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LETTER V.

STATE of MEASURES and WEIGHTS.

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HERE is no part of the Spanish customs, of which it is fo difficult to give any clear account, as those which relate to their Measures and Weights: for they retain in usage to this day, all the measures and weights, which their feveral conquerors or invaders have introduced at different periods.

NOTHING can give one a ftronger proof of the uncommercial genius of this people, and of the little attention which they have ever given to trade, than their ministry's having permitted this matter to rest upon the prefent footing. There is scarce any thing which is more ferviceable to the exigencies of commerce, or which facilitates its course more, than an univerfal conformity between the measures and weights of the fame country. The ROMANS, tho' far from being the most trading nation in the world, yet perhaps for fome ages the wifeft, paid always the most minute attention to this point, and even established a commercial pound, for, the greater convenience of their trade.

THE Confufion, which refults from this ftrange variety, may be eafily conceived. In one province you will find Moorish measures and weights, in another Roman, in a third Gothic. The inquifition hath had little influence in this matter, for of these they have made an olio, and mixed Pagan, Mahometan, Jewish and Christian meafures and pounds all together. Thus, in SEVILLE you meet with

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the Left, the Caby, and the Ancyra; in CADIZ, the Fanegue, or cornmeasure of two bushels English; which are plainly Moorish by the barbarity of their names. In CASTILE you will find one pound; in ANDALUSIA another. In this city you will fee a pound of 16 ounces, in that one of 32, in another of 40, which is the butchers pound in SEGOVIA, or the libra carnicera, as LIvy calls it: that is to say, these different cities make use of one pound, two pounds, and two pounds and a half. But this is not the worst view of this matter; for in measures of the fame name, you will find a moft unsystematical variation in different places: Thus, for instance, the most common measure of length in SPAIN is the vara, or bar; this wants three inches of our English yard, being exactly two feet nine, or 33 inches long, if it be after the ftandard of BURGOS, which was fixed by PHILIP II. in 1568: and FERDINAND VI. by an edict of February 14, 1751, ordered, that in all things relating to war and the marine they should use the bar of CASTILE. For till these later injunctions, SPAIN followed in this matter the regulations of ALPHONSUS the Wife, who fixed the ftandard himself, and gave it to the City of TOLEDO; that is to fay, he very politically endeavoured at fome uniformity in this point, by reducing all the measures and weights in his dominions to the Roman ftandard. Such is the ftate of this matter in CA

STILE; but wher you leave thofe kingdoms, and get into the other provinces, you will find the variations of this vara very confiderable; nay, even in CASTILE itfelf; for the bars of BURGOS, TOLEDO, AVILA, and MADRID are all different. The proportion, however, between this measure of BURGOS and our English yard, is always as 100 English yards to 109 and 3 inches of the Spanish vara.

OUR modern calculators have made the Roman foot much less than our English foot; that is to fay, the pes Romanus, according to them, is, in English measure, 11 inches, and 604 decimal parts of an inch, or almost half an inch lefs: but I am strongly inclined to believe, that the English and Roman foot were the fame thing. For whoever will perufe the following account of the Spanish vara and league, extracted from a work of the learned Father BURRIEL, of the Imperial College of Jefuits at MADRID,

will perhaps find reason to alter his fentiments in this point, and will perceive this truth established by his accurate reafonings upon the Roman Eftadal still preserved at TOLEDO. For there being exactly the fame difference between the bar of TOLEDO, and that of BURGOS, as there is between the bar of BURGOS, and the Englifh yard: confequently, if the bar of TOLEDO was taken from the Roman foot, the English yard must come from the fame fource. The bar of BURGOS was, as I faid, 33 inches, the bar of TOLEDO 36, the English yard 36, confequently these two last measures are the fame.

THAT the antient foot of TOLEDO was the exact Roman foot, there can be no doubt; the Spanish and Roman measures, as well as weights being, for many ages, even after the divifion of the empire, the fame thing. The GOTHS, tho' they pulled down that vast fabric, had an amazing reverence for the wifdom of its builders; they preserved with a religious care, not the names only, but the exact uniformity and correfpondence, which fubfifted between the Roman weights, moneys, and measures of all kinds, as BURRIEL hath proved from the authority of those two bishops IDACIUS and ISIDORE. And the MOORS did in great measure the fame thing. You may fee, by one trivial inftance, how much the Roman weights and measures prevailed in SPAIN in after times: the style-yard, which is much in use among them at prefent, is called Uno Romano to this day, and by no other name.

FOR liquid measures the CASTILIANS use the Açumbre, which, as appears by the name, is an Arabic measure, and perhaps originally taken from the Omer of the Hebrews. The Açumbre contains two quarts English, or half a gallon. And the table of their liquid measure may stand thus:

Ir the quantity be greater, you then reckon by the Arroba, which is likewife another Arabic measure, and is exactly the quarter of the hundred, or 25 pounds English weight: for four Arrobes make the Quintal, or 100 pounds weight. But here again the Arroba is not the fame throughout all SPAIN; for the pound of CADIZ and SEVILLE, and confequently the Arrobe, are much larger than thofe of CASTILE. In SPAIN almost every thing, whether dry or liquid, is fold by the pound, by the avoirdupois pound of 16 ounces, and confequently by the Arrobe: Thus wine, oil, wood, coals, corn, bread, falt, &c. are fold by the pound, and as many of these are usually purchased in large quantities, they are generally fold by the Arrobe. I make no doubt, but the usage of the old Roman pound of 12 ounces avoirdupois, or 10 troy, prevails still in fome parts of SPAIN, tho' I am not able to prove it: As the standard of the bar has been kept at BURGOS, fo the ftandard of the Arroba has been preferved at TOLEDO; and corn hath been regulated by the Fanegue of AVILA.

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The Caftillan is the gold weight of SPAIN, and is to 14 rials and 16 peniques.

The Mark to 8 ounces.

The standard of the mark for filver has been kept at BURGOS; but the standard of the gold mark at TOLEDO.

THIS may fuffice for a short view of the Caftilian measures and weights; for he who would give an accurate account of all which prevail in the feveral provinces of SPAIN, had need write a folio, and not a letter. Those who would wish to know with the greateft precifion the exact length of the Caftilian bar and league may find it in the following extract taken from Father BURRIEL'S book Upon the Authority of the Laws of the Fuero Jusgo.

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Of Spanish Measures and Distances.

WE will now endeavour to fix the value of The Bar of Caftile, to determine the length of The Spanish League, and confequently to discuss a very important point of modern geography.

THE bar is that Spanish measure from whence are derived all those which ferve as measures of distance: and as long as its value is not fixed, it will be very difficult to ascertain justly the Caftilian League. But this is only a part of the difficulty: it is not fufficient to know what is the number of feet that go to make a bar: it is neceffary to fearch ftill farther, and find out what kind of feet they are, that is to say, whether they are Spanish, or Roman feet. Such is the question now before us. We have already said, That ALPHONSUS the Wife ordered all the cities and states to make their weights and measures after the ftandard of those which he had himself given to the city of TOLEDO. PHILIP II. found it convenient to annul in part fo wife a decree, by ordering, in a declaration made 1568, that the bar of Burgos fhould be the univerfal bar of his monarchy. TOLEDO facrificed, without difficulty, her pretenfions to the public good, which ought to refult from fuch uniformity; and conformed at firft to the will of the prince, in fending to BURGOS for a copy of her bar; a copy, which ToLEDO has always preferved, and preferves to this day, with the greatest care. If all the cities of CASTILE had fhewed the fame vigilance as TOLEDO in the prefervation of their bar, it is certain, that one should not see that vaft difference between them, which is fo vifible at prefent. It was natural, that this change in the bar fhould have an influence in the afcertainment of diftances, which it has been applied to measure; and this perhaps is the fource of fo many opinions which clash among thofe who have wrote upon the Length of the Spanish League, which of all the measures is the moft important, and that which we have most frequently a neceffity of knowing its real value.

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