Counting grains

[djewesbury]

Reading about the trade between England and Portugal in the early seventeenth century, in Fisher's great book 'The Portugal Trade', I came across this line:

"From 1705 until 1735 rice was an enumerated commodity."

This suggests not only that they counted each grain, but that someone had to stamp a number on it and write it in a ledger too!

[Alex Bridgeman]

Perhaps just an early version of e-numbers, developed to be used for enumerating.

[djewesbury]

Perhaps just an early version of e-numbers, developed to be used for enumerating.