One may thus surmise that the royal pound of Scotland, like that of England up to Tudor times, was of Cologne or Tower standard, and was superseded in course of time by the Amsterdam or Scots Trois pound.
Measures of Capacity
In 1410 it was ordered:
That the Boll be divided into 4 Firlots, and contain 29 inches within the boords, and above 27 and an half-inch even over, and in deepness 19 inches; that the Firlot contain in breadth even over 16 inches under and above within the boords, and in deepness 9 inches; that the Firlot contain 2 gallons and a pint, and the Pint to weigh, of the water of Tay 41 ounces or 2 pounds 9 ounces; so the Gallon weighs 20 pounds 8 ounces, the Firlot 41 pounds and the Boll 164 pounds.
This seems as clear as the water of Tay; unfortunately the three firlots mentioned in the first half of the quotation are three different firlots.
There is also a difficulty about the pint. An Act of James VI gives ‘the pint of Stirling two pounds and nine ounces Trois, of clear water,’ the same weight as above. But another and previous Act of the same king (1618) orders ‘that the Pint weigh three pounds seven ounces Trois of the running water of the Water of Leith’; and this pint is also called the Stirling Pint, Jug or Stoup, so there were two pints, as well as several firlots.
Of the two pints, the standard of one is still extant, which we will call the Stirling Jug or larger pint. It contains 104·2 cubic inches = 60·1 ounces of water, almost exactly 3 Imperial pints, and was 55 ounces or 3 lb. 7 oz. Scots of water. It was not an aliquot part of any of the firlots, but was itself a standard basis of measure, of which the firlot might be 18, 19, 21-1/4, &c. There is little doubt that it was one of the ‘Kanne’ of North Germany (Du. stoop); these kanne vary at the present day between 2·83 pints in Bremen and 3·2 pints in Hamburg. There was in Prussia until quite recently the Metze of 6 pints or 120·8 ounces, almost exactly twice the larger Stirling Jug.
The other pint, of 41 Scots ounces = 44-1/2 English ounces or 2-1/4 pints, was not a standard measure. It was merely a divisional unit, one-sixteenth of the above-described wine firlot containing 41 lb. Scots, or 44-1/2 English pounds, of water. This firlot was divided into 2 gallons = 20-1/2 lb. Scots, or 22-1/4 English pounds; and the gallon into 8 pints of 41 ounces Scots.
What was the origin of this firlot, or rather of the Boll, of which it was a fourth? There is only one measure with which it has any affinity: the half-Cargo of Marseilles,[[31]] divided like it, sexdecimally. The two series run thus:
| Scotland | Marseilles (original Standard) | |||||
| Imp. Gall. | Imp. Gall. | |||||
| Boll 164 lb. Scots | = | 17·8 | Half-Cargo | = | 17·76 | |
| Firlot 41 „ | = | 4·45 | Panau, Eimino | = | 4·43 | |
| Gallon 20-1/2 „ | = | 2·22 | Half-Eimino | = | 2·21 | |
| Pint, Jug 41 oz. | = | 2·2 | Pechié (Pitcher) | = | 2·21 | |