Conspicuous Consumption versus the Protestant Ethic: The View from Pepys’s Diary

Abstract

There is an inherent contradiction between Veblen’s “conspicuous consumption” and the belief in thrift, discipline, and hard work that Weber associates with the Protestant ethic. The period encompassed by Samuel Pepys’s remarkable diary, 1660 to 1669, immediately follows the time of the greatest Puritan influence in England. When the diary begins, Pepys is young, nearly penniless, and has a new wife to support. When the diary ends, he is highly respected and has a substantial fortune. The extraordinary increases in Pepys’s wealth during his rapid rise in status provide an opportunity to investigate the interplay between contemporary religious teachings on which Weber’s theory is based and the consumption patterns characteristic of London life after the Civil War.