Paul, the irony is that Louis eventually got himself in an immense financial black hole by secretly funding the American Revolution! Since the poor were already taxed to the point of starvation, he asked the rich and the bourgeois to contribute a small amount in tax. It was their violent protests against being taxed, and not that of the poor, which triggered the revolution.
As to gasoline, did you know that a petrol station owner has to pay all the VAT on fuel when it's delivered, not after it's sold? A friend of mine used to pay out over £15,000 in VAT before he sold one gallon. When he tried to argue the unfairness of this, the Waffen SS VAT Squad, ( Not a joke, these people really do have more power than the Gestapo had ), arrived at his premises and demanded immediate payment or they would sequester all his trucks, cars, works tools and the contents of his auto-trade shop. Needless to say, small operators went out of the petrol trade PDQ.
Alan
