From “insane and sterile luxury” to extolling “mediocrity” - Economic analysis and political language in Napoles in the second part of the eighteenth century

The debate on luxury that took place in Italy during the eighteenth century is a multifaceted and complex subject. In this context, the aim of this article is to shed light on the political implications that the economic thinking on luxury and consumption conveyed in the Neapolitan context of the 1780s and 1790s. The economic critique of luxury is linked to the valorisation of consumption and plays a large part in the language of political attack against the feudal nobility and, at the same time, in the language of legitimacy of the middle class.