Tribal Custom in Anglo-Saxon Law: Being an Essay Supplemental to (1) 'The English Village Community', (2) 'The Tribal System in Wales'Seebohm, Frederic
History
Tribal Custom in Anglo-Saxon Law: Being an Essay Supplemental to (1) 'The English Village Community', (2) 'The Tribal System in Wales'
Seebohm, Frederic
Anglo-Saxons; Law, Anglo-Saxon; Law, Medieval; Tribes -- Great Britain
In Northern Europe the pound of twelve ounces was not, as elsewhere, the
usual larger unit. The pound of two marks or sixteen ounces had taken its
place. And except in Norway and Denmark, which sooner or later adopted
the monetary and weight system of Charlemagne, the ounce remained the
Roman ounce of 576 wheat-grains. At the same time, as in the case of
the Merovingian system, in spite of the Imperial influence of the gold
solidus, there were evident marks of a tendency towards the ancient
Eastern standard of the stater rather than the heavier standard of the
double solidus. The ortug of 192 wheat-grains seems to have often sunk in
actual weight below even the Attic weight to that of the ancient Eastern
stater of 8·18 grammes.
Thus when the Russian weight system was recorded in the time of Peter the
Great the unit both for precious metals and goods was found to be the
_Zolotnic_ or gold piece. Thus--
Dolja = ·0444 grammes = wheat-grain.
Zolotnic = 4·265 ” = 96 w.g.
Funt = 409·511 ” = 96 zolotnic, or 9216 w.g.
Here, then, _in wheat grains_ the Funt is the light Mina Attica over
again, Romanised in its divisions. The Zolotnic is the solidus or
half-stater. But in actual weight the pound is exactly half of the
ancient Eastern gold mina of 818 grammes.
The Pfund of Silesia (Breslau), according to Martini, was 405 grammes,
and that of Poland (Cracow) the same. Only Sweden and Riga seem to have
adopted or preserved higher standards, the double mark of Sweden being
425 and that of Riga 419 grammes; but even these fell far short of the
standard weight of 16 Roman ounces, viz. 436 grammes. But throughout, low
as the standard of the Baltic _Funts_ or double marks may have been, they
were divided according to the Roman commercial weight system into _ores_
or ounces and _loths_ or half-ounces, and _gwentschen_ or drachmas of one
eighth of an ounce, just as if they were of full Imperial weight. The
marks and the ores remained, but the old division of _ores_ into ortugs
or staters had long ago disappeared.
The division into marks, ores, and ortugs was, however, in full force at
the time of the Norse laws, both for gold and silver. And the evidence
of actual weights seems to show, not only that for the purposes of the
Eastern trade routes, reckoning in marks, ores, and ortugs was in common
use, but also that the standard, like that of the Merovingian coinage,
was the ancient Eastern standard.
Thus the following weights, believed to belong to the Viking period,
from the island of Gotland, are now in the Royal Museum at Stockholm
(Nos. 4752 and 5984).
[Sidenote: The ortug in weight = Eastern stater or two Merovingian
solidi.]
o o o o
o o
o o o o
o o o o
o o 819 grammes = 100 staters or ortugs of 8·19
o o o o
o o
|
o--o--o 57·25 ” = 7 ” ” 8·1
|
o o
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