By Dr. Lockhart's Kindness I Am Enabled To Give A Reduced
Representation Of This Note, As Near A Facsimile As We Have Been Able To
Render It, But With Some Restoration, E.G. Of The Seals, Of Which On
The Original There Is The Barest Indication Remaining.
[Mr. Vissering (Chinese Currency, Addenda, I.-III.) gives a facsimile
and a description of a Chinese banknote of the Ming Dynasty belonging to
the collection of the Asiatic Museum of the Academy of Sciences at St.
Petersburg.
"In the eighth year of the period Hung-wu (1375), the
Emperor Tai-tsu issued an order to his minister of finances to make the
Pao-tsao (precious bills) of the Ta-Ming Dynasty, and to employ as raw
material for the composition of those bills the fibres of the mulberry
tree." - H. C.]
Notwithstanding the disuse of Government issues of paper-money from that
time till recent years, there had long been in some of the cities of China
a large use of private and local promissory notes as currency. In Fuchau
this was especially the case; bullion was almost entirely displaced, and
the banking-houses in that city were counted by hundreds. These were under
no government control; any individual or company having sufficient capital
or credit could establish a bank and issue their bills, which varied in
amount from 100 cash to 1000 dollars. Some fifteen years ago the Imperial
Government seems to have been induced by the exhausted state of the
Treasury, and these large examples of the local use of paper-currency, to
consider projects for resuming that system after the disuse of four
centuries. A curious report by a Committee of the Imperial Supreme
Council, on a project for such a currency, appears among the papers
published by the Russian Mission at Peking. It is unfavourable to the
particular project, but we gather from other sources that the Government
not long afterwards did open banks in the large cities of the Empire for
the issue of a new paper-currency, but that it met with bad success. At
Fuchau, in 1858, I learn from one notice, the dollar was worth from 18,000
to 20,000 cash in Government Bills. Dr. Rennie, in 1861, speaks of the
dollar at Peking as valued at 15,000, and later at 25,000 paper cash.
Sushun, the Regent, had issued a vast number of notes through banks of his
own in various parts of Peking. These he failed to redeem, causing the
failure of all the banks, and great consequent commotion in the city. The
Regent had led the Emperor [Hien Fung] systematically into debauched
habits which ended in paralysis. On the Emperor's death the Empress caused
the arrest and execution of Sushun. His conduct in connection with the
bank failures was so bitterly resented that when the poor wretch was led
to execution (8th November, 1861), as I learn from an eye-witness, the
defrauded creditors lined the streets and cheered.[4]
The Japanese also had a paper-currency in the 14th century. It is
different in form from that of China. That figured by Siebold is a strip
of strong paper doubled, 6-1/4 in. long by 1-3/4 in. wide, bearing a
representation of the tutelary god of riches, with long inscriptions in
Chinese characters, seals in black and red, and an indication of value in
ancient Japanese characters. I do not learn whether notes of considerable
amount are still used in Japan; but Sir R. Alcock speaks of banknotes for
small change from 30 to 500 cash and more, as in general use in the
interior.
Two notable and disastrous attempts to imitate the Chinese system of
currency took place in the Middle Ages; one of them in Persia, apparently
in Polo's very presence, the other in India some 36 years later.
The first was initiated in 1294 by the worthless Kaikhatu Khan, when his
own and his ministers' extravagance had emptied the Treasury, on the
suggestion of a financial officer called 'Izzuddin Muzaffar. The notes
were direct copies of Kublai's, even the Chinese characters being imitated
as part of the device upon them.[5] The Chinese name Chao was applied to
them, and the Mongol Resident at Tabriz, Pulad Chingsang, was consulted in
carrying out the measure. Expensive preparations were made for this
object; offices called Chao-Khanahs were erected in the principal cities
of the provinces, and a numerous staff appointed to carry out the details.
Ghazan Khan in Khorasan, however, would have none of it, and refused to
allow any of these preparations to be made within his government. After
the constrained use of the Chao for two or three days Tabriz was in an
uproar; the markets were closed; the people rose and murdered 'Izzuddin;
and the whole project had to be abandoned. Marco was in Persia at this
time, or just before, and Sir John Malcolm not unnaturally suggests that
he might have had something to do with the scheme; a suggestion which
excites a needless commotion in the breast of M. Pauthier. We may draw
from the story the somewhat notable conclusion that Block-printing was
practised, at least for this one purpose, at Tabriz in 1294.
The other like enterprise was that of Sultan Mahomed Tughlak of Delhi, in
1330-31. This also was undertaken for like reasons, and was in professed
imitation of the Chao of Cathay. Mahomed, however, used copper tokens
instead of paper; the copper being made apparently of equal weight to the
gold or silver coin which it represented. The system seems to have had a
little more vogue than at Tabriz, but was speedily brought to an end by
the ease with which forgeries on an enormous scale were practised. The
Sultan, in hopes of reviving the credit of his currency, ordered that
every one bringing copper tokens to the Treasury should have them cashed
in gold or silver. "The people who in despair had flung aside their copper
coins like stones and bricks in their houses, all rushed to the Treasury
and exchanged them for gold and silver.
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