Overview
The regulations in this imaginary decree represent a sampling of real laws of the 1300's from England, Italy, and Spain. The introduction is taken from an English law of 1363. Laws regulating dress, food, and other signs of wealth were called sumptuary laws, and they appeared throughout Europe starting in the 1300's. Their stated goal was to preserve distinctions between the classes, but many sumptuary laws also served economic purposes--for instance, to limit demand for imported products.