Liberty Matters: Montesquieu on Liberty and Sumptuary Law (Nov. 2015)

• Henry C. Clark (author)

In this discussion of Montesquieu’s economic thought, in particular his ideas about the need for sumptuary laws in republics, Henry Clark of Dartmouth College investigates this little appreciated aspect of Montesquieu’s thinking and concludes that, before the theory of natural rights became better established, “Sumptuary law is scarcely more than a blip on our historical radar screens, but it manages to remind us of what a mottled, murky landscape the history of liberty really is”.