THE  CURRENCY

135
without  great  difficulty,  the  officers  charged  with  the
matter  proposed  to  the  Board  of  Revenue  to  issue
Kwan-tze  or  due  bills,  with  which  they  could  pay  the
sutlers  of  the  troops  ;  and  which  should  be  redeemable
at  a  special  office.  Abuses  soon  crept  into  the  details
of  this  plan,  and  the  people  began  to  murmur.  Later,
and  under  the  same  reign,  similar  due  bills  to  these
were  put  into  circulation  in  other  provinces.  During
the  reign  of  this  same  monarch,  the  Board  of  Revenue
issued  a  new  sort  of  paper  money  called  hwei-tze  or
exchanges  ;  these  were,  at  first,  payable  only  in
the  province  of  Chekiang  and  thereabouts,  but  they
soon  extended  to  all  parts  of  the  Empire.  The  papei
of  which  they  were  made  was  originally  fabricated
only  in  the  cities  of  Hweichow  and  Kichow  in  Kiangnan
  ;  subsequently,  it  was  also  manufactured  in
Chengtu-fu  in  Szechwan,  and  Linan-fu  in  Chekiang.
The  hwei-tze  first  issued  were  worth  a  string  of  a
thousand  cash,  but  under  the  reign  of  Hiao-tsung,  in
1163,  they  were  issued  of  the  value  of  500,  300,  and
zoocash  each.  In  five  years,  Cg.  up  to  the  seventh  month
of  the  year  1166,  there  had  already  been  sent  out
more  than  28,000,000  taels’  worth  of  these  notes  ;  and
by  the  eleventh  month  of  this  year,  this  sum  had  been
increased  15,600,000  taels.  During  the  further  sway
of  the  Sung  Dynasty,  the  number  of  the  hwei-tze  was
constantly  on  the  increase  ;  and  besides  this  description ­
  of  note,  there  were  some  of  the  Kiao-tze  still
extant,  and  notes  of  private  individuals  current  in  the
provinces  ;  so  that  the  country  was  inundated  with
paper  notes,  which  were  daily  depreciated  in  value  in
spite  of  all  the  modifications  and  changes  the  government ­
  adopted  to  augment  their  circulation.
“  At  last,  under  the  reign  of  Li-tsung  of  the  same
dynasty,  in  1264,  the  minister  Kia  Sze-tau,  seeing
their  value  so  small,  endeavored  to  substitute  for  a
part  of  hwei-tze  some  new  assignats  which  he  called
yin-kwan  or  silver  obligations.  Those  hwei-tze  which