The tax on Shabbat candles

This tax was introduced by the Austrian authorities in 1797 in Galicia stating that "every Jewish woman was required to pay the candle tax of 10 kreutzees (...) before the Shabbat began, whether or not she had any money to buy candles".

In order to secure the application of the law, "agents of the Jewish leaseholder would enter homes on Shabbat eve to check who paid and who had not, and if the homeowners could not present a receipt for payment of the tax (...) agents would extinguish the candles".

Source: Israel Bartal, The Jews of Eastern Europe 1772-1881, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005