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. TABLE OF SOME EUROPEAN ITINERARY MEASURES Yards Miles 1. Meridian mile—Naples 2026-2/3 1·1515 „ league, 1/20 degree — 4·54 2. Ancient Roman mile 1621-1/3 0·921 3. Roman mile, modified— Venice, 1000 paces of 5 feet 1901 1·08 Sicily, 720 rods of 8 palmi 1625 0·924 Spain, 1000 paces of 5 feet 1520 0·863 Portugal, 8 stadia of 234-2/3 varas 2281 1·296 England, 8 furlongs of 220 yards 1760 1·0 France, 1000 toises 2131 1·21 4. German Meile, about a meridian league— Austria, 4000 fathoms of 6 feet — 4·71 Prussia and Denmark, 2000 rods of 12 feet — 4·68 Hanover, 1587 rods of 16 feet — 4·66 Brunswick, 1625 rods of 16 feet — 4·61 5. An ‘hour-walk’ league— Holland—Uur gaans — — Switzerland—Stunde, 1600 rods of 10 feet — 2·98 6. Russia—Verst, 500 sajeng of 7 feet 1166·6 0·663 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER XVIII FOREIGN WEIGHTS 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-Mamūn (= 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.