To be considered a cultural person, you need to know the history of your country and understand the terms and words that are now long out of use, but once used often. This will help to better understand historical and fiction, to understand the essence of events and things. Such terms also include the word quitrent, which existed in Russia from the 9th century and ceased to be used very recently - since 1883.
Peasant service
Feudal relations are characterized, among other things, by the numerous duties or tribute that the feudal lords imposed on the peasants who lived on their lands. Such a service, which was originally paid in kind - the products of peasant labor - was a quitrent. The Russian feudal lords — princes and boyars — began to take it in the 9th century; in essence, it was a tribute that the peasants paid for their patronage. Subsequently, by the XIII century, the quitrent becomes already mandatory and its size becomes fixed.
With the emergence of commodity-money relations, the peasants have the opportunity to exchange the fruits of their labor for money, and the dues begin to be paid in both in kind and in cash. It was a kind of tax and they began to levy it in accordance with the economic situation of one or another peasant economy, since their property stratification is becoming more noticeable.
In the time of Ivan the Terrible serfdom, as such, did not exist yet - peasants could once a year at the end of November move from one landowner to another if the former did not suit them with something. Under Boris Godunov, in 1607 this order was canceled and the peasants actually turned out to be serfs - attached to a specific landowner. Serfdom served as an incentive for the formation of a landlord system and legitimized exactions from peasants, increasing them - now they were forced not only to pay landlords a rent, but also to work out corvée, i.e. work for a gentleman for free.
