Mr. Townsend to Mr. Olney.
Vienna , October 16, 1896 . (Received Oct. 29).
Sir: In reply to the Department’s note of May 18 last, numbered 226, containing a series of interrogatories in regard to the experience of Austria-Hungary when adopting the metric system of weights and measures and the laws relating thereto, desired for the use of the Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures of the House of Representatives, I have the honor to transmit answers to the above as follows:
The metric system of weights and measures was adopted by act of Parliament in Austria-Hungary on July 23, 1871. This act, after enumerating the tables of the metric system, contained a table of the various weights and measures then in use in every part of the Monarchy, [Page 17] and with their equivalents in the metric system and all changes from the old to the new system were required by law to be made according to this table. A period of four years and six months, or until January 1, 1876, was allowed for the practical development of the new system, after which date the metric system was made compulsory.
A translation of Articles V and VI of the act of 1871 is as follows:
Article V.
The weights and measures of the metric system, as enumerated in Article III, will be exclusively used in public traffic commencing January 1, 1876. After this period the use of weights and measures used heretofore and which are succeeded by the weights and measures just mentioned as well as the use of the carat weight and the weight for measuring oil will be prohibited.
For the measuring of land, however, the Government grants a prolongation of the time, and will hereafter make known the period when the new measure will be applied to land.
Article VI.
Anyone illegally using any other system of weights and measures than the metric in public traffic will be fined one hundred florins, together with confiscation of these weights and measures. A repetition of the act will be regarded as an aggravating circumstance when passing sentence. The fine will be paid into the poor fund of the community where the act was committed. In case of inability to pay the fine imprisonment will be substituted, reckoning one day’s imprisonment for each five florins fined.
The leading wholesale and retail merchants of Vienna inform me that there was a certain amount of confusion experienced in making the change from the old to the new system at first, which was probably greatly due to the natural prejudice against any changes in existing customs, but merchants soon realized that the metric system, already in use in the principal commercial countries of Europe with which Austria-Hungary had the bulk of her commercial relations, proved to facilitate the mercantile operations between Austria-Hungary and those countries.
On March 31, 1875, or nine months before the new system was made compulsory, Parliament found it necessary to pass a law fixing the value of fractions of a kreuzer in making the transfer from the old to the new systems, according to the table of relative values between the old and the new systems, as published in the original act of July 23, 1871. A translation of the above act of 1875 is as follows:
Law of March 31, 1875, relating to the change of the present weights and measures to the metric system.
Article I.
The Government is authorized, when carrying out the new law of the metric system, to make such adjustment in the conversion from old to new measure which the nature of the circumstances and the requirements of traffic seem to render necessary.
Article II.
The Government is, moreover, authorized to change the weight and measure unit which has heretofore served in the assessment of taxes to a corresponding unit in the new system, and to fix the rates of payment according to the unit in the new system. On this adjustment of the amounts assessed fractions above one-half kreutzer will be considered one kreutzer, fractions less than half a kreutzer will be considered as half a kreutzer.
The universal opinion of the numerous wholesale and retail merchants whom I have interviewed on the subject of the metric system in Austria-Hungary is strongly in favor of the system, and they all agree that there seems to be no desire to return to the old system. The trade and commerce of Austria-Hungary increased steadily after the adoption of [Page 18] the metric system; between 1870 and 1880 the exports increased from 395,000,000 florins to 676,000,000 florins. The national economists with whom I have spoken on the subject agree that this increase was only in a small measure due to the adoption of the metric system, but statistics show that the trade of Austria-Hungary with countries using the metric system materially increased after its adoption by this country.
I have, etc.,