IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
294 NOTICES OF THE LAND ROUTE TO CATHAY, ETC.
You may reckon also that from Tana to Sara the road is less safe than on any other part of the journey ; and yet even when this part of the road is at its worst, if you are some sixty men in the company you will go as safely as if you were
in your own house.
Anyone from Genoa or from Venice, wishing to go to the places above-named, and to make the journey to Cathay, should carry linens' with him, and if he visit Organci he will dispose of these well. In Organci he should purchase sommi of silver, and with these he should proceed without making any further investment, unless it be some bales of the very finest stuffs which go in small bulk, and cost no more for carriage than coarser stuffs would do.
Merchants who travel this road can ride on horseback or on asses, or mounted in any way that they list to be mounted.
Whatever silver the merchants may carry with them as far as Cathay the lord of Cathay will take from them and put into his treasury. And to merchants who thus bring silver they give that paper money of theirs in exchange. This is of yellow paper, stamped with the seal of the lord aforesaid. And this money is called bcclishi;2 and with this money you can readily buy silk and all other merchandize that you have a desire to buy. And all the people of the country are bound to receive it. And yet you shall not pay a higher price for your goods because your money is of paper. And of the said paper money there are three kinds, one being worth more than another, according to the value which has been established for each by that lord.3
And you may reckon that you can buy for one sommo of silver nineteen or twenty pounds of Cathay silk, when re-
1 Tele.
2 The Riccardian MS. has here palisci, as in theprevious chapter babisci. No doubt in both places the original had balisci.
3 This seems to allude to three classes of notes, as in Kublai's issue of 1260 mentioned above.
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