A few years ago I saw a show about ancient Roman life describing multistory apartment bulidings, and “take away” restaurants with a surviving recipe that sounded similar to a hamburger. The host explained how taxis had a meter than was driven off the axle, and allowed a ball to drop with every revolution (probably geared down so it wasn’t every turn of the axle). At the end of the trip the driver counted the balls to calculate the fare.
I think it was this show:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2014367/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_10