Hoppus Ton

Fifty hoppus feet, and the bulk unit in which round timber was shipped and invoiced.

The hoppus ton is a measure of volume rather than weight, despite the name, and it takes its title from the tun cask in the same way that a ship’s tonnage does. Fifty hoppus feet was reckoned as a shipping unit: a quantity of timber that could sensibly be quoted, loaded and insured. Burmese teak, West African mahogany and Indian hardwood were all traded by the hoppus ton through British ports for well over a century, and the unit persists in some tropical timber contracts.