Chapter XIX
) was divided into 2 gallons (our wine-gallon), 4 pots (our pottle), 8 pintes. The last of these, = 1·76 pint, was about our old wine-quart, = 32 oz., its half was a chopine or setier, = our wine-pint, and the half of this was the demi-setier, a name still current, the French equivalent of our popular ‘half-pint.’
2. _Corn-measures._—The standard unit was the Setier = 34·32 gallons, or 4·29 bushels, differing very slightly from the Marseilles Cargo = 4·34 bushels. As the Setier was an isolated measure, while the Cargo was from early medieval times the basis of the complete system of Southern measures, it may confidently be inferred that the Paris unit of corn-measure was taken from that of Marseilles, which was the Egyptian Rebekeh, the cubed Arabic cubit.
The term Setier is the L. _sextuarius_, but it had lost its original meaning and become a general-utility term in measures. The Setier = the Marseilles Cargo of 4 Sestié, must not be confused with this sestié. It was divided into 12 boisseaux of variable standard, but usually estimated to hold 20 French pounds of wheat. As 1/12 setier, the boisseau was = 2·86 gallons, and it was divided into 16 litrons = 1·43 pint.
There were intermediate divisions of the Setier; it was of 2 mines (a term taken from the Southern _eimino_), 4 minots, 12 boisseaux.
There was also a Muid for corn and salt. The corn-muid was 12 setiers.
There are still in France traces of an older system of corn-measures derived from the cubic foot. I found, in the Rouen Museum, the standard bushel of the town of Bolbec. It measures 16 inches diameter by 12·6 inches deep = 2533 cubic inches or 9·14 gallons. It appears to be the French cubic foot = 2091 cubic inches increased in water-wheat ratio to 2533 × 1·22 = 2551 cubic inches, a difference probably to be ascribed to the difficulty in measuring at all accurately.
There are also many local standards of capacity, well deserving of study. Some, as the bushel of La Rochelle, indeed of the west of France generally, = 56 lb. of wheat, are much larger than the Paris Bushel. There was a general rejection of the duodecimal division of the Setier.
TABLE OF OLD FRENCH MEASURES
Length Land Aune = 46·77 inches. Square Toise = 4·54 sq. yards. Toise = 76·73 „ Square Perche = 2 sq. rods. Pied = 12·789 „ Arpent (× 100) = 1·26 acre. Perche = 23·446 feet.
Wine-measure Corn-measure Bushels Muid = 63·5 galls. Muid = 51·6 4 Quartaut = 15·8 „ 12 Setier = 34·32 gall. = 4·29 9 Velte = 1·76 „ 12 Boisseau = 2·86 „ 8 Pinte = 1·76 pint. 16 Litron = 1·43 pint. 2 Chopine = 0·88 „
Weights Quintal = 107·7 lb. 100 Livre = 7554 grains. 16 Once = 472·1 „ 24 Deniers (dwt.) = 3 to a ‘gros.’ 24 Grains.
_Remarks on the French Measures of Capacity_
The fault of the Paris system was that there was little or no concordance between the different series.
In length, 6 aunes approximately coincided with 22 feet or 3-2/3 toises.
The measures of length had no concordance with those of capacity, and in the latter, wine-measure and corn-measure had lost their original concordance when they were brought from the south. They lost it by two faults:
1. By making the quartaut of 9 veltes instead of 8;
2. By dividing the setier into 12 boisseaux instead of 8.
Had this octonary division been substituted, it would have been quite satisfactory, and concordance with the linear standard would have been obtained.
A quartaut of 8 veltes, 8 × 1·76 = 14·08 gallons, would have been in water-wheat ratio with the corn half-setier = 17·16 gallons:
14·08 × 1·22 = 17·17.
And the setier divided into 8 parts would have given a larger boisseau = 4·29 gallons (a peck) corresponding in water-wheat ratio to the double velte of 4 gallons and measuring approximately 1000 cubic pouces (983 exactly); its side, when of cubic form, being almost 10 pouces, and thus affording an easily applied linear measurement as a check on the variation of the boisseau. The standard of this measure was most variable from want of such a check. Really, as 1/12 Setier it should have been 655·4 cubic pouces, but it varied between 644 and 677, its reputed capacity being 640 cubic pouces.
It would have been easy to have fixed the new boisseau at 1000 cubic pouces, raising the variable standard of the Setier to 8000 cubic pouces = 34·9 gallons instead of its reputed standard = 34·32 gallons.
By these slight alterations perfect accordance with the southern measures would also have been obtained.
Leaving the measures of length and surface which were sufficiently concordant, the measures of capacity would have been:
Wine-measure Corn-measure Muid = 56·32 gallons. Muid = 34·9 bushels = 4·36 qrs. 1/2 „ = 28·16 „ (8) Setier = 34·9 gallons Quartaut = 14·08 „ = 8000 c.p. (8) Boisseau = 4·36 gallons (8) Velte = 1·76 „ = 1000 c.p. (8) Pinte = 1·76 pint. 16 Litron = 2·18 pint.
A water-wheat ratio of 1 : 1·24 would have been preserved between the two series, and their connection with linear measures through a cubic boisseau of 10 pouces each side (or a cylindrical one of 10 pouces diameter and 11·4 pouces in height) would have been most advantageous.
It may seem futile to make these proportions 120 years too late, but they may be useful in showing how unnecessary was the revolutionary plan of uprooting the old measures.
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