Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild.
Speaker 2: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
Speaker 2: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
Speaker 2: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Let's talk taxes now.
Speaker 2: Of course, you note the gist right. The government collects
Speaker 2: taxes so that it can provide services to its citizens.
Speaker 2: That's the idea, at least, But we all know that
Speaker 2: it's not that simple. Taxes cause a lot of disgruntlement.
Speaker 2: People can't agree on what tax money should go toward.
Speaker 2: What they can agree that filing taxes is a pain.
Speaker 2: And we also know that the founding of the United
Speaker 2: States had a lot to do with tax But what
Speaker 2: about before all of this, how did the concept of
Speaker 2: taxation even come about? Well, as with most topics we
Speaker 2: discuss on this show, we've got to go back to
Speaker 2: ancient Egypt. Taxation in Egypt was as ingrained in the
Speaker 2: fabric of society as the Nile itself, shaping the course
Speaker 2: of its civilization. At the heart of Egypt's tax system
Speaker 2: was a levee on goods and services, in which officials
Speaker 2: collected dues in the form of grain, textiles, cattle, or labor.
Speaker 2: The amount someone owed was tied to their agricultural output.
Speaker 2: Successful harvests were subjected to higher percentages. In other words,
Speaker 2: a person's wealth determined their tax burden, just like today now,
Speaker 2: this harvest based tax served as a vital revenue stream.
Speaker 2: A portion of each harvest went to state granaries or
Speaker 2: storage centers. And yet the Egyptian state demanded more than
Speaker 2: just goods. It required labor too, which further bolstered the
Speaker 2: state's resources.
Speaker 1: Some citizens might be required to do field work, quarrying,
Speaker 1: or construction. The evolution of tax collection methods mirrored the
Speaker 1: nation's governance structure too. Initially, during the Old Kingdom, taxes
Speaker 1: were levied on communities collectively, and as the government became
Speaker 1: more centralized, the pharaoh assumed a more direct role. He
Speaker 1: would tour the kingdom to collect taxes himself and insure
Speaker 1: accurate reporting. And then with the Middle Kingdom came a
Speaker 1: shift to individual taxation. This period marked a departure from
Speaker 1: those royal tours, replaced by bureaucratic oversights. This was caused
Speaker 1: by a rise in literacy. As people's ability to read
Speaker 1: and write increased, the government began employing scribes who meticulously
Speaker 1: recorded tax obligations. Now, the zenith of Egypt's tax system
Speaker 1: coincided with the new kingdom. At this point, tax collectors
Speaker 1: and scribes shrewdly managed the royal treasury. In fact, we
Speaker 1: know this today because the new kingdom also ushered in
Speaker 1: a wealth of record keeping. But what's more important to
Speaker 1: this story is the fact that taxes levied during this
Speaker 1: era funded grandiose monuments and celebrations showcasing the way, health
Speaker 1: and power of the Pharaohs. And for that reason, it's
Speaker 1: no surprise that alongside these advancements arose familiar pitfalls of governance,
Speaker 1: tax fraud, tax evasion, and corruption. Scribes and local officials
Speaker 1: colluded to under report taxes. Meanwhile, taxpayers devised inventive methods
Speaker 1: to avoid payment. State officials used scales to collect grain
Speaker 1: from farmers, so some farmers would add small stones to
Speaker 1: their grain to tamper with its weight. Outside forces further
Speaker 1: complicated matters. Persian and Macedonian occupiers introduced metal coinage, then
Speaker 1: imposed taxes on them, and this sparked discontent among the
Speaker 1: native population. Complaints about corruption and unfair taxation fueled rebellions
Speaker 1: against Macedonian rule. In particular, in a bid to placate
Speaker 1: influential groups such as high priests, Macedonian king Ptolemy the
Speaker 1: Fifth exempted certain temples from taxation. As a result, these
Speaker 1: temples became lucrative enterprises. But this only made things worse.
Speaker 1: But here's the truly wild part. You see, the dubious
Speaker 1: nature of this ancient tax system goes back to the
Speaker 1: start of our story. It was influenced by a force
Speaker 1: more powerful than any pharaoh or king. Because the true
Speaker 1: roots of Egypt's taxation can be traced back to the
Speaker 1: Nile River itself, where mechanisms known as nilometers were used
Speaker 1: to gauge flood levels, which in turn signaled the success
Speaker 1: or failure of the harvests. Nilometers were massive columns with
Speaker 1: marked lines chiseled all up and down it. They were
Speaker 1: surrounded by sprawling staircases so that rulers could identify water levels,
Speaker 1: which they used to predict harvest conditions. If the water
Speaker 1: rose above a certain point, that indicated flooding, If it
Speaker 1: was below a certain point that meant drought. Studying ancient
Speaker 1: civilizations always reveals enduring patterns. The world might have evolved
Speaker 1: and grown, but some things never go away. The tax
Speaker 1: man cometh, he always has and he always will. Everyone
Speaker 1: has to start somewhere. Before he was Han Solo, Harrison
Speaker 1: Ford was a carpenter working on film sets. Katy Perry
Speaker 1: was a gospel singer before she ever recorded a pop album.
Speaker 1: It may feel like some artists were born to do
Speaker 1: what they do, but the truth is it often takes
Speaker 1: a lot of trial and error before someone gets their
Speaker 1: big break. And on top of that, many artists draw
Speaker 1: from their experience working odd jobs before fame, and in
Speaker 1: the case of Piero, being a jack of all trades
Speaker 1: kind of became his calling card. From his earliest days,
Speaker 1: Piero learned that he had to make his own opportunities.
Speaker 1: He was born in fourteen fifty two, the product of
Speaker 1: an affair between his father, a wealthy notary, and his mother,
Speaker 1: a poor woman from town. Although his father took him
Speaker 1: in to raise him, he wasn't treated the same as
Speaker 1: other sons of nobles in Tuscany. They were tutored in
Speaker 1: Greek and Latin and read the Great thinkers of the
Speaker 1: ancient world and learned complex equations. Piero was lucky to
Speaker 1: learn to read and do basic math. He was a
Speaker 1: smart kid, though, with a talent for fine arts and figures,
Speaker 1: but he quickly saw that without the resources other wealthy
Speaker 1: boys had, he to have to think outside the box
Speaker 1: if he wanted to get by. So by the age
Speaker 1: of fourteen in fourteen sixty six, Piero had become an
Speaker 1: artist's apprentice. This gave him the opportunity to learn many skills,
Speaker 1: from painting and sculpting to carpentry and metal work. Over
Speaker 1: the years, he used those skills to fully embrace the
Speaker 1: Renaissance system of patrons and commissions. It was a medieval
Speaker 1: gig economy, and Piero was king of the side hustles.
Speaker 1: Like many aspiring artists, Piero got a job at a
Speaker 1: restaurant to make ends meet. In fourteen seventy two, at
Speaker 1: the age of twenty, he worked at a tavern called
Speaker 1: the Three Snails. His time in the kitchen inspired him
Speaker 1: to sketch fantastical kitchen gadgets, from giant whisks to a
Speaker 1: horsepowered nutcracker, and later on, when he redid the kitchen, menu.
Speaker 1: It was something out of a modern fine dining dream,
Speaker 1: with delicate card figures made of polenta and fresh vegetables.
Speaker 1: But the patrons at these Three Snails weren't exactly the
Speaker 1: Michelin Star type. They wanted big, hearty meals, not delicate portions,
Speaker 1: and soon the Three Snails went under. Piero continued with
Speaker 1: his art career into his twenties, painting things like an
Speaker 1: altar for a chapel or frescoes for a church, but
Speaker 1: his brain was always buzzing for new side hustles. Instead
Speaker 1: of painting what he'd been commissioned for, he kept spending
Speaker 1: time designing fantastical inventions and architecture. He would make engineering
Speaker 1: sketches of war machines, which he sold to the many
Speaker 1: powerful city states that made up Italy. He was so
Speaker 1: into his passion projects that he often had trouble focusing
Speaker 1: on one project at a time. That altar and fresco
Speaker 1: he never finished them. Rather than doing his actual job,
Speaker 1: he was building up yet another side business, master of
Speaker 1: feasts and banquets for Milan, and here Piero let his
Speaker 1: talent for extravagance really shine. One wedding he planned involved
Speaker 1: a humongous diorama of the planets, in the middle of
Speaker 1: which stood the happy couple. As the bride and groom
Speaker 1: walked by, each planet opened to reveal an actor dressed
Speaker 1: as the planet's namesake, delivering a poem. Other events didn't
Speaker 1: go so swimmingly, though. In one Piero created a two
Speaker 1: hundred foot long edible altar made of cake and polenta.
Speaker 1: On the morning of the wedding, he discovered that rats
Speaker 1: had already had their own wedding feast. Over the years,
Speaker 1: Piero wore a lot of hats. When he wasn't planning
Speaker 1: weddings and running restaurants into the ground, he was cutting
Speaker 1: up cadavers to study anatomy I hope he washed his
Speaker 1: hands in between, though, He designed machines far ahead of
Speaker 1: their time, and he even found time to finish a
Speaker 1: painting or two. One of them took direct inspiration from
Speaker 1: his time as a wedding planner. For example, when he
Speaker 1: was asked to paint a scene of Jesus and his
Speaker 1: disciples during their final passover Satyr, he remembered a reception
Speaker 1: that he had planned for the Duke of Milan back
Speaker 1: then to make guests feel like equals. He had put
Speaker 1: out one incredibly long table with all of the guests
Speaker 1: seated on the same side, and so he decided to
Speaker 1: do the same with this painting. Today you can see
Speaker 1: the products of his brilliant, scattered mind in some of
Speaker 1: the finest art institutions in the world. Just be sure
Speaker 1: to look under his full name, Leonardo di ser Piero
Speaker 1: da Vinci. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of
Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey
Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award
Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
Speaker 1: and television show, and you can learn all about it
Speaker 1: over at the Worldolore dot com. And until next time,
Speaker 1: stay curious.