Sumptuary Laws

Laws relating to the expenses of the people, and made to restrain excess in apparel, food, drink, furniture, etc They originated in the view that luxury is, in some of its degrees, opposed to public policy, and that the state is bound to interfere against it.

Montesq.

Esprit des Lois, bk.

7, c. 2, 4, and Tacitus, Ann. bk. 2, c, 33; Id. bk. 3, c. 52.

In England, in 1336, it was enacted (10 Edw. III. c. 3), that, inasmuch as many mischiefs had happened to the people of the realm by excessive and costly meats, by which, among other things, many who aspired in this respect beyond their means were impoverished and unable to aid themselves or their liege lord in time of need, all men were forbidden to have served more than two courses at a meal, each of but two sorts of victual, except on the principal feasts of the year, and then only three courses were allowed. Blackstone states that this is still unrepealed.

4 Bl. Comm. 170.

Subsequent statutes — ^that of 1363, and those of 1463 and 1482 — regulated the dress, and to some extent the diet, of the people, with careful regard to their rank. The substance of these statutes will be found in Knight's History of England, vol.

2, pp. 272-274.

They were repealed by 1 Jac. I. c.

25.