Legal Definitions - black rent

Definition: Black rent refers to feudal rents that were paid in work, grain, or money that was of lower value than silver. It is also known as blackmail and is the opposite of white rent.

• A tenant may have been required to provide a certain amount of labor on the lord's land as part of their black rent.
• Another example of black rent could be paying the lord in bushels of wheat or barley instead of silver coins.

These examples illustrate how black rent was a form of payment that was not always in the form of valuable currency. Instead, tenants were required to provide goods or services that were of lower value than silver. This was a way for lords to maintain their power and control over their tenants.