19. The last link of corroborative evidence in favour of the TransHimalayan source of the Dihong is the greater coldness of its waters compared with those of the Ganges and other rivers, for the knowledge of which fact I am indebted to Colonel Phayre. I conclude that the greater frigidity of the Dihong is due to the large volume of melted snow supplied by the Tsânpû, which imparts some portion of its original coldness to the waters of the Dihong.

Attempts of Asiatic Sovereigns to establish a Paper Currency.-By E. B. COWELL, M. A.

The old motto "Ex Oriente lux" holds true in many departments of science; Europe is no doubt indebted to Asia for many an invention and idea; but if there be one science above others, which is all her own and where the Western mind is utterly unindebted to the East, it is that peculiar discovery of modern times, Political Economy. In fact it is not under despotisms like those which have prevailed from time immemorial in the great nations of Asia, that such a science could even take root, much less bear fruit. And yet it is singular, here and there, in the moral and philosophical treatises of Eastern authors, to come upon imperfect attempts to develope some of its principles; and in the same way, amid the bloody annals of Eastern kings, to trace an occasional abortive effort to anticipate the financial measures of modern times. Their very failures, in fact, are deeply interesting. They tell us that mere physical might is powerless in the moral world; that that magic influence of national credit, which is the firmest pillar of an empire's stability, is beyond the tyrant's control, in spite of his armies.

It may not be uninteresting at the present time to trace a series of these attempts in one particular direction,-I refer to the endeavours of the kings of China, Persia and India to establish something like a paper currency in their respective dominions. These attempts were made during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; they all failed after a longer or shorter period, and probably from the same causes. We first meet with the idea in China. It is said that the plan was originally started by a native Chinese monarch of the Song dynasty, two centuries before the Moghul conquest; and we certainly find it

in full force under the early successors of Chenghiz Khán. After the expulsion of the Moghuls in 1366, the founder of the native or Ming dynasty tried to revive it, but the attempt appears to have failed.

We have the accounts of two travellers, who visited China during this period, to confirm this account. The first is Marco Polo who resided in the court of the Emperor Kublai Khan from about 1274 to 1291. Kublai Khan, one of the most enlightened of the Moghul monarchs, had been crowned Great Khan (or more properly Ká-án) of Northern China in 1260; in 1280 he overthrew the Song dynasty in the South, and he reigned over all China (founding the Yuen dynasty,) until his death in 1294.

The second is the Arabian traveller Ibn Batúta, who visited China as ambassador from the Sultan of Delhi, Muhammad Toghluk, in 1345, and seems to have spent about a year there. He left during

the troubles which followed the accession of the last of the Yuen or Moghul dynasty.

Marco Polo's narrative is as follows.*

"With regard to the money of Kambalu,† the great Khan may be called a perfect alchemist, for he makes it himself. He orders people to collect the bark of a certain tree, whose leaves are eaten by the worms that spin silk. The thin rind between the bark and the interior wood is taken, and from it cards are formed, like those of paper, all black. He then causes them to be cut into pieces, and each is declared worth respectively half a livre, a whole one, a silver grosso of Venice, and so on to the value of ten bezants. All these cards are stamped with his seal, and so many are fabricated that they would buy all the treasuries in the world. He makes all his payments with them, and circulates them through the kingdoms and provinces, over which he holds dominion; and none dares to refuse them under pain of death. All the nations under his sway receive and pay this money for their merchandise, gold, silver, precious stones, and whatever they transport, buy or sell. The merchant often brings to him goods worth 400,000 bezants, and he pays them all in these cards, which they willingly accept, because they can make purchases with them throughout the whole empire. He frequently commands

* Murray's transl. p. 137. (ch. 26.) which I follow as more recent than Marsden's.

+ Khán-bálik or Pekin.

those who have gold, silver, cloths of silk and gold, or other precious commodities, to bring them to him. Then he calls twelve men skilful in these matters and commands them to look at the articles and fix their price. Whatever they name is paid in these cards, which the merchant cordially receives. In this manner the great sire possesses all the gold, silver, pearls and precious stones in his dominions. When any of the cards are torn or spoiled, the owner carries them to the place whence they were issued, and receives fresh ones, with a reduction of 3 per cent. If any man wishes gold or silver to make plates, girdles or other ornaments, he goes to the office, carrying a sufficient quantity of cards, and gives them in payment for the quantity he requires. This is the reason why the Khan has more treasure than any other lord in the world; nay, all the princes in the world together have not an equal amount."

It has been sometimes said that Marco Polo saw only the court and the servile obsequiousness of the courtiers; but this is by no means the case. He continually mentions in the course of his travels the fact of the paper currency in the provinces. Thus in Chap. 56, (ch. 49 in Marsden) in his account of Cyn-gui (Chintigui in Marsden,) he says, "they have no money except paper," and in that of Ca-cian-fu (Pazafu in Marsden,) more than two months' journey distant from Cyn-gui, "they are subjects of the Grand Khan, and his paper money is current among them." Again in Chap. 60 (ch. 50 and 51, Marsden,) we have the same remark made about the cities of Sin-gui and Cin-gui, which are described as "full of merchandise and arts and paying a large revenue to the sovereign." Again in Chap. 64 in describing the province of Pau-chym, we have," the people are artificers and merchants, and have abundance of silk; through all that country the Khan's paper money is circulated." Beside these, there are at least a dozen similar allusions in his travels through various parts of the empire.

There doubtless may be some exaggeration in his narrative; but the very fact of the system's continuance seems to prove that it was by no means the oppressive system which it appeared to foreigners, and in which character indeed it possessed such attractions to the grasping despots of Persia and India.

The substance of Marco Polo's account is amply confirmed by the very similar narrative of Ibn Batúta, who visited the same court

nearly fifty years.afterwards and found the same system still pursued under the later princes of the dynasty. The dynasty was then verging to its fall-it had indeed rapidly followed the law of all Asiatic dynasties-what Gibbon calls "the unceasing round of valour, greatness, discord, degeneracy and decay." Marco Polo had found the Moghul power in all the youthful vigour of conquest; Ibn Batúta finds it a decrepit stock, "primo nutans casura sub Euro."

The following is the Muhammadan traveller's account, as we read it in the edition lately published at Paris by MM. Defremery and Sanguinetti (Vol. IV. p. 259.)

large as the palm of the hand, Twenty-five of these notes are same as our dínár. When any

"The inhabitants of China do not use pieces of gold or silver in their commercial transactions, and all coins that come into the country are melted into ingots. They buy and sell by means of pieces of paper, each of which is as and bears the Sultan's mark or seal. called a bálisht,* which means the body finds that his notes are worn out or torn, he carries them to the office which is just like the mint with us, and there he has new ones given him in place of the old. He has nothing to pay for this, for the officers who have the charge of supplying these notes are paid by the King. The management of the office is entrusted to one of the principal Amirs of China. If a person comes to the market with a piece of silver money (dirrhem) or even of gold (dinár), in order to purchase any thing, no one will take it or pay him any regard, until he has changed it for notes, and then he can buy what he pleases."+

The chief difference between these two narratives is the absence, in the latter, of the heavy seignorage of 3 per cent. which had been levied in Marco Polo's time. Dr. Lee in his translation adds a sentence to explain it, "This is done without interest, -the profit arising from their circulation accruing to the King;" but these words have not been kept in the late critical recension of the text.

* Dr. Lee in his translation wrongly gives the name as Shat, reading b’il-shat instead of bálisht.

+ In the curious account of Ion Batúta's interview with the shekh (iv. p. 275), we have an instance of the currency of these notes, when one of the saint's companions gave him some paper-money (a) and said, “Take these for your hospitable entertainment and depart."

The Jesuit, Du Halde, in his "Description de l' empire de la Chine," states that a few of the notes which were issued under these early Chinese kings, are still in existence,* and they are regarded with superstitious reverence. They are greatly prized as talismans to protect houses from evil, and it is held as an omen of the greatest good fortune, if, in building a new house, they can get one to hang to the main beam. He gives a picture of one of these notes, on which we find the word tschao as the current name. The following is Du Halde's translation of the Chinese inscription, "La cour des trésoriers ayant presenté cette requeste, il est ordonné que la monnoye du papier ainsi marquée du sceau imperial des Ming, aye cours et soit employée, de même que la monnoye de cuivre. Ceux qui en feront de fausse, auront la teste coupée. Celui qui les aura accuséz et amenéz, sera recompensé de deux cent cinquante Taels. De plus on lui donnera les biens meubles et immeubles du coupable. Fait à telle année, tel mois, tel jour du regne de Hong vou."

We now turn to Persia, where we shall find a similar but less successful attempt to have been made.

In the dissolution of the empire which followed Chenghiz Khán's death in 1226, and its division among his sons, his grandson Hulákú Khán turned his arms to Persia, and after completing its conquest by the taking of Baghdad and the overthrow of the Abbaside dynasty of Caliphs, established himself on the vacant throne, founding the Il-khání dynasty. He died in 1264 and was succeeded by his son Abáká Khán, who governed wisely and consolidated his father's conquests. But after his death, in 1283, a scene of discord and confusion ensued, until Ky Khátú succeeded to the throne in 1291. He found the finances in great disorder, but instead of attempting to restore them by economy, he plunged into all kinds of excess, and left everything to a Wazír who was himself as extravagant as his master. At length in 1294 affairs appear to have reached a crisis, and the minister, at his wits' end to provide for the current expences of the

There is an interesting communication in the Royal Asiatic Society's Journ. Vol. XIII. on the private paper currency now in use in some parts of

China.

+ Tschao is found in De Guignes' Chinese Dict., where it is explained, "papyrus sigillata quâ olim sinenses loco argenti utebantur."