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Originally Posted by RedDevil
The French had pounds and feet etc., all slightly different from all the feet and pounds etc from other nations, before they chose to dump them for interrelated metric measures.
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The French didn't actually choose this. The metric system was forced on them, first by the French Revolution's Reign of Terror, then (as you point out) by a megalomanic dictator.
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Guess what - once accustomed to both systems it became obvious what worked out best...
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Well, one could make a pretty strong argument that, based on things like
per capita GDP, the Imperial measures have worked out best. France used to be a major world power before it adopted the metric system. Now, not so much :-) Likewise Britain: used to be that the sun never set on the British Empire. Now that it has adopted the metric system, the Empire is a memory, Scotland & Wales want independence...