Comm. Obs. exc. Hist. [Known c. 1500; origin and history obscure.
Generally conjectured either to be identical with OF. and AF. tret, variant of trait act of drawing, draught, etc. (see TRAIT), or to represent OF. traite ‘a draught … a transportation, vent outward, shipping ouer; and an Imposition vpon commodities exported, or so transported’ (Cotgr.): cf. It. tratta ‘permission or priuilege to transport from out any country any merchandice … also that custome that is paid for things carried out’ (Florio); see also med.L. tracta in Du Cange. These senses of the Fr., It. and med.L. words do not satisfactorily explain the commercial use of tret in Eng.; but it is possible that the term may have originated in connection with a single class of commodities or of transactions, and have been extended by 1670 to others. See Du Cange s.v. tracta; also Skeat s.v., and E. Weekley, in Trans. Philol. Soc., June, 1909. Cf. also CLOFF, DRAFT 1, DRAUGHT 13.]
An allowance of 4 lb. in 104 lb. (= 1/26) on goods sold by weight after the deduction for tare.
The reason or ground of the allowance was apparently forgotten already in the 17th c., and has been variously given since: see quots.
a. 1500. in Arnolde’s Chron., 47/2. Your said suppliant shulde be rebated for the tare of euery of the said xij bales iiij ll. and for the cloff of euery off the said xij bales ij ll. Som. lxxij ll. and for the tret of ye same peper cxxxvij ll.
1670. Blount, Law Dict., s.v. Tare and Tret, The other [Tret] is a consideration allowed in the weight for wast, in emptying and reselling the Goods.
1674. Lond. Gaz., No. 892/4. 59 Bails at fifteen pence, and 17 Sacks at sixteen pence a pound, with Tret and Tare as Custom.
1674. Jeake, Arith. (1696), 82. There is an Overweight allowed by Merchants called Tret, which is 4 lb. upon every Hundred of 112 lb.
1678. Phillips (ed. 4), Tret, a certain allowance that is made by Merchants, before a Commodity is garbled from its refuse [1706 ed. Kersey adds] as Dust, Moats, &c., which is always 4 in every 104 Pounds.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 136, ¶ 7. There is my little Merchant,… there’s my Man for Loss and Gain, there’s Tare and Tret.
a. 1850. J. Gray, Introd. Arith. (ed. 100), 58. What is the value of 12 bales of pepper … tare 3 lb. per bale, allowing also tret and cloff?
1882. Bithell, Counting-ho. Dict., Tret, an allowance made for wear, damage, or deterioration in goods during transit from one place to another.
