Medieval weights and measures

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Medieval weights and measures were not the same everywhere. They grew from older systems and changed from town to town. Some local units survived long and later helped shape Imperial and even metric systems.

In England, before 1066 there was an Anglo-Saxon system. The best known unit was the perch, about 5.03 meters (16.5 feet). The system is seen in Magna Carta (1215) and its standards were renewed several times (1496, 1588, 1758). Some English units stayed in use in later Imperial and US systems.

In Denmark, a royal office for weights and measures was created in 1683. The alen was defined as 2 Rhine feet, but different places used different Rhine feet. A pendulum-based foot was proposed in the 19th century and refined in 1835. The metric system was introduced in 1907.

France had many local units. For example, the lieue varied greatly by region. From 1812 to 1839 many traditional units were adapted to metric lengths. Paris linked its old units to metric measures.

Across Europe, there were many local variants that only slowly gave way to standard systems. In Sweden the government introduced a common system in 1665, revised in 1735, and decimalized in 1855 before full metric adoption in 1889. Sweden also had strict penalties for fraud in weights.

In Portugal, standardization began in the 14th century. City councils set standard units like the alna in Lisbon for linear measures, the arroba for weight, the alqueire for cereals, and the almude for wine. The aim was to unify measures across the country, with changes continuing into the 15th century.

In the Romanian lands, measures varied widely between states and even within regions, drawing on Latin, Slavic, Greek, and Turkish roots. The metric system replaced these by the 19th century.

In Germany, many towns kept their own sizes; for instance Baden reportedly had hundreds of Ellen by 1810. In Norway, there was no single standard before 1541, and local variants persisted.

The Ottoman Empire joined the Metre Convention in 1875. After the Turkish Republic was established, traditional measurements faded away and international units became compulsory from 1933. The Islamic calendar continues to be used for religious purposes, while the Gregorian calendar is the civil calendar.