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 kilan (precious charter) and the years of reign Cheng
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 lue 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.
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