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Book of Ser Marco Polo
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General SummaryMARCO POLO was the most famous of medieval travelers. He spent nearly twenty years in the Far East and brought back to Europe much entertaining knowledge about lands and peoples previously almost unknown. About 1260 his father, Nicolo, and his uncle, Maffeo, set out from Constantinople on a trading venture, which led them, ultimately, to the court of the Mongol ruler, Kublai Khan. Kublai received the Venetians graciously and intrusted them with a message to the pope, requesting one hundred wise men of the West to teach the Mongols Christianity and the arts of civilization. The two brothers returned to Venice in 1269, but found no pope to comply with the Great Khan’s wishes. Tired of waiting for a new pope to be chosen, the Polos started out in 1271 on a second journey to the East. They took with them this time Nicolo’s son, Marco, then a lad of seventeen. It had been their intention, after reaching Ormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, to follow the sea route to China. But this plan was abandoned, and the Polos struck northward from Ormuz through Persia to the upper Oxus and the plateau of Pamir. These wild and inaccessible regions of central Asia were not again explored by European travelers till the nineteenth century. Crossing the desert of Gobi, the Polos at last reached China and the court of the Great Khan at Cambaluc, or Peking. Kublai took the young Marco into his service and sent him on important missions to different parts of the Mongol realm. In this way. Marco became familiar with a large extent of the Far East. All the Polos amassed much wealth, in consequence of the khan’s favor, but for a long time he was unwilling to let them return to Europe. It was not until 1292 that they started from Zaitun on the coast of China for the long journey homeward. They reached Venice at the end of 1295 and displayed to the astonished eyes of their kinsmen the huge quantities of precious stones, rubies, sapphires, diamonds and emeralds, into which they had converted their wealth. The story of their remarkable adventures was written down, at Marco’s dictation, by a certain Rusticano, who thus preserved it for all time. The original text was in French, but translations of it were made into the principal languages of western Europe.
Historical SummaryIt is a surprising fact that the Chinese regularly employed paper money as early as the ninth century. From them the Mongols adopted the custom of issuing this kind of currency.
218. Paper Money of the Great Khan1
The khan issues his money after this fashion. He makes them take of the bark of the mulberry tree, the leaves of which are the food of the silkworms. What they take is a certain fine white
bast or skin, which lies between the wood of the tree and the thick outer bark, and this they make into something resembling sheets of paper, but black. When these sheets have been prepared, they are cut up into pieces of different sizes, having different values. . . . There is also a kind worth one bezant of gold,1 and others of three bezants, and so up to ten. All these pieces of paper are issued with as much solemnity and authority as if they were of pure gold or silver; and on every piece a number of officials have to write their names and put their seals. And when all is duly prepared, the chief officer deputed by the khan smears the seal intrusted to him with vermilion, and impresses it on the paper, so that the form of the seal remains printed upon it in red. The money is then authentic, and anyone forging it would be punished with death. The khan causes every year to be made such a vast quantity of this money, which costs him nothing, that it must equal in amount all the treasure in the world.
With these pieces of paper, he makes all payments on his own account; and he requires them to pass current universally over all his kingdoms, provinces, and territories. And nobody, however important he may think himself, dares refuse them on pain of death. And, indeed, everybody takes them readily, for wheresoever a person may go throughout the Great Khan’s dominions he shall find these pieces of paper current, and shall be able to transact all sales and purchases of goods by means of them, just as well as if they were coins of pure gold. And all the while they are so light that ten bezants’ worth does not weigh one golden bezant. . . .
When any of those pieces of paper are spoilt — not that they are so very flimsy — the owner carries them to the mint, and, by paying three per cent of the value he gets new pieces in exchange. And if anyone has need of gold or silver or gems or pearls, in order to make plate, or girdles, or the like, he goes
to the mint and buys as much as he requires, paying in this paper money.
1 , bk. ii, ch. 24.
1 The gold coin, known as a bezant (from Byzantium or Constantinople, where it was struck), circulated throughout Europe during the Middle Ages. There was also a silver bezant.
Contents:
Chicago: "Paper Money of the Great Khan," Book of Ser Marco Polo in Readings in Early European History, ed. Webster, Hutton (Boston: Ginn and Company, 1926), 474–475. Original Sources, accessed November 21, 2024, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=BI4FZP4VEXWMT42.
MLA: . "Paper Money of the Great Khan." Book of Ser Marco Polo, Vol. ii, in Readings in Early European History, edited by Webster, Hutton, Boston, Ginn and Company, 1926, pp. 474–475. Original Sources. 21 Nov. 2024. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=BI4FZP4VEXWMT42.
Harvard: , 'Paper Money of the Great Khan' in Book of Ser Marco Polo. cited in 1926, Readings in Early European History, ed. , Ginn and Company, Boston, pp.474–475. Original Sources, retrieved 21 November 2024, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=BI4FZP4VEXWMT42.
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