Hi everybody: I'm reading the book "Dentelles Normandes: La Blonde de Caen" and I keep running into one problem.
Like the English, the French historically used the same word, "livre" to refer to a pound in weight and to refer to a unit of currency (which I think is the same as what is now called the franc). So, when I read things like "à l'avenir toutes les Dentelles indistinctement, ne payeront que dix sous par livre pour tous droits de sorties du Royaume à l'étranger" does it mean the charge was ten sous for each pound (weight) of lace or ten sous for each franc the lace cost? Another sentence is "Le Havre expédie annuellement pour 630 000 livres de dentelles d'or et d'argent et pour 70 000 livres de dentelles de soie noire". Does that mean lace with a value of 630,000 francs or lace that weighs 630 000 pounds? Even if it is made of gold or silver, 630,000 pounds of lace sounds to me like an awful lot even for 22,000 lacemakers. I'm confused. Can any of our French members help? Adele North Vancouver, BC - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
