Note 12 — Chapter II · A PEASANT INDUSTRY.

M. Solon explains this method of reckoning as follows: “Art of the Old English Potter,” p. 32. “The unit was represented by a dozen small pieces, and that unit served as the basis of reckoning for all the rest. For instance, a dish might have been worth a ‘dozen’; a very large dish ‘counted 2 dozen’; of bowls, jugs, cups, and other articles of middle sizes it required 2, 3 or 4 to make a dozen. The potter knew at once the value of the contents of his oven by the number or ‘dozens’ put in; while the workman could easily calculate his wages by the number of ‘dozen’ he made in the week.... So convenient was this method of reckoning that it is kept up to this day in many manufactories both in England and on the Continent.”