octroi

Octroi (; , to grant, authorize; Lat. auctor) is a local tax collected on various articles brought into a district for consumption. thumb|City Coal-tax post|Coal Tax Octroi Post in London, England

==Antiquity== The word itself is of French origin. Octroi taxes have a respectable antiquity, being known in Roman times as vectigalia. These were either the portorium, a tax on the entry from or departure to the provinces (those cities which were allowed to levy the portorium shared the profits with the public treasury); the or , a duty levied at the entrance to towns; or the edulia, sales imposts levied in markets. Vectigalia were levied on wine and certain articles of food, but cities were seldom allowed to use the whole of the profits of the taxes. Anglican Bishop Charles Ellicott suggested that the role of Matthew the tax collector in the gospels () was "to collect the octroi levied on the fish, fruit, and other produce that made up the exports and imports of Capernaum" on the Sea of Galilee.