How Kublai Kaan turned the Bark of Trees into Paper to pass for Money in his Country
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The First Central Bank in the World
Now that I have told you in detail of the splendour of this City of the Emperor’s, I shall proceed to tell you of the Mint which he hath in the same city, in the which he hath his money coined and struck.
And in doing so I shall make manifest to you how it is that the Great Lord may well be able to accomplish even much more than I have told you, or am going to tell you, in this Book. For, tell it how I might, you never would be satisfied that I was keeping within truth and reason!
The Emperor’s Mint is in this same City of Cambaluc.
and the way it is wrought is such that you might say he hath the Secret of Alchemy in perfection, and you would be right! For he makes his money after this fashion.
He makes them take of the bark of a certain tree, in fact of the Mulberry Tree, the leaves of which are the food of the silkworms,—these trees being so numerous that whole districts are full of them.
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.
The smallest of these sizes is worth a half tornesel.
The next, a little larger, one tornesel.
Another one, a little larger still, is worth half a silver groat of Venice.
Another is worth a whole groat.
Others are worth 2 groats, 5 groats, and 10 groats.
There is also a kind worth one Bezant of gold, and others of 3 Bezants, and so up to 10.
All these pieces of paper are issued with as much solemnity and authority as if they were of pure gold or silver.
On every piece a variety of officials, whose duty it is, have to write their names, and to put their seals.
When all is prepared duly, the chief officer deputed by the Kaan smears the Seal entrusted to him with vermilion.
He impresses it on the paper, so that the form of the Seal remains printed upon it in red.
The Money is then authentic.
Anyone forging it would be punished with death.
The Kaan makes 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 causes all payments on his own account to be made.
He makes them to pass current universally over all his kingdoms and provinces and territories, and wherever his power and sovereignty extends.
Nobody, however important he may think himself, dares to refuse them on pain of death.
Everybody takes them readily, for wherever a person goes throughout the Great Kaan’s dominions he shall find these pieces of paper current.
He 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.
They are so light that 10 bezants’ worth does not weigh 1 golden bezant.
Furthermore, all foreign merchants with gold or silver or gems and pearls can only sell them to the Emperor.
He has 12 experts chosen for this business, men of shrewdness and experience in such affairs. These appraise the articles, and the Emperor then pays a liberal price for them in those pieces of paper.
The merchants accept his price readily because:
- They would not get so good an one from anybody else
- They are paid immediately
With this paper-money, they can buy what they like anywhere over the Empire while being vastly lighter to carry around on their journeys.
The merchants will several times in the year bring wares to the amount of 400,000 bezants.
The Grand Sire pays for all in that paper.
So he buys such a quantity of those precious things every year that his treasure is endless, whilst all the time the money he pays away costs him nothing at all.
Moreover, several times in the year proclamation is made through the city that any one who may have gold or silver or gems or pearls, by taking them to the Mint shall get a handsome price for them.
The owners are glad to do this, because they would find no other purchaser give so large a price.
Thus, the quantity they bring in is marvellous, though these who do not choose to do so may let it alone.
Still, in this way, nearly all the valuables in the country come into the Kaan’s possession.
When any of those pieces of paper are spoilt—not that they are so very flimsy neither—the owner carries them to the Mint.
He pays 3% of the value and gets new pieces in exchange.
If any Baron needs 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 list, paying in this paper-money.