o paper, in spite of their title, as kindly as
the native sovereigns. Their notes had a course of seven years, after
which new notes were issued to the holders, with a deduction of 15 per
cent.

The Mongols commenced their issues of paper-money in 1236, long before
they had transferred the seat of their government to China. Kublai made
such an issue in the first year of his reign (1260), and continued to
issue notes copiously till the end. In 1287 he put out a complete new
currency, one note of which was to exchange against _five_ of the previous
series of equal nominal value! In both issues the paper-money was, in
official valuation, only equivalent to half its nominal value in silver; a
circumstance not very easy to understand. The paper-money was called
_Chao_.

The notes of Kublai's first issue (1260-1287) with which Polo maybe
supposed most familiar, were divided into three classes; (1) _Notes of
Tens_, viz. of 10, 20, 30, and 50 _tsien_ or cash; (2) _Notes of
Hundreds_, viz. of 100, 200, and 500 _tsien_; and (3) _Notes of Strings_
or _Thousands_ of cash, or in other words of _Liangs_ or ounces of silver
(otherwise _Tael_), viz. of 1000 and 2000 _tsien_. There were also notes
printed on silk for 1, 2, 3, 5, and 10 ounces each, valued at par in
silver, but these would not circulate. In 1275, it should be mentioned,
there had been a supplementary issue of small notes for 2, 3, and 5 cash
each.

Marsden states an equation between Marco's values of the Notes and the
actual Chinese currency, to which Biot seems to assent. I doubt its
correctness, for his assumed values of the groat or _grosso_ and tornesel
are surely wrong. The grosso ran at that time 18 to the gold ducat or
sequin, and allowing for the then higher relative value of silver, should
have contained about 5_d._ of silver. The ducat was also equivalent to 2
_lire_, and the _tornese_ (Romanin, III. 343) was 4 deniers. Now the
denier is always, I believe 1/240 of the _lira_. Hence the _tornese_ would
be 9/60 of the _grosso_.

But we are not to look for _exact_ correspondences, when we see Polo
applying round figures in European coinage to Chinese currency.

[Illustration: Bank-Note of the Ming Dynasty]

His bezant notes, I agree with Marsden, here represent the Chinese notes
for one and more ounces of silver. And here the correspondence of value is
much nearer than it seems at first sight. The Chinese _liang_ or ounce of
silver is valued commonly at 6_s