sumptuary tax

The author seems favourable to a tax on dress, when, exceeding the limits of necessity and decency, it luxuriates in finery and ornament. A tax which should fall only on the superfluous embellishments, and costliness, of apparel would be a sumptuary tax, and might form a new source of supply to the necessities of the state, if an easy, simple, and economical mode of raising it could be devised. We have taxes on hats, and on hair-powder; and might not a salutary tax be levied on jewels and lace, and various other exterior decorations