Quintal
Template:Short description {{#invoke:other uses|otheruses}} Template:Use dmy dates Template:More citations needed The quintal or centner is a historical unit of mass in many countries that is usually defined as 100 base units, such as pounds or kilograms.<ref name="Rowlett">Template:Cite web</ref> It is a traditional unit of weight in France, Portugal, and Spain and their former colonies. It is commonly used for grain prices in wholesale markets in Ethiopia, Eritrea and India, where 1 quintal = Template:Convert.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In British English, it referred to the hundredweight; in American English, it formerly referred to an uncommon measurement of Template:Convert. Template:Anchor
Languages drawing its cognate name for the weight from Romance languages include French, Portuguese, Romanian and Spanish Template:Lang, Italian Template:Lang, Esperanto Template:Lang, Polish Template:Lang. Languages taking their cognates from Germanicized centner include the German Template:Lang, Lithuanian Template:Lang, Swedish Template:Lang, Polish Template:Lang, Russian and Ukrainian Template:Lang (Template:Lang) and Estonian Template:Lang.
Many European languages have come to translate both the British hundredweight (8 stone or Template:Convert) and the American hundredweight (Template:Convert), as their cognate form of quintal or centner.
Name
The concept has resulted in two different series of masses: Those based on the local pound (which after metrication was considered equivalent to Template:Convert, and those uprated to being based on the kilogram.
In Albania (Template:Lang), Ethiopia (Template:Lang), and India, the Template:Convert definition may have been introduced via IslamicTemplate:Citation needed trade. It is a standard measurement of mass for agricultural products in those countries.
In France it used to be defined as 100 Template:Lang (pounds), about Template:Convert, and has been redefined as 100 kg (Template:Lang), thus called metric quintal with symbol qq. In Spain, the Template:Lang is still defined as 100 Template:Lang, or about Template:Convert, but the metric quintal is also defined as 100 kg;<ref>Real Academia Española's definition of quintal</ref> In Portugal a quintal is 128 Template:Lang or about Template:Convert.
The German Template:Lang and the Danish Template:Lang are pound-based, and thus since metrication are defined as Template:Convert, whereas the Austrian and Swiss Template:Lang since metrication has been re-defined as 100 kg. In Germany a measure of 100 kg is named a Template:Lang.
In Italy, the Template:Lang is commonly used to refer to 100 kg and is abbreviated to q, but the usage is considered informal and is not considered legally valid since 1990.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Common agricultural units used in the Soviet Union were the 100 kg Template:Lang (Template:Lang) and the term "Template:Lang per hectare". These are still used by countries that were part of the Soviet Union.
English use
In English both terms quintal and centner were once alternative names for the hundredweight and thus defined either as 100 lb (exactly Template:Cvt) or as Template:Cvt. Also, in the Dominican Republic it is about Template:Cvt. The German Template:Lang was introduced to the English language via Hanseatic trade as a measure of the weight of certain crops including hops for beer production. Commonly used in the Dominion (and later province) of Newfoundland up until the 1960s as a measure for Template:Cvt of salt cod.
The quintal was defined in the United States in 1866<ref>Act of July 28, 1866, codified in 15 U.S.C. §205</ref> as Template:Convert. However, it is no longer used in the United States or by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), though it still appears in the statute.<ref>"Metric System of Measurement: Interpretation of the International System of Units for the United States", Federal Register notice of July 28, 1998, 63 F.R. 40333 Template:Cite web</ref>
In France, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Indonesia, and India, it is still in daily use by farmers. It is also used in Brazil and other South American countries and in some African countries including Angola.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>