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-Mamun (= 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:

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 funt, 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-Mamun 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 kharub 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:

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-Mamun = 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.

Everywhere there is a Cantar or Quintal, a hundredweight, divided into 4 ruba 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—