And of course it isn't about the tax, it's about control.
(Another "dad" story.....I'm going to have lots of these for a while.)
Back in the '50s, Dad owned a wholesale grocery in Jenkins County, GA. Mean little county.....if you think Andersonville was a bad POW camp, Ft Lawton was worse. Anyway, Dad was one of the largest volume wholesalers of Dixie Crystal sugar. Sold in bulk directly to farmers....well anyone who wanted sugar in 50# bags. This in one of the smaller counties in GA. And there weren't any bakeries in the county. And the women folk didn't make that many pies, either. Oh and he also sold lots of cases of mason jars.
The feds came by once to pay a visit. Seems like he was suppose to be reporting multiple sales large bags of sugar (kind of like they do with handguns now.....same agency). They just wanted to let him know not to bother. They knew where all the stills were.......BUT, the county was so mean they never mounted a raid. At least not in the 13 years we lived there.