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.