The Travels by Marco Polo-CHAPTER XXIV

HOW THE GREAT KHAN CAUSES THE BARK OF TREES, MADE INTO SOMETHING LIKE PAPER, TO PASS FOR MONEY OVER ALL HIS COUNTRY.

“Now that I have told you in detail of the splendor of this City of the Emperor’s, I shall proceed to tell you of the Mint which he hath in the same city, in the which he hath his money coined and struck, as I shall relate to you. And in doing so I shall make manifest to you how it is that the Great Lord may well be able to accomplish even much more than I have told you, or am going to tell you, in this Book. For, tell it how I might, you never would be satisfied that I was keeping within truth and reason!

The Emperor’s Mint then is in this same City of Cambaluc, and the way it is wrought is such that you might say he hath the Secret of Alchemy in perfection, and you would be right! For he makes his money after this fashion.

He makes them take of the bark of a certain tree, in fact of the Mulberry Tree, the leaves of which are the food of the silkworms,—these trees being so numerous that whole districts are full of them. What they take is a certain fine white bast or skin which lies between the wood of the tree and the thick outer bark, and this they make into something resembling sheets of paper, but black. When these sheets have been prepared they are cut up into pieces of different sizes. The smallest of these sizes is worth a half tornesel; the next, a little larger, one tornesel; one, a little larger still, is worth half a silver groat of Venice; another a whole groat; others yet two groats, five groats, and ten groats. There is also a kind worth one Bezant of gold, and others of three Bezants, and so up to ten. All these pieces of paper are [issued with as much solemnity and authority as if they were of pure gold or silver; and on every piece a variety of officials, whose duty it is, have to write their names, and to put their seals. And when all is prepared duly, the chief officer deputed by the Kahn smears the Seal entrusted to him with vermilion, and impresses it on the paper, so that the form of the Seal remains printed upon it in red; the Money is then authentic. Any one forging it would be punished with death.] And the Kahn causes every year to be made such a vast quantity of this money, which costs him nothing, that it must equal in amount all the treasure in the world.

With these pieces of paper, made as I have described, he causes all payments on his own account to be made; and he makes them to pass current universally over all his kingdoms and provinces and territories, and whither soever his power and sovereignty extends. And nobody, however important he may think himself, dares to refuse them on pain of death. And indeed everybody takes them readily, for wheresoever a person may go throughout the Great Kahn’s dominions he shall find these pieces of paper current, and shall be able to transact all sales and purchases of goods by means of them just as well as if they were coins of pure gold. And all the while they are so light that ten bezants’ worth does not weigh one golden bezant.

Furthermore all merchants arriving from India or other countries, and bringing with them gold or silver or gems and pearls, are prohibited from selling to any one but the Emperor. He has twelve experts chosen for this business, men of shrewdness and experience in such affairs; these appraise the articles, and the Emperor then pays a liberal price for them in those pieces of paper. The merchants accept his price readily, for in the first place they would not get so good an one from anybody else, and secondly they are paid without any delay. And with this paper-money they can buy what they like anywhere over the Empire, whilst it is also vastly lighter to carry about on their journeys. And it is a truth that the merchants will several times in the year bring wares to the amount of 400,000 bezants, and the Grand Sire pays for all in that paper. So he buys such a quantity of those precious things every year that his treasure is endless, whilst all the time the money he pays away costs him nothing at all. Moreover, several times in the year proclamation is made through the city that any one who may have gold or silver or gems or pearls, by taking them to the Mint shall get a handsome price for them. And the owners are glad to do this, because they would find no other purchaser give so large a price. Thus the quantity they bring in is marvelous, though these who do not choose to do so may let it alone. Still, in this way, nearly all the valuables in the country come into the Kahn’s possession.

When any of those pieces of paper are spoiled—not that they are so very flimsy neither—the owner carries them to the Mint, and by paying three per cent, on the value he gets new pieces in exchange. And if any Baron, or any one else soever, hath need of gold or silver or gems or pearls, in order to make plate, or girdles, or the like, he goes to the Mint and buys as much as he list, paying in this paper-money.

Now you have heard the ways and means whereby the Great Kahn may have, and in facthas, more treasure than all the Kings in the World; and you know all about it and the reason why. And now I will tell you of the great Dignitaries which act in this city on behalf of the Emperor.”

[ . . Here ends book XX1V of the Travels of Marco Polo . . ]

NOTES TO MARCO POLO:

The issue of paper-money in China is at least as old as the beginning of the 9th century.  In 1160 the system had gone to such excess that government paper equivalent in nominal value to 43,600,000 ounces of silver had been issued in six years, and there were local notes besides; so that the Empire was flooded with rapidly depreciating paper.

The Kin or “Golden” Dynasty of Northern Invaders who immediately preceded the Mongols took to paper, in spite of their title, as kindly as the native sovereigns. Their notes had a course of seven years, after which new notes were issued to the holders, with a deduction of 15 per cent.

The Mongols commenced their issues of paper-money in 1236, long before they had transferred the seat of their government to China. Kublai Kahn made such an issue in the first year of his reign (1260), and continued to issue notes copiously till the end. In 1287 he put out a complete new currency, one note of which was to exchange against five of the previous series of equal nominal value! In both issues the paper-money was, in official valuation, only equivalent to half its nominal value in silver; a circumstance not very easy to understand. The paper-money was called Chao.

The notes of Kublai Kahn’s first issue (1260-1287) with which Polo maybe supposed most familiar, were divided into three classes;

(1) Notes of Tens, viz. of 10, 20, 30, and 50 tsien or cash;

(2) Notes of Hundreds, viz. of 100, 200, and 500 tsien; and

(3) Notes of Strings or Thousands of cash, or in other words of Liangs or ounces of silver, viz. of 1000 and 2000 tsien.

There were also notes printed on silk for 1, 2, 3, 5, and 10 ounces each, valued at par in silver, but these would not circulate. In 1275, it should be mentioned, there had been a supplementary issue of small notes for 2, 3, and 5 cash each.

Table of CHINESE ISSUES,

AS RECORDED.                                                            MARCO POLO’S STATEMENT.

For 10 ounces of silver (ie,m the Chinese Ting) . . . . . . . . . . = 10 bezants (a Byzantine coin common in Europe Link (Links to an external site.))

For  1 ounce of silver i.e. 1 liang, or 1000 tsien (cash) . . . . . =  1 bezant

For 500 tsien . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . = 10 groat (European coin Link (Links to an external site.) )
200 tsien . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . =  5 groat (should be 4)
100 tsien . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . =  2 groat
50 tsien . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . =  1 groat
30 tsien . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . =  1/2 groat (but 0.5 groat would be 25 tsien)

To complete the history of the Chinese paper-currency so far as we can:

In 1309, a new issue took place with the same provision as in Kublai Kahn’s issue of 1287, i.e. each note of the new issue was to exchange against 5 of the old of the same nominal value. And it was at the same time prescribed that the notes should exchange at par with metals, which of course it was beyond the power of Government to enforce, and so the notes were abandoned.   Issues continued from time to time to the end of the Mongol Dynasty. According to the Chinese authorities, the credit of these issues was constantly diminishing, as it is easy to suppose.

The Ming Dynasty for a time carried on the system of paper-money; with the difference that while under the Mongols no other currency had been admitted, their successors made payments in notes, but accepted only hard cash from their people!  In 1448 the Chao of 1000 cash was worth but 3.

Two notable and disastrous attempts to imitate the Chinese system of currency took place in the Middle Ages; one of them in Persia, apparently in Polo’s very presence, the other in India some 36 years later.

1. The first was initiated in 1294 by Kaikhatu Khan, when his own and his ministers’ extravagance had emptied the Treasury, on the suggestion of a financial officer. The notes were direct copies of Kublai Kahn’s, even the Chinese characters being imitated as part of the device upon them.  The Chinese name Chao was applied to them. Expensive preparations were made for this object; offices were erected in the principal cities of the provinces, and a numerous staff appointed to carry out the details.  After the constrained use of the Chao for two or three days the city of Tabriz was in an uproar; the markets were closed; the people rose and murdered the financial officer; and the whole project had to be abandoned.  Marco Polo was in Persia at this time, and he might have had something to do with the scheme. We may draw from the story the somewhat notable conclusion that Block-printing of money was practiced, at least for this one purpose, at Tabriz in 1294.
2. The other like enterprise was that of Sultan Mohamed of Delhi, in 1330-31. This also was undertaken for similar reasons, and was in professed imitation of the Chao of China (Cathay as the Romans called it).   Mohamed, however, used copper tokens instead of paper; the copper being made apparently of equal weight to the gold or silver coin which it represented. The system seems to have had a little more vogue than at Tabriz, but was speedily brought to an end by the ease with which forgeries on an enormous scale were practiced.  The Sultan, in hopes of reviving the credit of his currency, ordered that every one bringing copper tokens to the Treasury should have them cashed in gold or silver. “The people who in despair had flung aside their copper coins like stones and bricks in their houses, all rushed to the Treasury and exchanged them for gold and silver. In this way the Treasury soon became empty, but the copper coins had as little circulation as ever, and a very grievous blow was given to the State.”

The Mongols borrowed the bank-note system from the Kin (or Chin, or Chinese).  A block kept, which was used for printing the bank-notes of the Kin Dynasty. . . . .They were of the same size and shape as the bank-notes of the Ming. The first essay of the Mongols to introduce bank-notes dates from the time of Ogodai Khan (1229-1242), but Chinese history only mentions the fact without giving details.  At that time silk in skeins was the only article of a determinate value in the trade and on the project of the minister of Ogodai, the taxes were also collected in silk delivered by weight.  It can therefore be assumed that bank-notes referring to the weight of silk dates back to the same time.  At any rate, at a later time, as, under the reign of Kublai Kahn, the issuing of banknotes was decreed, silk was taken as the standard to express the value of silver and 1000 liang silk was estimated = 50liang (or 1 ting) silver.  Thus, in consequence of those measures, it gradually became a rule to transfer the taxes and rents originally paid in silk, into silver.  The wealth of the Mongol Khans in precious metals was renowned.  The accounts regarding their revenues, however, which we meet with occasionally in Chinese history, do not surprise by their vastness.  In the year 1298, for instance, the amount of the revenue is stated to have been:—

19,000 liang of gold = (190,000 liang of silver, according to the exchange of that time at the rate of 1 to 10).

60,000 liang of silver.

3,600,000 ting of silver in bank-notes (i.e. 180 millions liang); altogether 180,250,000 liang of silver.

Your assignment.

• PART A:  Twenty Vocabulary words.  As you read the text above select 20 vocabulary words (minimum).  You select the words new to you, or words used in a way new to you.  List each word and then a definition that fits the usage of the word.  Look up the definition in an academic dictionary (such as Oxford or Miriam Webster’s New Collegiate, but not Google.)  Then write the definition IN YOUR OWN WORDS.  Select as many vocabulary words as needed to fill up the requirement of 20.
• PART B: Answer the following questions. Do NOT retype the questions.  Answer each question in your own words.  Do not just cut and paste answers from the reading.

1. Who was Marco Polo, when and where did he live?
2. Explain why Marco Polo compares paper money production to alchemy?
3. In your own words explain how paper money was produced in Kublai Kahn’s China.
4. What is the difference between between legal tender and tokens?
5. Where does money get its value?
6. Where does bullion get its value?
7. Where there ever times when people might not trust the money?
8. Why would governments outside of China accept Kublai’s money?
9. What crimes does Marco Polo mention in regard to money, and how were the guilty punished?
10. What is a Khan?
11. Who or what is “the Great Khan”?
12. Who were the Mongols spoken of in this reading? Where and when and how did they live?
13. What is a bezant?
14. What is meant by “mint” in this reading?  Describe how it works.
15. What is a mulberry?   What is it used for in this reading?
16. What are the Ming?
17. What is a baron?
18. What is chao?
19. What name did the Romans in ancient times give this part of the world?

STYLE GUIDE: All answers for all assignments must be written as full sentences, do not answer with fragments.  All answers must follow the style guide below:

• No First Person (I, me, we, us, our, ours)
• No Second Person (you, your)
• No Passive Voice
• No Cliché’s
• No Contractions (don’t, won’t, can’t, isn’t, and so on)
• No Colloquialisms
• No Jargon
• No Jingoism
• No Rhetorical answers
• No Dialectal answers
• No Fragments
• No non-factual answers

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