Why did the British invent the imperial system and then abandon it?
In: Economics
They didn’t invent it. They adopted and standardised existing measurements. Most European countries did the same, but with their own national standards. For example, The Netherlands had their own version of the foot – the Voet – which was divided into 10, 11, 12 or 13 Dutch duim (which is roughly an inch) depending on province. The neighbouring countries of France and Belgium had their own pied (foot). And similar applies to weight and volume. This is obviously inconvenient for trade.
Metric was nice because it was the same in every country, and the consistent size of divisions made it easy to learn. It allowed for much easier trade.
Britain wanted to trade with Europe. It made sense to switch.
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