cavan

In the Philippines, a unit of dry capacity. Also spelled kavan and caban. It was defined by the Spanish colonial government in the 19th century¹ as = 75 liters (a cube 422 millimeters on a side, about 2.13 U.S. bushels) and, though officially the Philippines became entirely metric, this value still obtained in the 20^th century². In the late 19th century, as a measure for rice it was reported³ at 98.28 liters.

Various 19th century sources describe the caban as a unit of mass: for rice, 133 pounds, about 60.33 kilograms; for cocoa, 83½ pounds, about 37.87 kilograms.⁴ Other sources say 58.2 kilograms. 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 source⁵ states that before 1973 a cavan of any type of rice weighed 50 kilograms, but after 1973, a cavan of rough rice weighed 44 kg and a cavan of milled rice weighed 56 kg. We have no idea what happened in 1973.

1. Bureau of Insular Affairs, War Department.
Fourth Annual Report of the Philippine Commission. 1903.
Washington (DC): U.S.G.P.O. 1904.

Page 898.

2. United Nations, 1966.

In “Hunter-Gatherer/Farmer Exchange” (American Anthropologist, vol 80, 1978, page 349), Jean Treloggen Peterson, working in the remote Palanan region, stated “One cavan equals approximately 36.37 liters (2.12 bushels).” 2.12 U.S. bushels is actually 74.7 liters, which agrees pretty closely with the cavan's usual value, but that leaves open the question of where the “36.37 liters” came from.

3. Nelkenbrecher (1890), page 608.

4. F. W. Clarke.
Weights, Measures, and Money of All Nations.
New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1877.

Page 59.

Doursther (1840) says on the average 60 kg for rice and 38 kg for cacao.

5. Beth Rose.
Appendix to
Randolph Barker and Robert W. Herdt.
The Rice Economy of Asia.
Washington (DC): Resources for the Future, 1985.

Examples

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.

Sir John Bowring.
A Visit to the Philippine Islands.
London: Smith, Elder and Co, 1859.
Page 389.