Melon presented arguments against those who opposed luxury, which they associated with decadence and the decay of civic virtue—a view popularised by the writings of François Fénelon—advocated sumptuary laws to correct the French balance of trade. For Melon, luxury was a promoter of trade, and represented a "spur for the multitude" oresent in every "well-governed society". Melon popularised Bernard Mandeville's defense of luxury in "The Fable of the Bees" in France.