weight, reduced in 1730 to 16 ounces. But it is not 16 ounces of any
weight but that of Amsterdam. It may have been originally 16 ounces of
some heavy pound with an ounce of about 530 grains, akin to the Austrian
and Russian ounce; then converted into 18 lighter ounces, and afterwards
16 ounces were taken for the pound. In the seventeenth century it is
recorded as being 18 ounces of 471 grains, which is approximately the
Paris standard = 472·1 grains. In 1730 it was ordered to be of 16
ounces, but of what standard there is no evidence. And in the nineteenth
century it is 16 ounces of 476·6 grains, almost exactly the Amsterdam
standard. It looks as if the change in 1730 was to 16 ounces of another
standard, Amsterdam Troy, instead of French Troy.
I have given some space to these Channel Island measures, so interesting
as a survival of Norman measures and as a link between the measures of
old France and of England. The peculiar monetary system of Guernsey will
be given in Chapter XIII.
2. SOUTH AFRICA (CAPE COLONY)
Here we find two systems, those of Holland and of England, used
according to public convenience, and combined as far as possible. The
linear standard is Rhineland; the foot = 12·356 inches. The rod is 12
Rhineland feet; the English mile is reckoned as 426 rods.
The land-unit is the Morgen = 2·12 acres, of 600 square rods.
Weights are now Imperial; with a cental-cwt., and a ton of 20 centals or
2000 lb.
For corn measures, Imperial and Dutch measures are combined in the Mud
of 3 bushels or 4 Schepels.
For fluid measure the unit is the Anker = 7·95 gallons, a lower standard
than the Amsterdam anker = 8·5 gallons, probably through the influence
of English measure. The Legger (leaguer) is 126·6 gallons, in 4 Aam, 16
Anker and 80 Velts. This gives the Velt somewhat a lower standard than
in Java, where the legger = 127·34 gallons, and the velt = 1·59 gallons.
3. INDIA
Of the measures and weights of India, a country containing one-fifth of
the population of the world, divided into many nationalities, only a
slight sketch can be given, and that chiefly of the measures used in
British India as distinguished from the tributary states. The measures
of the Aryan population of Hindustan, and those of the Dravidian peoples
of peninsular India, are different; moreover the influence of the Moslem
conquerors, Mogul and Pathan, of the Portuguese in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, of the English in more modern times, has modified
these measures.
As in other Eastern countries the linear unit is usually a cubit, the
_hástha_ or _háth_, divided into 24 digits. Traces of the Egyptian
increased cubit are to be found. In a classical work on architecture,
the Mánasára, the Hástha, of 24 digits for timber, is increased to 25
for temples, to 26 for houses, to 27 for municipal buildings and land.
The addition of 3 digits to the 24 of the Egyptian common cubit would
give 27 digits, approximately equal to the 28 smaller digits of the
royal cubit.
In Southern India the cubit is sometimes the _mūyangál_ (_mūyam_, cubit;
_kál_, leg), the length from the knee to the ankle.
In Malabar the unit is the Kol = 28-1/4 inches as used for timber; but
for land it seems to have increased to 30 inches.
The kol was probably 3 spans or half-cubits of 9·41 inches.
A guz brought by the Moslems, = 33 inches, has established itself in
Bengal. It was probably 3 Beládi feet of 10·944 inches.
The Portuguese Covado of 3 spans = 27·17 inches, usually taken as 27
inches, has established itself in Western India. It is divided into 48
digits, of which two-thirds, i.e. 32 digits = 18 inches, are the usual
cubit; 1/8 of this = the English nail.
All these measures appear to have been modified by the English foot and
inch.
Native itinerary measures are rough and variable; the Koss of 100
fathoms is the usual standard.
Land-measures are of course very variable.
12 guz, usually = 33 feet, make a cord or chain, and 5 cords make a
Jarib = 10 rods. A square jarib = 100 square rods, is the usual Bigha of
Northern India = O·625 acre.
Another unit is the Mah of 100 rods 12 × 12 feet = 1600 square yards,
about half the above bigha.
Land-units, like most other units, can be divided into 16 annas, so that
the anna of the bigha is 200, that of the Mah is 100, square yards.
In Madras the unit of land measure is the Káni (cawny) = 1-1/3 acre of
24 grounds = 6400 square yards. So there appears to be a common unit of
about 1600 square yards, with its anna or sixteenth = 100 square yards
or 10 yards square.
Five káni make a Véli, the usual extent of arable land which can be
cultivated for rice or other wet crops by a peasant with a yoke of oxen.
Everywhere there are seed-measures of land, as in other countries.
_Weights_
These are derived from a coin-weight basis, the silver rupee-weight or
Tola in most parts, the golden pagoda-weight or Varahan in the south of
India. In each case 80 of these coin-units made a Sér. (See Indian
Coinage, in Chap. XIII.)
The Bengal sér, 80 tolas of 180 grs. = 14,400 grs.
The Madras sér, 80 varahan of 54 „ = 4320 „
The Bombay sér was based on another gold coin, the _tanc_ (gold) of a
little over 68 grains, 72 of which = 4900 grains.
The Bengal sér is, curiously enough, = 2 Cologne pounds of 7200 grains.
It is divided into 16 chittaks or double ounces of 5 tolas. The tola is
divided into 12 mashas (= 15 grains) of 8 ráti (the red seed of _Abrus
precatoria_): 40 sér make a mánd = 82·28 lb.
This sér (Ang. seer), the Government standard, is really a Troy weight.
The rupee of different standard in the three presidencies was fixed in
1833 at 180 grains, 3 drachms of the Troy ounce; this being so, the sér
of 80 rupees weight is = 30 Troy ounces and the mánd of 40 sérs is =
1200 Troy ounces or 100 Troy pounds.
About 1870-72 the metric propaganda was epidemic among Indian Government
Engineers; light railways were made on metre-gauge, and a nearly
successful attempt was made to get the sér fixed at one kilogramme. An
Act was about to be passed to this effect when the death of Lord Mayo
stopped it, and the Act fell through.
The Bengal sér and mánd[34] are the usual weights for official purposes.
Some other sérs are used, often of low standard known as Kucha sérs
(unripe, half-baked) in regard to the pukka (ripe, full-measure) sér of
80 tolas.
Footnote 34:
The difficulty in representing the sound _á_, _ah_, in English letters
led to a general substitution of _aw_. Hence ‘cawny, maund, ghaut
(steep), pawni (water), cawn (khan),’ &c.; all these words having an
_a_, or _ah_, vowel. The Anglo-Indian also says _seer_ for sér.
The Madras mánd was = 24·68 lb.; 20 mánd = 1 kándi, 493·7 lb.; but
English trade considered the mánd as 25 lb. and the ‘candy’ as 500 lb.
Madras had also a weight called the Vísham (Ang. Viss) of 120 tolas = 5
of its sérs, or 3·086 lb. divided into 40 pollams.
_Capacity_
To this Madras weight corresponds the Adangáli, dangáli or puddi, or
measure containing a vísham of grain, and therefore a pound-pint measure
= about 3 pints. It is the usual measure of the daily grain-wage of
agricultural labourers.
Similarly in other parts of India, the sér measure contains a sér weight
of the usual food grain.
The measure is usually heaped, and whether sér or dangáli it delivers
approximately either a sér or a vísham of the usual grains, rice, wheat,
millet, pulse, &c. It is a pound-pint measure, avoiding the use of the
balance. The Madras Government wanted to fix the dangáli at 100 cubic
inches, but this would have been useless as not delivering a vísham. The
necessary capacity to deliver a vísham of water is found by 3·086 lb. ×
27·725 to be 85·76 cubic inches. Increased in the Southern water-wheat
ratio of 1 : 1·22, we have 104·62 cubic inches as the true dangáli
measure. So Government allowed 104-1/4 cubic inches, and this was about
the capacity of a dangáli 8 inches high by 4 inches diameter, often a
section of bamboo cut down to the proper capacity.
In Madras, the dangáli, puddi or measure is then = 104-1/4 c.i. divided
into 8 ollocks; and 8 dangáli = 1 Mercál; 424 mercáls, = 120 Bengal
mánds, made a Garce, which is a Government measure for salt = 4·4 tons.
The cubic measure used in Southern India for dry goods, such as lime, is
the Parah = 5 mercáls = 5 × 8 dangáli, or 4000 cubic inches at 100 c.i.
to the dangáli: but 4184 c.i. at the customary capacity of that measure;
so the parah is = 15 gallons.
The Bombay parah = 4-1/2 gallons.
The Ceylon parah = 5·6 gallons; 8 parah = 1 amómam = 5·6 bushels.
To the amómam of grain corresponds the amómam of land, which, at 2
bushels seed to the acre, = 2·8 acres. By measurement it is 2·74 acres.
4. BURMA AND THE STRAITS
In Burma, as in the ancient Eastern Kingdoms, there was a common cubit
and a royal cubit. The former, = 19-1/2 inches, was of 24 digits, in 3
taim or handshafts; the latter = 22 inches. Here we have repeated the
two Hindu _hástha_ of 24 and 27 digits; the royal cubit being almost
exactly 27/24 of the common cubit.
The basis of weight is the Tikal (shekel), = 252 grains (= 1 cubic inch
of water), divided into 4 moo, = 63 grains, and 16 gyi of 15-3/4 grains
(corresponding to the Indian masha), of 8 rati.
100 tikal = 1 piet-tha = 3·6 lb., corresponding to the Indian vísham.
The principal measure of capacity is the teng or basket, somewhat less
than a bushel; it contains 16 piet of rice = 57·6 pound-pints.
The tikal of Siam = 234 grains; 80 tikal = 1 catty = 2-2/3 lb.; 50 catty
= 1 pikal, = 133-3/4 lb., or about 2 bushels of rice.
The Pikal (i.e. man’s load) of Singapore (and of China) = 133-1/3 lb.,
is of 100 catty; the catty = 1-1/3 lb. of 16 taels = 1-1/3 oz. The tael
is of 10 mace; the mace is a Chinese coin-weight = 58-1/3 grain, the
representative of the Greek and Asiatic drachma in the Far East.
The pikal of Java = 135·63 lb., similarly divided.
The hyak-kin or pikal of Japan = 132-1/2 lb. It is also of 100 catty or
kin = 1·325 lb. of 16 × 10 momme, the latter a weight equivalent to the
mace = 58 grains; and 10 × 10 momme make another unit, the hyaku-me =
5797 grains.
I refrain from doing more than giving a glance at the weights and
measures of the Far East; suffice it to say that most of them have every
appearance of being Arabic in origin.
5. CANADA AND MAURITIUS
_Canada_
The Imperial system is used, but the Cental replaces the long Cwt. and
its stone divisions.
In the old French districts of Quebec certain old French measures are
lawful: the Paris foot, the perch, usually of 20 feet, the Arpent of 100
perches.
The Minot, of 3 boisseaux = 1·073 bushel, is still used.
_Mauritius_
This island, formerly a French colony, retained the old French measures
and weights: the Paris foot, the Toise, the Mille of 1000 toises = 1·21
mile, the Perch, usually of 18 feet, the Arpent of 100 perches, the
French livre, the corn-setier, the wine-setier or Velte = 1·639 gallon.
The Metric system was substituted in 1876, notwithstanding that ‘the
feeling of a great portion of the community was so strongly against it
that in 1882 it was thought to be not improbable that the British
Imperial weights and measures might be reverted to’ (‘Merchants’
Handbook,’ by W. A. Browne, 1899). It is added that this antagonistic
feeling gradually died out, but evidence on this point would be
desirable.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER XIII
MEASURES OF VALUE
1. ENGLISH MONEY
In all times money has been the weight of a certain amount of copper,
silver or gold, in the form of coins the fineness of which is guaranteed
by the stamp of the State. The weight of coins used in payments may
change in course of time, but the nominal unit of weights often
continues, the pound, or livre, or marc, &c. Thus, the original Roman
unit, the As, or mint-pound of copper or bronze, reduced gradually to
1/24 of its primitive weight, persisted as a money of account long after
it had been replaced in the currency by the silver Denarius. This was
originally coined at a time when it represented the value of 10 As;
hence its name deni-aris, ten of copper.
The French livre, or livre d’estelins, reduced gradually to a coin about
1/74 of a 12-oz. livre, retains its name as a synonym of the franc.
The English pound of silver, once a Tower pound = 5400 grains, reduced
long ago to 1745 grains, in 20 shillings, persists as a money of
account, though the silver is superseded in payments over 40 shillings
by a gold coin weighing 123-1/4 grains. Prices over 40_s._ are still
often stated in shillings.
The Roman denarius originally weighed 60 grains, afterwards reduced to
52-1/2 grains. A golden denarius was also coined, which afterwards
became the Arabic dinar.
Under Charlemagne the mint weight of France was heavier than the marc of
Troyes afterwards adopted as a standard. Adapting the Roman system to
the customs of his Teutonic subjects the emperor Karl divided the pound
of silver into 20 silver solidi or sols, each equal to 12 silver penings
or pennies of about 25 grains which, assimilated to the Roman denarii,
were called deniers, also estelins or sterlings. The solidus appears to
have corresponded to a Teutonic monetary unit, the shilling, equal to a
variable number of penings, which coins were not of uniform value until
about Charlemagne’s time.
The Carlovingian systems of coinage had passed to England long before
the Norman Conquest, displacing the old Norse and Saxon systems—the
Norse, in which the Ore was of 20 silver penings = 1/8 marc or 1/12 lb.,
and the Saxon Sceatta of 40 Styca, usually equivalent to pence. The
shilling, = 1/20 pound of silver pence, became established—‘xxx
scyllinge penega,’ thirty shillings of pence (‘Saxon Chronicle,’ 775).
The Norman Conquest made no appreciable change in the English customary
coinage. The Tower pound of silver which the Normans found established
was coined into 240 of the ‘English peny called a sterling,’ each
weighing 22-1/2 grains instead of the 25 grains of Charlemagne’s
sterlings. Twelve pence made a shilling of 20 to the pound, and twenty
pence or pennyweights made an ounce of 12 to the mint-pound.
England soon followed France, but much more slowly, in the usual
dwindling of the weight of coins, as the king, pushed for money, ordered
his moneyers to melt down the silver pennies and recoin them of lower
weight. They remained at 22-1/2 grains down to the time of Edward I.
Edward III’s first pennies were of 22-1/4 grains, but in the 18th year
of his reign they weighed 20-1/4 grains, in the 20th year 20 grains, and
after the 27th year he made the pound of silver yield 300 pennies at 18
grains. He also coined groats (great sterlings or grosses). Silver
halfpence (mayles) and farthings (ferlynges) were coined, and a statute
specially ordered that no sterling halfpenny nor farthing be molten ‘for
to make vessel or any other thing by goldsmiths nor others.’
At this time, if we may believe the Statute of Labourers, one penny was
the usual daily pay of the farm-labourer, but mowers were to have
fivepence by the acre or the day. Prices of farm-produce were fixed. A
penny would buy a chicken or six pounds of bread, 2 pence a fowl, 4
pence a goose.
The diminution in the weight of the penny was slow and did not affect
wholesale dealings in which payment was usually made by weight.[35]
Footnote 35:
Clipping the pennies, against which crime frequent statutes threatened
punishment, affected the poor who paid and were paid by tale, not by
weight. It afforded a pretext for occasionally raiding the Jews and
plundering their store of coin, always found of course to have been
clipped.
In all but retail transactions payment might be agreed to be by weight.
In Stephen’s reign the land-revenue of countries was farmed out. The
sheriff or ‘fermour’ of Wiltshire and Dorsetshire paid into the treasury
£454 10_s._ by weight (ad pensum) and £262 4_s._ by tale (numero). He
probably picked out the full-weight coins for payment by tale, and had
to take (as perhaps he received) weight-value for the rest.
Under Henry IV the sterling had fallen to 15 grains; under Edward IV it
fell to 12 grains, at which weight it stood till Henry VIII brought it
down to 10-1/2 grains, and also debased it to only one-third its weight
of silver. His father had coined shillings, hitherto only a money of
account; his own mint continued this coinage, but got 48 of them,
instead of 20, from the Troy pound of silver, and subsequently by
debasement nearly 150.
In Edward VI’s reign the Protector Somerset continued this system, but,
at his fall, efforts were made by the Council to restore honesty to the
coinage, at least as regards the shillings and crowns. The pennies
remained debased until the wisdom of Elizabeth restored the standard,
and since that time our silver coinage has remained of true standard and
at the weight of 7-1/2 grains for each penny value, or one-third of its
weight at the time of the Norman Conquest. The Scots silver coinage fell
much lower than that of England; by the time of the Union it had fallen
to 1/36, the pound Scots being worth 20 pence English, instead of 20
shillings.
It is curious that the kings, so ready to make a profit by lowering the
silver coins, appear to have disdained the evident profit of a copper
coinage. Penalties were repeatedly threatened by statute against the
copper coins which necessity of ‘change’ caused to be made or imported.
These were unlawful coins called galyhalpens, saskyns, dodekyns and
dotkins (probably Scottish ‘doits’). James I granted a patent for the
making of copper farthings. Halfpennies were first coined in Charles
II’s time, but it was not till near the end of George III’s reign that a
copper penny was struck, probably because the tradition of the silver
penny weighing 32 wheat-corns, albeit shrunken, was against the penny
being other than silver.
The penny was at first a full ounce of copper. Twopenny pieces were also
struck weighing two ounces.
The present bronze coinage was made in 1860 after the example of the
bronze coinage of Napoleon III, the reformer of the French currency; it
was he who established a gold standard in France, hitherto a ‘silver
country.’
A bronze penny not much worn weighs 1/3 oz., the halfpenny 1/5 oz. The
latter is one inch in diameter. The silver penny of early Plantagenet
times was the size of the present sixpence but thinner, so that, at the
full weight of 22-1/2 grains, it was slightly heavier than our
threepenny piece = 21·8 grains. It bore the effigy of the king with
‘Henricus Rex’ or suchlike inscription; on the reverse was a cross, with
pellets or other ornaments in the intervals, and the name of the moneyer
and city, as ‘Edmund on Lin(coln).’ The cross gave rise to the idea that
it indicated where the penny could be broken or cut into halfpence or
farthings. Doubtless it was so cut where change was scarce; and the
first silver farthing was coined by Edward I, 1279, to prevent this
cutting up of the pence, but equally with a cross.
At present silver pence and twopences are only coined for Maundy money.
The groat of four pence, grossus sterlingus, first coined about 1279,
discontinued from the time of Elizabeth, who first coined sixpences and
threepences, was revived in 1836 at the instance, or insistence, of
Joseph Hume, an M.P. who, it is said, found it convenient for the exact
payment of an 8_d._ London cab fare not exceeding a mile in the days
when copper pennies weighing an ounce were inconvenient to carry in the
pocket. He died in 1855, and in 1856 the Joey was discontinued.
The threepenny piece was revived in 1845.
The florin was first issued in 1849, an ill-advised attempt at
decimalising the pound; it bore the inscription ‘one tenth of a pound,’
but it has utterly failed to take the place of the convenient
half-crown, an important unit in the binary division of the pound.
Public convenience appreciates the gold sovereign and half-sovereign,
the silver half-crown, shilling, sixpence and threepence. The florin is
a disturbing coin offering no advantage over two separate shillings; and
the double florin is worse.
No one wants the pound decimalised except a few decimal unpractical
persons. A properly taught schoolboy adds up sums of money duodecimally
for the pence, decimally for the shillings, converting these by twenties
into pounds. It is quite easy to add up a column of pence thus: 8 and 5,
1_s._ 3_d._; and 10, 2_s._ 1_d._; and 8, 2_s._ 9_d._; and 5, 3_s._ 2_d._
With the shillings column the units are put down and the tens carried to
the column of tens; an odd 1 is put down and half the remainder carried
to the column of pounds.
English silver coins are 37/40 = 0·925 fine, i.e. 11 oz. 2 dwt. of the
now obsolete 12 oz. mint-pound.
French five-franc pieces are at 0·900, other silver coins are 0·835
fine.
_Gold Coins_
Of the two precious metals, only one can be the standard of value. In a
gold-standard country, as England has been since 1816, the golden
sovereign of lawful weight is the standard of value. As the price of
silver, like that of every other commodity, varies with demand and
supply, it would be futile to attempt to make silver coins correspond in
actual metal value to gold coins; especially as, since the great fall in
the price of silver from its demonetisation in many countries and its
large production, silver coins are really tokens; tokens of value, but
still tokens, not legal tender above a certain amount. A shilling melted
down is only worth fivepence or less; while sovereigns melted down can
be exchanged, at a trifling charge, for their weight in minted gold.
In silver-standard countries it is gold which varies in price. Thus in
India, where for centuries the standard of value has been the silver
rupee now weighing 180 grains and worth fifty years ago a little over
two shillings, gold coins of the same weight called ‘mohurs’ were
current at market price, about 16 rupees more or less. Sovereigns were
worth about 10 rupees in 1860; they would exchange now for double that
price did not the Government of India, by restricting silver coinage and
other legitimate devices, keep the gold price of the rupee at about
1_s._ 4_d._, so that 15 rupees will buy a sovereign for transactions
with England and other gold-standard countries.
Gold was coined in ancient Rome. The gold solidus or aureus of
Constantine was 1/72 of an As or mint-pound; so that it weighed 70·14
grains. It was called ‘solidus,’ entire, as distinguished from the
semissis and tremissis, its half and third. The original French sol, or
shilling, was an ‘entire’ of 12 deniers; hence the £ _s._ _d._ we use
were once the current signs, in France and elsewhere, for libræ, solidi,
denarii.
There were some gold coins of the early Saxon kings. Under the early
Norman kings foreign gold coins were current, but the first regular gold
coinage was that of Edward III; his Noble of fine gold, 1/50 of a Tower
pound, weighed 108 grains, the weight of two golden florins of Florence
or of two ducats or zechins of Venice. He afterwards coined nobles at
the rate of 42 to the mint-pound; these weighed 119 grains, and, as they
were of 23-7/8 carats fine, contained almost exactly the same weight of
pure gold as the modern sovereign of 123-1/4 grains. Their value was
about half a marc or 80 sterlings of full weight, and as the proper
weight of silver in English coins was then three times that at present,
the 6_s._ 8_d._ equivalence of the noble then is that of the sovereign
now.
The weight of gold coins mattered little in practice; they were always
weighed, and represented an amount of sterling varying according to the
state of the money-market and to the condition of the silver coinage.
Edward IV’s noble was called a Rial; and the Angel, 2/3 of its weight or
about 80 grains, was also coined. Henry VII coined a double Rial of half
a Troy ounce. Under Henry VIII this was called a Sovereign.
The fineness of gold coins, originally of 23 carats 3-1/2 grains = 994·7
gold in 1000, was reduced to 22 carats under Henry VIII and, after some
variations, this standard = 916·6 gold in 1000 was finally adopted.[36]
Footnote 36:
‘Twenty-four carat’ was taken as the standard of pure gold because the
Roman gold solidus weighed twenty-four carats (each 1/144 of an
ounce). The assayer’s carat is 1/24 part divided into four
assay-grains. Medieval gold coins such as Edward III’s noble and the
Venetian zechin, always of the same quaint pattern, were generally
twenty-three carat 3-1/2 grains fine, = 995 parts in 1000. But this
nearly pure gold being very soft, it became customary to alloy the
metal with a certain amount of copper to give it the hardness
necessary for trade purposes in modern times.
Sovereigns or Unites were coined under James I at 172 grains, under
Charles I at 141 grains. Their value in silver varied of course
according to market-rates for gold. Coined under Charles II at 130
grains they were henceforth called Guineas, varying in value from 30 to
20 shillings. Repeated attempts to fix their value by law utterly
failed. In the eighteenth century it was generally above the 21_s._
standard at which the guinea is still reckoned as a polite coin. In
1816, on the adoption of a gold standard, the name of Sovereign was
revived for the coin which is its basis.
The sovereign weighs 123·274 grains, of which 113·006 are pure gold. It
is light if it weighs less than 122-1/2 grains, that is if it has lost
more than 1-1/2_d._ in value. Its life of current weight is about 20
years in ordinary circumstances of circulation.
The mint value of gold is £3 17_s._ 10-1/2_d._ an ounce Troy; that is
2·1212 pence a grain pure, or 1·7676 penny at the standard fineness of
22 carats = 916·6 in 1000.
France adopted a gold standard in 1855; other countries followed.
The United States adopted it in 1900.
The sovereign is coined at full value without ‘seigniorage.’ In France
and other gold-standard countries a charge is made for coining. In
France this charge is 6 fr. 70 c. on the kilo of standard gold, 0·900
fine, value 3100 francs; this is equal to 0·216 per cent., so that
20-franc pieces lose 4·4 centimes or nearly a halfpenny each on being
melted, besides assay charges.
The history of mint-weight will be further told in Chapter XX, section
‘The Carat and the Grain.’
2. GUERNSEY CURRENCY
In this curious relic of the old French monetary system the Livre is the
equivalent of the _louis d’or_ of 24 francs; the Sol or sou is a
shilling, 1/20 of the livre; the Denier is a penny, 1/12 of the
shilling, and it is divided into 8 doubles, each equal to the old French
_liard_ or quarter-sou of 3 deniers, not to the old French double of 2
deniers. The only Guernsey coins are the bronze pieces of 8, 4, 2, 1
doubles; that of 8 doubles being the penny.
The silver coins are French, counted 10 pence to the franc; so that the
five-franc piece passes for 4_s._ 2_d._ Guernsey.
The Guernsey pound is either a bank-note for this amount, or 24 francs
in French silver, equal to 240 Guernsey pence. Sovereigns are current,
taken at the usual rate of 25 francs and 2 pence = 252 pence or 21
shillings Guernsey. So the English sovereign becomes a guinea in French
silver and Guernsey bronze.
The people of Guernsey hold by their old system; they find no
inconvenience in it; and it is decidedly advantageous to the English
resident in the island.
3. INDIAN MONEY
The East India Company made little change in the monetary system of the
Mogul Empire. In the greater part of India the silver rupee was the
standard of value, and the E.I.C. struck Sicca rupees (_sikkah_, coined)
in the name of Shah Alam, the Great Mogul reigning at the end of the
eighteenth century. These weighed 192 grains, but they were superseded
in 1836 by the present standard of rupee, 180 grains, of which 165 fine,
bearing the English sovereign’s head. The rupee is divided for account
into 16 annas, each of 12 copper pies, though the coin so called bore
until recently the Persian inscription _salas pai_, one-third of a pie;
the real pie, inscribed _ek pai_, one pie, being the quarter-anna.
There are silver coins of a half, quarter and eighth of a rupee, but no
anna coin. The copper or bronze coins are half, quarter and twelfth
annas.
The monetary system of the Madras Presidency (the people of which are a
different race, speaking Dravidian languages, not the Indo-European
languages of which Hindustani is the _lingua franca_) was different from
that of the rest of India. It was a gold-standard country, the monetary
unit being the ‘Varahan’ or ‘pagoda,’ a small thick gold coin of 53
grains, reckoned as equivalent to 3-1/2 rupees or nearly 8 shillings.
There were also gold Fanams of about 6 grains, and still smaller gold
coins, used principally for largesse at festivities.
The Star-pagoda, the usual gold currency, was of button-shape, with a
star on the convex surface, a Hindu deity on the flat. It weighed 52-1/2
grains, the same weight as the Roman denarius, the Arabic dinar, and the
Venetian zechin, but it was only 19-1/2 carats fine. The E.I.C. coined
pagodas of lesser weight, about 46 grains, but of English standard
fineness. They also coined silver fanams, 42 being nominally equivalent
to the pagoda. These weighed 15 grains, so that they were equivalent to
1/12 of the 180-grain rupee, to 1-1/3 anna, or to 4 copper pysa. So
there was in the Madras Presidency a double monetary series, based on
the gold pagoda and on the silver rupee, the relative value of these
coins being of course inconstant. Gradually during the nineteenth
century the gold standard was replaced by silver, the change taking the
following order:
1. The Pagoda of 42 fanams of 8 pysa of 4 kásh.
The Rupee of 12 fanams.
2. Then the two-anna piece replaced the fanam, taking its name.
The Rupee of 8 fanams, of 6 pysa, of 4 kásh.
3. The Rupee of 16 annas, of 3 pysa, of 4 kásh.
4. The Rupee of 16 annas of 4 quarter-annas (called 3/4 pysa by the
natives) or of 12 kásh improperly called ‘pies.’
The division of the rupee into 8 fanams of 24 kásh survives, or did
survive till quite recent years, in the French settlements of
Pondichery, &c. The reason alleged was that the anna is non-existent as
a coin. But it is curious that the French administration did not
discover that there was a decimal system connected with the rupee. For
in Southern India thirty years ago, and perhaps at the present day, the
pysa was = 1/3 anna and the half-pysa 1/6 anna, but these were always
reckoned among the people as 1/50 and 1/100 rupee.[37] To the people of
the South the rupee is divided into 5 fanams each of 10 pysa each of 3
kásh. But the term kásh (kássu) is merely a name for the lowest coin.
The E.I.C.’s pysa of 1808 bears the Persian inscription _Bis kás chhar
fleūs ast_ (It is 20 kásh, 4 filūs), followed by ‘XX cash.’ So this
coin, so dear to the people of Southern India that they cannot look on
the modern quarter-anna (the Anglo-Indians’ ‘pice’) otherwise than as a
_mookal_, a 3/4 pysa, is really 20 kásh, and the rupee is 200 filūs or
1000 kásh. Here is a decimal division ready for the rupee, for the
half-pysa, nominally 1/96 rupee (in 1797 coins it is so inscribed ‘96 to
one rupee’), but 1/100 rupee in the bazaar, is similarly inscribed as of
‘10 kásh 2 filūs.’ So the rupee could easily be made of 10 fanams, 100
lesser pysa, 1000 kásh. But the sexdecimal division into annas, and the
duodecimal division into pies, are too convenient to be given up for a
decimal system.
Footnote 37:
This obvious decimal system of a rupee divided into 10 lesser fanams
and 100 pysa would not have appealed to French officials. It is not a
decimal system, but the Metric system, that the French scientist
requires; the decimal series of measures is only a stalking-horse for
the French system abroad. The French do not as a rule care about using
it themselves.
The 2 filūs of the half-pysa show that the pysa was once divided into 4
of a small coin (the present pie), the _fils_, an Arabic word probably
representing the L. follis.[38]
Footnote 38:
1638. Fluces are 10 to a cozbeg (one halfpenny).—_N.E.D._ In this
quotation it seems as if Sir T. Herbert had mistaken the filūs for the
10 kásh of the half-pysa.
_Indian Gold Coinage_
Northern and Central India, the parts more immediately under the Mogul
empire, were silver-standard countries. The silver rupee (sicca, = 192
grains) was the standard; and the golden rupee of the same weight,
called an Ashráfi, or gold mohur, was valued at 16 rupees, though
generally more, according to the market-value of gold. The E.I.C.
continued to strike gold mohurs, with halves, thirds and quarters. Other
gold coins were current, notably the Venetian zechin, and the
approximate correspondence of this coin to the quarter-mohur caused the
latter to be commonly known as a ‘chick.’[39]
Footnote 39:
At whist, high play was for ‘Rupee points and a chick on the rub.’
Southern India offers the curious instance of a gold-standard country (a
century ago) having changed to a silver standard. The pagoda has
disappeared in currency. The beautiful Farūki pagoda of Tippoo is still
to be found; and the Venetian zechin with its archaic design, never
changed since it was first struck in the thirteenth century, is highly
esteemed in the household treasuries of affluent Indians for its great
purity. The word zechin or sequin is derived from sikkah, ‘coin.’ The
usual Persian inscription on the Mogul coinage, continued by the E.I.C.,
is _Shah Alam, bádshah gházi, sikkah mubárak_ (Shah Alam, king
victorious, coin auspicious).[40]
Footnote 40:
The E.I.C. continued the custom of inscriptions on coins being in
Persian, the polite language of Moslem India.
4. DECIMAL CURRENCY
It is scarcely necessary to describe the decimal systems of which the
Dollar currency is the type. They have some advantages in numeration
with the counterbalancing defects of all decimal series. Division of the
dollar stops at a quarter; then there is a drop to 10 cents, and that
coin has no quarter. Any thirding can only be approximate.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER XIV
MEASURES OF TIME
The primitive divisions of time were the day (the civil day between two
sunrises or sunsets), and the lunar month taken as 30 days instead of
the actual 29-1/2. Twelve lunar months made a calendar year of 360 days,
to which were added, in ancient Egypt, five intercalary days. The
additional day required every fourth year was called by the Romans
_bissextum calendis_, as it was introduced by repeating the sixth day of
the calends of March (our February 24).
From the 360 calendar days of the year was derived the division of the
sun’s apparent path on the ecliptic (and of every other circle) into 360
degrees. The ecliptic was divided, like the year, into twelve equal
parts named from the constellations to which they corresponded; each of
these was of 30 parts.
To avoid the intercalary days at the end of the ordinary year, these
were afterwards distributed among the months in various ways. The number
of days to each modern month is inherited, with some changes, from the
arrangement adopted by a Greek-Asiatic nation. The names of the months
are those given by the Romans; their year originally began with March
(as indeed did ours, on Lady Day, down to 1751), and the original names
were:
_Martius_ from Mars.
_Aprilis_ from Aphrodite (Venus).[41]
_Maius_ from _dü maiores_, the elder gods.
_Junius_ from _dü juniores_, the younger gods.
Quintilis the 5th month, afterwards Julius.
Sextilis the 6th „ „ Augustus.
Septembris the 7th „
Octobris the 8th „
Novembris the 9th „
Decembris the 10th „
Januarius from Janus or Dianus, the sun-god.
Februarius from februum, the expiation month.
Footnote 41:
In the Bithynian calendar were a couple of months, _Areios_ and
_Aphrodisios_ (once _Artemisios_), the Greek forms corresponding to
Martius and Aprilis.
The week is of astrological origin. Even in Europe there are still many
people who believe that the seven planets of the pre-Copernican system
rule, each in its turn, the successive hours of each day; the planet
ruling the first hour gives its name to the day, and influences it
astrologically. Thus the week is the series of seven days ruled
successively in the first hour by one of the seven planets. From the
series of planets arranged in the order of their periods—Saturn,
Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon—the order of the day-names
comes about in the following way:
Sunday (_dies Solis_) was so named from the Sun ruling its first hour.
The following six hours being ruled by the other planets, the Sun again
rules the eighth hour, also the fifteenth and the twenty-second; the
twenty-third hour is ruled by the next planet in the series, Venus;[42]
the twenty-fourth by Mercury, and the first hour of the next day by the
Moon, hence this will be Monday (_dies Lunæ_). The Moon ruling the
first, eighth, fifteenth, twenty-second hours of Monday, the
twenty-third hour will be ruled by Saturn (beginning the series again),
the twenty-fourth by Jupiter, and the first hour of the next day by
Mars; hence this day will be _dies Martis_ or Tuesday, from the planet
Tiw = Mars. And so on with the remaining days, the names of the planet
ruling the next day being obtained by passing over the name of the two
planets ruling the twenty-third and twenty-fourth hours. Thus beginning
with the first planet of the series we get:
Saturn ruling Saturday _dies Saturni_
Sun „ Sunday „ _Solis_
Moon „ Monday „ _Lunæ_
Mars (Tiw) „ Tuesday „ _Martis_
Mercury (Woden) „ Wednesday „ _Mercurii_
Jupiter (Thor) „ Thursday „ _Jovis_
Venus (Frigu) „ Friday „ _Veneris_
Footnote 42:
In the _Knightes Tale_ (Chaucer) Palamon visits the temple of Venus at
her hour, then the temples of Diana (the Moon) and of Mars at their
respective hours.
Latin Christianity made only two changes: _d. dominicus_ for Sunday, and
_d. sabbati_ for Saturday; but the latter still retains its old name in
several countries, thus:
Provençal. Welsh.
Dimenche Dydd Sul
Dilun „ Llyn
Dimars „ Mawrth
Dimècre „ Mercher
Dijòu „ Jau
Divèndre „ Givener (Wener)
Dissate „ Sadwrn
The unit of time is the mean solar-day, the time between the noons of
two successive days, noon being taken as the moment of the passage of
the sun over the local meridian, corrected by the equation of time or
daily correction required to reduce the varying solar days to a mean of
all the solar days. So ‘mean time’ is that of a well-regulated clock
dividing the year into mean solar-days of 24 hours; there being 365
days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 46 seconds, in the astronomical year.
It is probable that everywhere, in primitive times, both day and night
would be divided, in southern countries at least, or at the equinoxes,
into three watches of fairly equal length: the morning, midday,
afternoon; and the evening, midnight and dawn. Each of these would
become divided, with the rise of astronomical observations and the use
of sun-dials, into fourths, making twelve hours for either day or night;
twelve hours corresponding to the twelve months of the year or to the
uncial divisions of other measures. The civil day would thus be of
twenty-four hours, grouped into watches of four hours or into the eight
canonical divisions of the day. In medieval times midday was properly
the hour of sexte, the sixth hour from prime, the third from tierce; but
in course of time the ninth hour, nones, was shifted from 3 P.M. to
midday, which thus became ‘noon.’
But the original division of the day, probably Chaldæan, was strictly
sexagesimal. It was divided into 60 parts (= 24 minutes), each part into
60, and this again into 60.
In medieval times the Sun’s daily path was divided into 24 hours, each
of 15 degrees; and each hour was also divided into 3 miles or mileways
of 5 degrees (= 20 minutes). This division was connected with the
popular concrete idea of time in which 20 to 24 minutes was the common
unit. In India the popular unit is still the time required to boil a pot
of rice (20 to 24 minutes) or do some similar domestic task. In the
Middle Ages the Western unit was the time required to walk a mile, on
medieval roads.
‘And thogh I stonde there a myle’ (Gower, 1390).
‘And maketh every minute seem a myle’ (Spenser, 1594).
Then the degree was divided sexagesimally into 60 minutes each of 60
seconds, as at present. These divisions were at first called scruples,
from the above-mentioned division of the day into 60 scruples of 24
minutes (the ounce being divided into scruples each of 24 light grains).
Here the scruple-sense of 1/24 passes to 1/60.
‘1610. The latitude fiftie degrees and fortie scruples or minutes’
(Quot. _N.E.D._).
The hour was also divided similarly into 60 scruples or minutes, each of
60 second scruples or seconds.
The ounce and scruple division of time is shown in the following passage
from ‘Le Breviari d’Amor,’ a thirteenth-century poem by Ermengaud, a
monk of Beziers. I have freely translated it from the Languedocian. ‘The
day is divided into quarters, each of 6 hours; and the fourth part of an
hour is a point, the tenth part of which is a moment; the moment is
divided into 12 parts called ounces, and each of the ounces yields 47
atoms, which time called an atom cannot be further divided.’ It seems
almost certain that ‘atomus xlvij’ is either a mistake for xlviij or
deliberately put for _set_ (7), to rime with _ret_ (yields). The ounce
of time, = 7-1/2 seconds, would be divided into 24 scruples and 48
oboli, called atoms as being the end of the division. Similar dropping
of a unit from Roman numerals is to be found in medieval Acts of
Parliament and Ordinances.
_The Lunar Year_
In the lunar year used by Moslems and Jews, and also recognised by law
in the movable date of Easter and some other feasts, the month is
approximately of 29-1/2 days, so that the year is 354 days, less than
the solar year by 11 days, or 12 in leap years. Hence Moslem feasts or
fasts, such as the Ramadán and the times of pilgrimage, are that number
of days earlier each year.
The age of the Moon is found by the Epact, its age on the first day of
the year. It is about the same on March 1 as on January 1, owing to
January and February being together equal to two lunar months. So the
increase of the Epact during the year, at the rate of about one day in
the month, begins March 1; and September is, for this purpose, the
seventh month.
To the day of the month add the Epact and the number of the month,
beginning March 1. The total, over 0 or over 30, is the age of the moon.
_Example._—September 10, 1910 (7th Month), Epact for 1910 being xix.
10 + 19 + 7 = 36. The Moon was 6 days old.
What will be the date of full moon, its fifteenth day, in November 1912?
November is the ninth month and the Epact for 1912 is xi.
11 + 9 = 20. 45 (= 30 + 15) - 20 = 25. _Ans._ November 17.
Agriculturists who believe that certain seeds should be sown, trees
planted, and pigs converted into bacon during the waxing of the moon,
while trees are felled during the waning, find the Epact useful in
reckoning the moon’s age. It is also useful in calculating whether
country-roads will be moonlit during certain nights.
The Epact increases 11 days annually: 1911, 0; 1912, xi; 1913, xxij;
coming back to 0 in 31 years.
_The Compass Card_
While the circle of the horizon is divided into 360 degrees for
astronomy and for accurate navigation, the steersman has always divided
it sexdecimally. The temple of the Winds at Athens was octagonal; and
the points of the horizon were named after the eight winds, a number
increased to sixteen about the time of Ptolemy. The Romans tried in vain
to substitute an uncial division; their 12 winds and points could not
supersede the 8 winds and points of the Greeks. And to this day in the
Mediterranean there are 8 principal points, named after the sun and
winds:
Tramontano, Levant, Mezzodi, Ponente.
Greco, N.E.; Scirocco, S.E.; Libeccio, S.W.; Maestralo, N.W.
Amerigo Vespucci sailed for the ‘_Ponente una quarta di Libeccio_,’
West, one point S.W.; and afterwards for the ‘_Libeccio una quarta del
Mezzodi_,’ S.W. one point S.
[Illustration:
DIAGRAM INDICATING THE PLANET RULING EACH HOUR,
FROM
DE TEMPORUM COMPUTATIONE ATQUE DIVISIONE,
Joannis Padovanii, Veronæ, 1577.
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER XV
MEASURES OF HEAT AND OF DENSITY
AND COMPOUND INDUSTRIAL UNITS
1. MEASURES OF HEAT
_Thermometric Scales_
About 1595 Galileo made a thermometer, probably one with an air-bulb in
which expansion of the air forces water down the tube.
Isaac Newton made an oil-thermometer with a scale of 12° between
freezing-point and body-heat.
Fahrenheit, about 1714, made a mercurial thermometer, its 0 at the cold
produced by a refrigerating mixture and 24° at body-heat. On this scale,
freezing-point was 8° and boiling-point 53°. The quarter-degrees were
then made whole degrees, producing the Fahrenheit scale with 32° for
freezing-point, 96° (more correctly 98·4°) for body-heat, and 212° for
boiling-point at ordinary atmospheric pressure. There are 180° between
freezing and boiling points.
Réaumur’s scale has 80° between these points.
Celsius (of Upsala, 1742) used a scale of 100° between these points.
Hence it is usually called Centigrade. This is the scale of
international physical and chemical reports; and is generally used in
laboratory-work.
The maximum density of water is at 4° Centigrade = 39·2° F.
The Fahrenheit scale is generally used in English-speaking countries. It
is convenient for meteorological purposes as there is rarely any need to
use ‘minus’ degrees for winter temperatures as in the Centigrade and
Réaumur scales. For medical purposes it is also more convenient to have
the normal body-temperature at 98·4° F. (close to 100°), than at 36·9°
C. or at 29·5° R.[43]
Footnote 43:
Normal body-temperature is taken in France as 37° C. In Germany it is
taken as 29·3° Réaumur = 97·9° F.
To convert Centigrade degrees into Fahrenheit:
Double the degrees; deduct 1/10; add 32°.
E.g., 20° C.; 20 × 2 = 40; 40 - 4 = 36; 36 + 32 = 68° F.
To convert Fahrenheit degrees into Centigrade:
Deduct 32°; halve the degrees; add 1/9 (roughly 1/10 or a little more).
E.g., 100° F.; - 32 = 68; 1/2 68 = 34; 34 + 3·4 = 37·4 (37·75 correct).
2. MEASURES OF DENSITY
Specific gravity and the density of fluids at different temperatures
were known in very ancient times. The ‘Eureka’ experiments of Archimedes
are well known. Al-Khazini (1121)[44] determined the specific gravity of
metals and of fluids at different temperatures as accurately as modern
physicists have done.
Footnote 44:
_Book of the Balance of Wisdom_ (H. Carrington Bolton).
The hydrometer, divided into 24 qiráts, was well known in the East, even
before the time of the Caliphates.
The density or specific gravity of solids and fluids is usually referred
to that of distilled water at 62° F. = 16·6° C.
It is sometimes referred to 4° C. = 39·2° F. There is no advantage in
this temperature, that of water at its maximum density; corrections for
temperature will always have to be made in exact determinations, while,
in the approximate determinations of trade, the indoor standard of 62°
F. requires no correction.
The specific gravity of gases being in the ratio of their molecular
weight, which is referred to that of hydrogen, this gas is taken as the
standard.
The density of solutions of salts, sugar, acids, &c., is referred to
that of water or stated on a trade-scale usually indicating the
percentage in solution.
The density of spirits is referred to that of water, but their alcoholic
strength to:
(_a_) A scale indicating the volume of alcohol per cent. (Gay-Lussac and
Tralles).
(_b_) An arbitrary scale (Cartier and Baumé).
(_c_) An excise-scale on the basis of proof-spirit (Sykes).
Proof-spirit meant originally a spirit sufficiently strong to take
light, and which, if poured on gunpowder and lighted, would cause the
powder to explode. This was the ‘Holland-proof,’ By a statute of 1816 it
was defined as of specific gravity 12/13 that of water at 51° F., which
is = 0·923; but at the present standard temperature of 60° = 15·5° C. it
is 0·920.
With Sykes’s hydrometer, used in England:
_Under Proof_ (U.P.)—each degree means 1 per cent. of water, the rest
being proof spirit.
_Over Proof_ (O.P.)—each degree means 1 per cent. of water required to
be added to bring the spirit down to proof.
The scale of Tralles’s alcoholometer only differs from Gay-Lussac’s by
water being taken at 39·2° and pure alcohol as of sp. gr. 7939 at 60°.
Alcohol Sykes° Baumé°
Sp. Gr. Vol. per cent. (Excise) (French)
1·000 0 100 U.P. 10
0·920 57·05 Proof 22
0·848 85·2 49·6 O.P. 36 Fr. Rect. Spirit Troix-six.
0·838 88·8 55·8 „ 38·2 Rect. Spirit, Brit. Pharm.
0·821 93·75 64·3 „ 41·8 Strongest Rect. Spirit.
0·794 100 —— 48 Absolute Alcohol.
The approximate relation of the five usual scales for proof and French
rectified spirit are as follows:
Proof 0·920 Fr. Rect. Sp. 0·848
Gay-Lussac 58° 86°
Tralles 56·3° 85°
Cartier 21·6° 34°
Baumé 22·6° 36° Trois-six
Sykes Proof 49·6°
_Compound Industrial Units_
Units of Power, of Electricity, of Caloric, &c., are abstract compound
units based on units of time, weight, length, &c., combined for
industrial convenience, e.g. a certain weight moved a certain distance
in a certain time.
The H.P., engine horse-power, is 550 lb. raised one foot in one second.
In France this becomes 75·9 kilos, raised one metre in one second, =
about 3/4 of the kilo-watt unit of electric power.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER XVI
THE ELLS
The Ells are the Cubits of the modern West. They are of two kinds: the
Foot-Ells, of which the Persian cubit and the Beládi cubit, divisible
into 2 feet, were the types, and the Span-Ells, of 3, 4, 5 or 6 spans.
1. THE FOOT-ELLS
In France the Aune was 4 Roman feet.
In the Italian states the Braccio was usually 2 local feet, but
sometimes an Eastern cubit.
In the German and Norse states the Eln was 2 local feet.
In Spain the Covado, of 2 Burgos feet, was the Beládi cubit.
2. THE SPAN-ELLS
The Span-Ells of Western Europe are of two types, derived either from
the English foot, or from a Netherlands foot which has disappeared and
which was probably the Olympic foot. (See Holland, in the next chapter.)
The Netherlands Ell appears then to be 3 spans of an Olympic cubit = 3 ×
18·24/2, which is equivalent to 2-1/4 Olympic feet: 2-1/4 × 12·16: both
= 27·36 inches. The Antwerp Ell was formerly = 27·396 inches, and that
of Amsterdam = 27·216 inches. There has been shrinkage, probably through
the influence of the English standard of the Flemish Ell, we having
taken 3 of our own spans, = 27 inches, for this largely used
trade-measure, and our standard having prevailed in foreign trade. So
the Flemish Ell has tended more and more to the English standard. In
Holland and its colonies it is = 27·08 inches. This is also the standard
in Portugal. The lesser _pík_ or _drá_ of Constantinople, = 27 inches,
was probably = 26·8 inches as in Egypt; it may have increased under the
influence of the English or Flemish Ell. The Venetian braccio, = 26·9
inches, probably comes from this Turkish _pík_.
In Northern France there was an Aune = 27·1 inches and another of 27
Amsterdam inches = 27·36 inches (the Amsterdam foot being of 11 inches).
In Prussia there is, or was, an Ell = 26·257 inches. It was described as
of 2-1/8 Rhineland feet; but it was almost certainly 3 Roman spans =
2-1/4 Roman feet (11·67 × 2-1/4 = 26·257 inches), brought into the
Rhineland system by representing it as 2-1/8 Rhineland feet, which it is
only approximately; 2-1/8 × 12·3563 being = 26·2617 inches.
Nowhere out of England and Scotland is there found any Span-ell other
than of 3 spans. The apparent exceptions are in Spain, where the Vara of
3 feet, = 1-1/2 Beládi cubit, is a 4-span ell, like our Yard, and in
Occitania (Southern France), where the Cano is an 8-span fathom.
‘Ell,’ formerly Elne, meant at first the natural cubit or length of the
forearm (L. _ulna_) from the finger tips to the bend of the arm or
‘el-bow.’ Originally of 2 spans, it came to mean a greater multiple of
the span, or, as in the case of the German ells and the French aune, a
multiple of the foot.
Our Ells were:
Flemish Ell 3 spans = 27 inches
English Yard 4 „ = 36 „
Scots Ell 4 „ = 36 „ (Scots)
English Ell 5 „ = 45 „
Long English Ell or Cloth-goad 6 „ = 54 „
The Flemish Ell was that of the Netherlands, brought to the standard of
our inches.
The Long English Ell or cloth-goad of 6 spans was a double Flemish ell.
It has long been extinct.
The Yard has survived, from its convenience as either of 4 spans or of 3
feet.
The Scots Ell = 37·058 inches corresponded to the English yard; it was 3
feet Scots, i.e. of Rhineland standard, = 12·353 inches.
The Common English Ell, the tailor’s yard, ‘taylors yerde, virga
cissoris,’ was probably the French aune = 46·6 inches, introduced under
the Plantagenets from their French dominions and cut down to fit our ell
system. This ell appears to have been carried abroad by trade. Both the
3-span Covado and the 5-span Vara of Portugal are identical with our
ells, their spans being longer than the ordinary Portuguese spans and
called _palmos avantejados_, long spans.
The four-foot Ell of Jersey and Guernsey was probably the French ell
increased from 4 Roman feet to 4 English feet.
Of the foot-ells of Italy and Germany, several were exactly half our
ell, while quite foreign to the native standards.
Both our Ell and our Yard were divided into 4 quarters and 16 nails. The
Elizabethan standards, still extant, are so divided.
Of the English span-ells the Yard alone remains. The 5-span Ell,
maintained by the statute authority which prescribed the breadth of
cloth, lived only as a royal measure and, like the royal pound, was
gradually superseded by the more popular measure. The ell was obsolete
nearly a century before the royal pound silently disappeared. It seems,
however, to have survived in Wales for a long time.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER XVII
FOREIGN LINEAR MEASURES
Only a sketch of these can be given, for in some countries so various
are the local standards that each petty state, each district sometimes,
would require a long study.
I. THE TEUTONIC COUNTRIES
_Sweden_
The Roman foot = 11·67 inches. This is, or was, also used in Oldenburg
and in some parts of Holland.
_Denmark and Norway_
The Rhineland foot = 12·356 inches, divided into 12 Tomme (thumbs), 12
feet = 1 rode (rod).
_North Germany_
The principal types are:
1. The Rhineland foot, in Prussia, &c.
2. The Hanoverian foot = 11·5 inches more or less, used in Hanover,
Pomerania, part of Holland and Belgium, Bavaria, Mecklenburg, and
Geneva.
3. The Hanseatic foot, 11·32 inches more or less, used in Lubeck, Bremen
(11·39), Hamburg (11·276), Dantzig, also in Hesse, Saxe-Coburg, and
Poland.
The length of 11·32 inches points to the probability of the Hanseatic
foot being a reduced Rhineland foot, 11/12 of 12·356 inches = 11·3264
inches. There are several instances of the popular objection to a long
foot and of the artifice which reduces it to a more convenient length by
taking 11 inches of the government standard, and making from them a foot
of 12 short inches.
4. The Amsterdam foot = 11·146 inches, also used in the Dutch parts of
New England. This foot is divided into 11 inches, an evident instance of
a reduced foot, unconcealed by any division into 12 new inches. The
practice of making a reduced foot stands revealed, and is confirmed by
the Amsterdam rod (roede) being 13 of these reduced feet, evidently to
make up in land-measure for the reduction in the foot in the home and in
the workshop. This compensation is of the same kind as that now used in
English agricultural weights where, to compensate for the statute
reduction of the ancient 16 lb. stone, of which 16 made a wey or load of
256 lb., the custom arose of taking 18 statute-stones of 14 lb. to make
a load of 252 lb. approximately the same as the old load.
The question now arises: What was the foot of 12·16 inches which the
Hollanders reduced to 11/12 = 11·146 inches? Was it the Olympic foot?
The seafaring Netherlander, to whom the nautical mile and its 1/1000
part = the Olympic fathom, were familiar, would very possibly take its
sixth part as their foot, just as the seafaring Greeks had taken it. But
landfolk accustomed to the short Roman foot, which is still to be found
in the land-measures of Holland, would reduce the longer foot to 11
inches for popular use.
Yet the longer foot has left traces in the Netherlands. The Amsterdam
roede of 13 Amsterdam feet is = 12·07 feet, i.e. 12 feet of 12·07
inches. The Amsterdam Ell, = 27·08 inches at present (= 3 spans of 9·023
inches), was, in 1647, according to John Greaves, = 27·216 inches,
giving a foot of 12·1 inches, and he gives the Antwerp Ell as = 27·396
inches, which gives an Antwerp foot 12·176 inches, a length very close
to that of the Olympic foot of 12·16 inches. There appears to have been
a slight shrinkage in the Amsterdam ell.
_Austria_
There are two standards of foot. While the ordinary foot, 1/6 of the
Klafter or fathom, is = 12·441 inches, that of the ell (which is 2-1/2
feet) = 12·245 inches. It looks as if the one were increased, and the
other equally decreased, from the Rhineland foot, = 12·356 inches.
2. THE LATIN COUNTRIES
_Italy_
Here every state, almost every city, had a different standard of length.
The foot was generally of Roman type = 11·67 inches, or of a very short
type, = about 10·3 inches, referable possibly to half an Egyptian royal
cubit, = 20·64 inches, a measure still extant in Egypt. There was
usually also a braccio or cloth-ell of 23 to 26 inches, probably of
Eastern origin.
In Lombardy the standard was the Luitprandi foot (pié Aliprandi) = 20·28
inches, with a corresponding pertica or rod of 12 _piedi_, usually =
20·23 feet. Legend refers this measure to the foot-length of a giant
Lombard king; but it is evidently a cubit, probably a variant of the
Egyptian royal cubit, for 2/3 of it gave the Lombard foot, = 13·52
inches; and this, as also the Venetian foot, = 13·69 inches, seems
referable to the Egyptian royal foot, = 13·76 inches.
But everywhere and always the people object to a long foot-standard.
Whether in ancient Egypt or in modern Italy, they will take a more
convenient length; they will halve the cubit so as to get a short foot,
or take some span, or some ell divisible into spans. So in Italy there
was generally a local foot and also a span. Sometimes the span was 3/4
of the foot, at other times it was a fraction of a braccio or ell; and
both foot and span might be called a _palmo_. This term was equivalent
to the L. _palmus major_ as distinguished from the ordinary _palmus_ of
4 digits. In Rome there is, or was till recently, a series the same as
that of ancient Rome, on the basis of a foot = 11·72 inches, slightly
longer than the ancient foot = 11·67 inches; 5 feet made a _passo_, and
1000 _passi_ a mile.
The foot was of 16 digits, usually called _oncie_, inches, and 12 of
these digits were taken for a palmo = 8·79 inches. Three of these palmi
made the braccio, the cloth-ell, = 26·38 inches.
The Roman field-measures were a mixture of decimal chain-units and of
lengths derived from seed-measures of land.
In Tuscany the standard was the braccio, = 22·98 inches, half of which
was the palmo, = 11·49 inches. The braccio was divided, as if it were a
money-pound, into 20 soldi, of 12 denari.
In the kingdom of Naples, with its population of Greek origin, the
standard of length was the meridian mile, divided into 1000 Olympic
fathoms or passi. But the passo was divided, not into six long feet,
but, like the Egyptian royal cubit, into 7 palmi, = 10·4 inches. The
usual standard was the Canna of 8 palmi, a reversion to the common
Mediterranean measure of the reed of 8 spans.
In Genoa there was, and perhaps is still, a palmo = 9·764 inches, a
length exactly that of the pán in several cities of Provence. It has
changed but little since the time of Recorde’s ‘Pawn of Geans’ (1543) or
since John Greaves (1647) gave it as = 9·78 inches.[45]
Footnote 45:
In this ‘pawn’ (the spelling of which shows that English had already
lost the _a_ sound of the first vowel and had to represent it by _aw_)
I see the fusion of two words etymologically different, the Italian
_palmo_, L. _palmus_, and the Provençal _pán_, side, panel. See, in
Chaps. IV and XXI, ‘The Pán of Marseilles.’
Genoa, the language of which district is a dialect of Provençal, has
measures of the Provençal type. The measures of Provence will be
described at length in Chap. XXI.
_Spain_
The standard is the Burgos foot = 11·127 inches, 3 feet making a Vara.
This foot was originally = 10·944 inches,[46] i.e. half the Beládi
cubit, brought by the Moors. This original standard has been preserved
very nearly in the two-foot _Covado di ribera_, the shore-cubit, =
21·9157 inches, its half = 10·9578 inches.
Footnote 46:
As pointed out by Don V. V. Queipo (_Essai sur les Systèmes
Métriques_, 1859), but not quite accurately. His values are often
confused or obscure, but his work is most useful.
That the Burgos foot has deviated, like most Spanish weights and
measures, from the accurate standards of the Moors, is shown by the
length of the Spanish _Legua maritima_, the league of 3 meridian miles,
or 6653·36 varas. At the modern standard of the Burgos foot this is
6653·36 × 3 × 11·127 inches = 220,958 inches, while 3 meridian miles are
2026·66 yards × 3 × 12 inches = 218,880 inches, showing an error of 2078
inches = 57·7 yards.
Taking the original standard of the Burgos foot at 10·944 inches,
6653 varas × 3 × 10,944 = 218,880 inches,
exactly corresponding to the Parasang, = 10,000 Beládi cubits of 21·888
inches, or to 20,000 Burgos feet as instituted by the Moors.
The erroneous standard of the Burgos foot appears to have been
corrected. The tables of A. de Malarce, approved by the French
government in 1879, give the Burgos foot as = O·27833 metre = 10·938
inches.
That Spain also once had the Roman foot is shown by the survival in
Tunis of the Drá Andalussi, the Spanish Ell, of 3 Roman spans of 8·753
inches = 26·25 inches.
_Portugal_
Here the Roman standard is seen in the Palmo or span = 8·749 inches, 3/4
of a foot = 11·665 inches. The palmo is divided into 8 _polegadas_,
inches, of 12 lines, or into 12 _dedo_, digits, of 8 lines.
The Vara, = 43·7 inches, is of 5 spans; the Braça, or fathom, is 2 varas
or 10 spans; 3000 fathoms make a league, = 3·89 miles, divided into 3
_milhas_ of 8 _estados_, stadia or furlongs. In land-measure 4840 square
varas make a _geira_ (= 1·47 acre) exactly, as 4840 square yards make
our acre. One may infer that the form and division of the geira was
similar to that of our acre; that it is, or was, 220 × 22 varas, a 1/10
strip of some ‘acreme’ measure. This view is supported by the use in
Brazil of a land-unit, the _quadro_, officially 150 × 1 metres; a strip
of an original square quadro corresponding to the 10-geira field. In
Argentina the _cuadra_ is 150 varas, and the _cuadra cuadrada_, 4·17
acres, is that measure squared.
Portugal has another span, the _palmo avantejado_ = 9·0256 inches, of
which 3 make a covado or cubit = 27·078 inches, virtually the Flemish
ell of English standard.
3. RUSSIA AND THE EAST
_Russia_
The standard of length is the English foot, introduced by Peter the
Great. There is another and older measure, the Arshīn = 28 inches, i.e.
the Turkish arshīn of 27·9 inches varied to a simple relation with the
new foot; and like the Turkish measure it is divided into 16 nails
(Verstok). See ‘Arshīn,’ further on.
3 Arshīns = 1 Sajeng = 7 feet.
500 Sajeng = 1 Verst = 1166·6 yds. (1·06 kilometre).
_Turkey_
The Arshīn or Halebi pík = 27·9 inches.
5-1/2 Arshīns = 1 Qasáb.
The Hendázi or Stambūli _drá_ = 25·688 inches, very nearly the Hashími
cubit = 25·56 inches.
The Cloth-drá = the Flemish ell.
All these are divided into either 16 nails or 24 qirát.
_Egypt_
The Hendázi drá, as above.
The Nile pík of two standards:
1. That of the Black cubit = 21·28 inches.
2. That of the Royal cubit = 20·65 „
There is also a commonly used pík = 26·8 inches, probably a low standard
Flemish ell.
_Persia_
The geodesic traditions of the ancient Oriental monarchies maintain many
of their standards. The principal is the Guz or Yard of 2 common
Egyptian cubits 2 × 18·24 = 36·48 inches. It is 1/6000 of the Farsakh,
the ancient Parasang or league of 3 meridian miles.
There are also amongst others:
A Cloth guz = 1-1/2 Hashími cubits = 38·3 inches.
Another guz = 1-1/2 Persian cubits = 37·9 „
„ „ = 1-2/3 Hashími cubits = 42 „
_Roumania_
The measures differ little from those of Turkey.
The Halebi pík = 27·6 inches.
The Hendázi „ = 26·03 „
_Greece_
The Hendázi _píchus_, of Hashími standard = 25·51, is the usual measure.
_Tunis, Tripoli, Algeria_
The Moorish drá = 18·94 to 19·2 inches (3/4 of the Hashími cubit), the
usual standard. The multiples by 8 show the influence of the Cano of 8
spans from Southern France and Italy.
The ancient Roman mile still exists in Tunis, with a length = 1610-1/4
yards.
4. THE HASHÍMI CUBIT
After the Moslem conquest of the countries of the Eastern great
monarchies, the 25·26 inch standard of the Persian cubit was raised to
25·56 inches. This is the Hashími, or Hashemic cubit, named after
Hashim, the chief of the Arab tribe to which the prophet Mahomed
belonged. It is the cubit mentioned in the ‘Arabian Nights’ (524th
night). But the cubit or the foot of the Nights, when not specified, is
usually either of the Olympic or of Al-Mamūn’s standard. The increase of
the Persian cubit was probably to bring it, together with the Beládi
cubit and the Arshīn (to be described presently), into simple relation
with a Qasáb of length slightly increased so that this should, for
building and land measurement, be a common multiple of the three cubits.
This is the Turkish qasáb, the qasáb qabáni = 153·45 inches.
7 Beládi cubits at 21·888 inches = 153·216 inches.
6 Hashími „ „ 25·56 „ = 153·36 „
5-1/2 Arshīns „ 27·9 „ = 153·45 „
By taking the 7 Beládi cubits at the equatorial standard of the Jewish
cubit, 21·914 inches, they would give 153·34 inches, and taking 5-1/2
arshīns at the slightly diminished length of 27·88 inches, the qasáb
would be an exact common multiple of them at 153·36 inches.
This qasáb can be divided into 6 Hashími cubits, or 12 feet, or 24
kubdehs (handshafts), or sexdecimally into 2 fathoms, 4 guz, 8 cubits,
16 spans. It is a mere coincidence that the old French foot, = 12·789
inches, was very approximately half a Hashími cubit.
5. THE HALEBI PÍK OR ARSHĪN
The date of this measure is as uncertain as its source. It is a Turkish
measure = 27·9 inches or thereabouts, divided into 16 qirát. This
division points to it being 2/3 of a Persian guz of 24 qirát.
Among the guz of Persia there is one = 1-2/3 Hashími cubits = 42 inches,
of which 16/24 = 28 inches. If this length were taken, it might have
been somewhat lessened to make it an aliquot part of the Turkish reed or
qasáb, 6 Hashími cubits = 153·36 inches. At the length of 27·9 inches,
5-1/2 arshīn = 153·45 inches or within 1/10 inch of the qasáb.
It is curious that the Reed should be 5-1/2 arshīns, as our Rod is 5-1/2
yards.
While the Turkish qasáb is—
7 Beládi cubits, 6 Hashími cubits = 5-1/2 arshīns, the Egyptian qasáb,
somewhat less, is—
6 Assyrian cubits of 25·26 inches = 151·56 inches, or 5-1/2 double royal
feet of 13·76 = 151·36 inches, and is divided into 10 ‘belendi’ feet of
15·156 inches.
There is a lesser Egyptian qasáb of 5 arshīns = 139·65 inches and a
third still less, of 4 Assyrian cubits = 101 inches. With each of these
qasáb 20 × 20 make a Feddan of land.
The word Pík is the Greek pichūs, a cubit.
_Note of Acknowledgment_
In this and the next two chapters I have necessarily had to work largely
on materials gathered by others. The equivalents of foreign measures and
weights are in many cases taken from—
Kelly’s ‘Cambist,’ 1816.
Woolhouse’s ‘Measures, Weights and Moneys of all Nations,’ 1890.
De Malarce, ‘Poids et Mesures,’ 1879.
Browne’s ‘Merchants’ Handbook,’ 1899.
The information in the last of these is excellently compiled and very
trustworthy.
My object is to give, not tabulated series of measures but their history
and rationale, to apprehend the ways of thought which have given rise to
them, to seek their relations. No country has an isolated system, or
even an isolated measure, and unity underlies the infinite variety of
measures and weights.
TABLE OF SOME EUROPEAN ITINERARY MEASURES
Yards Miles
1. Meridian mile—Naples 2026-2/3 1·1515
„ league, 1/20 degree — 4·54
2. Ancient Roman mile 1621-1/3 0·921
3. Roman mile, modified—
Venice, 1000 paces of 5 feet 1901 1·08
Sicily, 720 rods of 8 palmi 1625 0·924
Spain, 1000 paces of 5 feet 1520 0·863
Portugal, 8 stadia of 234-2/3 varas 2281 1·296
England, 8 furlongs of 220 yards 1760 1·0
France, 1000 toises 2131 1·21
4. German Meile, about a meridian league—
Austria, 4000 fathoms of 6 feet — 4·71
Prussia and Denmark, 2000 rods of 12 feet — 4·68
Hanover, 1587 rods of 16 feet — 4·66
Brunswick, 1625 rods of 16 feet — 4·61
5. An ‘hour-walk’ league—
Holland—Uur gaans — —
Switzerland—Stunde, 1600 rods of 10 feet — 2·98
6. Russia—Verst, 500 sajeng of 7 feet 1166·6 0·663
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER XVIII
FOREIGN WEIGHTS
1. TEUTONIC SYSTEMS OF WEIGHT
The German and Norse pounds are of three types:
1. The pound of the Cologne mark, the double marc, = 7216 grains, its
ounce = 451 grains. This was the standard of the old Tower weight of the
English mints. It coincides with the Arabic lesser rotl, 1/100 of the
Cantar of Al-Mamūn (= 102·92 lb.).
Its modern type is, or was, the pound of Prussia and Hanover = 7218
grains, 1/100 of the Centner = 103·11 lb. It was defined as 1/66 of the
weight of a Rhineland cubic foot of water (see next chapter).
2. The Troy pound, of variable standard, from 7705 grains (ounce = 481·5
grs.) in Denmark, and as high as 483 grains in Sweden, to 7595 grains
(ounce = 474·7 grs.) in Holland. Even in Holland there is another
standard, that of the Amsterdam pound, 7625 grains (ounce = 476·7 grs.),
the medium standard of Troy weight, = 10 Egyptian dirhems of 47·6
grains.
3. The Nuremburg pound = 7390 grains, its ounce = 462 grains. As the
12-oz. pound of apothecaries’ weight, it is = 5522 grains, its ounce =
460·2 grains. This pound is derived from the 8-ounce _peso di marco_ of
Venice = 3695 grains. The Venice ounce, = 460·2 grains, was divided into
144 carats of 3·19609 grains. This ounce was 8 centesimal drachmæ of the
Arabic lesser rotl = 5763 grains, when divided on the Greek system into
100 drachmæ of 57·63 grains, instead of on the uncial system, so that 8
× 57·63 = 461·04 grains. This is the apparent basis of the Venetian
marc-ounce and the Nuremburg ounce.
As the Marc was 2/3 of the classic 12-oz. pound, the word came to mean
2/3 of a pound, either weight or coin; it probably came from ‘San Marco’
of Venice.
German and Scandinavian ounces were usually divided into 2 loths or
half-ounces, 8 quentchen and 16 Pfenning.
In Holland the mint-ounce was of 20 Engels, each of 32 Azen. ‘Engel’ is
the English sterling or dwt.; the Aas is an ace, a light grain = 0·7417
grain.
_The Baltic Skippund._ This ship-pound was 20 lispund, of either 20
light or 16 heavy pounds:
Denmark & Norway—20 lispund of 16 skaalpund = 352 lb.
Sweden—20 lispund of 20 skaalpund = 375 lb.
Russia—the berkowitz, 10 pūd of 40 fūnt = 361 lb.
2. EAST-EUROPEAN SYSTEMS OF WEIGHT
The Pounds of Poland, of Russia, of Austro-Hungary and Bavaria (also a
mint-pound in Sweden), appear to have developed from the Arabic pounds
on a dirhem-basis.
1. The Polish pound, 16 × 8 dirhems of 48·9 grains, = 6258 grs. It is
divided into 16 ounces; the oz. = 391 grs. (Cf. the lb. of Sardinia and
of Languedoc; the oz. = 392 grs.)
2. The Russian pound or fūnt, of 12 ounces. The ounce (lana) = 526·6
grains is almost exactly 10 greater dirhems of 52·6 grains.
This ounce is exactly that of the rottolo attári or Assyrian rotl of
8426 grains (the Greek-Asiatic miná) still extant in Bássora (Chaldæa)
and in Algeria. The relationship is evident, since the Roman As was
1/100 of the Greek-Asiatic talent, and the greater dirhem was 1/9 of the
As-ounce = 420·75 grains.
3. The Austro-Hungarian pound, also used in Bavaria, is 16 × 8 dirhems
of 50·6 grains = 6482·3 grs.
4. The Swedish mint-pound.
This pound, = 6503 grains, was divided into 2 mint-marcs, divided again
into 8 ounces of 406·3 grains. Of the same type is the commercial
skaalpund = 6536 grs.; its oz. = 408·5 grs., a weight exactly the same
as that of the ounce of Genoa, which belongs to the dirhem-system, being
8 dirhems of 51 grains.
The Swedish medicinal weight is Nuremburg. There are two miner’s pounds
showing the extremes of Troy weight; the ounces being 483 and 471
grains.
3. THE MEDITERRANEAN SYSTEMS OF WEIGHT
In Egypt the dirhem-system gives rise to two series of weights: that of
the Oka and that of the Rottolo. In the latter word the Arabic ‘rotl’ is
Italianised, the Arabic weights having come under Roman influence; an
influence of long standing, since Al-Mamūn divided the Cantar after the
Roman plan into 125 lesser rotl as well as into 100 greater rotl, when
the Arabic gold Mithkal, 1/72 of the Egypto-Roman libra, took the place
of the exagium solidi or aureus, 1/72 of the Roman mint-As.
The Mithkal, or Miskal, = 72·74 grains, was divided into 24 Egyptian
qirát = 3·03 grains, as the Aureus had been divided into 24 Roman
Siliquæ = 2·92 grains, and 16 of the 24 qirát was the standard of the
silver dirhem = 48·5 grains, _the lesser dirhem_.
The golden Dinar, 21-3/4 qirát, was of the weight of the Attic
commercial drachma = 65·6 grains; it displaced the Roman golden
denarius. But the lesser dirhem, 2/3 the weight of the Mithkal, did not
succeed in displacing an old-established drachma, which became a greater
dirhem. For, as the Mithkal had a dirhem 2/3 of its weight, so the Roman
Aureus, 1/6 of the As-ounce, had a silver drachma 3/4 of its weight. The
As, originally 1/100 of the Greek-Asiatic talent, had its ounce divided,
after the Greek system, into 8 drachmæ each 5049/(12 × 8) = 52·6 grains.
Apparently this _greater dirhem_ tended, in Arab times, to fall towards
the standard of the lesser dirhem = 48·5 grains. This is the probable
explanation of the variations of the dirhems, and of the pounds based on
them, along the Mediterranean coasts.
In Tunis the dirhem = 48·58, almost exactly the original weight of the
lesser dirhem. But in Tripoli there are two standards, 47·075 and 50·1
grains. The Ukyé or ounce is goldsmith’s weight, 10 dirhems of 47·075
grains; but in commercial weight it is in dirhems of 50·1 grains, so it
is made the same weight by reckoning it as 150 kharūb or qirát instead
of 160 of these as in the goldsmith’s ounce of 10 dirhems of 16 qirát.
So there are variations in the weight of the dirhem basis of the
Mediterranean pounds:
In Egypt the dirhem = 47·66 grains
In Tripoli „ = ⎧47·07 „
⎩50·1 „
In Tunis „ = 48·58 „
In Morocco „ = 49 „
In Turkey „ = 49·6 „
The qirát, 1/16 of the dirhem, varies with it.
_Egypt_
The Oka, = 2·723 lb., is 400 dirhems of 47·66 grs.
The Rottolo, = 98 lb., is 144 dirhems of 47·66 grs.
The Oka is a centesimal multiple of the dirhem.
The Rottolo is an uncial multiple of it.
100 Rottoli = 1 Cantar = 98 lb.; this is the modern Egyptian Cwt. which
has succeeded the Cantar of Al-Mamūn = 102·92 lb.
_Turkey_
There is a double series as in Egypt, but the Turkish series are based,
one on the Dirhem and the other on the Egypto-Roman ounce at the
standard of 436·45 grains. In modern Rome it is 436·26 grains, in
Tuscany 436·66 grains.
The Dirhem, = 49·5 grains, is 16 qirát of 3·1 grains.
The Cheké is of 100 dirhems = 4950 grains.
The Oka is of 400 dirhems = 2·83 lb.
The Cantar is = 2000 ounces = 124·7 or 44 Oke.
The Cantar is divided into 100 Rottoli of 1·247 lb., = 20 ounces.
_The Libbra and the Rottolo_
Rottoli of over 16 ounces are not uncommon in Mediterranean countries,
whether Moslem or Christian. They form an alternate series with the
libbra series. Thus in Algiers there are 3 rottoli of 16, 18 and 24 oz.,
each ounce, = 526·6 grains, being 10 greater dirhems, and coinciding
with the Russian ounce. There are—
in Sicily a 12-oz. libbra, = 4897 grs., and a 30-oz. rottolo =
12,244 grs.;
in Malta a 12-oz. libbra, = 4886 grs., and a 30-oz. rottolo =
12,215 grs.;
in Genoa a 12-oz. libbra, = 4893 grs., and an 18-oz. rottolo =
7378 grs.;
in Naples a 12-oz. libbra, = 4950 grs., and a rottolo = 13,750
grs.
These Italian libbre belong to the dirhem system, their ounces being 8
dirhems of slightly different weights; and the ounces are of much lower
weight than the ounces of the northern countries or of ancient Rome.
Though divided into 12 ounces, these libbre belong to the same class as
the 16-oz. pounds of Southern France; all having ounces of 8 dirhems.
But in North Africa the Oka and the rottolo have an ounce of 10 dirhems.
OUNCES AND DIRHEMS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN SYSTEM
Lb. of Oz. Dirhem of
Genoa 12 oz. 408·5 grs. 1/8 = 51 grs.
Sicily „ 408 „ 1/8 = 51 „
Malta „ 407 „ 1/8 = 51 „
Sardinia „ 392·6 „ 1/8 = 49·1 „
Majorca „ 392 „ 1/8 = 49 „
Languedoc 16 oz. 400 „ 1/8 = 50 „
Gascony „ 392 „ 1/8 = 49 „
Provence „ 377 „ 1/8 = 47·1 „
Turkey = 49·5 „
Egypt = 47·66 „
Morocco Rotl 20 oz. 392 „ = 49 „
Tripoli Oka 40 oz.⎫ 470·75 „ 1/10 = 47 „
Algiers Rotl 16 oz.⎭
Tunis Rotl 16 oz. 485·8 „ 1/10 = 48·58 „
Everywhere there is a Cantar or Quintal, a hundredweight, divided into 4
_rūba_ and into 100 pounds or rotl.
In Tunis the Cantar = 111 lb., divided into 100 rotl of 16 ukyé or
ounces of 10 dirhems.
In Tripoli it is = 107·6 lb., in 100 rotl of 16 ukyé, of 8 dirhems of
47·075 grains.
In Morocco it is = 112 lb. of 100 rotl, each of 20 ukyé of 8 dirhems;
the ukyé or ounce = 392 grains as in Gascony (Foix, Albi, &c.), where it
was 8 ternau.
SUMMARY
However differently the Mediterranean pound or the rotl may be divided,
its ukyé or ounce is always based on one of the dirhems. This
dirhem-basis is found in every pound used in Europe and the countries
colonised from Europe.
The pound, whether of 12 or 16 ounces, found in Morocco, Majorca,
Sardinia, Gascony, is then an Arabic weight, with an ounce of 8 dirhems,
of 49 grains = 392 grains.
The pound of Provence was 16 ounces, each 8 dirhems of 47·1 grains.
The Troy pounds had ounces of 10 dirhems varying between 47·2 grains for
French Troy and 48·3 for northern Troy.
The Spanish pound = 7101 grains, its ounce = 443·8 grains, was
originally at the Moorish standard of 6 mithkals to the ounce, that is
the Egypto-Roman ounce, the old averdepois ounce. But 6 mithkals being
equal to 9 lesser dirhems, this dirhem-basis appears to have been taken.
Then, for lesser dirhems of 48·5 grains, 9 heavier dirhems of 49·3
grains, nearly the Morocco and Gascony standard, were substituted.
The Nuremburg or Venetian pound. Its ounce, = 460 grains, was 12 drachms
of 57·6 grains, 1/100 of the lesser rotl.
The Cologne pound of 7200 grains, its ounce = 451 grains, or at Tower
standard 450 grains, was the greater rotl. Or its ounce was 9 dirhems of
that rotl, dirhems of 50·03 grains.
It is thus seen that every European pound is composed of ounces on a
dirhem-basis, of 8, 9, 10 or 12 dirhems; or, as in the case of the
averdepois ounce, coinciding with the ounce of 6 mithkals or 9 dirhems.
The ounce was—
8 dirhems in the light Mediterranean pounds.
9 dirhems in the medium pounds of Spain and Cologne.
10 dirhems in the Troy pounds.
10 greater dirhems in the Russian pound.
12 drachmæ in the Venetian pound.
ORIGINAL WEIGHTS OF THE DIRHEMS
1. Coin-weights:— Grains.
Aureus, 1/6 of As-ounce 70·1
3/4 „ 1/8 „ „ greater dirhem 52·6
Mithkal, 1/6 of Egypto-Roman ounce 72·74
3/4 „ 1/9 „ „ „ lesser dirhem 48·5
2. Rotl-weights:—
1/100 lesser rotl drachma 57·63
1/144 greater rotl medium dirhem 50·03
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER XIX
FOREIGN MEASURES OF CAPACITY
1. THE TEUTONIC SYSTEM
Measures of capacity are always either—
(_a_) based on a certain cubed linear measure;
(_b_) made to hold a certain weight of water or of corn.
A measure of capacity for wine or other fluids may be increased in
water-wheat, or pound-pint, ratio to make a corn-measure.
In England they were originally based on the measure of 1000 ounces of
water, which became a cubic foot. Many foreign measures are either a
cubic foot, sometimes increased in water-wheat ratio, or a cubed cubit.
In Germany, amid a great diversity of measures, a chaos to anyone who
has not the key to the principle of unity underlying variety, apparently
aberrant measures often show by their names that, while their value has
changed, they were originally of a standard that can be traced. And it
will generally be found that they are related to a cubic foot, perhaps
increased in water-wheat ratio. Sometimes there is one measure for wine
and corn, and sometimes the increased corn-measure may have come to be
used for fluids while the corn-measure actually in use has been
imported.
Taking three representative German feet, and evolving from them their
cubic measure, we have:
Foot. Cubic foot. Gallons. × 1·25
(_a_) Amsterdam 11·146 in. 1384·6 c.in. = (4·94) = 6·15
(_b_) Hamburg 11·241 „ 1420 „ = (5·12) = 6·4
(_c_) Rhineland 12·356 „ 1886 „ = 6·78 = 8·5
(_a_) In Holland there seems to be no measure of capacity corresponding
to the cubic foot, but this, increased in w.w. ratio, gives the Schepel
= 6·12 gallons, the Skipple of New England.
(_b_) In Hamburg the cubic-foot measure is also absent, but the w.w.
increased measure appears as the Eimer = 6·375 gallons, now used for
wine, and this measure, again increased, appears as the Anker = 7·97
gallons, both being now fluid measures.
In Bremen and Lubeck, the Eimer = 6·4 gallons, and the Anker = 8
gallons, the one of 4 and the other of 5 viertels, are both
wine-measures; while the corn-measure, the Scheffel, = 7·6 gallons, is
very nearly the old English corn-bushel.
(_c_) Prussia and Hanover both had the Rhineland foot, but Prussia,
while recognising the cubic foot of water as 66 lb. weight, Cologne
standard, had no corresponding measure of capacity. In Hanover and in
Brunswick the Rhineland cubic foot of water, = 6·78 gallons, was
represented, not by a wine-measure, but by a corn-measure, the Himt =
6·852 gallons. And the increased measure, 6·85 × 1·25 = 8·56 gallons,
which should properly have been the corn-bushel, appears in Hanover as
the Anker, a second wine-measure.
And yet a wine-measure corresponding to the Rhineland cubic foot did
exist, in the Viertel = 1·713 gallons, exactly one-fourth of the
capacity of the Himt. Five viertels make an Anker, which shows that the
Himt, presumably at first a wine-measure of 4 viertels or quarters, was
increased in water-wheat ratio to the Anker of 5 viertels. But their
original positions were reversed: the Himt became a corn-measure and the
Anker a wine-measure.
The original wine-measure of 4 viertels, now the Himt corn-measure
(represented in Scotland by the Firlot), is important in this story.
The existence of the Himt supports my hypothesis of the origin of the
Rhineland foot. The side of a Himt of quadrantal, or exactly cubical,
shape measures 12·385 inches, not 3/100 of an inch above the 12·356
inches of the Rhineland standard foot.
The Himt is then the Troy talent of 1000 ounces, 2/3 of the Arabic
kantar, which was 1500 Troy ounces, in just the same way that the
English wine-bushel = a cubic foot, the measure of 1000 old averdepois
ounces of water, was 2/3 of the Alexandrian talent of 1500 Egypto-Roman
ounces.
The Himt being the Troy talent-measure, 2/3 of the Arabic cubic foot, it
should have to the Arabic cubic cubit a proportion 2/3 of the normal
proportion 1/3·375 of any cubic foot to its cubic cubit. So the Himt =
6·852 gallons × 3/2 × 3·375 = 34·688 gallons, almost exactly the Arabic
cubic cubit, which became the Cargo of Marseilles, or the Setier of
Paris. Now this standard of 34·73 gallons or thereabouts is not uncommon
in Germany. In Hanover and Hesse-Cassel the Ohm = 34·26 gallons is a
wine-measure, in Saxony the Malter = 34·7 gallons is a corn-measure,
divided into 12 scheffels. Corresponding to this in England was an
ancient measure, the Amber (Hamberboune, Hamberbarrel). In other parts
of Germany where the cubic foot is smaller, being derived, as in
Hamburg, from a foot = 11·24 inches (or at least corresponding to this
foot), the cubic foot there gives a measure = 5·12 gallons, and when
increased in w.w. ratio = 6·4 gallons. This latter measure × 5 gives 32
gallons, and this number of gallons, either as an Ohm, wine-measure, or
× 8 = 32 bushels as a Malter, or corn-measure, is common throughout
Germany. There seems in many places to have been a double standard, the
smaller derived from a cubic foot, and the larger derived from the
Arabic cubic cubit and somewhat cut down to become a multiple of the
smaller measure.
The Viertel, = 1·713 gallons, the quarter of the Himt, is also an
important measure, not only as giving the clue to the Troy talent, but
also as a very widespread wine-measure.
It passed to France, there becoming the Velte = 1·62 gallons at
Bordeaux, 1·76 gallons at Paris, where its introduction into the series
of wine-measures broke the regular division of the Muid. At Bordeaux
this velte was probably the cause of the English wine-gallon increasing
from its original 216 cubic inches (1/8 of the cubic foot, or
wine-bushel of 1000 ounces) to 231 cubic inches. At the latter capacity
it became just half of the Bordeaux velte.
The shrinkage of the Bordeaux velte to 1·62 gallons may have been the
effect of adaptation to an English double wine-gallon, or it may have
been from the velte, when passing to Holland, having to adapt itself to
the other wine-measures of that country. The Dutch Velt or Welt took a
place between the Stoop, = 0·5337 gallons, and the Steekan, of 8
stoopen; and it thus became a measure of 3 stoopen = 1·601 gallon.
It gave rise to the Legger, of 80 velts. This passed to English trade as
the Leaguer, but failed to establish itself, being soon only known as a
long cask of about 150 wine-gallons used for the lower tier of
water-casks in ships. Above the ‘leaguers’ came the ‘riders.’
The Velt and the Leggar are still used in colonies now or formerly
Dutch. The Leggar in Java = 127·34 gallons.
The Velt = 1·6 gallons at the Cape & Java (approximately).
„ „ = 1·63 „ „ Mauritius.
„ „ = 1·66 „ „ Ceylon.
( „ „ = 1·67 „ in France, near La Rochelle.)
But the Viertel maintained, even increased, its standard of 1·713
gallons when entering the Marseilles-Paris systems of wine-measures as
the Velte; rising to 1·77 gallons in order to become half of the
Escandau of Marseilles, and taking a place at = 1·76 gallons in the
Paris series of wine-measures (see Chapter XXI). Coming from the North,
it was yet an evolution of the Arabic foot, while the Escandau was 1/8
of the Marseilles Cargo reduced in wheat-water ratio, and this cargo was
the Arabic cubic cubit.
2. THE MEDITERRANEAN SYSTEM
The Moslem conquest of the greater part of the Mediterranean countries,
with the influence of Arab trade and of Moorish civilisation, displaced
the Roman system of weights and measures, already modified by the
influence of Ptolemaïc Egypt, and caused changes even in the weights and
measures of Italy. Not only the North of Africa, but Spain, Provence
(and the other Occitanian lands), the dominions of the three republics
of Venice, Genoa and Arles, with the countries forming the Turkish
Empire, all these took more or less the Arab system of weights and
measures, and this system penetrated deep into Western Europe.
The principal Arab measures which form the basis of the Mediterranean
measures of capacity were:
1. The cubed Persian cubit = 8 Persian cubic feet (the Persian foot
being half the cubit of 25·26 inches). The Persian cubic foot of water
being the Persian or Greek-Asiatic talent, at its calculated value of
72·61 lb., the cubed cubit is 8 × 72·61 = 580·88 lb. = 58·088 gallons.
This was the Arab (and Hebrew) Den = 58·2 gallons, divided into
4 Artaba of 14·55 gallons
each of 4 Wuebe of 3·6375 „
each of 6 Saa of 0·6064 „
The Artaba was thus = 2 cubic feet, and the Saa was the qirát, 1/24 of
the Artaba.
The modern Persian Artaba = 14·47 gallons.
2. The cubed Black cubit of Al-Mamūn = 34·73 gallons.
3. The cubed Black foot of Al-Mamūn = 10·29 gallons, the weight of which
was the Kantar = 102·92 lb.
4. The Ardeb = 4 cubed Black feet; 4 × 10·29 = 41·168 gallons.
The measures derived from these cubed linear measures are as follows:
1. The first of these measures, the cubed Persian cubit, has been
accurately preserved in the Cafiz of Tunis, which is the Den, doubled, 2
× 58·088 = 116·4 gallons. Its present standard is 116·34 gallons, and it
is divided into
16 Wuebe of 7·27 gallons (1/2 Artaba)
each of 12 Saa of 0·605 „
While the Cafiz of Tunis is of 8 Artaba, the Cahiz of Spain is of 10
Artaba, 10 × 14·55 = 145·5 gallons. It is divided into
12 Fanegas of 12·125 gallons
each of 12 Almudas or Celemines of 1·0104 gallons.
The present standard in Spain of the Cahiz = 144·7 gallons, the Fanega
being = 12·06 gallons, and the Celemin = 1·005 gallon. The Tomolo of
Naples is = 12·22 gallons.
2. The second measure, the cubed Black cubit = 34·73 gallons, is the
basis of the fluid (oil and wine) measures of Tunis, and also of Spain,
Provence and Paris.
Reduced in inverse water-wheat ratio, it gives 34·73/1·22 = 28·46
gallons.
This fluid measure, apparently not extant at the present time, is yet
found in its double, the Moyo of Spain = 56·79 gallons, and its half,
the Mezzaruola of Italy, the Mieirolo of Marseilles.
The Mieirolo is the basis of other important measures; its standard, =
28·46/2 = 14·19 gallons, is found—
in Tunis = 13·97 gallons
in Tripoli = 14·19 „
in Spain = 14-23 „ (1/4 Moyo).
A quarter of this measure is the _Arroba mayor_ of Spain (arroba =
al-rūbá, the fourth), the Escandau of Marseilles = 3·54 gallons.
The half of the Arroba, or of the Escandau, corresponds to the Velte,
1·76 gallon at Paris, 1·73 gallon in Hanover, &c. It is the meeting
point of Northern and Southern measures, which are derived quite
separately from Al-Mamūn’s cubit, the former by weight, the latter by
measure.
The measures of Portugal differ little from those of Spain. The
corn-unit is the Fanga (Sp. _fanega_, Ar. _faníqa_, sack) = 12·17
gallons. There appears to have been a larger unit of 6 fangas, as the
name of the Alqueire, 1/4 fanga, implies that this smaller unit was a
qirát, 1/24 of a large measure = 6 fangas.
The alqueire varies in capacity. In Brazil it is our Imperial bushel.
In Spain the fanega is the usual seed-measure of land; it is = 1·6 acre
(exactly the saumado seed-measure of Provence), though probably that
amount of land requires fully 2 fanegas of seed-corn.
The cubed Black cubit appears also as a corn-measure, its original
purpose.
Original standard 34·73 gallons = 4·34 bushels
Rebekeh of Egypt = 4·32 „
Cargo of Marseilles = 4·26 „
Setier of Paris = 4·29 „
3. The cubed Black foot, = 10·292 gallons, passed with the Moors to
Spain; it was the standard of the old Burgos fanega until the fifteenth
century, when the present Avila standard prevailed.
4. The Ardeb of 4 cubed Black feet, 4 × 10·292 = 41·168 gallons, is
represented by the Cairo Ardeb of the present time, = 40 gallons or 5
bushels, generally somewhat more. It is divided into 6 Wuebe, each of 4
Rūba or quarters, which are qiráts, 1/24 of the Ardeb. The standard of
the Cairo Ardeb varies. It is sometimes put at as much as 5·44 bushels =
43·52 gallons. The official standard of the Ardeb of wheat is 297 lb., =
38·5 gallons at 60 lb. to the bushel.
_Turkey_
The weights and measures of capacity seem a maze of confusion, until the
clue is found. There is a double series of weights based on the dirhem
and on the ounce. This ounce is not mentioned in the series of weights,
but once discovered, it gives the clue to the maze, and the system is
then seen to be really simple.
It has already been seen that the weights are in a double series giving
the Oka of 400 dirhems, and the Cantar of 2000 Egypto-Roman ounces, =
124·7 lb., divided into 100 rottoli. The weight of the dirhem, = 49·5
grains in the cheké goldsmith’s weight, becomes = 49·6 in the Oka, 1/44
of the Cantar.
_Fluid-measure._—A double cantar, 2 × 124·7 lb. = 249·4 lb., was
increased in water-wheat ratio, 249·4 × 1·25 = 311·75 lb. = 31·175
gallons. The actual capacity of this water-Cantar is 31·412 gallons.
This measure is divided into 100 rottoli-measure (= 3·14 lb. of water),
each of 2-1/2 rottoli weight = 50 ounces.
_Corn-measure._—The Cantar measure becomes, for corn, the Fortin, at a
standard of 31·1 gallons. This measure being 2 × 1·25 = 2-1/2 times the
Cantar weight of 2000 ounces, contains 5000 ounces of water or 4000
ounces of wheat. It is divided into 4 Killows of 7·775 gallons. This
measure is evidently named from the Greek _chilioi_ (Fr. kilo) as
holding 1000 ounces of wheat. It is divided again into 4 Saa.
The Fortin is also divided into 88 rottoli, the rottolo containing 500
dirhems of water or 400 dirhems of corn.
In fluid-measure there is an oka-measure; 8 oka, = 3-2/3
rottoli-measure, make an Almud = 1·15 gallon. I only mention this
intrusive measure to confer it with the Spanish Almuda or Celemin = 1·01
gallon.
These Turkish measures, fluid and corn, afford another instance of the
practice of increasing a fluid measure in water-wheat ratio, and then of
using this increased measure for fluids as well as corn. Instances of
this practice have been seen in German measures (for instance the Himt).
And our own gallon affords a somewhat similar instance. Increased from
the cubic foot to make a corn-gallon, this was again increased by 3 per
cent. to make the Imperial gallon, both for fluids and for corn.
_Italy_
The system of measures left from ancient Rome, themselves of Oriental
origin, has been to a great extent overlaid by Arabic measures.
In Bologne the Corba, = 17·3 gallons, is half the cubed Black cubit, to
which the Neapolitan oil-Salma, = 35·5 gallons, is closely approximate.
In Rome the principal corn-measure, the Rubbio = 64·77 gallons, bears an
Arabic name; it is doubled in the Tuscan Moggio, and investigation would
probably discover a measure of 4 rubbii = 259 gallons = 32-1/3 bushels
or about the old English chaldron of 4 quarters.
The Starello of Sardinia, = 10·8 gallons, is approximately a quarter of
the Ardeb.
3. HEBREW WEIGHTS AND MEASURES OF CAPACITY
The Hebrews used the measures of Egypt and Phœnicia. The common Egyptian
cubit, very near ‘the cubit of a man,’ was the usual measure of length.
They brought back from the Captivity some Persian measures:
1. The Great Assyrian cubit, which is ‘the cubit and an hand-breadth.’
2. A measuring Reed of six cubits long, by the cubit and an hand-breadth
= the modern qasáb of Egypt.
3. The Cubit of the Talmud = 21·914 inches, the 1/3000 of the Bereh,
which was 1/1000 of an hour on the equator (see page 27).
For weights they used the Alexandrian talent or Kikkar divided in the
Phœnician manner into 50 minás of 60 shekels = 218-1/2 grains. This
shekel was sometimes called the Shekel of the Sanctuary and was then
divided, not into 8 Gerahs of 27·31 grains (our dram, 1/16 of the
Egypto-Roman ounce) but into 2 Bekah or 4 Reba or 20 Gerah = 10·9
grains. The Reba, 1/4 Shekel, was the drachma of the Phœnician weights,
= 54·62 grains.
When, as recorded in Exodus xxvii, 603,550 men contribute each a Bekah
or half-shekel of silver, the amount of 301,775 shekels is stated to be
= 100 talents and 1775 shekels, after the shekel of the Sanctuary. In
this statement the talent is of 3000 shekels, according to the Phœnician
reckoning.
In Ezekiel xlvi, the shekel is given as of 20 gerahs and the miná is
stated to be 20 + 25 + 15 = 60 shekels, confirming the Phœnician mode of
dividing the Alexandrian talent as that used by the Hebrews, viz. 50
minás of 60 shekels.
The measures of capacity had for principal unit the Olympic talent, the
weight of water of the common Egyptian foot cubed, = 6·48 gallons. It
was called the Bath for fluid measure, the Epha for corn and other dry
measure. The Bath was divided into 6 Hin = 1·08 gallon (this being about
the same capacity as the Spanish and Turkish almuda) and into 72 Log, =
2/3 pint. The Epha was likewise of 72 log, and 4 log made a Cab.
The Cor or Homer was a measure of 10 Epha or Bath, = 64·8 gallons or 8·1
bushels. It coincided approximately with 2 great Artaba, this measure
being the cubed Royal cubit = 31·695 gallons; × 2 = 63·39 gallons.
The Hebrew field-units were at first seed-measures, afterwards fixed
geometrically.
The unit was the Bathsea, sown with a Bath of grain; it was 8 qasáb, or
48 great cubits, square, = a rood.
The Betheoron, sown with a Cor, 10 Bath, of grain, was 10 of the lesser
unit and therefore = 2-1/2 acres.
In these three chapters on foreign measures and weights I have tried to
show the principles of unity underlying the variety of measures. To
describe them fully would require a series of monographs which, however
interesting, would lack the more important general view. I shall
therefore confine myself to the full description, in Chapters XXI and
XXII, of the measures and weights of France which, both in the old
system and in the metric system, are of special interest to us. Before
proceeding to these I must treat, in a somewhat discursive chapter, of
the meanings of some names of measures.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER XX
THE DEVELOPMENT OF MEANING IN THE NAMES
OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES
1. GENERAL REMARKS
In the various names of weights and measures there are many
general-utility words which offer no difficulty in the sphere of those
who use them habitually, yet which are sometimes puzzling to others,
while they are interesting to the student of semantics. They form a
chapter in the history of weights and measures, itself a volume in the
history of the human mind.
Some terms have an obvious meaning, as ‘half’ and ‘quarter.’
These inevitably run through the usual series of measures. Even the
metric system has to tolerate half-units as a concession to unscientific
weakness while refusing quarters otherwise than as 25 hundredths of the
unit. But quarters are firmly rooted in the human mind and resist
scientific attempt to extirpate them. They are very common in the
sexdecimal series, representing a fourth of one unit and four of a lower
unit.
Quart and Quartern have acquired certain definite senses, the first of a
quarter-gallon, the second either of a quarter-pint or of a
quarter-peck. Quarter by itself is of wide application; it may mean the
fourth of a pound or of a hundredweight or of a dollar, or of an acre.
In its Teutonic form we have it in farthing and in firkin. France has
its _quart_ as a quarter-pound, its _quartié_ in land-measure, its
_quarteron_ as a quarter-hundred, though usually 26.
The context, whether in writing or in speech, usually shows the meaning
of ‘quarter’ unless that meaning has been destroyed by legislation, as
in the case of the Quarter of wheat where the meaning of the word could
not be recognised either by the eminent scientific member of a
Parliamentary Committee or by the scientific expert in measures giving
evidence before him. The Quarter has remained, while the Chaldron, of
which it was a fourth, was so worried by legislative interference that
it disappeared as a corn-measure.
The French Setier in its different senses of a load of corn, of a
bushel, of a double gallon, and of a pint, had long lost all connection
with L. _sextuarius_; it had indeed got to mean a quarter in the same
way that in Italy the _sestiero_, originally one of the six districts of
a city, had acquired a similar sense to the French _quartier_ as a
district. The French setier or sestié had so lost its original meaning
as to be often written ‘septier,’ as if it were a seventh.
The Greek obolos (originally meaning a copper nail), 1/6 of a drachm,
acquired in Latin the sense of ‘half.’ When the drachma took the
weight-sense of 60 grains, an obolus was 10 grains; but this was half a
scruple, so it took a general sense of ‘half,’ and the halfpenny was
latinised as an obolus.
Maille was the corresponding French word for halfpenny, being It.
_medaglio_, Prov. _medaio_, akin not only to ‘medal’ but also to
‘metal,’ in which there seems to be a sense of ‘half’ of an alloy. Yet
it became a weight of 1/4 ounce, perhaps from being half of the loth or
half-ounce. And the Fr. _felin_, It. _ferlino_, probably corruptions of
vierling or farthing, on becoming 1/4 of the _maille_, was 1/16 of the
ounce. In the section on terms used in old land-measures I have shown
the equivocal sense of words related to ‘ferling.’
Our Yard, from the influence of its French equivalents—_verge_, rod, and
_vergée_, rood—became a quarter-acre, and then a quarter-hide.
The Drachm as a part of the Troy ounce, 1/8, became the dram as a part
of the averdepois ounce, 1/16. As a measure it became 1/8 of a spirit
pint.
The terms signifying 1/12, 1/16, 1/24 and some smaller fractions of
weights or measures, show a development of meaning which will be given
in the following sections.
2. THE NAIL AND THE CLOVE; THE INCH AND THE OUNCE
The yard is lawfully divided (as was also the ell) into 4 quarters and
16 nails.
The hundredweight is divided into 4 quarters, 8 stones and 16 cloves or
nails.
How did ‘Nail’ come to mean a sixteenth of a unit, length or weight?
The ‘New English Dictionary’ throws no light on the origin of this
peculiarly English term. The only other general name I know for a
sixteenth is the Indian ‘anna,’ the sixteenth of a rupee, of a crop, of
a venture, &c.
The story of the Nail reaches back to the early history of weights and
measures and is of philological as well as metrological interest. The
half-cubit or span, the common handy measure in most parts of the world,
is of 12 digits, while the foot is 16 digits and is still so divided in
Italy and other southern countries. The digit is not only a
middle-finger breadth, it is also a thumb-nail breadth; as the former it
was in Greek _dactylos_, as the latter _onyx_, which became _onkia_ in
Southern Italy and gave rise to two Latin words, _unguis_ for the actual
finger-nail, _uncia_ for the thumb-nail breadth equal to the digit and
generally for a twelfth part. Hence a differentiation of meaning in the
Romance languages.
GREEK _onyx_, _onkia_
Latin _unguis_ _uncia_, thumb-nail breadth, ounce
Italian _unghia_ _oncia_, last thumb-joint, ounce
Provençal _ounglo_ _ounço_, finger-joint, knuckle, ounce
French _ongle_ _once_, finger-joint (obs.), ounce
English (nail) _unce_, ynch
When the Romans adopted the duodecimal or ‘uncial’ system they applied
it to the foot, which was divided into either 12 or 16 parts both called
unciæ; but to distinguish these they used two other words, _digitus_ for
the sixteenth and _pollex_, thumb, for the twelfth, the thumb-breadth.
In English ‘unce, ynch’ always meant the thumb-breadth 1/12 of a foot,
‘Nail,’ the thumb-nail breadth equal to the digit, being kept for the
1/16 foot. Thence ‘nail’ came to have the general sense of sixteenth and
to be applied to that fraction of a 4-span yard, of a 5-span ell, of a
bushel, of a hundredweight.
In Latin the analogous general sense of twelfth belonged to _uncia_,
whether of the foot, of the land-unit, of the pound. The general sense
of twenty-fourth attached to the scruple as 1/24 ounce, passed to the
qirát, or carat, in the countries influenced by Arab customs, as being
1/24 of the mithkal, the Arab successor of the Roman solidus.
In modern Italy the palmo or span, and the libbra or pound, were both
divided into 12 _oncie_, meaning inches or ounces.
With the general substitution of the 16-ounce pound for that of 12
ounces, the word ‘ounce’ lost its meaning of twelfth. In some of the
Romance languages its sense of length extended to the length of any
finger-joint, especially to the length of the proximal joint of the
thumb. Thus in Southern France the _ounço dóu pouce_ (Fr. _once de
poulce_) was taken as 1/5 of the span or nearly 2 inches.
When our Cwt. was raised to 112 lb. and the 16-lb. stone replaced by
that of 14 lb. the term Nail was applied to the half of the new stone,
and it was perhaps the divisibility of the new Cwt. into 16 parts of 7
lb. that reconciled people to the unpopular new weight. But for all
that, the people held on for centuries to the 16-lb. stone, and call its
half, 8 lb., a nail, though it is no longer the sixteenth of a larger
unit.
When the half of the 14-lb. stone was legally called a nail, how was
this term to be rendered into law-Latin or statute French by the scribes
of Plantagenet times ignorant of the origin of the term? Naturally they
blundered; they got hold of the wrong nail, rendering it by L. _clavus_
instead of by _unguis_, and by Fr. _clou_, _cloue_, or in the script of
the time _clove_ instead of by _ongle_. This misnomer took; and a
statute of 1430 states that a Wey of cheese may contain 32 cloves, every
clove 7 lb., making the wey = 224 lb., 2 Cwt. But despite statutes the
cheese-trade went on with its 8-lb. clove, of which 32 make 256 lb., the
true wey.
It was the same with the wool-trade, controlled by the State for revenue
purposes. The half-stone of wool became a nail. In 1342 we find _quatuor
clavos lanæ_, 4 nails of wool.
But _clavus_, a nail, became confounded with _clavis_, a key, and so in
Southern France the nail-weight, introduced from England, became _clau_,
a key, instead of _clavèu_, a nail. Thus the nail, Fr. _once_, _ongle_,
became clove, Fr. _clou_, L. _clavis_, an iron nail; then in Prov. and
Fr. _clau_, L. _clavus_, a key.
3. THE CARAT AND THE GRAIN
(A) _The Carat_
One would hardly recognise the golden Solidus of Rome in the French Sol,
the brass halfpenny with the effigy of Louis XVI, current within my
memory, or in the bronze Sou by which sums under three francs are still
reckoned in France.
The Solidus, Aureus, or Exagium solidi, was so called because,
representing the As, or unit of money, it was the gold-unit of which the
semissis was the half and the tremissis the third.
Weighing 70·1 grains (under Constantine) it was 1/6 of the Roman
mint-ounce = 420-2/3 grains, or 1/72 of the As libralis. Its weight was
equal to 24 siliquæ, afterwards called Carats = 2·921 grains, and its
third, the tremissis, weighed nearly 24 grains, the troy pennyweight.
Hence pure gold was considered as solidus or ‘entire’ of 24 carats, and
the quality or ‘touch’ of gold would be denoted by the number of carats
of pure gold it contained out of 24. The carat of fineness was divided
into 4 assay-grains, and these again into fourths. English gold coins
are 22 carats fine since the time of Henry VIII, but the Plantagenet
gold coins were usually 23 carats 3-1/2 grains fine, that is 191/192 =
nearly 995 in 1000.
Thus the carat was 1/24 Solidus or 1/144 ounce.
When the Arab caliphs had conquered Egypt and the greater part of the
Mediterranean countries, they followed Roman imperial customs and
replaced the gold Exagium solidi, 1/72 of the As, by the gold mithkal,
1/72 of the Libra or Egypto-Roman pound. The Mithkal was then 1/6 of the
Egypto-Roman ounce = 437 grains, so that it weighed 72·7 grains. It was
divided like the Roman coin into 24 qirát, each = 3·035 grains and
divided into 4 hubba or light grains, meaning corn-grains.
The Ptolemaïc or lesser Alexandrian talent had been divided into 60
minás of 12 ounces; these either 100 drachmæ or 12 × 12 carats of 3·1616
grains. The carat was an ancient Eastern weight, originally the flat
seed of the caroub or locust-tree, _Ceratonia siliqua_, and in Greek
_keration_. Throughout North Africa and in other Moslem countries there
are two usual lesser units of weight:
The Mithkal = 72·7 grs. of 24 Kharūb or qirát
The Dirhem = 48-1/2 „ „ 16 „ „ „
The carat, from a goldsmith’s assay-weight, became the unit for the
weight of precious stones, varying slightly in different countries and
usually divided into 4 diamond-carats.
THE CARATS
Roman siliqua 2·916 grs. 1/4 = ·729 gr.
Roman-Egyptian carat 3·035 „ „ = ·758 „
Ptolemaïc „ 3·1616 „ „ = ·790 „
Venetian „ 3·196 „ „ = ·799 „
Egyptian (modern) „ 3·088 „ „ = ·772 „
Spanish (Moorish) „ 3·082 „ „ = ·770 „
Amsterdam (diamond) carat 3·165 „
Hamburg „ „ 3·176 „ = 1/142 Cologne oz.
English „ „ 3·177 „
French metric „ 3·086 „ = ·2 gramme