Let's say a pood is more or less familiar to you (although they no longer use it), and even more so. These measures came to us a long time ago. As for the field, the original meaning of this concept - measures of length - has been permanently lost. Measures are dealt with by the auxiliary science of metrology. It is difficult to overestimate its importance for the study of history. In documents, there are often concepts that reflect measures of length, surface, weight, as well as money account and much more.
Determining distances has always interested people. How was this done, say, in Kievan Rus, what measures of length were then in use? Buyers nya this account data sources.
It turns out that distances can be determined … in days. The distance traveled from one point to another was estimated by the number of days it took a rider or pedestrian to cover this distance.
Despite the approximation of this approach (horses, riders, terrain - everything is not the same), such a definition of distance has existed for more than one century. Milestones and sazhens were already in use, but no, no, yes, and there will be a mention in a 17th century source that there are so many days of horse riding or sailing on ships ("ship's way") to such and such a bridge.
From the Kiev era, information has also been preserved about the above-mentioned fields, under which scholars tend to understand the later versts.
Some kind of "sports" (from our point of view) methods of measuring distances are also known. So, in the description of one long journey, it was said more than once about "throwing a stone." This is a close distance when a grown man can throw a stone to the target. It is calculated that this means a distance of about 42 meters.
The distance was also measured by "shootings" - where an arrow shot by a strong and skillful hand would fly.
One of the earliest evidence of distance measurements is an inscription engraved on a stone found where the Tmutarakan principality was - on the eastern shore of the Kerch Strait. In 1068, as the inscription says, the prince ordered to measure the width of the Kerch Strait on the ice. It was 14 thousand fathoms. Researchers have long debated how to calculate, in modern terms, the length of the then fathom. It is now believed most likely that it was 152 centimeters.
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In addition to such a fathom, there was a “slanting fathom” in everyday life. To this day, people say about broad-shouldered people "oblique fathoms in the shoulders." Of course, this is an exaggeration, since she was 216 centimeters. Why "oblique"? Because it meant the distance from the toes to the end of the fingers of the outstretched arm diagonally.
More fractional units of length are represented by elbows and spans. Those and others did not differ in precise dimensions. Medieval sources say that the spans were different, depending on the distance between which fingers of the hand was taken into account. Let's remember the proverb - "seven spans of BO to the forehead" …
In the Russian centralized state, the system of measures of length was more and more defined: verst - sazhen - arshin - quarter - vershok. On the metric scale, this corresponded to: 2160 meters - 216 centimeters - 72 centimeters - 18 centimeters - 4.5 centimeters. In addition, different types of versts were used - track (500 sazhen) and boundary (YOOO sazhen). The latter was also used to measure the distances between points.
In the 18th and early 19th centuries, special government commissions took up the regulation of weights and measures. As a result, the boundary verst is gradually becoming obsolete, and the road remains. On major roads, they began to put up poles - indicators of distances in versts. In Moscow, at the Ilyich outpost, such a "striped verst" has survived. You can see the milestones near Borodino.
The fathoms are measured at 213 centimeters (7 English feet or 28 inches). Preserved smaller divisions into quarters and vershoks. The production of standards for metric measures of length in Russia dates back to 1833.
Russia, being a country predominantly agricultural and agricultural, had its own system for measuring areas. Fiefdoms and estates of feudal lords, allotments of peasants, land surveying - all required constant attention to determining the size of land.
Land disputes between peasants and feudal lords have long been known. In trials of such cases, peasants seldom managed to defend their rights. “And in all my rumors (witnesses),” they said at the trial. Or: "And in all my letter to the ground." Over time, the expression "A in se" turned into "maybe". Having lost faith in the princely and royal courts, the peasants began to use this word in a mockingly uncertain sense, opposite to the original one. In this sense, the word "maybe" has survived to this day …
But back to land measures.
If in Kievan Rus we are dealing with very scant data from sources (in Russkaya Pravda they are referred to as units of measurement of the surface of “villages” and “plows * of an indeterminate value), then in the following centuries the picture changes.
Population censuses indicating the size of land holdings for tax purposes became regular in Russia in the 16th-17th centuries. The spread of the three-field crop rotation was reflected in the registration of land areas, primarily patpni. If it was said about arable yola that it takes 10 quarters, then they immediately added “and in two because there is” (this is two times 10), that is, the total area was 30 quarters.
Along with more definite measures such as a quarter or tithe, there are “crossings”, “stripes,“rushes”and other names in documents where it is not clear. A quarter was usually called an area of land on which grain was sown, which could fit in a container, also called a quarter.
Haylands were measured not only in tithes, but also in heaps. The later tithe roughly corresponded to our hectare, only slightly exceeding it.
Again, the historian often finds himself in a difficulty: what tithe do the documents say? One tithes totaled 2,400 sq. fathoms, others - 3200 sq. fathoms. The "general" (that is, general) land surveying in Russia, carried out from the middle of the 18th century, required a clearer definition of surface measures. Tithing and square fathoms were taken as the basis for calculating land. In the tithe it was indicated to count 2400 sq. sazhen, 10 kopecks of hay were equated to an area of one tithe.
The weight units of the past centuries were very diverse.
Kievan Rus vdhalya its own measures of weight Already a pound of harm is known, which meant not only a certain weight, but also a weighing device. The weight of the then pood is not known for certain. And the ratio of measures of weight remains to this day? bo clarified. The smaller unit was the hryvnia or the hryvnia. At a later time, a pood was equal to 40 large hryvnia (pounds) or 80 multm. Dosyati-pood weight was called bervovdsh.
The weight system v ” did not occur during the feudal fragmentation period. Local peculiarities made themselves felt even in the 17th century * despite attempts to streamline weight and other metric units. So, within the vast Vyatka land, there was a measurement of weight in martens. Was there a weight in the north with a funny niggaz? Yaa Ural, the weights of the same name were approximately twice less than in European Russia.
The most common commodity on the market - bread was measured in different ways. Along with the treasury (state) measure (a quarter and its half - octal), there was a trade measure of a larger volume.
The tsarist authorities carried out a kind of "economy" when they accepted bread in state barns in quarters, poured "with tops", and gave out salaries much more sparingly - "under the rowing", that is, flush with the edges of the corresponding container. The difference sometimes amounted to 30 percent in favor of the treasury.
Since the middle of the 18th century, the measurement of weight in poods and pounds has been increasingly introduced. The smaller unit was the spool (about 5 grams). There was a saying: "Small spool, but expensive."
When artillery took its rightful place in military affairs, the weight of the nuclei was determined by pounds and pounds. This was reflected in the naming of the guns: three-pound, pound, and so on. Much later, the caliber of guns, measured in inches and millimeters, came into use.
Metrology also deals with banknotes, money accounts. Antique coins are an important source of knowledge of the past.
Looking at the medieval coins mined by archaeologists, you would be amazed at how ugly they looked: jagged, chopped edges, difficult to distinguish images and inscriptions. Determining the time and place of making such money is far from easy.
The proverb says: "Money loves the account." If we turn to ancient eras, then the money account in Russia would seem strange to us. Indeed, now we consider real coins in denominations of 1, 2, 3, 5 and so on kopecks. And three centuries ago it was different. They counted rubles and kopecks, and some coins did not exist in nature. There were no kopecks or dimes, and until the beginning of the 18th century there were no rubles - coins. The penny reigned. But let's say everything in order.
At first, in Kievan Rus, along with the coin of its own minting, there was money of eastern production, as well as of Byzantium and neighboring European countries. The very word "money" came to us from the East. The names of ancient coins are unusual for our ears: coons, cut, legs, squirrels. The names of these monetary units indicate that furs and other goods were used as money. But even then the ruble appears (a severed silver ingot), with smaller silver ingots - hryvnia - adjacent to it. In the hryvnia, 20 nogats were considered, which was equal to 25 kunas and 50 rezans. Generally speaking, money was often called "silver".
To more concretely imagine what these cuts and legs meant in life, we will give such examples. In "The Lay of Igor's Regiment" the Kiev prince Svyatoslav mentally addresses the ruler of Rostov-Suzdal land, Vsevolod the Big Nest. If Vsevolod participated in the campaign against the Polovtsi, then victory promised him many captives. A young prisoner could be sold for a leg, and an adult for a cut, that is, 2.5 times more expensive. One master received 3 hryvnia of silver (or 150 nogat) for making a marble board. That is how much the three heads of animals cost then: a mare, an ox and a cow.
After the invasion of the hordes of Batu into Russia, the minting of its own coin stopped. It resumed in the next century. The exception was Novgorod, which escaped defeat. Its own monetary system continued to operate there. But for a long time for historians the issue of changes in the monetary account of Novgorod remained a stumbling block, while it was independent. Scientists guessed that there were changes, but when and how - remained a mystery.
When the Novgorod birch bark letters began to enter the circulation of science (we will show them in their place), the solution came. There were plenty of cash settlements. For some time, Novgorodians used a money account in two versions: smaller monetary units were referred to larger ones as 10: 1 and 7: 1.
During the unification of Russia, the monetary system also changed. Kuns and rezans disappear, they are replaced by the ruble, half a ruble (half a ruble), hryvnia, altyn, money- They minted only a small coin - money, and rubles, hryvnias and altyns were used as counting units. In the ruble there were 200 money, in the hryvnia - 20 money, in the altyn - 6 money.
A penny appeared in the 16th century, so named to the image of a horseman with a spear on it. There was 2 money in a penny.
Over the course of the 16th-17th centuries, coins of more and more lighter weight were issued: silver kopecks became lighter during this time by more than 5.5 times. This brought great profits to the treasury.
Under Peter I, they carried out a monetary reform. For the first time, a domestic coin acquired the form of a regular circle. Money of various denominations was issued - from a ruble to a penny (including dimes, dimes and altyns). Small bargaining coins were minted from copper. These were "money", "polushki". A rather heavy (8 grams) copper penny, which later replaced the silver one, also entered the "system".
The monetary system under Peter began to be based on the decimal count.
The metal coin created a lot of inconvenience, especially during payments and transportation. It was troublesome to deliver such loads for hundreds and thousands of miles.
Paper money appeared in Russia from the middle of the 18th century. They were called banknotes. But the calculations were still carried out, focusing on the silver coin, which continued to circulate in the country.
At the beginning of the 19th century, in Alaska, which was then the possession of Russia, money circulated in circulation, issued by the Russian-American commercial and industrial company that ran there. This money, as it were, revived ancient times - they were pieces of a track with the corresponding inscriptions * so many rubles."
Findings of money from past centuries can reveal a lot to scientists. The hoards of coins are used to determine trade routes, connections of individual parts of the country with each other, with abroad, and much more, including political history. After all, the issue of money has always been an indicator of the power and degree of independence of the state.
Numismatics, one of the auxiliary historical disciplines, deals with the study of coins.
History knows many cases when counterfeit coins were in circulation. It is not always easy to distinguish them from real ones.