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229:, took care of most public duties, such as constructing public buildings, supplying equipment for the army, operating mines and, most importantly, collecting taxes. The societies participated in tenders for public duties. Those who offered the lowest price won construction deals, and those who guaranteed the highest amount of collected taxes for the Senate succeeded in tax collection tenders. The management structure of the societies represented a core-periphery structure with a relatively small permanent management structure and a large short-term operative work-force, which could be adjusted according to successes and losses in consecutive competitive tenders.
337:. However, their role as public contractors, especially as regards building projects, was still significant. With the rise of a much larger Imperial bureaucracy, this task of the publicans, as well as their overall importance, declined precipitously. Evidence for the existence of publicans extends as far back as the 3rd century BC, although it is generally assumed that they existed at still earlier times in Roman history. Knowledge of a tentative
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The degradation of the role of private contracting coincided with the beginning of the rule of the emperors, during which the oligarchic power of the Senate had to give way for the autocratic rule of the
Caesars, and a more centralised public civil service system replaced private contractors in
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were probably the first type of limited liability shareholder-owned companies. A legal structure for limiting liability in purely private business activity did not exist at the time. To limit personal liability, which could lead to slavery and the confiscation of all personal property, early
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were fiercely criticised. They were accused of insurance fraud in delivering goods during the Punic wars, of excessive greed when collecting taxes in the provinces, of exceptionally cruel conduct towards slave labour working in the mines, and of fraudulent practices in trying to get rid of
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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
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of the Roman provinces, and bidding on contracts (from the Senate in Rome) 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 (c. 1st century BC). The publicans were usually of the class of
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entrepreneurs invented the practice of common slave ownership, in which a jointly owned slave served as chief executive officer of the enterprise. As slaves were 'things' responsible for only their own cost, they liberated the owners of their personal liabilities.
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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.
257:. The right to collect taxes for a particular region would be auctioned every few years for a value that (in theory) approximated the tax available for collection in that region. The payment to Rome was treated as a loan and the
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or other business activities, but they could be shareholders of the companies. Likewise, private contractors could not enter seats in the Senate. Consequently, the
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would receive interest on their payment at the end of the collection period. In addition, any excess (over their bid) tax collected would be pure profit for the
319:, or, more precisely, their local henchmen, were probably best known from their minor local tax collecting duties in Roman provinces during the imperial era
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unprofitable public contracts. However, surviving literary sources are mainly based on accounts of senators, who were in a competitive position with the
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Tax farming deals in newly acquired eastern provinces in Asia Minor proved to be a highly lucrative source of income for the companies, which placed
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Ulrike
Malmendier 2009. 'Law and the finance "at the origin"'. Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. 47, No. 4 (December 2009), pp. 1076-1108.
307:. Still, the overall operation of the private contractors seems to have supplied satisfactory results for the management of the Republic.
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from the Senate opened up positions for them in the special courts, allowing them to weigh the limits and practices of government power.
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times, the provincial people came to see the publicans chiefly as tax collectors. It is in this sense that the term is used in
284:, as the most influential group in the order of the knights, became part of the power-balancing mechanism of ancient Rome.
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Di Porto, Andrea, 1984. 'Impresa collettiva e schiavo "manager" in Roma antica (II sec. a.C.-II sec. d.C.)', Milano, 1984.
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and military, managed the collection of port duties, and oversaw public building projects. In addition, they served as
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belonged, formed the backbone of the population from which civil servants were recruited. Throughout history, the
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Silver, M., 2007. Fiscalism in the emergence and extinction of societates publicanorum. Pomoerium, 6, pp. 47–71.
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in competitive positions with the appointed local governors of the provinces. Also, the exclusion of the
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implementing the most important parts of public policy. However, the equestrian order, to which the
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Societas publicanorum. Staatliche
Wirtschaftsaktivitäten in den Händen privater Unternehmer
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In the Roman
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is taken from the histories of the 1st century AD Imperial historian
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was that the tax collected would be less than the sum bid.
30:"Publicani" redirects here. For the medieval mystics, see
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432:Badian, Ernst (1983).
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465:. Böhlau.
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