ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a discussion on the tax on hair power from the Lecture on the Budget. Among the measures announced during Pitt’s February 1795 budget was a tax (of ‘one guinea a head’) on hair powder through a system of licences. Intended as a tax on luxuries to fund the war effort, it proved more controversial than Pitt might have expected with both its victims and those who disapproved of its purposes. The proposal for the tax on hair power by Pitt was supported with hearty concurrence by honest and respectable member of the House of Commons, John Martin.
