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The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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CHAP. LXXVIIL
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THE REVENUE FROM ILINSÅY• ' '' +~ $ • ~~r~i*~.y ~,j ~
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miles and more, if you include its vast suburbs, which run out on every side an • )1. was•
enormous distance ; insomuch that you may walk for so Chinese din a straight ' ' ,;
line from north to south, the whole way through crowded blocks of houses, and {; .''t
without encountering a spot that is not full of dwellings and full of people ; whilst from • :. y.
east to west you can do very nearly the same thing." (241/as Sinensis, p. 99.)
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And so we quit what Mr. Moule appropriately calls " Marco's famous rhapsody e A•
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of the Manzi capital ; perhaps the most striking section of the whole book, as ., . ~ ,t_ .
manifestly the subject was that which had made the strongest impression on the 3 s . •
narrator. ' .. - • •
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CHAPTER LXXVIII.
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TREATING OF THE GREAT YEARLY REVENUE THAT THE GREAT KAAN. ` .
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HATH FROM KINSAY. •41 s •
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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
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whole country of Manzi. 4,.
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 /oman 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 fort 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
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