What is the first example of a Western government passing a sin or vice tax -- that is, a tax passed primarily to discourage consumption of certain goods due to moral, not economic, concerns? Protective tariffs and mercantilist policies therefore don't count.
States have a long history of directly regulating consumption, but I'm curious about when states first began to indirectly regulate consumption. The first formal treatment of using taxes to reduce "externalities" that I know of comes from Arthur C. Pigou in 1920, but obviously statesmen had long known that taxes have the power to discourage targeted behaviors. I think that Hamilton's Whiskey tax was overwhelmingly a fiscal measure, but he was at least aware that it had a moral angle:
The consumption of ardent spirits particularly, no doubt very much on account of their cheapness, is carried on to an extreme, which is truely to be regretted, as well in regard to the health and morals, as to the economy of the community.
So I'm inclined not to count the Whiskey tax. What is the first example of a Western government passing a tax primarily to discourage "immoral" behavior?