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

R. Ë. ZUPKO* ENGLISH WEIGHTS AND MEASURES: THE HISTORICAL EVOLUTION FROM ROMAN TO METRIC STANDARDS Metrological development in the British Isles has undergone almost twenty centuries of evolutionary growth and decay. From the era of Caesar's exploratory expedition and Claudius' legionary colonization in the first centuries before and after Christ, through the period of the Anglo-Saxon, Danish-Norwegian, and Norman invasions of the Middle Ages, to the political and commercial empire of the modern age, the British produced one of the world's most comprehensive and sophisticated pre-metric systems of weights and measures. The present study examines two significant aspects of this historical evolution: (1) the major cultural influences which contributed to the rapid growth of weights and measures during the first millennium and (2) the major governmental policies inaugurated during the second millennium to simplify, refine, and standardize this metrology and to curb metrological proliferation.

1 / Roman soldiers were responsible for the introduction of Roman metrology into Britain and for nearly four hundred years these weights and measures were a permanent feature of British economic and social life. Primarily Greek and Egyptian in origin, Roman weights and measures had experienced a number of significant alterations during the pre-Christian, Republican era. Thereafter, they were subject to very few changes and the system which Britain inherited was the best the ancient world had ever produced. More importantly, like the Latin language and Roman law, this metrology demonstrated yet another feature of the universality of Roman life. Wherever one went in the Empire the same measuring units and physical standards could be found. The pes, libra, and sextarius of Rome were the same as those sent to Syrian, North African, Spanish, and British markets. The linear measures used by the Romans in the construction crafts ;

2 the itinerary measures by which road and postal distances were calibrated ;

3 the superficial measures employed on the vast agricultural estates ;

4 the capacity measures used by merchants and producers in the import and export trade;

5 and the weights which formed the basis of Rome's monetary system

6 were the same everywhere regardless of ethnic, cultural, geographical, and demographic * MARQUETTE University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.