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

at Ozingell in Thanet and at Grove Ferry near Canterbury supposedly date from approximately the beginning of the seventh century (Frederick George Skinner, Weights and Measures: Their Ancient Origins and Their Development in Great Britain up to AD 1855 [London, 1967], p. 10). Unfortunately, Edgar's statement mentions no weights and measures by name; a characteristic of many of the laws until as late as the end of the Angevin period. There is no corroborating evidence in any Anglo-Saxon document that would prove what physical standard Edgar had in mind. No document ever says that the Crown standards were duplicated and distributed throughout the land. As a general rule, the documents merely plead for the use of just weights and measures, and they threaten lawbreakers either with secular or divine punishment (for example, see Ancient Laws and Institutes of England [London, 1840], p. 313). Consequently, Edgar must have used the words "measure of Winchester" in their generic sense, implying units of measurement common to Winchester rather than their narrower, but more specific, meaning of physical standard. 10 As with William, it occasionally has been popular to credit Canute (1016—35) with major gains in weights and measures reform. For example, M. Postlethwayt in the second volume of The Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce (London, 1755), p. 186, says that "...there were good laws for weights and measures made before the conquest by Canute." John Quincy Adams in his Report to the Secretary of State upon Weights and Measures (Washington, 1821), H. R. Document No. 109, p. 22, says much the same thing. There is no evidence whatsoever for this acclaim. Canvite merely carried on programs that were already put into operation by his predecessors, and he did not introduce any innovative or reformatory legislation on the subject. 11 The Pyx Chapel was also the home of the standard trial plates for gold and silver coins used at the trials of the Pyx—the formal official assays of the coins of the realm. 12 By the aftermath of the Industrial Revolution there were approximately 350 national units and approximately 50.000 local variations. The situation was even more pronounced in France, Italy, and Germany. 13 These and other contributing factors produced some startling results. By the late Middle Ages, for example, the ell had four principal variations; the hundredweight, score, and thousandweight, five each; the firkin and kilderkin, six each; the fatt, hundred, and thousand, seven each; the hogshead and pipe, eight each; the seam, nine; the chalder, ten; the bale, more than ten; the gallon and sack, 12 each; the oxgang, more than 12; the wey, 14; the bag, more than 15; the perch or rod, 20; the stone more than 20; the last, 24; the hide, more than 25; the acre/more than 30; the barrel, 31; the bushel, 35; the load, 39; the boll, 45; and the piece, well over 100. To further complicate this situation, some variations were not always consistent. For instance, a barrel of wine generally contained 31 1

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2 gallons, but the wine gallon, prior to its standardization in 1707 at 231 cubic inches, sometimes varied between 224 and 282 cubic inches. Hence, a barrel based on the latter contained 8883 cubic inches, whereas one based on the former contained only 7056: a difference on 1827 cubic inches or, in metric terms, 29.94 1. A wey of cheese, lead, or wool generally totaled 182 pounds, but during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the mercantile pound of 6750 grains and the avoirdupois pound of 7000 grains were used interchangeably for such goods. Therefore, a wey calculated on the avoirdupois scale contained I, 274,000 grains, but on the mercantile scale only 1,228,500: a difference of 45,500 grains, or 6 ''/j avoirdupois pounds. There are hundreds of similar examples, and the differences become more profound when one examines the multiples of the various units. Finally, even when certain variations were consistent because of conformity in smaller internal units, they sometimes fluctuated over extreme ranges. The perch—the principal linear measure for land—varied from 9 to 26 feet depending on whether forest, waste, agricultural, or town land were being measured, and the league varied from 7500 to 15,840 feet depending on the location and the time period in which it was used. The acre—the principal superficial measure for land—was standardized at 4840 square yards, but in Leicestershire it was 2308 1

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i square yards and in Cheshire almost five time larger, 10,240 square yards. Among capacity measures, the caritas for wine was threefourths gallon in Evesham but two gallons at Worchester. A standard coal chaler contained 32 striked bushels and weighed 2000 pounds; in Newcastle in contained 72 heaped bushels and weighed almost 6000 pounds. A load of oats was generally nine bushels in Cheshire, 80 bushels in Sussex. Depending on the location, the sester of ale varied from 12 to 19 gallons; the grain skep, one to 16 bushels; the stoup of honey, one pint to one gallon; and the tun of wine, 208 to 252 gallons. 14 Local merchants, for example, were prevented from reaping excessive profits under such