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# Empty Treasury and the Luxury Tax Tripled by William Pitt in England in 1793
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/v-1793-godu-angliia-okazalas-vtianutoi-vo-frantsuzskie-revoliutsionnye-voiny/
- Published: 2017-11-30T15:05:17.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T19:05:42.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: London, Society

In 1793 England found herself drawn into the French Revolutionary Wars. Meanwhile, the country had been saddled ever since the previous great war, the Seven Years' War, with a colossal debt of 200 million. For the past several decades the state of the nation's finances had been critical. The treasury was empty, despite duties and excises that were already exorbitantly inflated on such goods as salt, beer and, for example, tea (96%), and double and triple taxes on coffee. An attempt had even been made to introduce a tax on stamped paper, which was soon repealed. Nor did it help that in 1789 the exchange of banknotes for gold was abolished. The national debt grew inexorably. The head of the government, William Pitt, introduced a tripling of the tax on luxury. Luxury meant male servants, carriages and idle horses, that is, those kept for racing or hunting, and hounds. These people belonged to the first class of taxpayers. Powder, clocks and windows were also luxuries, but of the second class. The third class consisted of businessmen.