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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;EWC3, post: 3004367, member: 93416&quot;]OK – my reply to this is that, although I do not claim old coin weights are not sometimes complicated – but in this quote Balog makes it seem far more complicated than it actually is. In the 8th century the Arab Caliphate was about 5,000 miles across, and as far as I have been able to discover, every single mint was striking to the same standard - which was 2.93g in pure silver. There were minor local variations. Baghdad coins were remarkably accurate, those in Spain less so and maybe hit an average of 2.89g – (but why would the guy in the bazaar much bother about that?)</p><p><br /></p><p>What Balog seems to be talking about here is not coin weight, but mostly, the heavier commercial weights used specifically in Egypt (and sometime Syria) in Bazaars - in grocery shops and the like. And those standards did change quite a lot in the 8th century.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here is my best guess as to what was going on with those. There were laws in place instructing shop keepers to sell goods using the official weights issued by local government officials. And there were also weights and measures inspectors going round checking up on the matter. The same as today, and the same as the Romans too. The odd thing about Arab Egypt at that time was the weights were made of glass and carried official inscriptions. Shop keepers would presumably have to buy these from the inspectors office, in effect they probably represent a licence to trade lawfully. So, when the weight standard changed it looks like the shop keeper turned up at the market inspector&#039;s office, paid the fee, handed in his old weight which was smashed, and then was given his new one.</p><p><br /></p><p>See what is probably happening here? Local government gets a big cash boost in fees every time they change the weight standard for shops. I should warn that this is only my own best guess – but it makes good sense of the evidence we have. And it exactly fits with your initial suggestions about ‘greed’. The problem with Balog as I see it was – he was too much an academic specialist – knew a great deal about medieval Egyptian coins and weights, but lacked a more practical grip on the general sort of stunts folk tend to get up to……………..</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I think that is spot-on! I was working my way towards saying exactly the same thing. What I would add is this. The idea that a whole bunch of disparate languages had one common Indo-European root started out as some sort of crackpot sounding suggestion in previous centuries – but now it is viewed as serious science in every university.</p><p><br /></p><p>Meanwhile that weight standards had a common root is a sensible suggestion that is also centuries old, but start to talk about it to most university people these days, you are likely to be treated as, well, a kind of crackpot.</p><p><br /></p><p>Strange.</p><p><br /></p><p>Rob[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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