Legal Definitions - reditus

Reditus is a historical legal term that refers to a return or revenue, most commonly understood as rent. It encompasses various forms of payment or benefit received, particularly in the context of land tenure and feudal systems.

Historically, different types of reditus distinguished the nature of the payment:

• Reditus albi (meaning "white return") referred to rent paid in money, such as silver coins.
• Reditus nigri (meaning "black return") referred to rent paid in goods, services, or labor rather than in money.
• Reditus capitales or Reditus quieti (meaning "capital return" or "quiet return") referred to a "quit rent." This was a fixed, often small, payment made by a freeholder to a superior lord, which served to free the freeholder from other feudal services or obligations.
• Reditus siccus (meaning "dry return") referred to a "rent seck." This was a type of rent where the landlord had the right to receive payment but lacked the traditional legal power to seize the tenant's goods (known as distress) if the rent was unpaid.

Here are some examples illustrating the concept of reditus:

• Example 1 (Reditus Albi): In 18th-century London, a merchant leases a shop space from a property owner. Their agreement specifies that the merchant must pay a sum of ten pounds sterling to the owner every quarter. This regular monetary payment for the use of the property represents a form of reditus albi, as it is a direct financial return (rent) for the leased premises.

• Example 2 (Reditus Nigri): During the medieval period, a peasant family lives on a lord's estate. Instead of paying money, their agreement requires them to provide the lord with a portion of their annual crop yield, such as sacks of wheat and barley, and to spend several days each month working on the lord's personal lands. This contribution of goods and labor serves as a reditus nigri, a non-monetary return (rent) for their right to cultivate land and reside on the estate.

• Example 3 (Reditus Capitales/Quieti): Imagine a historical scenario where a wealthy landowner holds their estate directly from the Crown. To acknowledge this superior ownership and to be released from any potential military service or other feudal duties, the landowner makes a symbolic annual payment of one rose to the monarch. This nominal payment functions as a reditus capitales or reditus quieti, a fixed return that "quits" (frees) the landowner from more burdensome obligations, thereby securing their tenure with minimal ongoing responsibility.