A tron was a weighing beam in medieval Scotland, usually located in the marketplaces of

burgh A burgh is an autonomous municipal corporation in Scotland and Northern England, usually a city, town, or toun in Scots. This type of administrative division existed from the 12th century, when King David I created the first royal burghs. Burg ...

s. There are various roads and buildings in several Scottish towns that are named after the tron. For example, Trongate in Glasgow and Tron Kirk in Edinburgh. Etymologically the word is derived from the Old French ''tronel'' or ''troneau'', meaning "balance".

Measurement of weight in medieval Scotland

From the 12th century the city fathers of Scottish burghs needed to standardise weights and measures, partly to collect the correct taxation on goods, and partly to stop unscrupulous merchants shortchanging citizens. Trons were set up in marketplaces throughout Scotland. Each burgh had its own set of weights, which sometimes differed from those of other burghs. Some burghs had more than one tron; in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

a butter tron was located at the head of the West Bow, while a salt tron was located further down the

Royal Mile The Royal Mile () is a succession of streets forming the main thoroughfare of the Old Town of the city of Edinburgh in Scotland. The term was first used descriptively in W. M. Gilbert's ''Edinburgh in the Nineteenth Century'' (1901), des ...

References

Obsolete Scottish units of measurement Weighing instruments {{Scotland-stub

Measurement of weight in medieval Scotland

See also

References