抄録
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.
