I just finished
The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson, about the 1854 London Cholera outbreak. In it, I learned of the various trades involved in recycling raw sewage in the fast-growing industrial metropolis. One, in particular, stood out as being relevant to the T2kU.
https://stacitiesbaad.files.wordpres...-soil-men2.pdf
I'd like to nominate "night soil men" for most valuable pre-industrial tradesmen. These brave souls collected human excrement from cesspools around the city and delivered to the surrounding countryside to be used as fertilizer. I imagine that 2000 would see the emergence of neo-night soil men (and women), as modern waste removal tech breaks down and chemical fertilizers are no longer widely available. Someone would need to shift effluvia once again, lest cholera reclaim its place as a top killer of urban populations.
Another odd one that deserves a mention, if only for its oddity, is the pure finders. "Pure", in this context, refers to dog feces. The pure finders would pick up dog turds and hand them over to tanners, who used it in the processing of leather goods.
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