Cavan (unit)

Last updated

Cavan, sometimes spelled Caban or Kaban [1] [nb 1] ) is Filipino unit of mass and also a unit of volume or dry measure.

Contents

Description

Cavan was defined in the 19th century by the government of the Spanish East Indies as being equivalent to 75 litres. [2] Though officially the Philippines became entirely metric in 1860, this value was still in use well into the 20th century. [3]

Cavan was reported in the late 19th century as a measure for rice equivalent to 98.28 litres. [4] Various references from the same period describe it as a unit of mass: for rice, 133 lb (about 60.33 kg); for cocoa, 83.5 lb, (about 37.87 kg) one source says on the average 60 kg for rice and 38 kg for cacao [5] ). Other sources claim it was the equivalent of 58.2 kg.

In all likelihood, this is a case in which some commodities began to be traded by weight instead of volume, and a “caban of rice” became a certain mass rather than a certain volume. One source states that before 1973 a cavan of any type of rice weighed 50 kg. One source says that after 1973 a cavan of rough rice weighed 44 kg and a cavan of milled rice weighed 56 kg (the significance of the 1973 date is unclear). [6]

Usage example: "At present, owing to the late scarcity of rice in Camarines and Leyte, the price of paddy at Iloilo has risen to 10 rials per province cavan, which is equal to one and a half of the measure (cavan del rey) used at Manila." [7]

Notes

  1. Before the 28-letter Filipino alphabet was defined in the 1987 Constitution, the Tagalog alphabet had only 20 letters that did not include a V and a C.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Imperial units</span> System of units that were implemented on 1 January 1826 in the British Empire

The imperial system of units, imperial system or imperial units is the system of units first defined in the British Weights and Measures Act 1824 and continued to be developed through a series of Weights and Measures Acts and amendments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Litre</span> Unit of volume

The litre or liter is a metric unit of volume. It is equal to 1 cubic decimetre (dm3), 1000 cubic centimetres (cm3) or 0.001 cubic metre (m3). A cubic decimetre occupies a volume of 10 cm × 10 cm × 10 cm and is thus equal to one-thousandth of a cubic metre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pound (mass)</span> Unit of mass

The pound or pound-mass is a unit of mass used in British imperial and United States customary systems of measurement. Various definitions have been used; the most common today is the international avoirdupois pound, which is legally defined as exactly 0.45359237 kilograms, and which is divided into 16 avoirdupois ounces. The international standard symbol for the avoirdupois pound is lb; an alternative symbol is lbm, #, and or ″̶.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ton</span> Unit of mass or volume with different values

Ton is the name of any one of several units of measure. It has a long history and has acquired several meanings and uses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tonne</span> Metric unit of mass equivalent to 1000 kilograms or 1 megagram

The tonne is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton, and the long ton. It is equivalent to approximately 2204.6 pounds, 1.102 short tons, and 0.984 long tons. The official SI unit is the megagram, a less common way to express the same mass.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cooking weights and measures</span>

In recipes, quantities of ingredients may be specified by mass, by volume, or by count.

The long ton, also known as the imperial ton or displacement ton, is the name for the unit called the "ton" in the avoirdupois system of weights or Imperial system of measurements. It was standardised in the 13th century. It is used in the United Kingdom and several other Commonwealth of Nations countries alongside the mass-based metric tonne defined in 1799, as well as in the United States for bulk commodities.

The koku (石) is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. 1 koku is equivalent to 10 to or approximately 180 litres, or about 150 kilograms (330 lb). It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1000 gō. One is the volume of the "rice cup", the plastic measuring cup that is supplied with commercial Japanese rice cookers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bushel</span> Unit of volume with numerous different definitions

A bushel is an imperial and US customary unit of volume based upon an earlier measure of dry capacity. The old bushel is equal to 2 kennings (obsolete), 4 pecks, or 8 dry gallons, and was used mostly for agricultural products, such as wheat. In modern usage, the volume is nominal, with bushels denoting a mass defined differently for each commodity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stone (unit)</span> Imperial unit of mass equal to 14 pounds

The stone or stone weight is an English and imperial unit of mass equal to 14 pounds (6.35 kg). The stone continues in customary use in the United Kingdom for body weight.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cup (unit)</span> Cooking measure of volume

The cup is a cooking measure of volume, commonly associated with cooking and serving sizes. In the US, it is traditionally equal to one-half US pint (236.6 ml). Because actual drinking cups may differ greatly from the size of this unit, standard measuring cups may be used, with a metric cup being 250 millilitres.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comparison of the imperial and US customary measurement systems</span>

Both the British Imperial and United States customary systems of measurement derive from earlier English systems used in the Middle Ages, that were the result of a combination of the local Anglo-Saxon units inherited from Germanic tribes and Roman units brought by William the Conqueror after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066.

Caban may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Candy (unit)</span>

The candy or candee, also known as the maunee, was a traditional South Asian unit of mass, equal to 20 maunds and roughly equivalent to 500 pounds avoirdupois (227 kilograms). It was most used in southern India, to the south of Akbar's empire, but has been recorded elsewhere in South Asia. In Marathi, the same word was also used for a unit of area of 120 bighas, and it is also recorded as a unit of dry volume.

The last was a Dutch unit of mass, volume, and number, and a large English unit of weight, mass, volume, and number. It referred to standardized amounts of ships' lading and varied by commodity and over time.

Vietnamese units of measurement are the largely decimal units of measurement traditionally used in Vietnam until metrication. The base unit of length is the thước or xích. Some of the traditional unit names have been repurposed for metric units, such as thước for the metre, while other traditional names remain in translations of imperial units, such as dặm Anh for the English mile.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Imperial and US customary measurement systems</span> English (pre 1824), Imperial (post 1824) and US Customary (post 1776) units of measure

The imperial and US customary measurement systems are both derived from an earlier English system of measurement which in turn can be traced back to Ancient Roman units of measurement, and Carolingian and Saxon units of measure.

The quarter was used as the name of several distinct English units based on ¼ sizes of some base unit.

A number of units of measurement have been used in Cambodia to measure length, mass, volume, etc. The metric system has been compulsory there since 1914.

References

  1. English, Leo James.Tagalog-English Dictionary. 1986 (23rd printing, November 2008). page 261.
  2. Cavan, sizes.com, citing Bureau of Insular Affairs, War Department. Fourth Annual Report of the Philippine Commission. 1903. Washington (DC): U.S.G.P.O. 1904.
  3. Cavan, sizes.com, citing Statistical Office of the United Nations. World Weights and Measures. Handbook for Statisticians. Statistical Papers. Series M no. 21 Revision 1. (ST/STAT/SER.M/21/rev.1) New York: United Nations, 1966.
  4. Cavan, sizes.com, citing J. C. Nelkenbrecher. Taschenbuch für Kaufleute. 20th edition. Newly revised by Dr. Ernst Jerusalem. Berlin: Druck und Verlag von Georg Reimer, 1890. page 608.
  5. Cavan, sizes.com, citing F. W. Clarke. Weights, Measures, and Money of All Nations. New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1877. Page 59.
  6. Cavan, sizes.com, citing Beth Rose. Appendix to Randolph Barker and Robert W. Herdt. The Rice Economy of Asia. Washington (DC): Resources for the Future, 1985.
  7. Cavan, sizes.com, citing Sir John Bowring. A Visit to the Philippine Islands. London: Smith, Elder and Co, 1859. Page 389.