It is true, indeed, that in some parts
of the country there is cotton and hemp, but not sufficient for their
wants. This, however, is not of much consequence, because silk is so
abundant and cheap, and is a more valuable substance than either flax or
cotton.
Round about this great city of Cambaluc there are some 200 other cities at
various distances, from which traders come to sell their goods and buy
others for their lords; and all find means to make their sales and
purchases, so that the traffic of the city is passing great.
NOTE 1. - It would seem to have been usual to reckon twelve suburbs to
Peking down to modern times. (See Deguignes, III. 38.)
NOTE 2. - The word here used is Fondaco, often employed in mediaeval
Italian in the sense nearly of what we call a factory. The word is from
the Greek [Greek: pandokeion], but through the Arabic Fanduk. The latter
word is used by Ibn Batuta in speaking of the hostelries at which the
Mussulman merchants put up in China.
CHAPTER XXIII.
[CONCERNING THE OPPRESSIONS OF ACHMATH THE BAILO, AND THE PLOT THAT WAS
FORMED AGAINST HIM.[NOTE 1]
You will hear further on how that there are twelve persons appointed who
have authority to dispose of lands, offices, and everything else at their
discretion. Now one of these was a certain Saracen named ACHMATH, a shrewd
and able man, who had more power and influence with the Grand Kaan than
any of the others; and the Kaan held him in such regard that he could do
what he pleased. The fact was, as came out after his death, that Achmath
had so wrought upon the Kaan with his sorcery, that the latter had the
greatest faith and reliance on everything he said, and in this way did
everything that Achmath wished him to do.
This person disposed of all governments and offices, and passed sentence
on all malefactors; and whenever he desired to have any one whom he hated
put to death, whether with justice or without it, he would go to the
Emperor and say: "Such an one deserves death, for he hath done this or
that against your imperial dignity." Then the Lord would say: "Do as you
think right," and so he would have the man forthwith executed. Thus when
people saw how unbounded were his powers, and how unbounded the reliance
placed by the Emperor on everything that he said, they did not venture to
oppose him in anything. No one was so high in rank or power as to be free
from the dread of him.
