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Annotations for Alexander Von Humboldt's Political Essay on The Annotations for Alexander von Humboldt’s Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain by Giorleny D. Altamirano Rayos, Tobias Kraft, and Vera M. Kutzinski Unless context made it more sensible to do otherwise, we have annotated a reference or allusion at its first occurrence. Entries in boldface refer back to a main entry. The page numbers that precede each entry refer to the pagination of Alexander von Humboldt’s 1826 French edition; those page numbers are are printed in the margins of our translation of the Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain. In that edition, the names and concepts that appear in SMALL CAPS in the annotations are marked with an ▼. Weights and Measures What follows are some of the most common weights and measures that Alexander von Humboldt regularly uses. This is not an exhaustive list. ACRE: an old English unit of surface area equivalent to 4,840 square yards (or about 4,046.85 square meters) in the USA and Canada. The standard unit of measurement for surface area in the UK, an acre in its earliest English uses was probably the amount of land that one yoke of oxen could plow in a day. Its value varied slightly in Ireland, Scotland, and England. In France, the size of the acre varied depending on region. Humboldt states that an acre is 4,029 square meters. 2 ARPENT: a unit either of length or of land area used in France, Québec, and Louisiana from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. The main measurement for land throughout France (sometimes called the French acre), the arpent varied in value depending on region. When used as a linear measurement, as was sometimes the case in Québec, it was equivalent to about 192 feet (58.5 meters). An arpent d’ordonnance (also called the arpent des eaux et forêts, grand arpent, arpent de roi, or legal arpent) equaled 51.07 ares or 1.26 acres (5,107 square meters); the arpent commun of the provinces, 42.20 ares or 1.04 acres (4,220 square meters); and the arpent de Paris, 34.19 ares or 0.84 acres (3,419 square meters). An arpent of 3,418.89 square meters (36,800.40 square feet) is still used in Québec. Humboldt mostly uses the legal arpent, giving it an equivalent of 50 ares or 1.23 acres (half hectare, 5,000 square meters). ARROBA: one fourth of a quintal; an old Spanish unit of weight of 24–36 lbs (11–16 kg), with regional variations. In Spain, New Spain, Peru, and Chile, an arroba equaled 25 Castilian pounds or 11.50 kg. In Portugal and its territories, an arroba equaled about 32 lbs (14.68 kg); in Argentina, 25.32 lbs (11.485 kg); in New Granada, 27.55 lbs (12.5 kg). Humboldt gives its value at 11.49 kg, that is, closest to the Castilian pound. As a measure of volume, the arroba equaled 32.33 L for liquids in Chile; in Spain, 12.56 L for oil, 15.64 L for water, and 16.13 L for wine. The arroba as a measure of weight is still used in some Latin American countries and in Brazil. BRASSE: a unit of length used in France to measure the depth of water at sea; originally, it equaled the greater length of two extended arms. Prior to the eighteenth century, a brasse’s value was between 1.6 and 1.9 meters (5–6 pieds); thereafter, it became equivalent to 1.624 meters (5 pieds). Also brassée or French fathom. BURGOS FEET (pies de Burgos): a unit of length of about 10.95 inches (27.83 cm). The vara de Burgos, also called vara de Castilla, which was 32.87 inches (83.50 cm), became the official length for a vara in Castilian Spain. A vara de Burgos was divided into three tercias or feet, as well as into four medias tercias or palmos and two medias or codos. 3 BUSHEL: a British measure of volume for grains equivalent to about 36.37 liters. Identical to the 1697 British Winchester bushel, the bushel in the USA equals about 35.24 liters (2,150.42 cubic inches). As a unit of mass, the bushel is equal to 60 lbs (about 27.21 kg) for wheat and soybeans in the USA. Humboldt states that a bushel of wheat weighs 30 kg. CABALLERÍA: a unit of land area in Spanish-speaking countries in Europe and the Americas, including Texas and the Caribbean, from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. The caballería varied in value in the Americas. In New Spain and Central America, it was equivalent to about 105 acres (42 hectares); in Cuba, 33.16 acres (13.42 hectares). In Puerto Rico, the caballería was a larger unit equal to 194 acres (78.51 hectares); in Spain, it equaled about 100 acres (40 hectares). Humboldt gives 32.15 acres (13.01 hectares) for a caballería de tierra in Havana. CORDEL (literally: rope): a unit of distance in Spain and its colonies used to measure land. It equaled about 138.9 feet (42.33 meters) in New Spain; in Cuba it was about 66.80 feet (20.35 meters). CWT (hundredweight): a unit of weight measurement created by USA merchants in the late 1800s; it equals 100 pounds (45.35 kg). The “C” represents the Roman numeral for 100, and the letters “W” and “T” abbreviate weight. Humboldt converts one CWT into 112 lbs (50.80 kg), which is identical to the British hundredweight. DUCAT: an ancient trade currency used in Europe. A silver ducat was first minted by Roger II of Sicily, Duke of Apulia, in the twelfth century. A gold ducat was first minted in the thirteenth century in Venice (Italy). Officially approved in the sixteenth century, the gold ducat was the standard gold coin in Europe until the end of the nineteenth century. A gold ducat weighed about 3.4 grams of 0.986 gold. A silver ducat (ducado de plata) was used in Spain and its colonies in the seventeenth century. Austria (1901–15) and Czechoslovakia (1923–38) issued gold ducats in the twentieth century. FANEGA: an old unit of volume, mass, or surface area used in Spain and its territories; its value varied regionally. As a unit of capacity, the fanega before 1900 oscillated between 50 and 288 liters 4 (Spain, 55 L; Mexico, 90.80 L; Chile, 96.99 L; Argentina: 137.19 L; Paraguay, 288 L). As a unit of mass, a fanega was equal to 202.4 lbs (92 kg) in Central America before 1912 and 141.7 lbs (64.41 kg) in Peru before 1869. As a surface area, the fanega equaled 11,183 m2 in Cuba before 1882 and 35,662 m2 in Mexico before 1896. In addition, a fanegada was used to measure surface area in Spain and Peru; a fanegada was about 3,144m2 in Peru and 6,439m2 in Spain. Humboldt states that a fanega equals four arrobas or 120 livres (45 kg). GROS: a French weight unit equal to 3.8242 grams; between 1800 and 1812 it was equal to 10 grams. It was synonymous with the drachme, a weight unit typically used in medicine. LIVRE: the principal unit of weight used in French-speaking countries and in Greece, where it was known as litra. The livre esterlin, equivalent to 367.1 grams, became the first French standard used between the late eighth century and the middle of the fourteenth. King John II (1319–64) of France introduced the livre poids de marc or livre de Paris in the 1350s. Equal to 489.506 grams and divided into 2 marcs (16 ounces), the livre de Paris was used until 1800. During that time, physicians used the medical livre (equal to the livre esterlin of 367.1 grams), and merchants used the livre marchande of 15 ounces (or 459 grams) for weighing silk. From 1800 to 1812, the livre métrique was equal to 1 kg; from 1812 to 1814, however, it was equivalent to 500 grams. The livre is still used in modern France as an informal metric unit equal to 500 grams, which corresponds to the traditional Greek litra. Humboldt uses 489 grams for the livre de Paris. LIVRE TOURNOIS (literally: pound from Tours): a French gold coin introduced in the seventeenth century and subdivided into 20 sols. It was often referred to as franc, an older French monetary unit from the fourteenth century. After the French Revolution in 1795, livres tournois were replaced by the new Franc. LOT (or LOTH): a unit of weight in German-speaking countries equivalent to about 14.61 grams. In Russia it equaled 12.79 grams, in Switzerland 15.62 grams. Also a measure of capacity for liquids in France, a lot had a different value depending on the city and on the liquid being measured. 5 LOUIS (also: Louis d’or): a French gold coin created in 1640 under Louis XIII (1601–43). In 1726, the Coin Acts, which aimed at monetary stabilization, created a new Louis d’or equivalent to 24 livres tournois. Used widely in Europe, this gold coin was minted up to 1795, when it was abolished in favor of the decimal system and replaced by the Franc. MARK: a weight equal to 0.5 livre poids de marc or 8 ounces (244.753 grams). The mark at Paris could subsequently be subdivided in 64 gros, 160 estelins, 192 deniers, 320 mailles, 640 félins, or 4608 grains. For gold transactions, the mark was equal to 768 grains.
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