In the higher stages of civilization, the use of goods is wont to be divided more and more into special branches, according to the different peculiarities of the goods themselves, and of the different wants of men; a course of things which is, both as cause and effect, intimately related to the division of labor. I here speak of a principle of division of use (differentiation and specialization). Thus, for instance, Lorenz Lange, in 1722, found only one kind of tea in the trade between Russia and China; Müller, in 1750, found seven; Pallas, in 1772, ten; and Erman, in 1829, about seven hundred.[207-4] As the number of gradations of different kinds of the same goods increases with civilization, there is, in times of war, a retrogression in this respect, to a lower economic stage.[207-5]
Opposed to this, we have the principle of the combination of use. There are numberless kinds of goods which may serve a great many just as well as they can one exclusive user; and this either successively or simultaneously, inasmuch as there is no necessity why, with the increasing use of the object, the size of the object itself should increase in an equal proportion. (According to Marlo: wealth usable by one; wealth usable by many; wealth usable by all.) Thus, for instance, a public library may be incomparably more complete, and accessible in a still higher degree than ten private libraries which together cost as much as it did. And so, a restaurant-keeper may serve a hundred guests at the same time, with a much greater table-variety, more to their taste, and at a more convenient time, than if each person made the same outlay for his private kitchen.[207-6] While formerly, only the great could travel rapidly, combination of use has enabled even the lower classes to do so in our own days. There is, doubtless, a dark side to this picture, too. Combination of use requires frequently great sacrifices of personal independence, which should not be underestimated when they affect individuality of character, or threaten the intimacy and closeness of family life. It is, however, a bad symptom when the division of use increases without any corresponding combination of use.[207-7] [207-8]
[207-1] We should also mention here destructive consumption, where the defenders of a country destroy buildings, supplies, etc., only that the enemy may not use them.
[207-2] Compare Die Lebensaufgabe der Hausfrau, Leipzig, 1853; von Stein, Die Frau auf dem Gebiete der National Oekonomie, 1875, and the beautiful remarks of Schäffle, N. Oek., 166; and Lotz, Mikrokosmus, II, 370 ff.
[207-3] In Germany horses are said to last, on an average, 18 years; in England 25; in France and Belgium, only 12 years. (See for the proofs of this Rau, Handbuch II, § 168.) The more civilized a people are, the less do they completely destroy values by use; and the more do they use their old linen, etc. as rags; their remains of food as manure, etc. (Roesler, Grunds., 552.)
[207-4] Ritter, Erdkunde, III, 209. Thus, the French in the 13th century were acquainted with only three kinds of cabbage; in the 16th, with six, about 1651, with 12; they are now acquainted with more than 50; in the 16th century they knew only 4 kinds of sorrel; in 1651, 7; about 1574, only 4 kinds of lettuce; to-day they know over 50; under Henry II., they were acquainted with 2 or 3 kinds of melons; in the 17th century, with 7; now they are acquainted with over 40. (Roquefort, Histoire de la Vie privée des Fr., I, 179 ff.) Instead of the four kinds of pears mentioned by de Serre (1600), there were, in 1651, about 400. (I, 272.) Liebaud, 1570, knew only 19 kinds of grapes; de Serre, 41. (Roquefort, III, 29 ff.) According to the "Briefen eines Verstorbenen," IV, 390, the first kitchen-gardener in London had 435 kinds of salad, 240 of potatoes, and 261 of pease.
And so precisely in ancient times. While the earlier Greeks speak of but one οἶνος,[TN 33] even at the most sumptuous feasts (compare, however, Homer, Il. XI, 641;) and while even in the time of Demosthenes only very few kinds of wine were known (Becker, Charicles, I, 455), Pliny, H. N. XIV, 13, was acquainted with about 80. In this respect the moderns have never returned to ancient simplicity; at least the fabliau, La Bataille des Vins, introduces us to 47 kinds of French wine in the 13th century. (Compare also Wackernagel in Haupt's Zeitschrift für deutsches Alterth., VI. 261 ff., and Henderson, History of ancient and modern Wines, 1824.) The Lacedemonians, with their intentional persistence in a lower stage of civilization, used the same garment in winter and summer (Xenoph., De Rep. Laced., II, 4); while the contemporaries of Athenæos (III, 78 ff.) were acquainted with 72 kinds of bread. With what a delicate sense for good living the Romans in Caesar's time had discovered the best supply places for chickens, peacocks, cranes, thunny-fish, muraena, oysters and other shell-fish, chestnuts, dates, etc., may be seen in Gellius, N. A., VII, 16. Compare Athen., XII, 540.
In the middle age of Italy, the houses had almost always three rooms: domus (kitchen), thalamus, solarium. (Cibrario, E. P. del medio Evo, III, 45.) The manors or masters' houses built on the estates of Charlemagne had 3 and 2 rooms, sometimes only 1, and sometimes 2 rooms and 2 bedrooms. According to an old document of 895, a shed was worth 5 sols, a well-built manor 12. (Anthon, Geschichte der deutschen Landwirth., I, 249 ff., 311.) The Lex Alamanorum, tit. 92, provided that a child, in order to be considered capable[TN 34] of living, should have seen the roof and four walls of the house! See an able essay, capable of being still further developed, by E. Herrmann, in which he endeavors to explain the division of use and of labor on Darwin's hypothesis of the origin of species in the D. Vierteljahrsschrift, Januar., 1867.
[207-5] Thus, 1785-1795, the best Silesian wool cost 60, the worst 26, thalers per cwt.; in 1805, on account of the great demand for cloth to make military uniforms, the former cost 78, the latter 50 thalers. (Hoffmann, Nachlass, 114.)
[207-6] The one large kitchen naturally requires much less place, masonry, fuel, fewer utensils, etc., than 100 small ones. Think of the relatively large savings effected by the use of one oven kept always heated! Even the Lacedemonians called their meal associations φειδίτια,[TN 35] i. e., save-meals. Dainties proper can be consumed only in very small portions, but cannot well be prepared in such quantities. A guest at a first class Parisian restaurant has, at a moderate price, his choice of 12 potâges, 24 hors d'œuvres, 15-20 entrées de bœuf, 20 entrées de mouton, 30 entrées de volaille et gibier, 15-20 entrées de veau, 12 de pâtisserie, 24 de poisson, 15 de rôts, 50 entremets, 50 desserts; and, in addition, perhaps 60 kinds of French wine alone. What more can a princely table offer in this respect? Compare Brillat-Savarin, Physiologie du Goût, Médit., 28.