January, 1644 : In 1644, the Scottish Parliament imposed an Excise Tax on distilled spirits. The tax was 13p on a third of a gallon. This led to a rise in illicit distillation, the world's first bootleggers!
Source: T. Fairley, The Early History of Distillation, 580. Stewart, L. (2016) Rethinking the Scottish Revolution, Oxford University Press, 202.