Why Lords Went for Luxuries

By Jacob Hall, Daniel B. Klein

Hyacinthe Rigaud / Wikimedia Commons

Portrait of Louis XIV of France (1638-1715)

In one relatively obscure passage of The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith explains how the feudal lords of Europe lost their independence. This essay brings together ideas from Smith’s Lectures on Jurisprudence and The Wealth of Nations, along with information on English peers’ battle deaths and castle building, to explain why lords went for luxuries—bartering away their power and authority for “a pair of diamond buckles … or for something as frivolous and useless.”

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Jacob Hall
is an assistant professor in the Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society at The Ohio State University.
Daniel B. Klein
is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute and Professor of Economics at George Mason University.