Dear Peter:
Do you know what 300 pounds of tobacco was worth in 1697?
Diana
"Peter V. Bergstrom" wrote:
>
> On Thu, 9 Nov 2000 16:38:49 EST, [log in to unmask] wrote:
>
> > While reading some Northern Neck Court records from 1780s, I came
> across
> >"Tobacco at Twenty Shillings per Cent." What is a Cent??
> > It would seem from the text that a Cent is a unit of weight.
> >
> > In Court cases where a fine was levied, a fine would read "Twenty
> >Shillings or Two hundred pounds of Tobacco." So is a Cent. 200 lb. of
> >tobacco?
> >
> > Hope someone can help me with this.
> >
> > Thanks, Bill Balderson
> >
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>
> I was just searching the list archive on tobacco -- just a matter of
> curiosity I guess, but I came across this query from last fall and I wasn't
> sure if it ever generated an answer.
>
> Tobacco prices were quoted by the hundred weight in Colonial Virginia which
> was usually abbreviated as Cwt or Cent.
>
> In America the hundred weight was given as 100 pounds, but in England a Cwt
> was 112 pounds. Although this doesn't seem to have been a confusing thing
> for colonials, it sure can be tough on modern researchers. If you see a
> Virginia price quoute such as 10/Cwt which means 10 shillings per hundred
> weight you get a price of 1.2d/pound of tobacco -- 1.2 pence per pound
> (10sX12d=120 pence/100 pounds of tobacco to get 1.2 pence/pound).
>
> In England this same quote of 10/Cwt would work out to 120 pence/112
> pounds, or about 1.07 pence per pound. Of course the Virginians would be
> using "current money" more likely than sterling money, so those two
> quotes would be even farther apart. [If you want to know about exchange
> rates -- that's a whole other story ...]
>
> I hope this clears up some of the confusion about colonial and English
> weights and measures.
>
> Peter
>
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