kingdom of nations

Chapter 236 Weights and Measures (Part 2)
Cesar was also helpless.

Whether in Jerusalem, Jaffa, Damascus, or even further afield in Apollo, the situation regarding weights and measures can only be described as chaotic.

It may be hard for people of later generations to imagine that the vast Mediterranean region did not even have a unified unit of weight or length.

Although the earliest units of measurement and the subsequent number system existed in ancient Egypt—for ease of use and to further deify the pharaoh who claimed to be a descendant of Ra, the Egyptians used the pharaoh's fingertips, palms, elbows to soles of his feet as the standard, from size to name—this method was then adopted by the ancient Romans.

You might say that since it's a unit of measurement used since ancient Egypt, there shouldn't be much difference, right? Unfortunately, there is, and it's quite significant.

Even today, the average length of an adult male's foot is only 25 to 27 centimeters. But if you were to measure the "King's Foot" on an ancient ruler, you would find that the length ranges from 30 centimeters to 35 centimeters, and even 40 centimeters.

This was not intentional misconduct by merchants, but rather a deliberate arrangement in the laws and practices of various countries to exaggerate the authority of the king.

To put it simply, when one merchant unfurled a strip of cloth and claimed that the king's feet were this size, another merchant pulled out an even longer strip of cloth and argued that how could the feet of such a prominent figure as the king be the same length as those of an ordinary person? They must be longer. So, they naturally adopted the longer strip of cloth as the new unit of measurement.

Similar units of weight are also known. When César first heard about this, he could hardly believe it.

Here's the first question: which is heavier, an ounce of cotton or an ounce of gold?

Presumably, someone has already given the answer quickly: of course, they weigh the same.

However, for people of this era, this answer is incorrect. The correct answer is that gold is heavier because the ounce used for gold is the troy ounce, while the ounce used for cotton is the avoirdupois ounce. The former is approximately thirty-two grams, and the latter is approximately twenty-eight grams.

The reason is damned—gold is more valuable than other things…

If such a widely accepted unit of weight can have such a large error, one can only imagine how much more serious the errors can be with other units. You don't even need to leave a country, a province, or a village to find that the units of measurement can differ from village to village.

This kind of self-willed approach can easily lead to big problems.

When Heraclius was teaching, he told them that in English farms, people often refused to use the "foot" as a unit of length. So what did they use as a unit of length? A stick.

This was inherited from the ancient Romans. In the ancient Romans, a pole was about three meters long, while in England it was much shorter, and damnably, they all varied.

They used this stick to measure the size of fields, the length of irrigation ditches, and the height of fruit trees. This stick might be used for many years until it could no longer bear the weight and broke. But no one could guarantee that a new stick, or a stick from somewhere else, would be the same length. As a result, various disputes continued to arise.

Besides these, there were some strange units of measurement. For example, when serfs got married, they had to pay a marriage tax, which was to offer the lord an iron pot large enough for his new wife to sit in.

When César read this, he thought to himself, "Then women with large frames must be very unlucky; they may never be able to get married in their entire lives."

Of course, when he was just a young squire, he could only grumble to himself. To ministers and knights, a nine-year-old child was just a pretty little dog. They would pat his head and give him a few pieces of bread, but they would never allow him to speak out on important matters.

He also learned to count goods by portion, bag, or bundle, instead of by weight and length.

After becoming the Knight of Bethlehem, he did not intend to interfere too much in the operation of this small city, whether in terms of its economy, commerce, politics, or religion, because of the city's special status.

But Cyprus held a completely different meaning; it was truly his territory. Even when facing the Knights Templar and the Knights of Goodwill, he had no intention of surrendering it—not even a small portion. And it seemed that his long-held ambitions could be put into practice here.

He never intended to change this cruel and absurd world overnight, but at least for now, he finally had a decent start. The people were not as ignorant as he had imagined, and the nobles were not necessarily all despicable. When he wanted to move towards the light, he would never lack followers.

However, even the loftiest ideals need a solid foundation in reality to support them, and the most unavoidable of these is money. Even the king of Arrassa would have headaches over money, and the lords of Cyprus were no exception.

Many of the things he envisioned required strong economic support. Where did the wealth a lord could obtain—that largest golden apple—come from?
Without a doubt, it's taxes.

César initially intended to first integrate and analyze Cyprus's tax situation, but he soon discovered that in order to control the tax revenue, he could not avoid the issue of weights and measures.

No wonder most lords and nobles preferred to entrust all the tax collection in their territories to the Isaacs. Even someone as mathematically gifted as Cesar would feel dizzy when faced with the intricate statistics and units.

The Byzantine Empire originally had a unified system of weights and measures and regulated it in the market, but as the empire weakened, each province began to use different units of measurement, perhaps just to gain greater profits, but this created the biggest problem facing Cesare at this time.

Unless he is willing to hand over the most important tax revenue to the Isaacs, as previous governors had done, since the Isaacs always managed to get the amount of money the governor wanted.

It wasn't that Cesare distrusted the Isaacs. In fact, he never tested human nature. Anyone who has the power to take from others and can derive enormous benefits from that power—unless he is born a saint—would not fall into depravity.

"You're not going to hand over the tax collection to the Isaacs?" Dandolo asked.

For the first decade or so after migrating to the island, the Venetians engaged in fishing and farming, but soon they discovered that traveling back and forth by boat and making a living through trade suited them better, so the majority of people in this autonomous city-state were merchants.

And any businessman must know how to count and calculate, and be familiar with the conditions in various places—including but not limited to weights and measures.

In other words, they can do everything the Isaacs can do, so there's no need for the Isaacs to interfere. "Currently, there are about twenty-seven taxes in Cyprus—I mean, for ordinary people," Cesar said. "I can't possibly hand them over to the Isaacs."

The tax most familiar to people of this era is the tithe. In fact, the tithe was not an invention of the church. It was originally a provincial tax that the various provinces of the Roman Empire had to pay to the central government. Because this tax was one-tenth of the output of all the provinces, it was called the tithe.

Taxation has evolved to include agricultural tax, commercial tax, and public tax.

Agricultural taxes were further subdivided into land tax, livestock tax, supplementary tax, and miscellaneous taxes. Land tax was divided into three levels according to the fertility of the land. Livestock tax was based on the type and number of domesticated livestock, and the amount levied was approximately one-twelfth of the livestock's value.

Supplementary taxes and miscellaneous taxes are general terms.

Generally speaking, when a lord needs to wage war, there will be a war tax; when he needs to rebuild his castle, there will be a castle tax; and even when he needs to forge armor, there will be an armor tax.

Commercial taxes... are levied on merchants traveling between the two places, including trade taxes, transit taxes, city entry taxes, and transfer taxes. One of the most hated taxes by merchants is the landing tax—all goods that land on a lord's land belong to the lord, and that's 100%.

As for public taxes—one of which is well-known to everyone—it is usually called the poll tax.

Another item is the tax on the use of public property. In ancient Rome, this tax was used to build libraries, bathhouses, and amphitheaters, but now it has become a fee for the use of various public facilities.

For example, mills, farm implements, bread ovens, or the lord's cattle, forests, rivers, etc...

Cesar estimated that these taxes already covered 40 percent of the income of ordinary people, which was close to the bottom line. If he handed them over to the Isaacs in order to save time and effort, the Isaacs would definitely increase the amount, and by a significant margin.

Sometimes Cesar wondered if these Isaacs didn't know that their relentless exploitation of others would ultimately lead to nothing.
If they were forced into the financial industry due to oppression from the church and guilds... then why were they so greedy as tax farmers—even though everyone knew that regardless of whether they were convicted, their property could not be taken out of the city.

Cesar was not the kind of person who could stand by and watch the people suffer and be devastated without doing anything. In the past, he did not have the power or the right to do so, but now that he could, of course he would not choose the Isaacs.

He invited Dandolo to discuss this matter not only because he was his wife's grandfather, but also because the Venetians had a fairly standard system of weights and measures from a very early time.

Moreover, they required foreign merchants trading with them to use the same units of measurement, so there were quite a few people in the Mediterranean region who were proficient in Venetian weights and measures.

Or perhaps the Venetians weren't too greedy. Even if outsiders weren't familiar with their units of measurement, they wouldn't arbitrarily alter the size, weight, or length of the units to maximize their profits.

“I will not use the Isaacs. I intend to establish a permanent tax office, which will require a large number of tax officials. If you wish, I can recruit these officials from Venice, provided they can pass the examinations. In addition, I will provide some new units of weight and measures, and perhaps some matters related to coinage... which will require their involvement.”

Upon hearing this, Dandolo was not only surprised but also overjoyed.

Although he was in the final stages of his life, clinging to life only for revenge, he was still a Venetian at heart. Otherwise, after Manuel I expelled the Venetians, he wouldn't have insisted on meeting the capricious emperor, thus inviting his own demise.

What does it mean to make the Venetian system of weights and measures universal in Cyprus—even if the lord had his own ideas?
When they conquered Acre and handed it over to the Crusaders, one of their conditions was simply that Venetian weights and measures be adopted in Acre.

Now that Cesar has said this, it's as if the entire Cyprus, and indeed all Mediterranean merchants who use Cyprus as a transit or trading point, have enacted a law that respects the Venetians.

This was undoubtedly an incredible stroke of luck for the Venetians, who were almost certain that neither the ten-man council nor the governor would have any objections.

However, he was ultimately a shrewd and calculating man. His emotion lasted only a moment before he quickly regained his composure: "What do you need us to do?"

“I need a lot of people, maybe hundreds, and once the institution is established, they will have to train a group of students for me.”

Dandolo smiled. As a businessman, he knew that free things are often the most expensive. Besides, Cesar was still the lord of Cyprus, and even though his granddaughter was now his wife, the Venetians were undoubtedly the weaker party in their alliance.

Moreover, he not only needed César to intimidate the Legion of Ten and secure the position of Doge of Venice for himself or his chosen successor, he also harbored far deeper ambitions…

If Cesar had only offered a generous bait and then transferred such a large profit to the Venetians or the Dandolo family, he would have been terrified.

Now that Cesar has set his conditions, he feels more at ease. This makes sense, though. To govern a place, it is impossible to rely solely on knights and soldiers. More importantly, it requires those who can read, calculate, and perform statistics. Originally, this responsibility was undertaken by priests and monks of the church, then by the Isaacs, but now some monarchs are beginning to promote those around them.

The former was due to the struggle between royal and papal power, while the latter was not something only César saw the downsides of tax farming.

The problem is that Cesar lacks such people around him, and although his teacher is Patriarch Heraclius, if he sends a large number of priests, the Cypriots will probably feel uneasy.

“These matters may require me to convene a meeting after returning to Venice and discuss them with others before a decision can be made,” Dandolo said cautiously. These people were no longer something that the Dandolo family could provide; the vital forces of the major families would be completely plundered—if Cesare’s suggestion was followed, then Venetian trade activities might continue to shrink for the next few years.

But if the Venetians were to truly establish themselves in the Cypriot court… just imagine, this would be unprecedented. Their descendants would no longer be merchants, but ministers, nobles, and even lords…

(End of this chapter)