There is a lot of controversy over Imperial vs Metric units of measurement.  Let’s be totally honest, metrics based on base-ten measurement (ie metric) are much easier to use IN MODERN SOCIETY but this has not always been true.  Imperial metrics are historically significant and easier for preliterate societies to use.  In a society where base-ten math is not commonly understood, base two math is much easier to operationalize. 

Metric units are a modern invention.  The first practical implementation of the metric system didn’t occur until 1799 when revolutionary France replaced all its historical units of measure with the “rational” decimal system based on the kilogram and the meter. Before that event, people used mostly units based on old Roman units which were based on a system of doubling and halving.  We live in a society literally drenched in decimal mathematics.  Modern computing practices have relegated the math of ratios and fractions to worksheets we make kids do in elementary school but for most of history practical math (ie that math done by tradesmen and craftsmen) was done with fractions.  This is why the Imperial system of units is so ingrained in the English-speaking world.  Even in places where metric units are common, like Great Brittan, we see some use of imperial units (eg MILES on road signs, BARREL of beer, STONES on medical scales, etc.).  They just feel more familiar.

The first complaint you hear about Imperial units is how many units there are.  In the metric system, we have scaled all the units down to one or two for each physical property.  Volume is always in litres or multiples of litres (a milliliter is just 1/1000^th of a litre); Mass is always in grams; length in metres; and so forth.  Revolutionary France event decimalized time (https://wordpress.com/post/colonialbrewer.com/52004) and rewrote the calendar to have ten months but these metrics didn’t last long.  By contrast, in the Imperial system, we have many units for each physical property often based on the value of that unit.  For example, we can measure dry volume (expressed only by litres in the metric system) in units of bushels, pecks (1/4 bushel), gallons (1/2 peck), quarts (1/4 gallon), pints (1/2 quart), gills (1/4 pint), ounces (1/4 gill), drams (1/8 ounce), and minims (1/60dram).  To the uninitiated this is confusing but note that all of these measurements are simple doubles and halves (sometimes repeatedly) of each other.  Two pints are a quart; two quarts are a peck; and so on.  It’s just a different number system.  A number system that focuses on keeping the numbers used with each transaction small (100 bushels is 3523.9 litres) because small numbers are easier to tally than big numbers and in a preliterate society, math of small numbers can be managed through counting devices (like an abacus or set of counting stones) whereas math of large numbers is complicated.

In the 18^th Century, we are on the leading edge of Enlightenment thinking.  Progressive ideas like universal education are nascent.  Rigorous mathematics are only done by the elite (in fact the scientific elite).  Add to this the fact that unlike Europe (there were not universal standards for measurement in France and the Holy Roman Empire, just customary ones), England had universal definitions for its measurements and you have a trade system with inertia.  These units stick around because they work.  They are cumbersome but they work and the revolutionary ideas of France are scary (even when 0.5l beer in Germany is 6% bigger than a British pint).

So, then dealing with the Regimental Brewmeister please be prepared to mind your P’s and Q’s.  These are our measurements for beer:

1 teaspoon = 1/6 ounce = 5 millilitres

3 teaspoons = 1 nipperkin = 1 Tablespoon

2 nipperkin = 1 nip

2 nip = 1 jigger

2 jiggers = 1 jack

2 jacks = 1 gill

2 gill = 1 cup

2 cups = 1 pint

2 pints = 1 quart

2 quarts = 1 pottle

2 pottle = 1 gallon

2 gallons = 1 pail

2 pail = 1 pin

2 pin = 1 firkin

2 firkin = 1 rundlet

2 rundlet = 1 beer barrel

1 ½ barrels = 1 hogshead

2 barrels = 1 butt

2 hogsheads = 1 cask

2 butts = 1 tun

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