The origin of the baker's dozen

[madbaker]

A broker I deal with asks a daily trivia question. Today's was "Why is a baker's dozen thirteen instead of twelve?"

Here's my answer. I didn't send it to the broker - he wouldn't appreciate it, but you lot might.

Richard Dozeine, Chamberlain of the Royal Office of Weights and Measures, invented the dozen in 1342. Previously in Britain measurement units were not standardized; each town had its own units. For example, a "tensome" in Burton-on-Trent was anywhere from ten to twenty units, while a "tenner" in the outskirts of London was only eight.

To help standardize measurements across the country and promote trade, Dozeine promulgated a standard measurement of twelve which quickly became known as a "Dozeine". It is not recorded why he chose twelve as the number; the rumor that he possessed twelve fingers to count on has never been substantiated.

Dozeine died in office two years later. His deputy, Edward Baker, continued the standardization. Unfortunately one of his missives contained a scribal error and defined a dozeine as "XIII" items. This was not caught for quite some time and put merchants in a bind - they could be charged with false standards if they sold a dozeine containing twelve items under the newer law, but were equally culpable if they sold thirteen under the old law! To get around this, merchants started differentiating between a dozeine and a "Baker's dozeine".