Funny enough, the Emperor Vespasian, who was generally a good Emperor, to this day has urinals named after him in Italian (‘vespasiano’) because he taxed urine during his reign, lmao.
In Rome (and many Roman cities) urinals (effectively, jars set into suitably out-of-the-way parts of the sidewalk) were installed by private firms/individuals, because (fermented) urine was used in bleaching cloth and treating leather.
Vespasian started the practice of taxing those firms (only in the city of Rome itself, not all across the Empire) according to the amount of urine or urinals they collected.
Funny enough, the Emperor Vespasian, who was generally a good Emperor, to this day has urinals named after him in Italian (‘vespasiano’) because he taxed urine during his reign, lmao.
Lol, what a legacy.
How?
In Rome (and many Roman cities) urinals (effectively, jars set into suitably out-of-the-way parts of the sidewalk) were installed by private firms/individuals, because (fermented) urine was used in bleaching cloth and treating leather.
Vespasian started the practice of taxing those firms (only in the city of Rome itself, not all across the Empire) according to the amount of urine or urinals they collected.
Oh that’s fine then. Fuck businesses even 2000 years ago.
Guy was just really into UTIs