The weighhouse is crucial for a city such a Molendam, where many ships bringing goods from all over the world lay anchor. Weighhouse Master, Jacobus van Cromvoirt, is well aware of this. He is proud of his beautiful building with its statues and rich decorations.  At Christmas he adds to the decorations on the gable with lighted Christmas trees, if only to keep the night a little at bay and extend the weighing time in these dark days. Jacobus takes his work very seriously. This is why he ensures that weights and measures inspectors come each week to test the precision of all the weighing scales, balances and cranes, so that the weights can’t be tampered with. He and his staff make sure that the ship owners get their due and that the local tradesmen and shippers from the hinterland don’t pay too much for their goods. And so he weighs canisters filled with spices from India for the grocer, Hendricus van Tilborgh, grain for the miller, Fransiscus Hermensz and costly precious metal for Molendam’s mint master, Hieronymus Scherff van Andel, which he uses to mint his half guilder and two and a half guilder coins. The goods are brought into the weighhouse and weighed in small consignments. The owner is issued a weigh note and informed as to the taxes he owes the city. Fransiscus has had a shaded and draughty roofed area made to store the butter and cheese that is better not left out in the sun. Rob van Roosmalen from the local cheese shop collects his goods there. In this way any sort of consignment can be weighed.

At the end of the day he straightens his bow tie and proceeds to mayor Wolkers van Avezaath to hand over the day’s earning for the good of the city.
But in the evening other very different noises can be heard in the weighhouse. In the domed hall the weighing scales are put to one side and the musicians of the “Schuttersgilde” take the floor. There is enough space for the noisiest trumpet and the most excessive banner-wavers. In this way the weighhouse doesn’t only fulfil an economic function in Molendam but also a social one.