There is no doubt about
this being really a relic of the palace.... You will see on the map,
just inside the walls of the Imperial city, the Temple of Brahma.
There are still two stone columns standing with curious Buddhist
inscriptions.... Although the temple is entirely gone, these columns
retain the name and mark the place. They date from the 6th century,
and there are few structures earlier in China." One is engraved above,
after a sketch by Mr. Moule.
[6] See the plan of the city with last chapter.
CHAPTER LXXVIII.
TREATING OF THE GREAT YEARLY REVENUE THAT THE GREAT KAAN HATH FROM KINSAY.
Now I will tell you about the great revenue which the Great Kaan draweth
every year from the said city of Kinsay and its territory, forming a ninth
part of the whole country of Manzi.
First there is the salt, which brings in a great revenue. For it produces
every year, in round numbers, fourscore tomans of gold; and the
toman is worth 70,000 saggi of gold, so that the total value
of the fourscore tomans will be five millions and six hundred thousand
saggi of gold, each saggio being worth more than a gold florin or
ducat; in sooth, a vast sum of money! [This province, you see, adjoins the
ocean, on the shores of which are many lagoons or salt marshes, in which
the sea-water dries up during the summer time; and thence they extract
such a quantity of salt as suffices for the supply of five of the kingdoms
of Manzi besides this one.]
Having told you of the revenue from salt, I will now tell you of that
which accrues to the Great Kaan from the duties on merchandize and other
matters.
You must know that in this city and its dependencies they make great
quantities of sugar, as indeed they do in the other eight divisions of
this country; so that I believe the whole of the rest of the world
together does not produce such a quantity, at least, if that be true which
many people have told me; and the sugar alone again produces an enormous
revenue. - However, I will not repeat the duties on every article
separately, but tell you how they go in the lump. Well, all spicery pays
three and a third per cent. on the value; and all merchandize likewise
pays three and a third per cent. [But sea-borne goods from India and other
distant countries pay ten per cent.] The rice-wine also makes a great
return, and coals, of which there is a great quantity; and so do the
twelve guilds of craftsmen that I told you of, with their 12,000 stations
apiece, for every article they make pays duty. And the silk which is
produced in such abundance makes an immense return. But why should I make
a long story of it? The silk, you must know, pays ten per cent., and many
other articles also pay ten per cent.
And you must know that Messer Marco Polo, who relates all this, was
several times sent by the Great Kaan to inspect the amount of his customs
and revenue from this ninth part of Manzi,[NOTE 1] and he found it to be,
exclusive of the salt revenue which we have mentioned already, 210
tomans of gold, equivalent to 14,700,000 saggi of gold; one
of the most enormous revenues that ever was heard of. And if the sovereign
has such a revenue from one-ninth part of the country, you may judge what
he must have from the whole of it! However, to speak the truth, this part
is the greatest and most productive; and because of the great revenue that
the Great Kaan derives from it, it is his favourite province, and he takes
all the more care to watch it well, and to keep the people contented.
[NOTE 2]
Now we will quit this city and speak of others.
NOTE 1. - Pauthier's text seems to be the only one which says that Marco
was sent by the Great Kaan. The G. Text says merely: "Si qe jeo March Pol
qe plusor foies hoi faire le conte de la rende de tous cestes couses," -
"had several times heard the calculations made."
NOTE 2. - Toman is 10,000. And the first question that occurs in
considering the statements of this chapter is as to the unit of these
tomans, as intended by Polo. I believe it to have been the tael (or
Chinese ounce) of gold.
We do not know that the Chinese ever made monetary calculations in gold.
But the usual unit of the revenue accounts appears from Pauthier's
extracts to have been the ting, i.e. a money of account equal to ten
taels of silver, and we know (supra, ch. l. note 4) that this was in
those days the exact equivalent of one tael of gold.
The equation in our text is 10,000 x = 70,000 saggi of gold, giving x,
or the unit sought, = 7 saggi. But in both Ramusio on the one hand, and
in the Geog. Latin and Crusca Italian texts on the other hand, the
equivalent of the toman is 80,000 saggi; though it is true that neither
with one valuation nor the other are the calculations consistent in any of
the texts, except Ramusio's.[1] This consistency does not give any
greater weight to Ramusio's reading, because we know that version to have
been edited, and corrected when the editor thought it necessary: but I
adopt his valuation, because we shall find other grounds for preferring
it. The unit of the toman then is = 8 saggi.
The Venice saggio was one-sixth of a Venice ounce. The Venice mark of 8
ounces I find stated to contain 3681 grains troy;[2] hence the saggio =
76 grains.
