Wikipedia's article on licensing defines the legal mechanism ('an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something') but does not address when licensing became a commercial revenue strategy in its own right, as opposed to a legal concept as old as property law itself.
What would resolve this A business-history source tracing licensing's development as a deliberate revenue strategy, for example through the earlier history of patent or trademark licensing, distinct from the general legal concept of a license and from franchising's own separately documented origin.
OpenWikipedia, Licensing