I just received the special issue of the Globe, entitled Towards a Global
Alcohol Policy.  David Jernigan in his essay makes the point that a
significant portion of the national budgets of developing countries come
from alcohol taxes, in an extreme instance 24%, more usually 2 to 4%.  This
is a reminder how large alcohol taxation figured in all government budgets
prior to the twentieth-century growth of income, corporative, and sales taxes.