Reconsidering Defoe’s Theory of Luxury:

In Terms of His Discourses on the English Gentry

Abstract

Defoe definitely agrees that luxury is a vice, though he also recognizes that luxury as a consumptive action entails economic benefits for the political society. Furthermore, he realizes that the conspicuousness of riches in consumptive actions can have morally restraining effects on the common people. 　 The central theme of this article is to distinguish Defoe’s implications for the consumption theory from his discourses on luxury. For this purpose, it is expedient to focus on Defoe’s considerable regards for the English gentry, because it can clarify his luxury discourse in the social context wherein luxury is to be clearly comprehended as a consumptive action. When logically integrated with the gentry discourse, the luxury discourse represents the consumption theory in eighteenth-century England. Moreover, it is notable that morality is included in economic activities in Defoe’s luxury discourse. 　 Defoe struggles to find a cohesive logic in his social theory closely relevant with the structural change of his time. In this contemporary dynamics, it is the gentry comprising virtuous individuals with riches and intelligence that he expects to find as the leading entity governing the new hierarchical order to be settled with the quality and quantity of their consumptive actions. Thus, it is safe to say that Defoe’s theory of consumption correctly grasps the social order newly established in eighteenth-century England. JEL classification numbers: B 31, Z 19.