[NTG-context] OT world history: other measuring systems?

Hi all, just out of curiosity and since some of you are knowledgable in many fields: Were there widely accepted measuring systems in Asia before the introduction of the imperial or metric system? In Europe there was a mess of local miles, feet, cubits, inches etc.; why didn’t "we" stick to the Roman system? (Also Knuth’s Potrzebie system unfortunately couldn’t unite the world... https://webmadness.net/blog/?post=knuth ;)) Hraban