless the rest of My Family work more or eat
less to make up for the Deficiency he occasions.
Look round the World and see the Millions employ’d in doing nothing, or in something that
amounts to nothing when the Necessaries and Conveniencies
of Life are in Question. What is the Bulk of Commerce, for which we fight and
destroy each other but the Toil of Millions for Superfluities to the great
Hazard and Loss of many Lives by the constant Dangers of the Sea. How much Labour Spent in
Building and Fitting great Ships to go to China and Arabia for Tea and for
Coffee, to the West Indies for Sugar, to America for Tobacco! These Things
cannot be called the Necessaries of Life, for our Ancestors lived very
comfortably without them.
Tis however some Comfort to reflect that upon the
whole the Quantity of Industry and Prudence among Mankind exceeds the
Quantity of Idleness and Folly. Hence the Increase of good Buildings, Farms
cultivated, and populous Cities filled with Wealth all over Europe, which a
few Ages since were only to be found on the Coasts of the Mediterranean. And
this notwithstanding the mad Wars continually raging, by which are often
destroyed in one Year the Works of many Years Peace. So that we may hope the
Luxury of a few Merchants on the Sea Coast will not be the Ruin of America.
One Reflection more, and I
will end this long rambling Letter. Almost all the Parts of our Bodies
require some Expense. The Feet demand Shoes, the Legs Stockings, the rest of
the Body Clothing, and the Belly a good deal of Victuals. Our Eyes, tho’ exceedingly useful, ask when reasonable, only
the cheap Assistance of Spectacles, which could not much impair our Finances.
But the Eyes of other People are the Eyes that ruin us. If all but myself were blind, I should want neither fine Clothes,
fine Houses nor Fine Furniture.
Adieu, my Dear Friend. I am Yours ever
Benjamin Franklin
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