[207-7] In Diocletian's time, there was purple silk worth from 2½ thalers to 250 thalers per pound. (Marquardt, Röm. Privatalterthümer, II, 122.)
[207-8] Concerning the application of the above principle in industry and in the care of the poor, see infra. The advantages afforded by consumption in common, or the combination of use, have been enthusiastically dwelt upon by Fourier, and the organization of his phalansteries is based essentially on that principle. In these colossal palaces, which, spite of all their magnificence, cost less than the hundred huts of which they take the place, a ball is given every evening, because it is cheaper to light one large hall, in which all may congregate. The division of use, or of consumption also, is here developed in a high degree. When 12 persons eat at the same table they have 12 different kinds of cheese, 12 different kinds of soup, etc. Even little children are allowed to yield to the full to their gluttonous propensities, since on them depends the productive activity of the so-called séries passionnées.[TN 36] Compare Nouveau Monde, 272. The Saint-Simonists also characterize the association universelle as the highest goal of human development. (Bazard, Exposition, 144 ff.) On the danger of this development to family life, see Sismondi, Etudes I, 43.
NATURE AND KINDS OF CONSUMPTION.—NOTIONAL CONSUMPTION.
By the notional consumption (Meinungsconsumtion), as Storch calls it, operated by a change of fashion, many goods lose their value, without as much as suffering the least change of form or leaving the merchant's shop. This kind of consumption, too, is exceedingly different in different nations. Thus, in Germany, for instance, fashions are much more persistent than in France.[208-1] In the most flourishing times of Holland, only noblemen and officers changed with the fashions, while the merchants and other people wore their clothes until they went to pieces.[208-2] In the East, fashions in clothing are very constant;[208-3] but the expensive custom there prevails, for a son, instead of moving into the house occupied by his father, to let it go to ruin, and to build a new one as a matter of preference. The same is true even in the case of royal castles. Hence, in Persia, most of the cities are half full of ruins, and are in time moved from one place to another.[208-4]
The national income of a country is, on the whole, much less affected by a change of fashion than the separate incomes of its people. The same whim which lowers the value of one commodity increases the value of another; and what has ceased to be in fashion among the rich, becomes accessible, properly speaking, to the poorer classes of the community for the first time.[208-5] The want of varying his enjoyments is so peculiar to man, and so intimately connected with his capacity for progress, that it cannot in itself be blamed. But if this want be immoderately yielded to, if the well-to-do should despise every article which has not the charm of complete novelty, the advantages of the whole pattern-system, by means of which the preparation of a large number of articles from the same model at a relatively small cost, would be lost. Besides, fashion, which makes production in large quantities, for the satisfaction of wants that are variable and free, possible, frequently means even a large saving in the cost of production.[208-6]
[208-1] The consequences of this are very important to the character of French and German industry. (Junghanns, Fortschritte des Zollvereins, I, 28, 51, 58.) Rapidly as the Parisian fashions in dress make their way into the provinces, their fashions in the matter of the table are very slow to do so. (Rocquefort, Hist. de la Vie privée des Fr., I, 88 seq.)
[208-2] Sir W. Temple. Observations on the U. Provinces, ch. 6.
[208-3] As most persons adorn themselves for the sake of the opposite sex, this invariability is caused by the oriental separation of two sexes. Our manufacturers would largely increase their market, if they could succeed in civilizing the East in this respect. In Persia, shawls are frequently inherited through many generations, and even persons of distinction buy clothes which had been worn before. (Polak, Persien, I, 153.) In China, the Minister of Ceremonies rigidly provided what clothes should be worn by all classes and under severe penalties. (Davis, The Chinese, I, 352 seq.)
[208-4] Jaubert, Voyage en Perse, 1821. While cities like Seleucia, Ctesiphon, Almadin, Kufa, and even Bagdad, were built from the ruins of Babylon.