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National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
CHAP. XXIV. THE KAAN'S PAPER CURRENCY
423
and was only appeased by the intercession of Ahmad, and the introduction of a divine with more tact, who smoothed ovér obnoxious applications of the text. (D'Ohsson, II. 492-493.)
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CHAPTER XXIV.
How THE GREAT KAAN CAUSETH THE BARK OF TREES, MADE INTO SOMETHING LIKE PAPER, TO PASS FOR MONEY OVER ALL HIS COUNTRY.
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, as I shall relate to
you. 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 then 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
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