Works of the late Doctor Benjamin Franklin/On Luxury, Idleneſs, and Induſtry
ON LUXURY, IDLENESS, AND INDUSTRY:
From a Letter to Benjamin Vaughan, Eſq.[1] written in 1784.
IT is wonderful how prepoſterouſly the affairs of this world are managed. Naturally one would imagine, that the intereſt of a few individuals ſhould give way to general intereſt; but individuals manage their affairs with ſo much more application, induſtry, and addreſs, than the public do theirs, that general intereſt moſt commonly gives way to particular. We aſſemble parliaments and councils, to have the benefit of their collected wiſdom; but we neceſſarily have, at the ſame time, the inconvenience of their collected paſſions, prejudices, and private intereſts. By the help of theſe, artful men overpower their wiſdom, and dupe its poſſeſſors: and if we may judge by the acts, arrets, and edicts, all the world over, for regulating commerce, an aſſembly of great men is the greateſt fool upon earth.
I have not yet, indeed, thought of a remedy for luxury. I am not ſure that in a great ſtate 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 expence, and then let us conſider whether laws to prevent ſuch expence 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 being one day 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 to be paid. My wife underſtanding that he had a daughter, ſent her a preſent of 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 (ſaid he) it proved a dear cap to our congregation."—How ſo?—"When my daughter appeared with 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 pounds."—"True (ſaid 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 anſwer 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 ſea-coaſt, 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 ſhewing their wealth, will be extravagant, and ruin themſelves. Laws cannot prevent this: and perhaps it is not always an evil to the public. 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, 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.—In ſome caſes, indeed, certain modes of luxury may be a public evil, in the ſame manner as it is a private one. If there be a nation, for inſtance, that exports its beef and linen, to pay for the importation of claret and porter, while a great part of its people live upon potatoes, and wear no ſhirts; wherein does it differ from the ſot who lets his family ſtarve, and ſells his clothes to buy drink? Our American commerce is, I confeſs, a little in this way. We ſell our victuals to the iſlands for rum and ſugar; the ſubſtantial neceſſaries of life for ſuperfluities. But we have plenty, and live well nevertheleſs; though, by being ſoberer, we might be richer.
The vaſt quantity of foreſt land we have yet 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 ſea-ports, 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 promote happineſs and public proſperity. Thoſe towns are not much regarded by the country; they are hardly conſidered as an eſſential part of the States; and the experience of the laſt war has ſhewn, that their being in the poſſeſſion of the enemy did not neceſſarily draw on the ſubjection of the country; which bravely continued to maintain its freedom and independence notwithſtanding.
It has been computed by ſome political arithmetician, that if every man and woman would work for 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 twenty-four 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 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 conſumed, and at the end of the year I ſhall be no richer than I was at the beginning. But if, while I feed them, I employ them, ſome in ſpinning, 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 convenience 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 the deficiency he occaſions.
Look round the world, and ſee the millions employed in doing nothing, or in ſomething that amounts to nothing, when the neceſſaries and conveniences 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 is ſpent in building and fitting great ſhips, to go to China and Arabia for tea and 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.
A queſtion may be aſked: Could all theſe people now employed in raiſing, making, or carrying ſuperfluities, be ſubſiſted by raiſing neceſſaries? I think they might. The world is large, and a great part of it ſtill uncultivated. Many hundred millions of acres in Aſia, Africa and America, are ſtill in a foreſt; and a great deal even in Europe. On a hundred acres of this foreſt a man might become a ſubſtantial farmer; and a hundred thouſand men employed in clearing each his hundred acres, would hardly brighten a ſpot big enough to be viſible from the moon, unleſs with Herſchel’s teleſcope; ſo vaſt are the regions ſtill in wood.
It is 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 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 expence. The feet demand ihoes; the legs ſtockings; the reſt of the body clothing; and the belly a good deal of victuals. Our eyes, though 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.
- ↑ Preſent member of parliament for the borough of Calne, in Wiltſhire, between whom and our author there ſubſiſted a very cloſe friendship.