There were seed-measures of land in Scotland. Thus: ‘15th Cy. Chart Aberd. Als mekill land as a celdr of aits will schawe,’ i.e. a Chalder of land, as much as a chalder = 64 firlots = 55 bushels, will sow, about 25 acres. There was also the Lippy of land, that which took a lippy, 1/16 firlot of seed. It was usually about 100 square yards. In many parts of Southern Europe there are no other kinds of land-measure than those derived from the corn-measures of seed required. Thus in Provence, the earliest civilised country in medieval times, the whole series of corn-measures and land-measures have names in common. Corn-measures Land-measures Sq. cano Saumado 4·4 bushel. Saumado 1·58 acre 1600 Sestié 1·1 „ Sesteirado 0·4 „ 400 Eimino 4·4 gallon. Eiminado 0·2 „ 200 Quartiero 1·1 „ Quarteirado 0·05 „ 50 Pougnadeiro 1/4 „ Pougneirado 0·01 „ 12-1/2 Cosso (Sc. Luggie) 1/5 „ Cosso (Sc. Lug.) „ 10 These land-measures would correspond to Coomb-land, Bushel-land, Peck-land, &c. The Cosso of land is 1/160 of the Saumado, as our square rod is 1/160 acre. In Italy and Spain there are similar series of land-measures named after corn-measures. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER VII ENGLISH COMMERCIAL WEIGHTS I. THE STORY OF AVERDEPOIS The story of our Imperial system has hitherto been utterly obscure. The origin of our foot, our gallon, our pound, indeed of all our measures, was quite unknown. That of the pound, which gives the key to the whole system, had been obscured by statutes which ignored any but the royal pound used at the mints. Yet these statutes, often purposely obscure, can be made to show the hidden sources of our system. Our pound, settled at its present Imperial standard in the time of Queen Elizabeth, was then found to have risen slightly since the time of Edward III. It was found to have increased by about 8 grains. The ounce, now = 437-1/2 grains, had been 437 grains, the same weight as the ounce of Egypto-Roman pound, the Roman libra.[22] There is every reason to believe that this Roman standard passed to Britain, and that the libra, raised to 16 ounces, became the commercial pound, afterwards known as Averdepois, and now the Imperial pound. Footnote 22: The modern _libbra_ is 12 ounces = 436·27 grains in Rome, 436·66 in Florence. When the Romans took the Alexandrian talent as the standard of their new libra-system, they divided it into 125 libræ, which were 1500 ounces or double-shekels, each ounce = 437 grains.