Simple English definitions for legal terms
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Term: banality
Definition: Banality is an old law in French Canada that gave lords the right to make their vassals use their own equipment like winepress, oven, mill, and more.
Banality is a historical legal term used in French Canada. It refers to a lord's right to force his vassals to use his own winepress, oven, mill, or other equipment.
For example, if a lord owned a mill, he could require his vassals to bring their grain to his mill to be ground into flour. The vassals would have to pay a fee for this service, and the lord would make a profit from it.
Another example would be if a lord owned an oven, he could require his vassals to use it to bake their bread. Again, the vassals would have to pay a fee for this service, and the lord would make a profit from it.
These examples illustrate how the lord had control over the economic activities of his vassals. The banality was a way for the lord to extract wealth from his vassals and maintain his power over them.