ABSTRACT
In early days, people's need to measure things marked the beginning of the development of standards. For example, when man left the fields and founded cities, he needed a measure of length to build temples and palaces and some measure of volume to tithe grain to the priests and kings. The story of setting standards then sprang from the simple need to assign practical and fair value to space and objects. Of course, the earliest trade was carried out by barter and did not require measures for quantity, but by 3000 Be weighing became a factor in trade. Simple weights and measures as national references were deposited in the principal temples (1). Around 2500 BC, small balances were devised for measuring gold dust and by 1350 BC these balances were commonly used in trade.
