"Cavet Emptor": Abolishing Public Measurements, Standardizing Quantities, and Enhancing Market Transparency in the London Coal Trade c1830

This article evaluates efforts to standardize quantities in the London coal trade c1830, and traces the end of the public measurement system first introduced in the fourteenth century. Increasing traffic in coal, reduction of taxes on the commodity, inefficient public meters, etc., contributed to th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEnterprise & society Vol. 9; no. 2; pp. 281 - 313
Main Author VELKAR, AASHISH
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published OXFORD JOURNALS OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 01.06.2008
Subjects
Coal
Coal fuels industry
Commodities
Corporations
Economic history
Measurement systems
Merchants
Standardization
Trade
Trade volume
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Summary:This article evaluates efforts to standardize quantities in the London coal trade c1830, and traces the end of the public measurement system first introduced in the fourteenth century. Increasing traffic in coal, reduction of taxes on the commodity, inefficient public meters, etc., contributed to the demise of public measurements. This outcome was the result of extensive negotiations between merchants, the various levels of state bureaucracy, and the parliament. Switching measurement standards was difficult, if not costly, to coordinate. Abolishing public measurements and switching from volume to weight measurements was part of the efforts to strengthen governance along the commodity chain, secure property rights by making quantities predictable and alter a mechanism that powerful merchants considered had become inappropriate.
ISSN:1467-2227
1467-2235