# The first discourse prints artisan and civic virtue against luxury trades as a labour-status argument

Date: 1750

## The fact

The 1750 discourse praises simple trades against ornamental sciences and luxury. It is a labour-status heading, not an employment statute.

## Context

Anti-luxury can be reactionary and can defend skilled work against court consumption. Medium confidence. Stored as a labour-respect path, not a wage series.

[Jean-Jacques Rousseau](/people/jean-jacques-rousseau) is not the sole author of every later object, law, or museum label that uses the name. Shared work with courts, excavators, printers, spouses, officials, and later states does not erase a documented role, and it does not make an ancient person the signer of a twentieth-century statute.

## Evidence and sources

Official library, encyclopedia, or public-domain edition pages and an independent publisher independently describe this instrument.

Official or archival record: Discourse on the Arts and Sciences — public-domain English (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/57843; Project Gutenberg).

## Significance

A 1750 artisan heading is not a guild charter.

A 1750 artisan heading is not a guild charter.

## What is established and what is not

Established as a dated public record of this instrument.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

## People

- Jean-Jacques Rousseau: https://factrail.ai/people/jean-jacques-rousseau

## Drivers

- Labour-Market Tightness: https://factrail.ai/drivers/labour-market-tightness

## Sources

- https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/57843
- https://iep.utm.edu/rousseau/

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/jjr-labour-artisan-against-luxury