Mesures usuelles (French pronunciation: [məzyʁ yzɥɛl], customary measures) were a French system of measurement introduced by French Emperor Napoleon I in 1812 to act as compromise between the metric system and traditional measurements. The system was restricted to use in the retail industry and continued in use until 1840, when the laws of measurement from 1795 and 1799 were reinstituted.
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👉 Mesures usuelles in the context of French units of measurement
France has a unique history of units of measurement due to its radical decision to invent and adopt the metric system after the French Revolution.
In the Ancien régime and until 1795, France used a system of measures that had many of the characteristics of the modern Imperial System of units but with no unified system. There was widespread abuse of the king's standards, to the extent that the lieue could vary from 3.268 km in Beauce to 5.849 km in Provence. During the revolutionary era and motivated in part by the inhomogeneity of the old system, France switched to the first version of the metric system. This system was not well received by the public, and between 1812 and 1837, the country used the mesures usuelles – traditional names were restored, but the corresponding quantities were based on metric units: for example, the livre (pound) became exactly 500 g. After 1837, the metric system was reintroduced and progressively became the only system of use, with other units now in only residual use.
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Mesures usuelles in the context of Units of measurement in France before the French Revolution
The traditional French units of measurement prior to metrication were established under Charlemagne during the Carolingian Renaissance. Based on contemporary Byzantine and ancient Roman measures, the system established some consistency across his empire but, after his death, the empire fragmented and subsequent rulers and various localities introduced their own variants. Some of Charlemagne's units, such as the king's foot (French: pied du Roi) remained virtually unchanged for about a thousand years, while others important to commerce—such as the French ell (aune) used for cloth and the French pound (livre) used for amounts—varied dramatically from locality to locality. By the 18th century, the number of units of measure had grown to the extent that it was almost impossible to keep track of them and one of the major legacies of the French Revolution was the dramatic rationalization of measures by the new metric system. The change was extremely unpopular, however, and a metricized version of the traditional units—the mesures usuelles—had to be brought back into use for several decades.