A Far, Far Better Thing
In a conversation this evening with my friend Guy Calvert (married to Bretigne, soon to be father to Miles), I raised the issue of the old British non-metric monetary system. When I was planning my first trip to the United Kingdom some decades ago, my mother told me that she had found the old monetary system there so confusing that she would just offer a handful of coins to merchants, who would then pick and choose among them for the right combinations. (That was in the days when British merchants were still famous for their probity.) So, here is how it went:
Four farthings in a penny; four pence in a groat; twelve pence in a shilling; two shillings in a florin; five shillings in a crown; twenty shillings in a pound (sovereign); and twentyone shillings in a guinea. (There were also, as once was true in America, odd denomination coins, such as the ha’penny, the twopenny, and the threepenny coins.)
Working out combinations was quite complicated. Sadly, all of that rich heritage of civilization was abandoned in 1968, when the pound became…..100 pennies.
Post-Modern Feminist Theory to the Rescue….
My own take on this is that such “rationalization” is nothing but an assault on the special power held by women in society. Non-metric systems give special power to women, who are, um, let’s see…more in touch with the natural rhythms of Gaia. Right. Consider: when you want to know how many pints are in a quart or how many pecks are in a bushel or how many teaspoons are in a gill, do you ask A) the oldest male in the house, or B) the oldest female in the house? (Of course, today you can just go to the internet, which is, as we all know, male-dominated … and “digital”…kind of like “metric,” and, in so far as it rests on the superiority of the “digit” over the “zero,” an example of a phallocracy, to boot.) Real, Gaia-based feminism is, you know, not into the whole 10x10x10 thing and is based on organic immersion in a lived experience. That kind of stuff. So the bottom line..oops, um, at the end of the 24-hour day, women have lost the special prestige they enjoyed as the gender capable of mastering non-metric systems. That was the now-lost compensation for the generally lesser upper body strength that gave men advantages in state-building, as they could hit other people harder. At least, that’s a good enough reason for me to resist learning the Celsius system, which is about as absurd as you can get, what with chilly (15.5 degrees C) and really hot (32 degrees C) temperatures being pretttyyyy close together, unlike, say, 60 degrees and 90 degrees, which are far enough apart to tell you that one is cool and the other is hot.
At least, that’s my “discourse,” which is good as any other, and I’m sticking to it!
Wow, no offense, but I hope I’m not the only one that read that and wondered what on earth you’re talking about.
A) Another example of irony gone awry.
B) I suspect that there may be a generational disconnect. People above a certain age have some difficulties with metric and they may even be motivated to concoct absurd theories to justify why the old system is better. (I always was rather fond of the 20:21 ratio between the pound and the guinea; it made calculation so easy.)
C) The “discourse” presented above is about as convincing as many other kinds of “discourse” that are presented as equally valid substitutes for old-fashioned, Enlightenment-inspired “logocentric” explanations of how social systems work or of the advantages or disadvantages of this or that system.
Decimalization of the currency was introduced in February 1971 so the British were able to enjoy their rich heritage for another three years.
In my little bit of research I found that the pound was redefined as equal to 100 pennies in 1968. On May 3, 1968 the new 5 pence coin and the new 10 pence coin were introduced. The new five pence coin was equal in value to the old shilling and the ten pence coin was equal to the old florin. The other new coins that were introduced in later years, however, were not interchangeable with any of the old coins. The transition to a fully metric system lasted until February 16, 1971, after which time the old coins were no longer accepted. (I understand, however, that horse auctions are still conducted in guineas, which are then converted into pounds at the old rate of 21:20. The height of horses is still measured in hands, as well, rather than in feet or … shudder … meters.)
Hmm. I am afraid that, thought I check your site almost daily, this is the first posting I have not made sense of either.
I have struggled with 24 hour time myself abroad. What does 22:36 really feel like?
Well, please keep up the excellent work.
Cheers,
john
Now that you’ve explained it, this is actually quite amusing.
Congratulations on your parody of feminist ‘discourse’. I think. It sounds a bit too true to life to this graduate student. How sad that Universities have come to this…
Your discourse has chilled me to the core. It stings like truth can (and nothing else).
And yet, there is something lacking. Have you Been lately? Really really connected with Being? Have you been one with Being?
It would seem that a negative answer is in line. And that, as Sartre would tell us, is the greatest crime of all.
In a Heideggerian Russo-German philological/philosophical fusion of world horizons, I could affirm — or say “yes” to — Being only through an act of “Da-Sein.”
The metric system as an anti-feminist plot
Tom Palmer unravels an intricate plot to seriously damage the status of women in modern society: My own take on [metric systems replacing Imperial measurement] is that such “rationalization” is nothing but an assault on the special power held by…
Tom, You began with an anecdote about your mom’s confusion regarding the old British coinage, yet later argue that metric systems usurp power from women.
I’m confused.
Someone made the same complaint at the Reason blog. Palmer wrote an “ironic defense.” It’s a parody. He doesn’t really believe it. But if he wanted to keep up the joke, he could mention that his mother was an an artefact of twentieth century globalization who was manifesting false consciousness.
Andy,
That was me as well. I’ll spare the others here a repeat of my Response at Hit&Run, but I hope you enjoy it.
Why no Burkean parody as well? I suspect you could even find actual self-proclaimed Burkeans who’ve longed for the old system, at fulsome, poetic, and interminable length.
(That said, I’ll unironically endorse the complaint about Celsius. Farenheit is metric-where-it-counts– 0-to-100 defines roughly the range of temperatures actually experienced in temperate climates, and are relatively easy to fix intuitions to. 0-to-100 is “too damn cold to too damn hot.” But 100 Celsius is a number that means nothing to my daily experience of the weather; and it forces a compression on the range of Celsius numbers actually available to express weather temperatures. All the other metric measures I’ve been able to teach myself to intuit. Even after 20+ years, though, including substantial time spent in countries where the weather reports were in Celsius, I have to do the math every time to get the temperature.
Dr. Palmer,
Whilst your performative utterance successfully opens up a discurve space for counterhegemonic resistance, its reterritorialization unfortunately embeds a brand of essentialism. Queer theory lends us the proper politico-ideological lens of analysis, whereby it becomes clear that the patriarchal perpetutation of the man-as-masculine, woman-as-feminine binary is necessary to sustain heteronormativity. Surely we ought to acknowledge the role of the British monetary conversion in marginalizing the voices of homosexuals!
Jonathan,
You have a very promising academic career ahead of you. Very promising, indeed.
Tom G. Palmer
Leaving aside the academicisms, I’m with you Tom. The old system had a whole lot more character going for it. Still, the pound even as we have it today possesses a great deal more heritage and character than the Euro, which is liable to fast become the Esperanto of currencies (as Sterling is to English and the Dollar to American English)
sorry but im falling asleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep
I would like to know how long it took people to get used to decimal money.
What % of people would go back to pence and pounds?