Sumptuary Legislation and Personal Regulation in England #226082

The subject throws much light upon the civilization of the times when these laws were in operation, and the treatment here adopted endeavors to exhibit them in the surroundings of contemporary social history. No attempt is made to sharpen legal definitions, for the Middle Ages took it for granted that every government had the right to check extravagance and restrain luxury for the public good (since luxury in individuals was presumed to lead to the corruption of the state and even by weakening it to endanger its national existence). The philosophical discussion of this matter which took place in later times probably hastened the disuse of this.