Technikatörténeti szemle 10. (1978)

A MÉRÉS ÉS A MÉRTÉKEK AZ EMBER MŰVELŐDÉSÉBEN című konferencián Budapesten, 1976. április 27–30-án elhangzott előadások II. - Zupko, R. E.: Angol súlyok és mértékek

sisted of 40 land rods in length (the furlong) and 4 rods in width. This parcel of 160 square rods or 36,000 square feet was the acre. It was exactly the same size as the modern English acre of 160 square rods or 43,560 square feet since the northern rod of 15 German feet was the same length as the modern rod of 16.5 BI feet. Before the Norman Conquest the standard for weights was the Saxon or moneyer's pound. Its earliest regulation occurred during the reign of Offa (757—96) who instituted a new coinage to replace the erratic currency of the Mercian realm. He established a silver penny (called a sterlingus, sterling, or easterling) of 22.5 BI grains which set the standard of silver coinage in England until 1344 and the English weight system for gold, silver, jewels, and electuaries until 1527. Twenty of these pennies (called pennyweights) made the ounce of 450 BI grains and 12 such ounces made the pound of 5400 BI grains.

8 Until the heavier commercial pounds (the mercantile and avoirdupois) appeared after the Conquest, the Saxon pound served all monetary and commercial needs in the same manner as the pre- and post-268 B.C. Roman pounds of antiquity. As accurately as can be determined, very few standards for these and other Anglo-Saxon weights and measures have survived.

9 The standards, customarily called pondi regis and mensurae domini regis in early medieval sources, usually were melted down to produce new models. But regardless of how meager a supply of them now exist, it is an indisputable fact that the Norman Conquest did not alter abruptly either their development or application. Anglo-Saxon weights and measures survived the Conquest and, together with those surviving from earlier times, were adopted by the new Norman overlords. There were two principal reasons for this. First, the Normans were vastly outnumbered in their new land and in order to minimize Anglo-Saxon hostility, they perpetuated any systems, institutions, and customs which did not interfere with the proper functioning of their new government. William replaced the old Anglo-Saxon witan with his own court—the curia regis—and staffed it with those Norman lords who had fought at the Battle of Hastings and with those members of the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy who had aided the Norman cause. Further, he seized all of England on behalf of the Normans and after retaining approximately one-sixth of it for himself, he parceled out the rest to his curia members in the form of fiefs. These new barons or tenants-in-chief were prohibited from building castles without William's permission; were forbidden from engaging in local wars without royal favor; and were encouraged to subinfeudate their lands in order to maintain a feudal army of approximately 5000 members. Aside from these programs and his strenuous effort to replace the Anglo-Saxon Church hierarchy with Norman personnel, he did not tamper with any other Anglo-Saxon institution. The political and military life of the island was revolutionized; its commercial and agricultural life remained virtually unchanged. As time went on, Norman metrology would work its way into the established system. But for the moment, the Normans felt no need to force it on this foreign population. Secondly, there was no need to destroy or to amend most Anglo-Saxon institutions. The Normans were distinguished by their tolerance and by their ability to rule foreign areas; they honored the customs and traditions of subject peoples. In Sicily. Apulia, and Calabria, for example, they ruled a population which was far more multilingual and diversified than that of England and they provided the best government in this area since Roman times. The Normans never interferred with effective or