LVI 
PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 
up to the year 1527, when it was abolished in favor of the troy 
pound of 5,760 grains. Contemporaneously with the tower pound 
there was also the merchant’s pound, whose exact weight is now in¬ 
volved in so much doubt that it is impossible to decide whether it 
consisted of 6,750 or of 7,200 grains. The tower pound and the 
troy pound were used for weighing only gold, silver, and drugs, 
while all other commodities were weighed by the merchant’s pound 
until the thirteenth or fourteenth century, and after that by the 
avoirdupois pound. It is not certainly known when the troy and 
avoirdupois pounds were introduced into England, and there is no 
evidence of any relation between them when they first became 
standards. The present avoirdupois pound can be clearly proved 
to be of similar weight to the standard avoirdupois pound of Ed¬ 
ward III (A. D. 1327-1377), and there is good reason for believing 
that no substantial change has occurred either in its weight or in that 
of the troy pound since their respective establishment as standards 
in England. 
The oldest standard weights now existing in the English archives 
date from the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and consist of a set of bell¬ 
shaped avoirdupois weights of 56, 28, and 14 pounds, made in 1582 
and 7, 4, 2, and 1 pounds made in 1588; a set of flat circular 
avoirdupois weights of 8, 4, 2, and 1 pounds, and 8, 4, 2, 1, 4, I, 4, 
and tV ounces, made in 1588 ; and a set of cup-shaped troy weights, 
fitting one within the other, of 256, 128, 64, 32, 16, 8, 4, 2,1, 4, 4,4 
(hollow), and 4 (solid) ounces, also made in 1588.^ All these stand¬ 
ards were constructed by order of Queen Elizabeth, under the di¬ 
rection of a jury composed of eighteen merchants and eleven gold¬ 
smiths of London ; the avoirdupois weights being adjusted according 
to an ancient standard of 56 pounds, remaining in the Exchequer 
from the time of Edward III; and the troy weights being adjusted 
according to the ancient standard in Goldsmiths’ Hall.^ 
In view of the fact that the weight mentioned in all the old acts 
of Parliament, from the time of Edward I (A. D. 1274-1307) is 
universally admitted to be troy weight, the Parliamentary Com¬ 
mittee of 1758, appointed to inquire into the original standards of 
weights and measures in England, recommended that the'troy pound 
should be made the unit or standard by which the avoirdupois and 
other weights should be regulated; and by their order three several 
111, p. 430. 
2 11, pp. 435 and 443-448. 
