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. Kublai 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 Kublai's first issue (1260-1287) with which Polo maybe
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 5d. 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 lira. 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 6s. 7d., say roundly 80d.[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
120d. or 10s., a little over the Venetian ducat and somewhat less than
the bezant or dinar.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 616 of 655
Words from 321821 to 322346
of 342071
