The standards made by this jury were as unsatisfactory as their report. Little could be expected from persons who could, with Edward III’s standard weights before them, report that ‘the lb. weight of avoirdepoiz weight dothe consiste of fiftene ounc troie.’ This was in accordance with the old fiction that the averdepois pound must be a commercial offshoot of the royal pound, that it was 15 ounces Tower = 6750 grains, and afterwards in Tudor times 15 ounces Troy = 7200 grains, or even 16 ounces Troy = 7680 grains. Elizabeth and her advisers were not deceived by this obsequious report, so, the standards made being found very erroneous, in 1582 a second and more intelligent jury of goldsmiths and merchants was appointed, and the result of their work was the production of 57 sets of standard Troy and averdepois weights, which were distributed to the Exchequer, to cities and towns. Some of these averdepois weights are still extant and do not now differ by more than one grain in each pound from Imperial standard. The Proclamation for Weights of December 16, 1587, established averdepois weight, and ordered that ‘no person shall use any Troy weight but only for weighing of bread, gold, silver and electuaries and for no other thing.’ It seems probable that, in the two centuries before Elizabeth, the standard of the commercial pound had risen by about 8 grains. This may have occurred when the Troy pound superseded the Tower pound. In the adjustment, which I assume as probable, of the Troy and Averdepois pounds so as to obtain a ratio of 5760 to 7000, the latter standard, raising the ounce from 437 to 437-1/2 grains, and the pound by 8 grains, may have been adopted so as to avoid or diminish the cutting down of the new Troy pound. Thus was established by Elizabeth the English standard of weight. Excellent standards of capacity and of length were also made; and she established our silver coinage on its present basis. And yet, well into the nineteenth century, even into the twentieth, went on the puzzledom of our weights and measures, left to arithmetic book and almanack makers blinded by the glamour of the royal pound. No official utterance came to clear the darkness, for it was not till 1855 that the pound, then established as an Imperial standard, was really defined. 2. THE IMPERIAL POUND It is the weight in vacuo of a certain piece of platinum kept in London. It is divided into 16 ounces, approximately Roman ounces. The ounce may be divided into 16 drams. The pound is also divided into 7000 grains, the ounce being 437-1/2 grains.