Food render facts for kids

Food render, also known as food rent, was a special kind of tax in Anglo-Saxon England. Instead of paying with money, people paid with food! This system was called "tax in kind."

People living in different areas, like large farms or groups of villages called "hundreds," had to provide food. This food went to the king and his household when they visited a royal home in that area.

Why Did Kings Need Food Renders?

Long ago, in the British Isles, it was difficult to buy and sell large amounts of food. There weren't big shops or easy ways to transport food over long distances.

Kings and their many helpers, like soldiers and advisors, needed a lot of food every day. They couldn't just stay in one place because they would quickly run out of supplies.

So, kings would travel around their kingdom. They would visit different royal homes or estates. When they arrived, the local people would provide the food they needed. A historian once said it was easier "to take a royal household to the food than the food to the royal household."

What Did People Give?

Food renders were meant to provide a full and healthy diet. If the king or his family didn't visit, the people didn't have to give food that year.

The laws of King Ine of Wessex, from the late 600s, tell us exactly what an estate of ten "hides" (a measure of land) had to provide. It was a lot of food!

• 10 vats of honey
• 300 loaves of bread
• 12 large containers of Welsh ale (a type of beer)
• 30 large containers of clear ale
• 2 fully grown cows or 10 sheep
• 10 geese
• 20 hens
• 10 cheeses
• A full large container of butter
• 5 salmon
• 20 pounds of animal feed
• 100 eels

People also had to provide grazing land for the visitors' horses.

Food Render vs. Tribute

Food renders were different from "tribute." Tribute was money or goods that kings demanded from other kingdoms they had conquered.

Food renders were varied foods eaten by the people who gave them. Tribute, however, often came in the form of livestock, like cattle. This was because livestock could be easily moved to the king's main kingdom. Kings usually didn't travel through conquered lands to collect tribute.

When Did Food Renders Stop?

Over time, especially in the 1100s and 1200s, it became easier to use money. So, the custom of paying taxes with food slowly disappeared in England.

However, "eel-rents" lasted much longer. People continued to collect large numbers of eels as payment through the 1300s. Smaller amounts were still collected throughout the later Middle Ages. The last records of active eel rents are from the 1600s.