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 Mem. Rel. a l'Asie, I. 375 seqq.; Biot, in J. As. ser.
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 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.
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.
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