Today is Metrology Day, so I’ll maintain my long tradition.
= = = = = MEDIEVAL METROLOGY PART 1 = = = = =
This year I’m focusing on the medieval way of thinking as illuminated by Sherri Olson.
Medieval villages embodied Natural Law.
The Almighty has created this world as a trial and test for man; every person has therefore been made to depend on others for his living. No one in this world can live independently as regards his needs and requirements. A person of the highest rank turns to the most ordinary to fulfill them. In other words, every single person has an important role to play, without which this world cannot continue.
This role depends upon his abilities, intelligence and inclinations as well as upon his means and resources, which vary from person to person. In fact, it is because of this variation that a society comes into being. Consequently, laborers and workers, artisans and craftsmen, tillers and peasants are as indispensable as scholars and thinkers, savants and sages, leaders and rulers. Every individual is an integral component of the society and contributes to its formation according to his abilities.
By creating various classes of people, the Almighty is testing whether the big and the small, the high and the low create a society based on co-operation and respect or create disorder in the world by disregarding the role each person has been ordained to play.
= = = = = END REVIEW.
Each village had a single collective purpose of growing food. The momentary purposes of villagers changed all the time as needs and talents and seasons changed, in the same way that our brains create momentary groupings to serve each purpose. Natural Law enforced the ideals by balancing departures from ideal. Thieves and trespassers had to pay back in money or work, beaters were beaten. Jail and physical punishments like whipping and stocks were available but rarely used. The constant maintenance of dynamic stability kept things in line most of the time.
There were very few permanent offices or permanent jobs. Government happened in court sessions, usually monthly, where everyone attended and participated in various ways. The goal of the court session was broad consensus, not precise numerical conformity. Oddballs were welcomed as long as their odd ways worked in different styles toward the common goal. Decisions were made by juries which existed for the day of the court session then disappeared. Anyone could end up as a juror.
Juries are the ONLY remnant of Natural Law governance, and we do everything possible to squeeze them out of their remaining power. Instead of making all decisions, juries only decide 2% of criminal and civil cases.
Villages had permanent metrologists devoted to the most important measurements of food and water. The size and quality of crops needed to be monitored, and the amount and quality of ale needed to be monitored. Ale was the main liquid input, hydrating and lubricating civilization all at once.
Polistra is the village brewer, boiling up a batch for sale.
Ale tasters or ale conners were the Bureau of Standards. Brewers had to send for a taster before selling the current batch. The taster measured the batch for quantity and tasted it for quality. At each court session the brewers were required to calibrate their pots. Tasters took center stage as each brewer brought her measuring pots forward to be checked for size. A brewer who measured wrong, or failed to send for the taster, or diluted the ale after the taster had checked it, was in trouble.
In 1364 a brewer called Alice unabashedly cheated her customers by selling them ridiculously false amounts of ale. She added 1.5 inches of pitch to the bottom of an unsealed quart measure thus making it so false that “even her six quarts didn’t add up to a gallon”.
Prices were also controlled. In 1470 Dublin laws said: “It is ordained that the brewsters shall sell to their customers a dozen of their best ale for 2 shillings.”
Happystar, the taster, is checking the quantity in the pot with his ruler. He will also check the dispensing tankards in the background.
Medieval rulers were simply ruled sticks with no numbers. Most commercial accounting was done with tally sticks, also notched and numberless. When society relies less on written language it also relies less on written numbers. In fact numbers interfere with most uses of a short ruler. You need to subtract the starting point from the ending point, which can be confusing. If you’re concerned with counting the intervals, the subtraction is correct. If you’re concerned with counting the individual marks, you need to add 1. With no numbers you can’t get confused. You’re always counting one way or the other. No abstract math needed.
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Metrology-ish footnote about authors. I’ve been reading and admiring Sherri Olson. She’s British, currently at Univ of Connecticut. There is also a historian named Sherry Olson who is Canadian, working at McGill in Montreal. Both write books in similar areas. I’ve been spelling the name both ways because normally one letter doesn’t matter!
Polistra's Mill 