The Portuguese customary units were used in Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

, Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

 and other parts of the Portuguese Empire

Portuguese Empire

The Portuguese Empire , also known as the Portuguese Overseas Empire or the Portuguese Colonial Empire , was the first global empire in history...

 until the adoption of the Metric System

Metric system

The metric system is an international decimalised system of measurement. France was first to adopt a metric system, in 1799, and a metric system is now the official system of measurement, used in almost every country in the world...

 in the 19th century.

The Metric System was adopted by Portugal and Portuguese colonies in 1852 and by Brazil in 1862.

The length and weight standards were defined, at national level, in the reign of Manuel I of Portugal

Manuel I of Portugal

Manuel I , the Fortunate , 14th king of Portugal and the Algarves was the son of Infante Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu, , by his wife, Infanta Beatrice of Portugal...

 in 1495. The others were different from one region to the other, but were similar to those established to Lisbon

Lisbon

Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...

.

Route units

Portuguese name	English name	Subdivides in	Equivalence in Léguas de 20 ao grau	Metrical equivalence
Légua de 18 ao grau	League of 18 to a degree League (unit) A league is a unit of length . It was long common in Europe and Latin America, but it is no longer an official unit in any nation. The league originally referred to the distance a person or a horse could walk in an hour...			6173 m
Légua de 20 ao grau	League of 20 to a degree League (unit) A league is a unit of length . It was long common in Europe and Latin America, but it is no longer an official unit in any nation. The league originally referred to the distance a person or a horse could walk in an hour...	3 milhas geográficas	1	5555 m
Milha geográfica	Geographical mile Geographical mile The geographical mile is a unit of length determined by 1 minute of arc along the Earth's equator. For the 1924 International Spheroid this equalled 1855.4 metres...		1/3	1851 m

Length units

Portuguese name	English name	Subdivides in	Equivalence in Varas	Metrical equivalence
Braça	Fathom Fathom A fathom is a unit of length in the imperial and the U.S. customary systems, used especially for measuring the depth of water.There are 2 yards in an imperial or U.S. fathom...	2 varas	2	2,2 m
Toesa	Toise Toise A toise is a unit of measure for length, area and volume originating in pre-revolutionary France. In North America, it was used in colonial French establishments in early New France, French Louisiana , and Quebec...	6 pés	1	1,98 m
Passo geométrico	Geometrical pace	5 pés	1	1,65 m
Vara	Yard Yard A yard is a unit of length in several different systems including English units, Imperial units and United States customary units. It is equal to 3 feet or 36 inches...	5 palmos	1	1,1 m
Côvado	Cubit Cubit The cubit is a traditional unit of length, based on the length of the forearm. Cubits of various lengths were employed in many parts of the world in Antiquity, in the Middle Ages and into Early Modern Times....	3 palmos	3/5	0,66 m
Pé	Foot	12 polegadas	3/10	0,33 m
Palmo de craveira	Span Span (unit) A span is the distance measured by a human hand, from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the little finger. In ancient times, a span was considered to be half a cubit...	8 polegadas	1/5	0,22 m
Polegada	Inch Inch An inch is the name of a unit of length in a number of different systems, including Imperial units, and United States customary units. There are 36 inches in a yard and 12 inches in a foot...	12 linhas	1/40	27,5 mm
Linha	Line Line (length) The line is a unit of measurement, one line being equal to of an English inch. It was defined as one-quarter of a barleycorn, which defined the inch even before 1066. The French ligne was simarly defined as of the pouce...	12 pontos	1/480	2,29 mm
Ponto	Point Point -Business and finance:* Basis point, 1/100 of one percent, denoted bp, bps, and ‱* Pivot point, a price level of significance in analysis of a financial market that is used as a predictive indicator of market movement...		1/5760	0,19 mm

Weight units

Portuguese name	English name	Subdivides in	Equivalence in Arrateis	Metrical equivalence
Tonelada	Tonne Tonne The tonne, known as the metric ton in the US , often put pleonastically as "metric tonne" to avoid confusion with ton, is a metric system unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. The tonne is not an International System of Units unit, but is accepted for use with the SI...	13,5 quintais	1728	793,152 kg Kilogram The kilogram or kilogramme , also known as the kilo, is the base unit of mass in the International System of Units and is defined as being equal to the mass of the International Prototype Kilogram , which is almost exactly equal to the mass of one liter of water...
Quintal Quintal Quintal may refer to:* Quintal , a unit of mass* Quartal and quintal harmony in music* Quintal, Haute-Savoie, a commune of the Haute-Savoie département in France* Stéphane Quintal, NHL ice hockey player...	Hundredweight Hundredweight The hundredweight or centum weight is a unit of mass defined in terms of the pound . The definition used in Britain differs from that used in North America. The two are distinguished by the terms long hundredweight and short hundredweight:* The long hundredweight is defined as 112 lb, which...	4 arrobas	128	58,752 kg
Arroba Arroba The word arroba has its origin in Arabic ar-rubʿ , the fourth part .Arroba was a Spanish and Portuguese customary unit of weight, mass or volume. Its symbol is @. In weight it was equal to 25 pounds in Spain, and 32 pounds in Portugal.The unit is still used in Portugal by cork merchants, and in...	Arroba	32 arrateis	32	14,688 kg
Arratel Arratel The arratel or arrátel, also referred as libra , was the fundamental unit of weight of the ancient Portuguese System of Measurement Units... (1)	Pound Pound (mass) The pound or pound-mass is a unit of mass used in the Imperial, United States customary and other systems of measurement...	4 quartas	1	0,459 kg
Quarta	Fourth	4 onças	1/4	0,11475 kg
Onça	Ounce Ounce The ounce is a unit of mass with several definitions, the most commonly used of which are equal to approximately 28 grams. The ounce is used in a number of different systems, including various systems of mass that form part of the imperial and United States customary systems...	8 oitavas	1/16	28,6875 g Gram The gram is a metric system unit of mass....
Oitava	Eight	3 escropulos	1/128	3,5859 g
Escrópulo	Scruple	24 grãos	1/384	1,1953 g
Grão	Grain		1/9216	0,0498 g

(1) Also referred as libra (pound

Pound (mass)

The pound or pound-mass is a unit of mass used in the Imperial, United States customary and other systems of measurement...

).

Liquid volume units (for Lisbon)

Portuguese name	English name	Subdivides in	Equivalence in canadas	Metric equivalence
Tonel	Cask	2 pipas	600	840 l Litér - External links :*...
Pipa	Barrel	25 almudes	300	420 l
Almude Almude The almude or cântaro is an obsolete unit of measurement of volume used in Portugal and Brazil. An almude was equivalent to 6 potes or 12 canadas. The exact value of the almude was different from region to region... (1)		2 potes	12	16,8 l
Pote	Pot	6 canadas	6	8,4 l
Canada Canada (volume) The canada was the fundamental unit of liquid volume of the ancient Portuguese Measurement System. It was used in Portugal, Brazil and other parts of the Portuguese Empire until the adoption of the metric system. It was equivalent to 4 quartilhos...		4 quartilhos	1	1,4 l
Quartilho	Pint Pint The pint is a unit of volume or capacity that was once used across much of Europe with values varying from state to state from less than half a litre to over one litre. Within continental Europe, the pint was replaced with the metric system during the nineteenth century...	2 quartilhos	1/4	0,35 l
1/2 Quartilho	1/2 Pint	2 quartilhos	1/8	0,175 l
1/4 Quartilho	1/4 Pint		1/16	0,0875 l

(1) Also known as cântaro.