Kati

I wrote with nostalgic gusto about Old Measure, which was still in daily use in rural England in the late 1960s. So many etymologically unrelated names related by inconsistent multipliers: 8 furlongs to the mile; 14 pounds to the stone; 20 [UK] or 16 [US] fluid ounces to the pint. But that's very insular and introspective and frankly baffling for pretty much everyone under the age of, say, 50. 

I was processing the last? of the beans at the beginning of the month. There is only so many beanz and man can eat, despite being good for the heart, so I was blanching and freezing for Christmas, when we expect the family to be sharing þe sucking pigge. I needed to convert 7.5oz to grams and, although I knew it was about 210g, I asked my browser. As well as kg, lb, oz and several different tons, I was offered an answer in Tola or Catty. These measures of weight a) were outside my insular education b) had a whiff of spices.

Catty, kati, jin, 斤, is for measuring lumps and is about 600g or 1⅓lb avoirdupois. It was originally a word in Malay, and we derive tea caddy from the same source. About 600g because several cultures retain an old style incommensurate 604[.78]g = 1 catty. In the PRC, they've made international trade simple by redefining 1 jin = 500g or a 'metric pound'. That's how we used to buy cheese in Rotterdam in the late 70s "een pond van belegen kaas a.u.b." or "een half-pond" as the case might be. Dus! I've been misheard many times in Ireland with my Britse accent asking for "half a pound/kilo of sausages" and getting twice that because 👂"[I'll] have a pound of sausages".

Tola contrariwise is for smaller things, having been standardised by the East India Company in the 19thC as 180 grains = 3⁄8 troy ounce or 11.7g. Conveniently, the EIC rupee (which was a widely circulated and trusted coin) [see R] weighed 1 Tola. I know nothing about such matters, but the base unit of hashish is apparently 1 tola or more likely [short measure alert!] 10g. And 10 tola is a convenient and widely used weight for gold bullion. In these uncertain times that will cost you €9,000! although it's a good bit smaller than my pinkie finger. 

And while we're East is East, there's a Picul or tam 擔 which = 120 Catty. In Hong Kong this amount is called a stone. What with HK being British and all for 100+ years, this is a little wild because elsewhere in the Empire 1 Stone = 14lb in standard human body measurement [for those over 50] in these WEA islands. A picul at 72kg was what an 11st = 70kg man could be expected to sustainably carry on a shoulder pole. I like that reference back to the size and capacity of the human body to generate relatable weights and measures. In Nederland carpenters and others still measure in duim 👍 = inch from the width of a man's thumb. For longer measurements there's a furlong [prev] - the length of furrow that could be ploughed before the oxen went all lactic and had to be rested. It is 220 yds = 10 chains =~ 200m and there are 8 of them to the [statute] mile.