cloff
An allowance of two pounds in every three hundredweight after the tare and tret are subtracted; now used only in a general sense, of small deductions from the original weight.
cloff: the merchant's last small cut from the weighed goods
A cloff is a customary weight deduction applied after tare and tret have already been subtracted from goods being bought and sold. Historically in the coal and mineral trades, it represented a fixed allowance of 2 pounds per 3 hundredweight (336 pounds), taken as compensation to the buyer for unavoidable waste, moisture reabsorption, or handling loss during transit and storage. The term survives in maritime and shipyard work, though the original arithmetic has faded from active use.
The practice emerged from the practical realities of bulk commodity trading. Tare accounts for the weight of containers and wrapping; tret covers an allowance for water and dirt inherent to the goods themselves. Cloff came third, as a final negotiated buffer. A seller might argue that goods lose a few pounds to evaporation or crumbling in transit; a buyer expected to recover some value despite those losses. Rather than dispute each shipment, traders built cloff into their contracts as a standing deduction.
Historical context and modern use
The term originates from Old Norse and medieval Germanic trade customs, where incremental allowances were baked into nearly every large transaction. By the 18th and 19th centuries, cloff appeared regularly in coal bills, iron ore manifests, and grain shipments. Yards and merchants kept printed tables showing cloff amounts for different commodities and weights. The system was transparent but mechanical, leaving little room for dispute.
Modern maritime and shipyard operations rarely invoke cloff by name or calculate it as a fixed percentage. However, the concept persists in spot clauses covering "normal shrinkage," "acceptable variance," or "trade allowance" in bulk purchase agreements. Anyone reading older shipyard contracts or dealing with legacy commodity markets may still encounter the term in its original sense, typically applied to coal, scrap metal, or mineral cargo.
Understanding cloff matters when reconciling historical accounts or auditing long-standing supply contracts that reference it. Its absence from modern standards reflects improved weighing technology and containerization, which have reduced both the need for and the ambiguity around allowances. Yet its logic remains sound: in any trade involving bulk solids and long transit, some loss is inevitable, and cloff was an honest attempt to price that reality into the deal.