The Dutch units of measurement used today are those of the metric system. Before the 19th century, a wide variety of different weights and measures were used by the various Dutch towns and provinces. Despite the country's small size, there was a lack of uniformity. During the Dutch Golden Age, these weights and measures accompanied the Dutch to the farthest corners of their colonial empire, including South Africa, New Amsterdam and the Dutch East Indies. Units of weight included the pond, ons and last. There was also an apothecaries' system of weights. The mijl and roede were measurements of distance. Smaller distances were measured in units based on parts of the body – the el, the voet, the palm and the duim. Area was measured by the morgen, hont, roede and voet. Units of volume included the okshoofd, aam, anker, stoop, and mingel.Much of the information on this page was obtained from various unfootnoted articles found on the Dutch version of Wikipedia, including "Metriek stelsel", "Nederlands metriek stelsel", "Pond (massa)", "Ons (massa)", "Last", "Medicinaal pond", "Mijl (Nederland)", "Roede (lengte)", "El (lengtemaat)", "Voet (lengte)", "Duim(lengte)", "Anker", "Aam", "Morgen" and "Roede" and "Hont". Some of the information was also found in other articles on the English Wikipedia, including "Apothecaries' system". In accordance with Wikipedia policy to avoid references to other Wikipedia articles, the source of this information is not footnoted in each sentence. At the start of the 19th century the Dutch adopted a unified metric system. It was based on a modified version of the metric system, different from the system used today. In 1869, this was realigned with the international metric system. These old units of measurement have disappeared, but they remain a colourful legacy of the Netherlands' maritime and commercial importance. The old units of measurement survive today in a number of Dutch sayings and expressions.
Historical units of measure When Charlemagne was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 800 AD, his empire included most of modern-day Western Europe including the Netherlands and Belgium. Charlemagne introduced a standard system of measurement across his domains using names such as "pound" and "foot". At the Treaty of Verdun, the empire was divided between Charlemagne's three grandsons. Lothair received the central portion, stretching from the Netherlands in the north to Burgundy and Provence in the south.
Further fragmentation followed and with it various parts of the empire modified the units of measures in a manner that suited the local lord. By the start of the religious wars, the territories that made up the Netherlands, still part of the Holy Roman Empire, had passed into the lordship of the King of Spain. Each territory had its own variant of the original Carolingian units of measure. Under the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, the seven Protestant territories that owed a nominal allegiance to the Prince of Orange seceded from the Holy Roman Empire and established their own confederacy but each kept its own system of measures.
Weight
Pond pond (pound) (Amsterdam) – 494.09 g (1.0893 lb) (with variations, now 500 g) A pond was divided into sixteen ons. A pond was roughly about the same size as a modern pound. It was generally around 480 grams, but there was much variation from region to region. The most commonly used measure of weight was the Amsterdam pound. Appendix
one Amsterdam pound (scale weight) (Amsterdams pond – waaggewicht) was 494.09 grams, one Gorinchem pound (Gorinchems pond) was 466 grams, one Utrecht heavy pound (Utrechts zwaar pond) was 497.8 grams.
After the metric system was introduced in 1816, the word pond continued to be used, but for 1 kilogram. This doubling in size of the pond in one fell swoop created a good deal of confusion. The name "kilogram" was adopted in 1869, but the pond was only eliminated as a formal unit of measurement in 1937. Pond is still used today in everyday parlance to refer to 500 g, not far from its historical weight. The word pond is also used when referring to the pound used in English-speaking countries.
Ons ons, once (ounce) – pond = 30.881 g (1.0893 oz) (with variations, now 100 g)
An ons was of a pond. An ons was generally around 30 grams, but there was much variation. The figures provided above for the weight of the various pounds used in the Netherlands can be divided by 16 to obtain the weights of the various ounces in use. After the metric system was introduced, the word ons continued to be used, but for 100 g. The ons was eliminated as a formal unit of measurement in 1937, but it is still used today in everyday parlance to refer to 100 g. In the Netherlands today the word ons does not commonly refer to its historical weight of around 30 g (the exact weight depending on where you were), but to 100 g.
Last or Scheepslast scheepslast – 4,000 Amsterdam pond = Meaning literally a "load", a last was essentially the equivalent of of shipping space. A last in the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in the 17th century was about the same as 1,250 kg, becoming later as much as 2,000 kg.
In the Dutch fishery, a last was a measurement of the fish loaded into the various types of fishing boat in use (e.g. a bomschuit, buis, sloep or logger). The last of these could take 35 to 40 last of fish, the exact amount depending on the location. In the South Holland fishing villages of Scheveningen and Katwijk, it amounted to 17 crans (kantjes) of herring; in Vlaardingen 14 packed tons. A cran (kantje) held about 900 to 1,000 herring.A. Hoogendijk Jz., De grootvisserij op de Noordzee, 1895Piet Spaans, Bouwteelt, 2007 In Flanders a last was about 1,000 kg of herring. The term fell out of use when the herring fishery disappeared.R. Degrijse, Vlaanderens haringbedrijf, 1944
Apothecaries' system In the Netherlands (as in English-speaking countries) there was an apothecaries' system of weights.
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" |- ! Unit !! Symbol !! Division !! Grains !! Grams |- ! medicinal pound (medicinaal pond) | unicode|lb || 12 ons || 5760 || 373.241 72 |- ! medicinal ounce (medicinaal ons) | ℥ || 8 drachmen || 480 || 31.103 477 |- ! dram (drachme) | ℨ || 3 scrupels || 60 || 3.887 9346 |- ! scruple (scrupel) | ℈ || 20 grein || 20 || 1.295 9782 |- ! grain (grein) | gr. || || 1 || 0.064 79891
Length Mijl one Dutch mile or mijl () = about 5.5–6.25 kilometre.
The usual or was actually the league, the Celtic unit of distance notionally equivalent to an hour's walk (), varying over different terrain. This was usually standardized at the value of 20,000 feet, although the foot varied over time and from region to region. The Amsterdam foot produced a mijl of around 3.52 miles or 5.66 km, while the Rhenish foot produced one of 3.9 miles or 6.28 km.
In specific contexts, a separate mile might be used. Sailors used a nautical or geographical mile () based on varying divisions of an equatorial degree. The traditional version was identical to the German and Scandinavian nautical mile of 4 minutes of arc of an equatorial degreeor about 7.4 km. Some, however, used the Portuguese maritime league () of of a degree or about 5.56 km. The "Netherlands mile" was also used as a direct synonym for the kilometer between the beginning of Dutch metrification in 1816 and the completion of the reforms in 1869. (Within Dutch, the word has now fallen out of use except in fixed expressions and references to English and international nautical units.)
Roede The roede (literally, "rod") was generally somewhat smaller than the English rod, which is 16.5 feet (or 5.0292 metres). However, the length of a roede, and the number of voeten in a roede, varied from place to place. There could be anywhere from 7 to 21 voeten in a roede. The roede used in the Netherlands for the measurement of long distances was generally the Rijnland rod. Other rods included:de Gelder, page 167
one Rijnland rod (Rijnlandse roede) (= 12 Rijnland feet) was 3.767 m one Amsterdam rod (Amsterdamse roede) (= 13 Amsterdam feet) was 3.68 m one Bloois rod (Blooise roede) (= 12 feet) was 3.612 m one 's-Hertogenbosch rod (s-Hertogenbosche roede) (= 20 feet) was 5.75 m one Hondsbos and Rijp rod (Hondsbosse en Rijp roede) was 3.42 m one Putten rod (Puttense roede) (= 14 feet) was 4.056 m one Schouw rod (Schouwse roede) (= 12 feet) was 3.729 m one Kings rod (in Friesland) (Konings roede) (= 12 feet) was 3.913 m one Gelderland rod (Geldersche roede) (= 14 feet) was 3.807 m
Today the word roede is not in common use in the Netherlands as a unit of measurement.
El The length represented by the Dutch ell was the distance of the inside of the arm (i.e. the distance from the armpit to the tip of the fingers), an easy way to measure length. The Dutch "ell", which varied from town to town (, was somewhat shorter than the English ell (114.3 cm). A section of measurements is given below:de Gelder, page 169
one The Hague ell or standard ell (Haagse of gewone el) = 69.425 cm one Amsterdam ell (Amsterdamse el) = 68.78 cm one Brabant ell (Brabantse el) = 69.2 cm or 16 tailles one Delft ell (Delfsche el) = 68.2 cm one Goes ell (Goesche el) = 69 cm one Twente ell (Twentse el) = 58.7 cm
In 1725 The Hague ell was fixed as the national standard for tax purposes and from 1816 to 1869, the word el was used in the Netherlands to refer to the metre. In 1869 the word meter was adopted and the el, disappeared, both as a word and as a unit of measurement.
Voet The voet ("foot") was of the same order of magnitude as the English foot (), but its exact size varied from city to city and from province to province. There were 10, 11, 12 or 13 duimen (inches) in a voet, depending on the city's local regulations. The Rijnland foot which had been in use since 1621 was most commonly used voet in the both Netherlands and in parts of Germany. In 1807, de Gelder measured the copy of the Rijnland foot in the Leiden observatory to be while Eytelwien found that the master copy that was in use in Germany was – a difference of 0.03%.de Gelder, page 164 In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Dutch settlers took the Rijnland foot to the Cape Colony. In 1859, by which time the colony had passed into British control, the Cape foot was calibrated against the English foot and legally defined as 1.033 English feet ().
The following is a partial list of the various voeten in use the Netherlands:
one Rijnland foot (Rijnlandse voet) (= 12 Rijnland inches) was 31.4 cm one Amsterdam foot (Amsterdamse voet) (= 11 Amsterdam inches) was 28.3133 cm one Bloois foot (Blooise voet) was 30.1 cm one 's-Hertogenbosch foot ('''s-Hertogenbossche voet) was 28.7 cm one Hondsbos and Rijp foot (Honsbossche en Rijpse voet) was 28.5 cm one Schouw foot (Schouwse voet) was 31.1 cm one Gelderland foot (Geldersche voet) was 29.2 cm
Today the word voet is not in common use in the Netherlands as a unit of measurement, except when referring to the English foot.
Palm kleine palm (small palm) – 3 cm (1.18 in)
grote palm (large palm) – 9.6 cm; after 1820, 10 cm
Duim The duim (nl) ("thumb", but translated as "inch") was about the width of the top phalanx of the thumb of an adult man. It was very similar to the length of the English inch (2.54 cm). Its exact length and definition varied from region to region, but was usually one-twelfth of a voet, though the Amsterdamse duim was one eleventh of an Amsterdamse voet.
one Amsterdam inch (Amsterdamse duim) was one Gelderland or Nijmegen inch (Gelderse of Nijmeegse duim) was 2.7 cm one Rijnland inch (Rijnlandse duim) was 2.61 cm