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.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 1179 of 1256
Words from 320952 to 321213
of 342071
