tax upon beards
Preserved but no longer current.
Peter the Great imposed a tax upon beards. Every one above the lowest class had to pay 100 roubles, and the lowest class had to pay a copeck, for enjoying this "luxury." Clerks were stationed at the gates of every town to collect the beard tax.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “tax upon beards” mean?
Peter the Great imposed a tax upon beards. Every one above the lowest class had to pay 100 roubles, and the lowest class had to pay a copeck, for enjoying this "luxury." Clerks were stationed at the gates of every town to collect the beard tax.
Is “tax upon beards” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.