Definition
An allowance deducted from the gross weight of goods to account for impurities mixed with a commodity — specifically, water or dust that may be present in the merchandise. Tret is distinct from tare, which accounts for the weight of the container or packaging. Together, tare and tret were the two principal deductions applied in commercial weighing to arrive at the net weight of goods actually sold.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A clipping of "tretinoin," a pharmaceutical compound used in dermatology.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): The third person singular present tense of the archaic verb "tread" (as used by Chaucer).
Neither the modern nor the historical common meaning of the word bears any relationship to the legal and commercial term. A researcher encountering "tret" outside a legal or trade context should not assume any connection to the commercial allowance concept.
Common Confusion
TRET vs. TARE: These two terms are closely associated and frequently appear together in historical commercial law, but they address different problems. Tare is the deduction made for the weight of the container, wrapping, or packaging that accompanies goods. Tret is the deduction made for contaminating substances — water, dust, or other foreign matter — mixed within the commodity itself. Both reduce the gross weight to reach a saleable net weight, but they operate at different stages of the calculation. Sources that discuss one almost invariably discuss the other; researchers should treat them as a pair.
TRET vs. TREYTS / TRETHINGS: Rapalje & Lawrence's entry for "tret" redirects to related terms that are easily confused with it in historical sources. Trethings refers to taxes or imposts — an entirely distinct concept. Treyts refers to the withdrawal or discharge of a juror. Neither is related to commercial weight allowances. Burrill similarly notes the French root treer (to draw), connecting "tret" to the act of drawing or drafting — including drawing a net or withdrawing a juror — which reflects a broader linguistic origin that has no bearing on the commercial law meaning.
Why It Matters in Research
Tret is a term of historical commercial law with almost no modern application. Researchers will encounter it almost exclusively in pre-20th century sources dealing with trade, customs, commodities, and mercantile law. Several navigational points deserve attention.
First, the term rarely appears alone. Historical statutes, treatises, and cases that address tret almost universally do so in the context of tare and tret as a paired concept. Searching for tret in isolation may yield incomplete results; researchers should run parallel searches for tare.
Second, the practical significance of tret was greatest in contexts involving bulk commodities — grain, sugar, spices, tobacco, and similar goods sold by weight where contamination or moisture content was commercially meaningful. Legal disputes involving tret typically arose in customs and excise proceedings, merchant disputes over short weight, and colonial trade regulation.
Third, Burrill's entry points to an older, distinct legal sense rooted in Law French — tret as a drawing or draught, including the drawing of a net or the discharge of a juror. This etymological branch appears in Britton (c. 72, 103) and in Year Book materials from Henry III's reign. Researchers working in medieval English law should be aware that "tret" in those sources may carry this procedural or nautical meaning rather than the commercial weight-allowance meaning. Context is essential.
Fourth, Rapalje & Lawrence's inclusion of trethings (taxes) and treyts (withdrawal of a juror) in the same entry cluster signals that historical indexers sometimes grouped these terms loosely. A researcher following a citation to "tret" in an older index should verify which concept the source actually addresses.
Historical Dictionary Support
The commercial law meaning is consistent across Black's (1st and 2nd editions), which define tret identically as an allowance for water or dust mixed with a commodity, distinguished from tare. The 2nd edition contains a minor typographical variation ("tere" rather than "tare" in the cross-reference), which reflects a printing error rather than any substantive distinction.
Burrill's entry opens a different dimension by tracing the term's Law French origins (from treer, to draw), connecting it to nautical usage (drawing a net) and procedural usage (drawing a juror). This is historically accurate and reflects that medieval legal French generated a cluster of related "tret/treyts" usages that later specialized into the commercial meaning most familiar from 18th and 19th century trade law sources. Burrill's entry is notably richer than Black's on the linguistic and medieval dimension, though it does not develop the commercial meaning at length.
Rapalje & Lawrence add the ancillary terms trethings and treyts without elaborating on tret itself, pointing researchers toward the paired entry for tare and tret. This approach correctly signals the term's dependency on its pair for full meaning.
No significant disagreement exists among the sources on the commercial meaning. The gap between historical dictionaries is one of emphasis: Black's covers the trade law meaning comprehensively for its period; Burrill preserves the older juridical and etymological layers that Black's omits.
Jurisdictional Note
Tret as a commercial allowance was a feature of English mercantile practice and was carried into colonial American trade law. It does not appear as a term of art in modern U.S. commercial statutes or the Uniform Commercial Code. Researchers focused on English customs law or early American commodity trade will find it most operative; it has no significant modern jurisdictional variation because it has effectively passed out of active use.