sumptuary

adj

1. Relating to expenditure or expense, especially on luxury goods.

   “Among the trade goods mentioned are not only luxury items but also food produce, which contradicts the idea of exclusively sumptuary trade. Quite possibly these northern lords maintained sporadic trade with Guayaquil in pre-Hispanic times.”

2. (historical)Chiefly in sumptuary law: of a law, regulation, etc.: intended to limit or restrain the expenditure of citizens in apparel, food, furniture, etc., or to forbid the use of certain articles (especially luxurious ones), to regulate the prices of commodities and the wages of labour, or to reinforce morals or social hierarchies.

   “Some vvill vvonder, that Empſon and Dudley (the Royal Promoters then in prime) did not catch him [Nicholas Vaux, 1st Baron Vaux of Harrowden] by the Collar, or pick an hole in his Govvn, upon the breach of ſome ruſty ſumptuary Statute; the rather, becauſe lately the Earl of Oxford vvas heavily fined for ſupernumerous attendance.”

   “When Sunday came, it was indeed a day of finery, which all my ſumptuary edicts could not reſtrain. How well ſo ever I fancied my lectures againſt pride had conquered the vanity of my daughters; yet I ſtill found them ſecretly attached to all their former finery: […]”

   “Out upon the folly of modern liberty, which has abolished sumptuary laws, and left us to all the horrors of our own inventions! Liberty of conscience is bad enough—the liberty of the press is still worse—but worst of all is liberty of taste in dress to common people.”

   “Apparently, Henry VII visited the city [Bristol] in 1487, "taking care to entail a sumptuary fine on the citizens because their wives dressed too gaudily".”

3. (broadly, historical)Of or relating to sumptuary laws or regulations.