The concept of franchising is one of those simple, yet absolutely brilliant ideas. Anyone have a clue as to what was the first franchise ever?
Pimping?
According to this Franchising - Wikipedia it was Singer sewing machines in the 1850’s.
The Roman Empire used to appoint governors for territories, who were responsible for maintaining public works (roads, aqueducts, etc.) and collecting & sending to Rome a specified amount of taxes. Additional taxes they collected above this were used to run the provincial government, or just kept by the governor. Some got quite rich from this.
You might consider that an early form of franchising.