Publicani

The publicani (Latin sing. publicanus, anglicised publican; Greek sing. τελώνης telōnēs) were public contractors in the Roman Republic and Empire. In their official capacity, they often supplied the Roman legions and military, managed the collection of port duties, and oversaw public building projects. In addition, they served as tax collectors for the Roman Republic (and later the Roman Empire), farming the taxes of the Roman provinces, and bidding on contracts for the collection of various types of taxes. Importantly, this role as tax collectors was not emphasized until late into the history of the Republic. The publicans were usually of the class of equites. During the republican era, civil service, which was the size of modern middle-sized city governments, dealt with organising public policy for nearly thirty million people. The solution for the day-to-day operation of public administration was the extensive use of private contracting in the implementation of public policies. The earliest accounts of contracting describe contracts for feeding sacred geese, which were honoured for warning the citizens of Rome of approaching enemies, on the hill of Capitolium in Rome in 390 BC. Private organisations, societas publicanorum, and their managers, the publicani, took care of most public works, such as constructing public buildings, supplying equipment for the army, operating mines and, most importantly, collecting taxes. The societies bid for government contracts to do particular jobs. As in modern-day societies, those who offered the lowest price won construction deals, and those who guaranteed the highest amount of collected taxes for the Senate succeeded won tax collection deals. The managers of the societies hired or laid off workers to suit the particular job they were doing. The societas publicanorum were probably the first type of limited liability shareholder-owned companies. A legal structure for limiting liability in purely private business activity did...