Cavan, sometimes spelled Caban or Kaban
[Before the 28-letter ]Filipino alphabet
The modern Filipino alphabet ( fil, makabagong alpabetong Filipino), otherwise known as the Filipino alphabet ( fil, alpabetong Filipino), is the alphabet of the Filipino language, the official national language and one of the two official langua ...
was defined in the 1987 Constitution
The Constitution of the Philippines (Filipino: ''Saligang Batas ng Pilipinas'' or ''Konstitusyon ng Pilipinas'', Spanish: ''Constitución de la República de Filipinas'') is the constitution or the supreme law of the Republic of the Philippines ...
, the Tagalog alphabet
The Abakada alphabet was an "indigenized" Latin alphabet adopted for the Tagalog-based Filipino national language in 1940.
The alphabet, which contains 20 letters, was introduced in the grammar book developed by Lope K. Santos for the newly-d ...
had only 20 letters that did not include a ''V'' and a ''C''.) is
Filipino
Filipino may refer to:
* Something from or related to the Philippines
** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines.
** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...
unit of
mass
Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...
and also a unit of
volume
Volume is a measure of occupied three-dimensional space. It is often quantified numerically using SI derived units (such as the cubic metre and litre) or by various imperial or US customary units (such as the gallon, quart, cubic inch). The de ...
or
dry measure
Dry measures are units of volume to measure bulk commodities that are not fluids and that were typically shipped and sold in standardized containers such as barrels. They have largely been replaced by the units used for measuring volumes in the me ...
.
Description
''Cavan'' was defined in the 19th century by the government of the
Spanish East Indies
The Spanish East Indies ( es , Indias orientales españolas ; fil, Silangang Indiyas ng Espanya) were the overseas territories of the Spanish Empire in Asia-Pacific, Asia and Oceania from 1565 to 1898, governed for the Spanish Crown from Mexico C ...
as being equivalent to 75 litres.
Though officially the Philippines became entirely metric in 1860, this value was still in use well into the 20th century.
''Cavan'' was reported in the late 19th century as a measure for rice equivalent to 98.28 litres.
Various references from the same period describe it as a unit of mass: for rice, 133 lb (about 60.33 kg); for cocoa, 83.5 lb, (about 37.87 kg) one source says on the average 60 kg for rice and 38 kg for cacao
). Other sources claim it was the equivalent of 58.2 kg.
In all likelihood, this is a case in which some commodities began to be traded by weight instead of volume, and a “caban of rice” became a certain mass rather than a certain volume. One source states that before 1973 a cavan of any type of rice weighed 50 kg. One source says that after 1973 a cavan of rough rice weighed 44 kg and a cavan of milled rice weighed 56 kg (the significance of the 1973 date is unclear).
Usage example: "At present, owing to the late scarcity of rice in
Camarines
Ambos Camarines ( es, ambos, meaning "both"; commonly known as Camarines), officially the Province of Ambos Camarines, was a historical province in the Philippines found on the northern end of the Bicol Peninsula. It now exists as two separate ...
and
Leyte
Leyte ( ) is an island in the Visayas group of islands in the Philippines. It is eighth-largest and sixth-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total population of 2,626,970 as of 2020 census.
Since the accessibility of land has be ...
, the price of paddy at
Iloilo
Iloilo (), officially the Province of Iloilo ( hil, Kapuoran sang Iloilo; krj, Kapuoran kang Iloilo; tl, Lalawigan ng Iloilo), is a province in the Philippines located in the Western Visayas region. Its capital is the City of Iloilo, the ...
has risen to 10 rials per province cavan, which is equal to one and a half of the measure () used at Manila."
Notes
References
{{reflist, 2, refs=
[English, Leo James.''Tagalog-English Dictionary''. 1986 (23rd printing, November 2008). page 261.]
[Cavan]
sizes.com, citing Bureau of Insular Affairs, War Department. ''Fourth Annual Report of the Philippine Commission''. 1903. Washington (DC): U.S.G.P.O. 1904.
sizes.com, citing Statistical Office of the United Nations. ''World Weights and Measures. Handbook for Statisticians''. Statistical Papers. Series M no. 21 Revision 1. (ST/STAT/SER.M/21/rev.1) New York: United Nations, 1966.
sizes.com, citing J. C. Nelkenbrecher. ''Taschenbuch für Kaufleute''. 20th edition. Newly revised by Dr. Ernst Jerusalem. Berlin: Druck und Verlag von Georg Reimer, 1890. page 608.
sizes.com, citing F. W. Clarke. ''Weights, Measures, and Money of All Nations''. New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1877. Page 59.
sizes.com, citing Beth Rose. Appendix to Randolph Barker and Robert W. Herdt. ''The Rice Economy of Asia''. Washington (DC): Resources for the Future, 1985.
sizes.com, citing Sir John Bowring. ''A Visit to the Philippine Islands''. London: Smith, Elder and Co, 1859.
Page 389.