A simple question that probably doesn't have a simple answer: when records
in seventeenth and early eighteenth-century Virginia - especially
pertaining to tobacco - use the term "hundredweight" or "Cwt," were they
considering that 100 or 112 pounds?  Obviously this is important to
deriving an accurate price series.  Unfortunately, in Essex County records,
I have yet to find a document that would reveal what standard they were
using (by that I mean references to pounds and cwt of tobacco with
corresponding prices in the same entry).  I know Avoirdupois units were
pretty much the standard after the Revolution, but have never known when
that standard originated and when it started to come into use. If anyone
has a reference for legislation regarding the hundredweight standard in
colonial Virginia or has an example where the standard is revealed, I would
appreciate it.  I suppose while I'm at it: were they using the short (2,000
lb) or long (2,240 lb) ton?

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