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]

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.

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.

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 Arshin = 28 inches, i.e. the Turkish arshin 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 ‘Arshin,’ further on.

Turkey

The HendÁzi or Stambuli 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:

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:

The measures differ little from those of Turkey.

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-Mamun’s standard. The increase of the Persian cubit was probably to bring it, together with the BelÁdi cubit and the Arshin (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.

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 arshins 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 Arshin

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 arshin = 153·45 inches or within 1/10 inch of the qasÁb.

It is curious that the Reed should be 5-1/2 arshins, as our Rod is 5-1/2 yards.

While the Turkish qasÁb is—

7 BelÁdi cubits, 6 HashÍmi cubits = 5-1/2 arshins, 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 arshins = 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 pichus, 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.