138  THE  CHINESE  EMPIRE
tael  being  always  taken  as  equivalent  to  1,000  cash.  This  is
an  average  of  over  37,000,000  taels  a  year  ;  and,  as  the  coac
gains  in  speed  in  running  down  hill,  we  may  assume  foi  t  ie
whole  dynastic  period  of  108  years  an  annual  average  o
40,000,000  taels,  at  a  time  when  the  richest  of  the  sovereigns
of  Europe,  placed  inexorably  upon  a  cash  basis,  counte
himself  passing  rich  in  any  year  in  which  his  budget  excee  e
the  equivalent  of  a  million  taels.  How  this  situation  struc  v
an  intelligent  European,  ignorant  of  the  use  of  instruments
of  credit  and  bewildered  by  the  apparent  signs  of  wea  ti
around  him,  is  shown  in  Marco  Polo’s  comment  ;  and
reproduce  it  here  to  demonstrate  how  changed  is  Europe
and  how  unchanged  is  China  in  the  six  centuries  which  have
elapsed  since  it  was  written.
“  The  Emperor’s  Mint  then  is  in  this  same  City  of
Cambuluc,  and  the  way  it  is  wrought  is  such  that  you
might  say  he  hath  the  Secret  of  Alchemy  in  perfection,
and  you  would  be  right  !  For  he  makes  his  money
after  this  fashion.
“  He  makes  them  take  of  the  bark  of  a  certain
tree,  in  fact  of  the  Mulberry  Tree,  the  leaves  of  which
are  the  food  of  the  silkworms—these  trees  being  so
numerous  that  whole  districts  are  full  of  them.  What
they  take  is  a  certain  fine  white  bast  or  skin  which  lies
between  the  wood  of  the  tree  and  the  thick  outer  bar  ,
and  this  they  make  into  something  resembling  sheets
of  paper,  but  black.  When  these  sheets  have  been
prepared  they  are  cut  up  into  pieces  of  different  sizes.
The  smallest  of  these  sizes  is  worth  a  half  tornesel  ,  the
next,  a  little  larger,  one  tornesel  ;  one  a  little  larger
still  is  worth  half  a  silver  groat  of  Venice  ;  another  a
whole  groat  ;  other  yet  two  groats,  five  groats,  and  ten
groats.  There  is  also  a  kind  worth  one  bezant  of  gold,
and  others  of  three  bezants,  and  so  up  to  ten.*  All
these  pieces  of  paper  are  [issued  with  as  much  solemnity
The  bezant  is  taken  to  equal  one  tael  of  silver,  or  1,000  cash.
One  bezant  =  20  groats  =133^  tornesel.