In Laos[217] we again find the Chinese picul as the highest weight unit. It is divided into 100 catties (here called Chang) of 600 grammes each (1⅓ lb. Eng.).
| 1 picul | = | 100 catties. |
| 1 catty (chang) | = | 10 damling (60 grammes). |
| 1 damling | = | 4 bat (15 grammes). |
| 1 bat | = | 4 chi (3·75 grammes). |
| 1 chi | = | 10 hun. |
All these or their equivalents are used as money of account. “If there is but little coin in Laos,” says M. Aymonier, “there are monies of account in abundance.” In the south-west of the country, Bassak and Attopoeu, Cambodian currency is employed, and they count by the nên or bar of silver.
| 1 nên | = | 10 denhs (money of account). |
| 1 denh | = | 10 strings of cash. |
The string is also money of account and is worth the same as the string of Annam, which is equal to the sling or Siamese franc (which is worth 75 or 80 centimes). The nên is also divided into 100 chi, and as there are 100 strings in the nên, the string of cash is equivalent to a chi of silver (3·75 gram.). The Siamese coins known also to Cambodia were the weight and money units of the ancient Cambodians, who probably weighed their precious metals. In Laos all of them except the tical are only monies of account. The tical or bat which under the ancient round form[218] was called clom in Cambodia is actually struck as a small piastre in Cambodia and Siam in imitation of European money. This tical is worth 4 Siamese slings, but the only monetary division of it known in Laos is the local lat or small ingot of copper.
| 4 copper lats | = | 1 silver tical (= 4 sling = 3 francs). |
| 4 tical | = | 1 damling. |
| 20 damling | = | 1 catty (chang). |
| 50 catties | = | 1 picul. |
The chang or catty of silver is a double one, hence 50 catties of silver are equal to 100 catties of ordinary commercial weight.
The catty of silver thus weighs 1200 grammes instead of 600 grammes.
They likewise use the moeun of silver = 10 changs = ⅕ picul, but more generally the moeun is used as a measure of capacity which contains 20 catties of shelled rice, but as a measure of capacity it varies and is sometimes equal to 20 catties, sometimes to 25 catties of rice. That it really is a measure of capacity incorporated at a later date into the weight system like our own bushels, barrels and quarters, is made probable by the fact that in the provinces of Tonlé, Ropon, and Melou Préy they employ a tramem or bag containing 10 Cambodian catties, and in the province of Siphoum the moeun is sometimes the name given to a bag or pannier of a cubit in depth, and a cubit in width at the mouth. It is usually called kanchoen (pannier), and contains 25 catties of rice, and 36 kanchoen make a cartload.
We learn from another part of Laos an interesting fact which also throws some light on the development of the larger weight units from measures of capacity. For since in some parts of that country the cocoanut is used as the measure of capacity, and as neal, the native Cambodian name for the catty, means simply a cocoanut, it looks as though this was the real origin of the catty universally employed over all Further Asia. This likewise gives us the reason why the catty of silver is twice the weight of a catty of rice. If a weight unit is derived from a measure of capacity, according to the nature of the substance or liquid with which the measure is filled, the weight unit derived will be heavier or lighter, just as the Irish barrel of wheat is 6 stones heavier than the barrel of oats. A cocoa-nut, or bamboo-joint filled with silver will give a far heavier weight unit than if it is weighed when filled with rice.