On Tue, 18 Aug 2009 17:19:47 +0100, Richard Coates
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> The earliest peppercorn rent reference I can find in Anglo-Norman
> sources is about 1285.
How trivial was a peppercorn rent then? Now, pepper can be bought easily
anywhere. Then, before Vasco da Gama's voyage, pepper and other spices had
to be brought thousands of miles by sailing ship, and overland at packhorse
or camel pace, from what we now call Indonesia, changing hands for profit
several times on the way, and in England spices were expensive.
Another so-called trivial rent that I have heard of was a red rose at
Christmas - ask any gardener about availability of rose flowers around that
time of year.
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