Weights & measures, ducats & daughters

"Fled with a Christian! O my Christian ducats!
Justice! the law! my ducats, and my daughter!"

                                          The Merchant of Venice, II, viii

Salanio mimics Shylock's agonized cries upon learning that his daughter Jessica has not only deserted him, but has taken "a sealed bag, two sealed bags of ducats / Of double ducats, stolen from me by my daughter!" Critics who choose to see the worst in Shylock pillory him for mentioning his money in the same breath that gasps over the loss of his daughter.

Without question, Shakespeare portrays Shylock as having great business acumen and the astute attention to detail that usually accompanies it. The Venetian ducat, a gold coin introduced in the thirteenth century and widely used for hundreds of years thereafter, was among the most highly regarded of a variety of coinages used throughout Europe. It was one of the least suspect of coins used for exchange; many types of coins became devalued by degraded production methods involving lower gold and silver ratios, or were subjected to widespread "clipping" of their edges, so that as little precious metal as possible was contained in the coin.

To combat coin devaluation, balance scales were often used by merchants, with standardized weights used on one side to ensure that different coins weighed what they were supposed to weigh. In the collection of Agecroft Hall is a set of such weights and a small balance scale with round and triangular pans, made in Amsterdam in 1656 by one Jacob Drielenburg.

Each of the 34 square brass weights (including those pictured) is specifically made to correspond to the proper weight of a particular type of gold coin. Coins from all over Europe, the Levant, and elsewhere passed through the hands of merchants in England and on the continent. No one likes to be cheated: if a ducat didn't weigh what it was supposed to weigh, it was unacceptable.

Agecroft Hall acquired the set from Sotheby's in London in 1998.