CHAPTER XXIV.
HOW THE GREAT KAAN CAUSETH 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 splendour 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 Kaan
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 Kaan 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 whithersoever 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 Kaan’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 marvellous, 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 Kaan’s possession.
When any of those pieces of paper are spoilt—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.{1}
Now you have heard the ways and means whereby the Great Kaan may have,
and in fact _has_, 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.
NOTE 1.—It is surprising to find that, nearly two centuries ago,
Magaillans, a missionary who had lived many years in China, and
was presumably a Chinese scholar, should have utterly denied the
truth of Polo’s statements about the paper-currency of China. Yet
the fact even then did not rest on Polo’s statement only. The
same thing had been alleged in the printed works of Rubruquis,
Roger Bacon, Hayton, Friar Odoric, the Archbishop of Soltania, and
Josaphat Barbaro, to say nothing of other European authorities that
remained in manuscript, or of the numerous Oriental records of the
same circumstance.
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.
Kúblái 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 Kúblái’s first issue (1260–1287) with which Polo may be
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 (otherwise _Tael_), 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.
Marsden states an equation between Marco’s values of the Notes and
the actual Chinese currency, to which Biot seems to assent. I doubt
its correctness, for his assumed values of the groat or _grosso_
and tornesel are surely wrong. The grosso ran at that time 18 to
the gold ducat or sequin, and allowing for the then higher relative
value of silver, should have contained about 5_d._ of silver. The
ducat was also equivalent to 2 _lire_, and the _tornese_ (_Romanin_,
III. 343) was 4 deniers. Now the denier is always, I believe ¹⁄₂₄₀
of the _líra_. Hence the _tornese_ would be ⁹⁄₆₀ of the _grosso_.
But we are not to look for _exact_ correspondences, when we see
Polo applying round figures in European coinage to Chinese currency.
[Illustration: Bank-Note of the Ming Dynasty.]
His bezant notes, I agree with Marsden, here represent the
Chinese notes for one and more ounces of silver. And here the
correspondence of value is much nearer than it seems at first
sight. The Chinese _liang_ or ounce of silver is valued commonly
at 6_s._ 7_d._, say roundly 80_d._[1] But the relation of gold
and silver in civilized Asia was then (see ch. I. note 4, and
also _Cathay_, pp. ccl. and 442) as 10 to 1, not, as with us now,
more than 15 to 1. Wherefore the _liang_ in relation to gold would
be worth 120_d._ or 10_s._, a little over the Venetian ducat and
somewhat less than the bezant or dínár. We shall then find the
table of Chinese issues, as compared with Marco’s equivalents, to
stand thus:—
CHINESE ISSUES, AS RECORDED. MARCO POLO’S STATEMENT.
For 10 ounces of silver (viz. . }
the Chinese _Ting_)[2] . . } 10 bezants.
For 1 ounce of silver, _i.e._ 1 _liang_,}
or 1000 _tsien_ (cash) } 1 „
For 500 _tsien_ . . . . 10 groats.
200 „ . . . . . 5 „ (should have been 4).
100 „ . . . . . 2 „
50 „ . . . . . 1 „
30 „ . . . . . ½ „ (but the proportionate
equivalent of half a
groat would be 25
_tsien_).
20 „ . . . . .
10 „ . . . . . 1 tornesel (but the
proportionate
equivalent would be 7½
_tsien_).
5 „ . . . . . ½ „ (but prop. equivalent
3¾ _tsien_).
Pauthier has given from the Chinese Annals of the Mongol Dynasty a
complete Table of the Issues of Paper-Money during every year of
Kúblái’s reign (1260–1294), estimated at their nominal value in
_Ting_ or tens of silver ounces. The lowest issue was in 1269, of
228,960 _ounces_, which at the rate of 120_d._ to the ounce (see
above) = 114,480_l._, and the highest was in 1290, viz. 50,002,500
ounces, equivalent at the same estimate to 25,001,250_l._! whilst
the total amount in the 34 years was 249,654,290 ounces or
124,827,144_l._ in nominal value. Well might Marco speak of the
vast quantity of such notes that the Great Kaan issued annually!
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
Kúblái’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. The paper-currency
is spoken of by Odoric (1320–30), by Pegolotti (1330–40), and by
Ibn Batuta (1348), as still the chief, if not sole, currency of the
Empire. According to the Chinese authorities, the credit of these
issues was constantly diminishing, as it is easy to suppose. But
it is odd that all the Western Travellers speak as if the notes
were as good as gold. Pegolotti, writing for mercantile men, and
from the information (as we may suppose) of mercantile men, says
explicitly that there was no depreciation.
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![3] In 1448 the _chao_ of
1000 cash was worth but 3. Barbaro still heard talk of the Chinese
paper-currency from travellers whom he met at Azov about this time;
but after 1455 there is said to be no more mention of it in Chinese
history.
I have never heard of the preservation of any note of the Mongols;
but some of the Ming survive, and are highly valued as curiosities
in China. The late Sir G. T. Staunton appears to have possessed
one; Dr. Lockhart formerly had two, of which he gave one to Sir
Harry Parkes, and retains the other. The paper is so dark as to
explain Marco’s description of it as black. By Dr. Lockhart’s
kindness I am enabled to give a reduced representation of this
note, as near a facsimile as we have been able to render it, but
with some _restoration_, _e.g._ of the _seals_, of which on the
original there is the barest indication remaining.
[Mr. Vissering (_Chinese Currency_, Addenda, I.–III.) gives a
facsimile and a description of a Chinese banknote of the Ming
Dynasty belonging to the collection of the Asiatic Museum of the
Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg. “In the eighth year of the
period _Hung-wu_ (1375), the Emperor Tai-tsu issued an order to
his minister of finances to make the _Pao-tsao_ (precious bills)
of the _Ta-Ming_ Dynasty, and to employ as raw material for the
composition of those bills the fibres of the mulberry tree.”—H. C.]
Notwithstanding the disuse of Government issues of paper-money
from that time till recent years, there had long been in some of
the cities of China a large use of private and local promissory
notes as currency. In Fuchau this was especially the case; bullion
was almost entirely displaced, and the banking-houses in that city
were counted by hundreds. These were under no government control;
any individual or company having sufficient capital or credit
could establish a bank and issue their bills, which varied in
amount from 100 cash to 1000 dollars. Some fifteen years ago the
Imperial Government seems to have been induced by the exhausted
state of the Treasury, and these large examples of the local use
of paper-currency, to consider projects for resuming that system
after the disuse of four centuries. A curious report by a Committee
of the Imperial Supreme Council, on a project for such a currency,
appears among the papers published by the Russian Mission at
Peking. It is unfavourable to the particular project, but we gather
from other sources that the Government not long afterwards did
open banks in the large cities of the Empire for the issue of a
new paper-currency, but that it met with bad success. At Fuchau,
in 1858, I learn from one notice, the dollar was worth from 18,000
to 20,000 cash in Government Bills. Dr. Rennie, in 1861, speaks of
the dollar at Peking as valued at 15,000, and later at 25,000 paper
cash. Sushun, the Regent, had issued a vast number of notes through
banks of his own in various parts of Peking. These he failed to
redeem, causing the failure of all the banks, and great consequent
commotion in the city. The Regent had led the Emperor [Hien Fung]
systematically into debauched habits which ended in paralysis. On
the Emperor’s death the Empress caused the arrest and execution of
Sushun. His conduct in connection with the bank failures was so
bitterly resented that when the poor wretch was led to execution
(8th November, 1861), as I learn from an eye-witness, the defrauded
creditors lined the streets and cheered.[4]
The Japanese also had a paper-currency in the 14th century. It
is different in form from that of China. That figured by Siebold
is a strip of strong paper doubled, 6¼ in. long by 1¾ in. wide,
bearing a representation of the tutelary god of riches, with long
inscriptions in Chinese characters, seals in black and red, and an
indication of value in ancient Japanese characters. I do not learn
whether notes of considerable amount are still used in Japan; but
Sir R. Alcock speaks of banknotes for small change from 30 to 500
cash and more, as in general use in the interior.
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.
The first was initiated in 1294 by the worthless Kaikhatu
Khan, when his own and his ministers’ extravagance had emptied
the Treasury, on the suggestion of a financial officer called
’Izzuddín Muzaffar. The notes were direct copies of Kúblái’s,
even the Chinese characters being imitated as part of the device
upon them.[5] The Chinese name _Chao_ was applied to them, and
the Mongol Resident at Tabriz, Pulad Chingsang, was consulted in
carrying out the measure. Expensive preparations were made for this
object; offices called _Cháo-Khánahs_ were erected in the principal
cities of the provinces, and a numerous staff appointed to carry
out the details. Ghazan Khan in Khorasan, however, would have none
of it, and refused to allow any of these preparations to be made
within his government. After the constrained use of the Chao for
two or three days Tabriz was in an uproar; the markets were closed;
the people rose and murdered ’Izzuddín; and the whole project had
to be abandoned. Marco was in Persia at this time, or just before,
and Sir John Malcolm not unnaturally suggests that he might have
had something to do with the scheme; a suggestion which excites a
needless commotion in the breast of M. Pauthier. We may draw from
the story the somewhat notable conclusion that _Block-printing_ was
practised, at least for this one purpose, at Tabriz in 1294.
The other like enterprise was that of Sultan Mahomed Tughlak of
Delhi, in 1330–31. This also was undertaken for like reasons,
and was in professed imitation of the Chao of Cathay. Mahomed,
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 practised. 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.”
An odd issue of currency, not of paper, but of leather, took place
in Italy a few years before Polo’s birth. The Emperor Frederic
II., at the siege of Faenza in 1241, being in great straits for
money, issued pieces of leather stamped with the mark of his mint
at the value of his Golden Augustals. This leather coinage was very
popular, especially at Florence, and it was afterwards honourably
redeemed by Frederic’s Treasury. Popular tradition in Sicily
reproaches William the Bad among his other sins with having issued
money of leather, but any stone is good enough to cast at a dog
with such a surname.
[Ma Twan-lin mentions that in the fourth year of the period Yuen
Show (B.C. 119), a currency of white metal and _deer-skin_ was
made. Mr. Vissering (_Chinese Currency_, 38) observes that the
skin-tallies “were purely tokens, and have had nothing in common
with the leather-money, which was, during a long time, current
in Russia. This Russian skin-money had a truly representative
character, as the parcels were used instead of the skins from which
they were cut; the skins themselves being too bulky and heavy to be
constantly carried backward and forward, only a little piece was
cut off, to figure as a token of possession of the whole skin. The
ownership of the skin was proved when the piece fitted in the hole.”
Mr. Rockhill (_Rubruck_, 201 note) says: “As early as B.C. 118,
we find the Chinese using ‘leather-money’ (_p’i pi_). These were
pieces of white deer-skin, a foot square, with a coloured border.
Each had a value of 40,000 cash. (_Ma Twan-lin_, Bk. 8, 5.)”
Mr. Charles F. Keary (_Coins and Medals_, by S. Lane Poole, 128)
mentions that “in the reign of Elizabeth there was a very extensive
issue of private tokens in lead, tin, latten, and _leather_.”—H. C.]
(_Klapr._ in _Mém. Rel. à l’Asie_, I. 375 _seqq._; _Biot_, in
_J. As._ sér. III. tom. iv.; _Marsden_ and _Pauthier_, in loco;
_Parkes_, in _J. R. A. S._ XIII. 179; _Doolittle_, 452 _seqq._;
_Wylie, J. of Shanghai Lit. and Scient. Soc._ No. I.; _Arbeiten
der kais. russ. Gesandsch. zu Peking_, I. p. 48; _Rennie,
Peking_, etc., I. 296, 347; _Birch_, in. _Num. Chron._ XII. 169;
Information from _Dr. Lockhart_; _Alcock_, II. 86; _D’Ohsson_, IV.
53; _Cowell_, in _J. A. S. B._ XXIX. 183 _seqq._; _Thomas, Coins
of Patan Sovs. of Hind._, (from _Numism. Chron._ 1852), p. 139
_seqq._; _Kington’s Fred. II._ II. 195; _Amari_, III. 816; _W.
Vissering, On Chinese Currency_, Leiden, 1877.)
[“Without doubt the Mongols borrowed the bank-note system from the
Kin. Up to the present time there is in Si-ngan-fu a block kept,
which was used for printing the bank-notes of the Kin Dynasty. I
have had the opportunity of seeing a print of those bank-notes,
they were of the same size and shape as the bank-notes of the Ming.
A reproduction of the text of the Kin bank-notes is found in the
_Kin shi ts’ui pien_. This copy has the characters _pao küan_
(precious charter) and the years of reign _Chêng Yew_, 1213–1216.
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 _Ye lü ch’u ts’ai_, minister of Ogodai, the
taxes were also collected in silk delivered by weight. It can
therefore be assumed that the name _sze ch’ao_ (_i.e._ 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 Kubilai,
the issuing of banknotes was decreed, silk was taken as the
standard to express the value of silver and 1000 _liang_ silk was
estimated = 50 _liang_ (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 in the _Siu
t’ung Kien_ 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.
The number seems indeed very high for that time. But if the
exceedingly low exchange of the bank-notes be taken into
consideration, the sum will be reduced to a modest amount.”
(_Palladius_, pp. 50–51.)—H. C.]
[Dr. Bretschneider (_Hist. Bot. Disc._, I. p. 4) makes the
following remark:—“Polo states (I. 409) that the Great Kaan causeth
the bark of great Mulberry-trees, made into something like paper,
to pass for money.” He seems to be mistaken. Paper in China is not
made from mulberry-trees but from the _Broussonetia papyrifera_,
which latter tree belongs to the same order of Moraceae. The same
fibres are used also in some parts of China for making cloth, and
Marco Polo alludes probably to the same tree when stating (II.
108) “that in the province of Cuiju (Kwei chau) they manufacture
stuff of the bark of certain trees, which form very fine summer
clothing.”—H. C.]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Even now there are at least eight different _taels_ (or liangs) in
extensive use over the Empire, and varying as much as from 96 to
106; and besides these are many local _taels_, with about the same
limits of variation.—(_Williamson’s Journeys_, I. 60.)
[2] [The Archimandrite Palladius (_l.c._, p. 50, note) says that “the
_ting_ of the Mongol time, as well as during the reign of the Kin,
was a unit of weight equivalent to fifty _liang_, but not to ten
_liang_. Cf. _Ch’u keng lu_, and _Yuen-shi_, ch. xcv. The _Yuen
pao_, which as everybody in China knows, is equivalent to fifty
_liang_ (taels) of silver, is the same as the ancient _ting_,
and the character _Yuen_ indicates that it dates from the _Yuen_
Dynasty.”—H. C.]
[3] This is also, as regards Customs payments, the system of the
Government of modern Italy.
[4] The first edition of this work gave a facsimile of one of this
unlucky minister’s notes.
[5] On both sides, however, was the Mahomedan formula, and beneath
that the words _Yiranjín Túrjí_, a title conferred on the kings of
Persia by the Kaan. There was also an inscription to the following
effect: that the Emperor in the year 693 (A.H.) had issued these
auspicious _chao_, that all who forged or uttered false notes
should be summarily punished, with their wives and children, and
their property confiscated; and that when these auspicious notes
were once in circulation, poverty would vanish, provisions become
cheap, and rich and poor be equal (_Cowell_). The use of the term
_chao_ at Tabriz may be compared with that of _Bănklōt_, current in
modern India.