Legal Definitions - disme

Disme refers to a tithe or a tenth part of something, historically often due as a payment, tax, or offering.

Here are some examples illustrating the concept of a disme:

• Example 1: Feudal Land Agreement
  Imagine a medieval tenant farmer who cultivated a plot of land owned by a local lord. As part of their feudal agreement, the farmer was obligated to provide a disme of their annual grain harvest to the lord. This meant that for every ten bushels of wheat harvested, one bushel was legally due to the landowner as rent or tribute.

• Example 2: Royal Customs Duty
  Consider a historical port city where merchants brought in goods from overseas. To fund the kingdom's treasury, the monarch might have imposed a customs duty requiring all traders to pay a disme of the value of their imported spices and silks. This would mean that one-tenth of the assessed value of these goods had to be surrendered to royal officials before the items could be sold in the market.

• Example 3: Mining Concession
  Suppose a mining company in a historical era was granted exclusive rights by a sovereign to extract silver from a newly discovered mine. The concession agreement stipulated that the company must pay a disme of all extracted silver to the crown. This legally bound the company to deliver one-tenth of all the precious metal they mined directly to the royal treasury as a form of royalty or tax for the privilege of exploitation.