hundredweight

1.

In the United Kingdom and several other Commonwealth countries, 14th – 20th centuries, a unit of mass = 112 pounds, although other values have existed. Abbr, cwt.

Before approximately the 14th century there were two hundredweights in England, one of 100 pounds, and one of 108 pounds, used for wax, sugar, pepper, cinnamon, nutmegs, and so on (see the Tractatus). In 1340, King Edward III changed the value of the stone from 12½ pounds to 14 pounds (see sack for the reason why). Since a hundredweight is 8 stones, the 100-pound hundredweight became 112 pounds.

2

In the United States, at least as early as the early 18th century – early 20th century, a unit of mass = 100 pounds avoirdupois, so defined in the laws of many states. Today the term is rarely heard. According to some sources, it was last principally used by fishermen.²

According to Richard Hayes (Hayes, 1740, page 214):

Their Weights and Measures in all the Aforesaid Colonies and Plantations ["The British Dominions in America and the West Indies"] are the same as those of London, differing only in their Kintals or Hundred Weight; their Hundred being only 100 lb Avoirdupois, and that of London is 112 lb Avoirdupois.

There are two exceptions to the 100-pound value in the U.S.:

1. The federal government used a value of 112 pounds avoirdupois in assessing taxes on imports¹, since that was the unit's value in the nations from which the imported goods came.

2. For those commodities for which the 2240-pound long ton was used, such as anthracite coal, the 112-pound value for the hundredweight seems to have survived also. Two states, for example, (Ohio and Nevada) specifically exempted pig iron and iron ore in their laws defining the hundredweight, though the laws do not say what the value of the hundredweight for those commodities should be.

The unit of 100 pounds was also sometimes called a short hundredweight, just to avoid confusion, or simply a hundred (the name of the unit in the laws of Maine and Pennsylvania). It is also sometimes called a cental (for example, in the laws of Massachusetts), a name proposed in the United Kingdom in the 19th century for 100 pounds, but probably not in ordinary commerce.

1. Revenue Service, 2951 (1861).

2. Coal Miners’ Pocketbook, 13th ed., page 5.