vessels of this port are described as very stoutly built, with one
mast, one deck, and one sail. Among the most remarkable cities of China, he
particularly notices Cambalu, or Pekin, Nankin, and Quinsai. At the
distance of 2,500 Italian miles from this last city, was the port of Cauzu,
at which a considerable trade was carried on with India and the spice
islands. The length of the voyage, in consequence of the monsoons, was a
year. From the spice islands was brought, besides other articles, a
quantity of pepper, infinitely greater than what was imported at
Alexandria, though that place supplied all Europe. He represents the
commerce and wealth of China as very great; and adds, that at Cambalu,
where the merchants had their distinct warehouses, (in which they also
lived,) according to the nation to which they belonged, a large proportion
of them were Saracens. The money was made of the middle bark of the
mulberry, stamped with the khan's mark. Letters were conveyed at the rate
of 200 or 250 miles a day, by means of inns at short distances, where
relays of horses were always kept. The tenth of all wool, silk, and hemp,
and all other articles, the produce of the earth, was paid to the khan:
sugar, spices, and arrack, paid only 3-1/2 per cent. The inland trade is
immense, and is carried on principally by numerous vessels on the canals
and rivers. Marco Polo describes porcelain, which was principally made at a
place he calls Trigui; it was very low-priced, as eight porcelain dishes
might be bought for a Venetian groat: he takes no notice of tea. He
supposes the cowries of the Maldives to be a species of white porcelaine.
Silver then, as now, must have been in great demand, and extremely scarce;
it was much more valuable than gold, bearing the proportion to the latter,
as 1 to 6 or 8. Fine skins also bore a very high price: another proof of
the stability of almost every thing connected with China. He was
particularly struck with what he calls black stones, which were brought
from the mountains of Cathay, and burnt at Pekin, as wood, evidently
meaning some kind of coal. The collieries of China are still worked,
principally for the use of the porcelaine manufactures.

Marco Polo seems to have regarded Bengal and Pegu as parts of China: he
mentions the gold of Pegu, and the rice, cotton, and sugar of Bengal, as
well as its ginger, spikenard, &c. The principal branch of the Bengal trade
consisted in cotton goods. In Guzerat also, t