According to Laplace, a mathematician and senator who defended the propagation of a single system of weights and measures in Napoleon’s realm, the same standards should provide the basis for a common culture promoted by the Emperor’s actions.
Thanks to his Genius, the whole of Europe will soon form a single immense family, united by the same religion, the same legal code and the same weights and measures.
Pierre-Simon Laplace, An Exposition of the System of the World, 4th ed. (1813).
Read the free text in the original language (1813 edition): https://archive.org/details/expositiondusys01laplgoog