Sumptuary Law by Any Other Name: Manifestations of Sumptuary Regulation in Australia, 1901-1927
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University of Wollongong Research Online University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016 University of Wollongong Thesis Collections 2015 Sumptuary law by any other name: manifestations of sumptuary regulation in Australia, 1901-1927 Caroline Irene Dick University of Wollongong Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/theses University of Wollongong Copyright Warning You may print or download ONE copy of this document for the purpose of your own research or study. The University does not authorise you to copy, communicate or otherwise make available electronically to any other person any copyright material contained on this site. You are reminded of the following: This work is copyright. Apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part of this work may be reproduced by any process, nor may any other exclusive right be exercised, without the permission of the author. 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Recommended Citation Dick, Caroline Irene, Sumptuary law by any other name: manifestations of sumptuary regulation in Australia, 1901-1927, Doctor of Philosophy thesis, Faculty of Law, Humanities, and the Arts, University of Wollongong, 2015. https://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/4490 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] Faculty of Law, Humanities and The Arts SUMPTUARY LAW BY ANY OTHER NAME: MANIFESTATIONS OF SUMPTUARY REGULATION IN AUSTRALIA, 1901-1927. Caroline Irene Dick This thesis is presented as part of the requirements for the award of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Wollongong June 2015 ABSTRACT It is generally considered that sumptuary law is an archaic form of governmental intervention that targeted the personal lives of people living in the early modern period in Europe, and has no modern significance. This thesis examines the post Federation period, between 1901 and 1927, to reveal that the sumptuary impulse was alive and well in modern Australia. This impulse was now transmuted by a new patrician elite into a form of social and legal regulation in order to control the clothing and entertainment choices of working Australians. The impulse was sustained through taxation and fiscal legal mechanisms (ie: tariffs), wage cases, and through the agency of wartime regulations. All of these measures recall the sumptuary laws of early modern Europe. This period saw the fabric of Australian society undergo enormous social and political change. To a large extent, this change was prompted by the availability of unprecedented economic opportunities and personal freedoms. An increase in the attraction and availability of imported luxuries led the government to increase tariffs as part of their settled policy of protectionism. This thesis argues that, during this period of socio-economic development, protectionism shared many of the discursive features of the sumptuary laws of the early modern period. This association became even more evident during World War I, when government often relied on moral regulation to constrict the consumption practices of the Australian people to address wartime shortages and to provide for the military needs of the Empire. This thesis accepts that protectionist policies did not aim to control the moral and personal behaviour of the individual but rather sought to protect nascent or struggling domestic industries. It was in the effect of these policies where the sumptuary impulse was apparent. By the beginning of the 1920s, this policy of protectionism, with frequent increases in tariffs on imported clothing, changed the language and method of the sumptuary impulse into one of rationality. These types of measures existed in a direct line back to the early sumptuary laws, one facet of which sought to protect industries. However, by the mid-1920s, the association began to wane when moralisation served a secondary role in protectionist discourse. By 1927, the regulatory objective became pure rational protectionism rather than the moralisation that was evident throughout the first two decades following Federation. THESIS CERTIFICATION CERTIFICATION I, Caroline Irene Dick, declare that this thesis, submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy, in the Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts, University of Wollongong, is wholly my own work unless otherwise referenced or acknowledged. The document has not been submitted for qualifications at any other academic institution. Caroline Irene Dick 26 June 2015 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly, I would like to acknowledge and thank my supervisors, Associate Professor Marett Leiboff and Dr Cassandra Sharp. I especially thank Marett for her constant guidance and support throughout this journey. In particular, her assiduous attention to detail and referencing has been invaluable. I would like to acknowledge my family for their patience and love. I would like to thank my husband, Kevin, for his enduring love and support during this challenging project. My children (Carly, Shane, Glen, Elena and Gilbert) to this day still do not know what I have been up to in the last six years! I have been particularly buoyed by the comments from my son, Shane, who lives in Canada, who frequently asks me: ‘aren’t you done with schooling yet?’ I wish to thank my good friend and colleague, Ryan Kernaghan, for his constant friendship and support over the last few years. His referencing skills have proved to be of immeasurable assistance, particularly in the last weeks leading up to the completion of this thesis. I thank my colleagues, Dean of Law, Professor Warwick Gullett, Professor Greg Rose, Associate Professors Andrew Frazer and Jakkrit Kuanpoth, Dr Charles Chew, Dr Trish Mundy, Dr Linda Steele, John Littrich, Dr Niamh Kinchin, Michael Devitt, Sandy Noakes and Viv McIlroy. I acknowledge the encouragement of Professors Brian Martin and Margaret McKerchar. I thank Christine Jones, Kirsten Bissett, and all the wonderful people at ITS Staff Support, for being pleasant and helpful in relation to any and all technology-related questions throughout the last few years. I also thank my brother, Raymond Kinch, and colleague Theresa Huxtable for their insightful comments on the first draft of this thesis. I thank my PhD colleagues, Yvonne Apolo, Pariz Lythgo-Marshall, Brett Heino, Kate Tubridy and Sarah Wright for their kind words of encouragement. I acknowledge the University of Wollongong Employment Equity and Diversity Fellowship (awarded in 2014), which assisted in the completion of the thesis. I thank all the team at the University of Wollongong Library, especially the Document Delivery team for their considerable assistance in gaining access to archival material. I also acknowledge the team at the National Archives of Australia, the National Library of Australia. I dedicate this thesis to my late darling mother Beryl Kinch (nee Aroney, born Alenie Moustakas). My mother was born in 1919, during the period examined by my thesis. As a result, the early post-Federation period holds a great significance for me. Mum was a bright and intuitive lady who had little but gave a lot. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................ 1 THESIS CERTIFICATION ...................................................................................... 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................... 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................... 6 WORKS PUBLISHED IN THE COURSE OF THIS RESEARCH ................... 12 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Purpose of the chapter .................................................................................. 1 1.2 Introduction to this thesis ............................................................................. 2 1.3 Originality and significance of this study .................................................... 6 1.4 Methodology and Scope of the study ........................................................... 8 1.5 Literature Review ....................................................................................... 13 1.6 Outlining the structure of this thesis .......................................................... 22 2 Sumptuary Pattern Making: using the English design ...................................... 25 2.1 Purpose and structure of this chapter ......................................................... 25 2.2 Sumptuary Patterns and Themes 1336-1604.............................................. 28 2.3 Entertainments and popular pastimes......................................................... 51 2.4 The erosion of the sumptuary impulse: 1604-1758...................................