From the time of the Whisky Rebellion in Pennsylvania up to the beginning of the Civil War the federal government laid no excise tax upon the production of distilled spirits. The great expense incident to the conduct of the Civil War made it necessary to increase the scope of taxable property. Distilled spirits were early selected as a proper product to bear some of the burdens of this increased taxation. Under the old system whisky was made in small lots and often sold fresh to the consumer, who if he wished to age it could do so himself. Very little whisky ever accumulated in the form of stocks and therefore very little of it was aged except incidentally. The collection of internal revenue made it necessary to keep a more accurate account of the production of distilled spirits and this led naturally to the establishment of the bonded warehouse where spirits could be kept until ready for consumption and the tax was paid only at the moment of withdrawal for consumption. The bonded warehouse, therefore, was for the mutual interests of the government and the distiller, making it much more convenient in both cases to meet the demands imposed upon this product by the high tax.