2449: Peppercorn Rent Aug 25, 2021

Peppercorn rent refers to rent that is given as a token. Plenty of examples of this ceremonial, notional rent can be found where it is legally or contractually necessary to pay a certain amount of money that is effectively irrelevant, like buying an entire business for a dollar so some sale can be recorded. While this term is now usually just suggestive of something nominally worthless, in the past this was not totally unheard of, and certain places like the University of Bath pays the city rent in the form of a peppercorn, though now this is just symbolic of tradition.