To make good on payments, Hamilton knew he would have to raise a substantial loan abroad and boost domestic taxes beyond the import duties now at his disposal. He proposed taxes on wines and spirits distilled within the United States as well as on tea and coffee. Of these first "sin taxes," the secretary observed that the products taxed are "all of them in reality luxuries, the greatest part of them foreign luxuries; some of them, in the excess in which they are used, pernicious luxuries."28 Such taxation might dampen consumption and reduce revenues, Hamilton acknowledged, but he doubted this would happen, because "luxuries of every kind lay the strongest hold on the attachments of mankind, which, especially when confirmed by habit, are not easily alienated from them.
( Ron Chernow )
[ Alexander Hamilton ]
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