1 
 
 QZ. J
 
 * 
 < h i
 
 One kwan note of the Tang Dynasty. Emperor, Wu Tsung; 
 Period, Hwei Ch'ang; A.D. 841-847. Reproduced from the original, 
 the paper of which measures 9% by 6*4 inches; the impression, 9M 
 by 5J4 inches. The red seals are not photographically accurate. 
 
 From the collection of Andrew McFarland Davis.
 
 Certain Old Chinese Notes 
 
 or 
 
 Chinese Paper Money 
 
 A communication presented to the American Academy 
 
 of Arts and Sciences, at 28 Newbury Street, 
 
 Boston, on the 10th of February, 1915 
 
 BY 
 ANDREW McFARLAND DAVIS 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 GEORGE EMERY LITTLEFIELD 
 67 CORNHILL 
 
 1915
 
 250 Separates with Preface and Index
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 TANG NOTE, 841-847, 1 Kwan Frontispiece 
 
 MORSE'S LITHOGRAPH OP A MING NOTE 247 
 
 MONGOL NOTE, A.D. 1264-1295, 400 Wen (Civil) .... 249 
 
 MONGOL NOTE, A.D. 1264-1295, 400 Wen (Military) . . 250 
 
 Du HALDE'S DRAWING OF A MING NOTE 253 
 
 CHAUDOIR'S DRAWING OF A MING NOTE 256 
 
 TANG NOTE, A.D. 650-656, 10 Kwan 260 
 
 MING NOTE, 1368-1398, 1 Kwan 264 
 
 TANG NOTE, 841-847, 9 Kwan 269 
 
 WEST LIAO NOTE, 1136-1142, 3 Kwan 271 
 
 SUNG NOTE, 1165-1174, 70 Kwan 272 
 
 SUNG NOTE, 1165-1174, 100 Kwan 274 
 
 MING NOTE, 1425, 1426, 10 Wen 278
 
 PREFACE 
 
 KNOWLEDGE of the extensive use of paper money in China 
 covering a period of many centuries, all of which were prior to the 
 voyage of Columbus in 1492, has only been accessible to european 
 and american students for a comparatively brief time. At best, 
 the study of this subject may be said to be in its infancy. Even 
 after the barrier of non-intercourse was broken down, the investi- 
 gator of Chinese affairs required time to overcome the various 
 obstructions interposed by a difficult foreign language, printed in 
 characters whose forms had to be mastered and whose meaning 
 it was not always easy to interpret. It was only after translations 
 were made of some of the old Chinese histories that the wonderful 
 story of this extraordinary experience began to be appreciated. It 
 is to be presumed that many contributory facts bearing on the 
 subject are to be found in the dynastic histories and in numismat- 
 ical works, accessible as yet only to those who can read Chinese, 
 which will in the near future be unearthed and brought within 
 reach of an english-reading public through the instrumentality of 
 some intelligent translator. 
 
 So, too, it may be expected that the dawning interest in the 
 subject will lead to the acquisition by our museums of specimens 
 of these notes, other than the one kwan Ming note of the last 
 quarter of the fourteenth century, now to be found in some of 
 them. Although these old notes are not at present offered for sale, 
 it is quite certain that the collections said to be now in the hands 
 of wealthy chinamen will by degrees be broken up and thus offer 
 opportunity for european purchasers. 
 
 Even as things stand today, there is much matter that is acces- 
 sible in our own libraries, locked up in Chinese publications, which 
 might be made available through an interpreter. Such efforts as 
 I have made to secure, through aid of Chinese scholars, some 
 interpretation of the Chinese books which are at our command 
 have, as a rule, resulted in failure, and had it not been for the 
 
 v
 
 vi PREFACE 
 
 patient examination and translation of the inscriptions on the notes 
 themselves by Mr. Edward B. Drew, I should have been compelled 
 to go to press without any information as to the denominational 
 values of the notes or as to the meaning of the various legends on 
 their face. The one exception to this rule, the assistance given 
 by Mr. F. Chang in connection with the note emitted 650-656 A. D., 
 is fully explained further on. 
 
 But little interest is at present taken in Chinese paper money. 
 This is in part due to the fact that what is known about the 
 subject has not been disseminated through sources calculated to 
 attract public attention, and in part to the rarity of specimens 
 of the notes themselves. It is impossible that this interest should 
 not be fostered by the increase of knowledge on the subject which 
 must come from the impending study of the Chinese dynastic 
 histories, and interest in the notes must increase when collectors 
 reflect that the few that have been preserved by wealthy Chinese 
 collectors will find their way to the market during times of pecun- 
 iary pressure hi China. 
 
 It is not likely that any study of this paper-money episode can 
 result hi disclosing much of value to the economist. One has but 
 to turn to the publications of the Monetary Commission to realize 
 that the experience of two centuries of use in Christendom has 
 brought to light far more of real knowledge concerning the advan- 
 tages to be derived from this form of credit, the perils that attend 
 its use, and the steps which may be taken to protect the public 
 from these perils, than is likely to be gleaned from the most pro- 
 tracted study of the Chinese experience. Nevertheless, it would 
 have been a source of satisfaction to me to feel that I had ex- 
 hausted, in this paper, all the sources of information which either 
 are actually at my command, or which might have been, could I 
 have secured the services of a competent person who could have 
 settled certain questions, suggested by the Chinese books in our 
 libraries, especially those devoted to numismatics. As it is, the 
 question that I have to solve is whether it is better to put forth 
 this avowedly incomplete investigation in its present form, or to 
 postpone its publication until I shall have found the Chinese 
 scholar who will come to my relief. My answer is the submission 
 of the paper just as it is. I feel that as a contribution towards
 
 PREFACE vii 
 
 opening up knowledge on this topic the fact that it is incomplete 
 may stimulate others to pursue the subject further, fill up the 
 gaps in this research, and thus add new information on the subject. 
 
 A word may, perhaps, be said concerning the prints of the old 
 notes which are reproduced from Chinese illustrations. The 
 Chinese volume from which these pictures are taken is printed 
 on leaves which, when folded once only, furnish a page of about 
 the size of that used in a large octavo volume. This paper is cut 
 in pieces of the proper size for two pages on each face. It is, how- 
 ever, printed on one side alone, two consecutive pages at a time. 
 The leaves thus printed are then folded, printed side out, and 
 bound with the two loose edges at the inner edge, where the 
 binder stitches the leaves together, the fold being at the outer 
 edge. Each volume, therefore, has as many blank pages within 
 the folds as there are printed pages exposed. In the case of printed 
 pages, there is under ordinary circumstances a margin left at the 
 outer edge, but in the case of the illustrations, if one of them proves 
 to be too large for the page, it is carried over on to the next page 
 and the fold of the leaf passes immediately through the illustration 
 itself. There is no way that an illustration covering two pages 
 can be flattened down, so as to take an acceptable picture of it 
 as a whole. The reproductions which furnished copy for the half- 
 tones that accompany this paper were taken with a photostat at 
 the Massachusetts Historical Society by Mr. Worthington C. Ford. 
 The control which the operator of the photostat is able to exercise 
 over the distance of the subject from the impression, and the 
 power that he has to give to successive impressions the same tint, 
 through the fact that the light is artificial, enable him to produce, 
 in the case of the illustrations which cover two pages, two distinct 
 impressions of the separate pages of the same size and of exactly 
 the same tint, which, when fitted together, give a complete whole, 
 so perfect that the line of severance can hardly be discovered. 
 
 The red seals on the Chaudoir and Morse notes appear in the 
 half-tones to be deep black. It was not thought to be worth while 
 to attempt to superimpose the red tint on these notes, but in the 
 case of the two Tang notes, 841-847 A. D., it was desirable to show 
 these seals. These notes are printed in three colors, the funda- 
 mental tint being that of the yellow paper on which the notes are
 
 viii PREFACE 
 
 printed. The Chinese characters and the ornamental border are 
 then printed on the notes in black, and finally the delicate red 
 seals are superimposed. Should any person familiar with the square 
 seal Chinese characters undertake to read these seals, he will have 
 to bear in mind that they are not photographic, but are the work 
 of a draughtsman who reproduces as best he may what he saw 
 upon the face of the notes. 
 
 The tint of the yellow Tang notes in these illustrations is 
 approximately correct, but the half-tones of the notes of the 
 dynasties which succeed these are all lighter in color than the 
 originals. The alternative offered was the sacrifice of the texture 
 of the paper, and the rendering obscure the Chinese characters 
 on the face of the notes, or the faithful adherence to the tints of 
 the originals. It was thought that the reproductions as they are 
 given would give a better idea of the notes than they would if 
 printed in the darker tones of the originals. 
 
 There are among these notes none that does not bear traces of 
 the red seals upon its face, but these traces in many instances 
 amount merely to a dash of color, the seal characters being entirely 
 worn away. The larger notes were evidently folded so as to be 
 carried in a portfolio or wallet, and these folds, especially in the 
 case of the one kwan Ming notes, 1368-1398 A. D., are easily to 
 be discerned on the notes. 
 
 Any person who shall undertake to follow out the various clues 
 which may lead to valuable information concerning these Chinese 
 notes will be compelled to include within the territory of his 
 research the libraries of Great Britain. There is one work in the 
 Ryland's Library at Manchester which may confidently be ex- 
 pected to yield information. The title of the work is given as 
 Ch'ien Chih Hsin Pien, and it is described as "an illustrated 
 treatise on the currency, down to the end of the Ming Dynasty, con- 
 cluding with a section on foreign coins and another on unknown 
 coins. By Chang Tsung-i. 20 chtian. 4 p6n in 1 tao. 1826." 
 
 A revised edition of this work was published by Fang Chan, a 
 second edition of which, with a new preface by his son Yi Chan, 
 was published in 1854. It is evident that this numismatical work 
 may contain much that we are in search of, but at the time 
 when I wished to look up this point, travelers were not welcome
 
 PREFACE ix 
 
 in England, and spies were scented in all persons whose mission 
 was not obvious. That we have here a possible contributory source, 
 and that we cannot consider any study of the subject complete 
 which shall neglect this source, is evident. I am indebted to 
 Mr. Wilberforce Eames for such information as I have of this 
 Chinese work, but he was unable to give me the jname of any 
 Chinese scholar in Manchester whose services I could invoke to 
 answer certain questions as to these books. 
 
 S. W. Bushell, in an article on the Hsia Dynasty of Tangut, 
 published in the Journal of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic 
 Society, Vol. XXX, New Series, No. 2, 1895-96, speaks of a 
 Chinese book, Ch'uan Chih, which he describes as "the earliest 
 special numismatic work which has come down to us, having been 
 published by Hung Tsung, in fifteen books, during the Southern 
 Sung Dynasty, in the nineteenth year (A. D. 1149) of the Shao 
 Hsing period." Of course, this book, if it can be procured, should 
 also be examined. 
 
 It is stated in the text that doubts have been thrown on the 
 authenticity of the note, emitted in 650-656 A. D. This was done 
 in the interest of a fair presentation of the subject, although the 
 measure of the value of these doubts was indicated in the state- 
 ment that it was not conceivable that the compiler of the numis- 
 matical work deliberately manufactured the design. There was, 
 however, one circumstance developed in the course of the exam- 
 ination of Ch'uan Pu T'ung Chih, which raised a doubt as to the 
 accuracy of the date of the emission of the note. The illustrations 
 in this work are chronologically arranged, and this note is bound 
 in among the notes emitted by an emperor who reigned 860-874 A. D. 
 The question naturally arose, Did this mean that the author of 
 the book for some reason or other had assigned the note to that 
 period, in spite of the statement on its face that it was emitted 
 650-656 A. D.? Through the aid of Mr. F. Chang, I am able to 
 answer that question and, by so doing, remove the doubts sug- 
 gested by this chronological violation. 
 
 The pages of this Chinese book are numbered and there is also 
 a marginal reference on each page to the emperor during whose 
 reign the coins or notes depicted on the page were emitted. There 
 are illustrations of two of these 650-656 A. D. notes. They bear
 
 x PREFACE 
 
 the marginal reference of the emperor who reigned at that date, 
 but they have no pagination mark. If they were removed from 
 the book, the pagination would remain consecutive and uninter- 
 rupted. Their insertion at this point is therefore a binder's error. 
 Moreover, the notes are described in their proper place in the text 
 of the Chinese book, and Mr. Chang was kind enough to give me 
 the following translation of that text, giving an account not only 
 of the finding of the notes by the author, but also of the joy that 
 he experienced on this occasion: 
 
 " During the reign of Kao Tsung, of the Emperor Yung Hui, 
 notes of ten denominations were issued. Their color was yellow. 
 At the top was written ' Precious notes of Great Tang/ In the 
 middle was written ' One string.' " Then follows a paragraph de- 
 scribing the various denominations of the emissions, succeeding 
 which came more of the description of the note substantially in 
 these words : " At the bottom was written ' The Board of Revenue 
 printed and made the note with Imperial permission, to circulate 
 
 as money, etc., on the day, month, and in the year 
 
 of Yung Hui.' On the border of the notes were fancy columns of 
 clouds and dragons. The notes of the ten denominations were 
 each superimposed with a square seal at the top, the inscription 
 of which reads, ' Printed precious notes/ and with a square seal 
 at the bottom, the inscription of which reads, ' the seal of Yung 
 Hui of Great Tang.' There were no lines or seals on the back of 
 the notes. These two notes together with the seven articles that 
 follow [the seven articles were probably coins, illustrations of 
 which were given] all came from the things stored in the family 
 of T'ung. How fortunate I was to have got them! The fineness 
 of the workmanship of these notes differed from all other notes. 
 They ought to be the crown of all notes. It is doubtful whether 
 prior to Kao Tsung there could be better ones." 
 
 Can anyone hesitate to accept the authenticity of these notes 
 after reading this excerpt from the pages of Ch'uan Pu T'ung 
 Chihf Can anyone doubt the genuineness of the author's exulta- 
 tion when at last he runs down these notes in the collections of 
 the T'ung family, and for the first tune in his life, after years 
 of work on his numismatic studies, stands in the presence of 
 these examples of early currency? For my part I have none, and
 
 PREFACE xi 
 
 if I leave the text of my paper undisturbed on this point, it is in 
 the hope that the fact that the knowledge later acquired and 
 given in this preface may serve to make clear that doubts as to 
 the 650-656 A. D. emissions no longer exist in my mind. 
 
 The dates assigned to the different dynasties and to the reigns of 
 the emperors, when stated in terms of the chronology accepted by 
 Christendom, are necessarily the results of mathematical conver- 
 sions from one system to another. All writers are in substantial 
 agreement as to these dates, but there is an occasional discrepancy 
 of a year at the beginning or end of a reign. 
 
 With regard to the names of the great dynasties, such as Tang, 
 Sung, or Ming, there seems to be a practical uniformity of usage 
 as to what they were called. It is not so, however, when we come 
 to the designations of the emperors. The ruling monarch was 
 accustomed to break up his reign into periods and to adopt a 
 name for each period. This results in the style of the period 
 being frequently stated as the name of the emperor. The con- 
 fusion resulting from this is easily reconciled if one has access to 
 a table in which the dynasties, the reigns, and the periods are 
 arranged in chronological order. 
 
 The phonetic renderings of the names of the emperors and of 
 the periods is also a source of some confusion, but here again if 
 one bears in mind that these are attempts at presentation in our 
 alphabet of arrangements of letters which shall convey certain 
 sounds expressed by the Chinese characters, he will see, first that 
 different combinations of letters can be made to represent certain 
 sounds, and second that different individuals might not agree as to 
 the proper method of rendering specific sounds. So far as my own 
 paper is concerned, I have uniformly followed a particular dynastic 
 table, adopting the peculiarities of spelling and accepting the 
 divisions of time, but have not undertaken to make quotations 
 conform to the requirements of the table. 
 
 The sub-heading on page 266, " Twelve old Chinese notes," etc., 
 is misleading, there being fourteen old notes, but of these there 
 were only twelve varieties, the three Ming notes, 1368-1398, being 
 all one kwan notes. 
 
 The several notes which have given rise to this paper are at the 
 Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
 
 Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 
 VOL. L. No. 11. JUNE, 1915. 
 
 CERTAIN OLD CHINESE NOTES. 
 
 BY ANDREW MCFARLAND DAVIS.
 
 CERTAIN OLD CHINESE NOTES. 
 
 BY ANDREW MCFARLAND DAVIS. 
 Presented, February 10, 1915. Received, February 19, 1915. 
 
 CHINESE PAPER MONEY. 
 
 THE use in China, as a medium of trade, of a representative paper 
 currency, based upon government credit dates back with reasonable 
 certainty to the beginning of the ninth century of the Christian Era. 
 The notes than in circulation are referred to by Chinese historians in 
 such a way as to leave no doubt in the minds of investigators compe- 
 tent to analyze the literature of that country, as to the authenticity 
 of the statement that at that date a government paper money was in 
 circulation. There are fabulous assertions by Chinese writers, as to 
 the use of paper money many centuries before the birth of Christ. 
 And there are specific assertions of the value assigned to white deer 
 skins, for purposes of transfer under certain circumstances, by one 
 of the emperors about a century and a half before Christ, which have 
 led translators to speak of them as "Deer Skin Money." I take 
 no consideration of this so-called money, for it was neither paper 
 money, nor would the accounts that we have of it permit it to be 
 defined as money at all. But the beginning of the ninth century of 
 the Christian Era has been generally accepted by students of the 
 subject as the period when it can be satisfactorily demonstrated that 
 government notes were actually circulated in lieu of metallic money. 
 There is indeed a Chinese numismatical work l which furnishes pictorial 
 representations of notes emitted as early as the middle of the seventh 
 century. The compiler of that work must have had some authority 
 for the designs of these earlier notes which he published. If we hesi- 
 tate to accept this date, without further knowledge as to the authori- 
 ties upon which are based the details given about these notes, it must 
 nevertheless be recognized as possible that the date of 650 A.D. may 
 ultimately be accepted as that of the earliest emission of notes by the 
 Chinese government of which we have at present any trace. The 
 fact remains however that there is corroborative evidence from numer- 
 
 1 Ch'ien Pu Tung Chih, or by others Chuan Pu Tung Chih.
 
 246 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 
 
 ous sources as to the notes emitted after 806 A.D. and that a few scat- 
 tered specimens of some of the various emissions remain in existence, 
 while it is said, that no other mention of those earlier notes has been 
 met with in Chinese literature than that accredited to this particular 
 writer. 
 
 The acquisition by myself in 1910 of a Ming note emitted probably 
 about 1375, led to correspondence and investigation on my part. 
 Interest in the subject was revived in the fall of 1914 by my securing 
 possession of fourteen of these old notes, two of which dated back to 
 the Tang Dynasty, somewhere about 850 A.D., and of course investi- 
 gation on my part was thereby stimulated. The circumstances 
 connected with the purchase of the first of these notes were as follows : 
 
 In the latter part of the year 1910, I received a catalogue from a 
 London book-seller which contained the following item: 
 
 "Chinese Bank Note. A genuine specimen of the earliest known Bank 
 Note, being one issued during the reign of the Emperor, Hung Wu (1368- 
 1398). 12^ by 8| ins. The inscription enclosed by elaborate ornamental 
 border, the whole being printed from a wood block; mounted on limp board, 
 with embroidered work at back; worn in places." 
 
 The earliest European note was issued by the Bank of Stockholm about 
 three centuries after the above. There is a similar example in the British 
 Museum, which is the only one known to me. 
 
 Further correspondence revealed the fact that the description of 
 the note, except as to the mounting was taken from labels at the 
 British Museum. A friend in London, at my instance, took a look 
 at the specimen which was offered for sale, and although not an expert 
 in such matters, expressed himself as satisfied that it was genuine and 
 I purchased it. 
 
 At that time I knew nothing about Chinese paper-money. The 
 statement that the specimen was a bank-note I rejected, as improba- 
 ble, but the error of describing these government emissions as bank- 
 notes is one that is frequently committed by writers on the subject, 
 and in this particular case may perhaps be charged to the labels of the 
 British Museum. 
 
 In the spring of 1911 I wrote to one of the curators in that institu- 
 tion asking about specimens of Chinese currency in their possession, 
 and found that the Museum at that time had two notes precisely alike, 
 both of the Ming Dynasty (1368, 1398) and each for one kwan. One 
 was procured in 1890. The other in 1902. 
 
 Marco Polo was in China about one hundred years before the date
 
 
 Reproduction of a lithographic facsimile of a one kwan Ming note, 
 1368-1398, given by H. B. Morse in The Trade and Administration of 
 the Chinese Empire. The lithograph is colored the color of the note 
 being grey, and the government seals red. The design on the border has 
 probably been reconstructed by the draughtsman who prepared the sketch 
 for the stone. The impression on the lithograph measures 13 by 8^ 
 inches. The original note is at St. John's College, Shanghai.
 
 DAVIS. CERTAIN OLD CHINESE NOTES. 247 
 
 of these notes, and he left behind him a full description of the paper 
 money that he then found in circulation. I therefore turned to that 
 source of information and examined Polo's description of the Mongol 
 notes. At the same time I procured a copy of H. B. Morse's "Trade 
 and Administration of the Chinese Empire," which was published in 
 1908 and contained a lithographic fac-simile of one of the one kwan 
 Ming notes. Morse gives in this book a translation of the various 
 inscriptions on the face of this note, whether written in ordinary 
 Chinese or in seal characters. The note pictured by Morse was emitted 
 after an experience of upward of five, possibly of seven, centuries' use 
 of paper money. It embodied therefore whatever there was that 
 this long experience had taught the Chinese to be essential in the form 
 of the note for the circulation of paper money in China. It was of 
 the same emission as the one which I had purchased. Translations 
 of the inscriptions on the one kwan Ming notes are to be found in the 
 works of several writers who treat on the subject of Chinese paper 
 money, but the most complete is that given by Morse. It is desirable 
 to know at the outset precisely what is meant by an old Chinese note. 
 I therefore incorporate Morse's translation of the inscriptions on a 
 Ming note and also include his story of the manner in which the note 
 was acquired, which runs as follows: 
 
 "This 500-year old instrument of credit has a curious history furnishing 
 an absolute guarantee of its authenticity. During the foreign occupation 
 of Peking in 1900, some European soldiers had overthrown a sacred image of 
 Buddha, in the grounds of the Summer Palace, and, deposited in the pedestal 
 (as in the corner-stones of our public buildings), found gems and jewelry and 
 ingots of gold and silver and a bundle of these notes. Contented with the 
 loot having intrinsic value, the soldiers readily surrendered the bundle of 
 notes to a by-stander, who was present 'unofficially,' Surgeon Major Louis 
 Livingston Seaman, U. S. A., of New York and he gave to the Museum of 
 St. John's College at Shanghai, the specimen which is here reproduced. 
 
 "The note is printed on mulberry-bark paper, which now is of a dark slate 
 colour, the 'something resembling sheets of paper, but black' of Marco Polo's 
 description. The sheet of paper is 13.5 by 8.75 inches and the design on the 
 face is 12.6 by 8.3 inches. The border, 1.4 inches wide, is made of extended 
 dragons filled around with an arabesque design, and is surmounted by a panel 
 with the inscription (from right to left) 'circulating government note of the 
 Ming Empire.' The space within the border is divided into two panels. 
 The upper has on two sides in conventionalized square seal characters, on the 
 right 'government note of the Ming Empire,' on the left 'circulating for ever 
 and ever,' between these two inscriptions, above in large ordinary characters 
 'One Kwan' (or tiao or string), and below a pictorial illustration representing
 
 248 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 
 
 ten hundreds of cash. The lower panel contains the folio wing: 'The Imperial 
 Board of Revenue having memorialized the Throne has received the Imperial 
 sanction for the issue of government notes of the Ming Empire, to circulate 
 on the same footing as standard cash. To counterfeit is death. The inform- 
 ant will receive 250 taels of silver and in addition the entire property of the 
 criminal. Hung Wu. . . .year. . . .month. . .day.' A seal 3.25 inches square 
 is impressed, once on the upper panel, once on the lower panel, bearing in 
 square seal characters the legend 'The Seal of Government Note Adminis- 
 trators.' On the back of the note, above is impressed in vermilion a seal 
 bearing hi square seal characters the legend ' Seal for Circulating Government 
 Notes'; below, within a border 6.2 by 4.1 inches is repeated the middle of 
 the upper panel of the face One Kwan, with a pictorial illustration repre- 
 senting ten hundreds of cash." 
 
 WHAT WAS KNOWN ABOUT THE SUBJECT IN THE FOURTEENTH 
 
 CENTURY. 
 
 Such was the form of note in use in China after so many years of 
 practical experience with paper money, a form it may be said which 
 did not differ in any essential particular from that of the earliest notes 
 which have been preserved, and which closely resembles that of our 
 own greenbacks in its substantial features, even down to the recital 
 of the law against counterfeiting. In the different Chinese notes the 
 names of the emperors and of the dynasties; of the denominational 
 values; and of the rewards for information as to counterfeiters; are 
 subject to change, but the general form was as we find it in the Ming 
 note for one kwan. 
 
 Nonintercourse with China will not altogether explain why our 
 ancestors were not able to profit by the experience of these orientals 
 in the use of paper money, for during the 13th and 14th centuries 
 information concerning Chinese paper money began to filter through. 
 Incredulity and incapacity to comprehend what information was 
 placed before the readers and students in Christendom, prevented 
 them from taking advantage of what little was actually submitted to 
 them. It is a matter of some interest to us in the examination of this 
 subject to see what knowledge has been at different times during the 
 past six hundred years at the command of one who would master the 
 subject, and of what he can now avail himself. 
 
 The earliest mention of the Chinese paper of early days to be found 
 in European literature was made by a Franciscan friar named Rubruk 2 
 
 2 Quoted by Vissering, "On Chinese Currency," p. 26. He gives as author- 
 ity "Recueil de divers voyages curieux par P. Bergeron. Voyage de Rubru- 
 quis en Tartarie," p. 91. Leide, 1729.
 
 Four hundred wen note of the Yuan Dynasty. 
 Emperor, She Tsu; Period, Che Yuan; A.D.1264- 
 1295. This form of note was for current use and 
 represents the currency described by Marco Polo. 
 Reproduced from a photostat, taken by the Massa- 
 chusetts Historical Society, from the original illus- 
 tration in Ch'uan Pu T'ung Chih. The size of the 
 original is 8 by 3% inches. The government seals 
 are given separately.
 
 DAVIS. CERTAIN OLD CHINESE NOTES. 249 
 
 or Rubrouck who was in China a few years before Marco Polo and who 
 simply said "The common money of Cathay consists of pieces of 
 cotton-paper, about a palm in length and breadth, upon which certain 
 lines are printed, resembling the seal of Mangu Khan." This men- 
 tion anticipated by a few years the account given by Marco Polo who 
 was in China for a period of about twenty-five years, covering practi- 
 cally the last quarter of the thirteenth century. Polo's description of 
 the paper money which he then found in actual use in China as a 
 medium of trade, was minute enough in detail and sufficiently sug- 
 gestive in character to have aroused the financiers of Christendom to 
 an appreciative sense of the possible uses of credit, had it reached the 
 eyes of a people far enough advanced in knowledge of currency and 
 banking to have comprehended what was thus laid before them. It 
 must be remembered, however, that this description was made public 
 in the days of Edward III, when banking as a profession was unknown, 
 and at a time when students had still to wait about one hundred years 
 before they should see a printed book. Authors then had to rely on 
 manuscripts as the medium through which they could communicate 
 with the public. Eighty-five of the Polo manuscripts which served 
 the readers in those days, written in five languages, have been pre- 
 served. It is doubtless true that some have been destroyed, still it 
 must be remembered that such manuscripts were in their day precious 
 things, to be preserved with care, read and passed on. It is obvious 
 that the number of manuscripts in circulation, which could have 
 furnished the public information as to the conditions of life in China, 
 and the number of persons who could have profited by their perusal 
 were very limited. Moreover, it must be remembered that the stories 
 of travellers like Marco Polo were received with incredulity, so that, 
 even after it became possible through the invention of moveable types, 
 for writers to reach a larger public by means of printed books, their 
 influence was very slight. These facts adequately explain why 
 Europe failed to benefit by the information furnished by Marco Polo. 
 What might have been learned at that time concerning this subject, 
 had the circumstances been favorable, is to be found in the following 
 words, taken from Polo's account of his travels : 3 
 
 "In this city of Kanbalu is the Mint of the grand Khan, who may truly be 
 said to possess the secret of the alchemists, as he has the art of producing money 
 by the following process. He causes the bark to be stripped from those mul- 
 berry-trees the leaves of which are used for feeding silk-worms, and takes 
 
 3 The Travels of Marco Polo the Venetian, with an Introduction by John 
 Masefield, London and New York (1907).
 
 250 PKOCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 
 
 from it that thin inner rind which lies between the coarser bark and the wood 
 of the tree. This being steeped, and afterwards pounded in a mortar, until 
 reduced to a pulp, is made into paper, resembling (in substance) that which 
 is manufactured from cotton, but quite black. When ready for use, he has 
 it cut into pieces of money of different sizes, nearly square, but somewhat 
 longer than they are wide. Of these, the smallest pass for a denier tournois; 
 the next size for a Venetian silver groat; others for two, five, and ten groats; 
 others for one, two, three, and as far as ten besants of gold. The coinage of 
 this paper money is authenticated with as much form and ceremony as if it 
 were actually of pure gold or silver; for to each note a number of officers, 
 specially appointed, not only subscribe their names, but affix their signets 
 also ; and when this has been regularly done by the whole of them, the principal 
 officer, deputed by his majesty, having dipped into vermilion the royal seal 
 committed to his custody, stamps with it the piece of paper, so that the form 
 of the seal tinged with the vermilion remains impressed upon it, by which it 
 receives full authenticity as current money, and the act of counterfeiting it is 
 punished as a capital offence. When thus coined in large quantities, this 
 paper currency is circulated in every part of the grand Khan's dominions; 
 nor dares any person, at the peril of his life, refuse to accept it in payment. 
 All his subjects receive it without hesitation, because, wherever their business 
 may call them, they can dispose of it again in the purchase of merchandise 
 they may have occasion for; such as pearls, jewels, gold, or silver. With it, 
 in short, every article may be procured." 
 
 Farther on Polo says: 
 
 "When any persons happen to be possessed of paper money which from 
 long use has become damaged, they carry it to the mint, where, upon the 
 payment of only three per cent, they may receive fresh notes in exchange. 
 Should any be desirous of procuring gold or silver for the purposes of manu- 
 facture, such as of drinking-cups, girdles, or other articles wrought of these 
 metals, they in like manner apply at the mint, and for their paper obtain 
 the bullion they require. All his majesty's armies are paid with this currency, 
 which is to them of the same value as if it were gold or silver. Upon these 
 grounds, it may certainly be affirmed that the grand Khan has a more exten- 
 sive command of treasure than any other sovereign in the universe." 4 
 
 The corroboration by Sir John de Mandeville, of the fact that paper 
 money was in use in China at that time, will not perhaps be accepted 
 as testimony of much value, but inasmuch as his account of travel is 
 supposed to contain much that was appropriated from the stories of 
 
 4 As will appear later, the whereabouts of existing examples of these Mon- 
 gol notes are unknown. I am indebted to Mr. Worthington C. Ford for 
 photostats of some of these latter from illustrations in Chuan Pu Tung 
 Chih, a Chinese numismatical work.
 
 25 H ,&, ;.! S.-kJ 
 
 $&sl>**?^ 
 
 rf: ^f3 "^T ^n J ^ ^ 
 
 Four hundred wen note of the Yiian Dynasty. Emperor, 
 She Tsu; Period, Che Yuan; A.D. 1264-1295. This form 
 of note was for military purposes and represents the cur- 
 rency with which Marco Polo said that all His Majesty's 
 armies were paid. 
 
 Reproduced from a photostat, taken by the Massachu- 
 setts Historical Society, from the original illustration in 
 Ch'uan Pu T'ung Chin. The size of the original is 9jH$ 
 by 4% inches. The government seal is given separately.
 
 DAVIS. CERTAIN OLD CHINESE NOTES. 251 
 
 other writers, it may be that it will have some weight. He simply 
 says that the emperor did not depend upon money but on "Lether 
 emprented" or on "Papyre." 
 
 An Arabian traveller named Ibn Batuta covered a part of the ground 
 of Polo's travels about fifty years after Polo, and left behind him an 
 account of the Chinese paper currency. This was written in Arabic 
 and was not so full as that of Polo, but it contained much that might 
 have stimulated financiers in the use of credit, if they could have read 
 it. Nothing was known in Europe of this manuscript, unless the 
 Moors in Spain knew about it, until the early part of the nineteenth 
 century, and so far as European financiers are concerned, it cannot 
 be said, that they were so situated as to have been subject to its 
 influence. Nevertheless his story is well worthy of examination. 
 
 Like Marco Polo, Batuta was astonished to see pieces of paper 
 used in place of coins and quaintly expressed himself in the following 
 language: 5 
 
 "Their transactions are carried on with paper:.... As to the 
 paper every piece of it is in extent about the measure of the palm of 
 the hand, and is stamped with the King's stamp. Five and twenty of 
 such notes are termed a "shat," which means the same thing as the 
 dinar with us. But when the papers happen to be torn, or worn out 
 by use, they are carried to their house, which is just like a mint with 
 us, and new ones are given by the King. This is done without in- 
 terest, the profit arising from the circulation accruing to the King. 
 When any one goes to the market with a dinar or a dirhem in his hand, 
 no one will take it until it has been changed for their notes." 
 
 It will be remembered that Marco Polo in speaking of these notes 
 had described the manner in which the fabric upon which they were 
 printed was manufactured; had stated that the color of the paper 
 was black, an error probably of the translator, since the actual color 
 was dark gray; had compared the office from which they were issued 
 to a mint; had spoken of the official seal which was placed upon them; 
 had described the method of securing new notes in place of those 
 which were worn and unfit for use, stating in this connection that a 
 charge of three per cent was made by the government; had given the 
 values of the different denominations of the notes; had alleged that 
 they were of different sizes, the smaller the denominational value of 
 the note the smaller the size; had stated that there was a law against 
 
 5 The Travels of Ibn Batuta by The Rev. Samuel Lee. B. D. London, 
 p. 209 (1829).
 
 252 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 
 
 counterfeiting these notes and finally had asserted that their circula- 
 tion was compulsory. 
 
 It is somewhat singular that Ibn Batuta should have touched upon 
 six of these nine points in Polo's description, omitting only the method 
 of manufacture of the fabric of the notes, which he merely mentions 
 as paper without stating the color, and omitting also any reference to 
 the edict against counterfeiting, as well as any account of the com- 
 pulsory nature of the circulation; although he does say that a traveller 
 was obliged to convert his foreign coin into notes in order to make use 
 of it in the market. He speaks of only one size of notes and those the 
 small notes not larger than the palm of the hand. This omission may 
 be explained by the fact that when he was there, Kublai Khan was 
 no longer on the throne. He had been succeeded by Ch'ing Tsung, 
 and the emissions during the reign of the latter were, we have reason 
 to suppose, uniform in size. 
 
 Both Marco Polo and Ibn Batuta were in China at a time when the 
 notes were greatly depreciated. Some writers have expressed wonder 
 at their not being impressed with the fact of this depreciation. There 
 is no occasion for wonder at this. The travellers were unfamiliar 
 with paper money and were surrounded by conditions of life never 
 before seen or heard of by them, but even had they been familiar with 
 the currency and had they possessed such knowledge of prices as would 
 have enabled them to measure the reduction of the purchasing power 
 of the currency, they would probably have been impressed only with 
 the high prices and would not have been likely to attribute them to 
 the degradation of the currency, precisely as we see our government 
 to-day investigating the question of high prices and simultaneously 
 emitting emergency currency thus adding fuel to one of the causes 
 of high prices. 
 
 WHAT WAS KNOWN IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 The next allusion in European literature to the old Chinese notes 
 did not come from one who had seen them in circulation, nor did it 
 contain within itself any description of the notes or of their current 
 use, which would make it of value to us, unless an allusion to the 
 abandonment of paper currency should prove of assistance in fixing 
 the date of that event. What was of value, however, in this connec- 
 tion, was an illustration giving the inscriptions on the one kwan Ming 
 notes, 1368-1398, with a translation. The work containing this
 
 I 
 
 i 1 Jr.lfTU du T/u}-ft~. 
 
 "ft 
 
 t 
 
 
 Drawing of a one kwan Ming note, A.D. 1368-1398, made 
 by a Jesuit father. Reproduced from a photostat, taken by 
 the Massachusetts Historical Society, from a plate in Du 
 Halde's Description de la Chine, etc., etc. The border of the 
 note is not given. The picture of the ten strings of cash is 
 missing in the panels front and back. There is but one seal 
 given, and that is detached.
 
 DAVIS. CERTAIN OLD CHINESE NOTES. 253 
 
 allusion was put forth in Paris in 1735 by Jean Baptiste Du Halde, a 
 Jesuit father. It consisted of a collation, made up from the relations 
 of the Jesuit missionaries who from China sent to the central office of 
 the order, observations on the geography, the zoology, the botany of 
 the country, and also on the manners, the customs and the life of the 
 people. At what date the relation accompanying the drawing of the 
 note was sent does not appear, but it seems probable that it must 
 have been in the latter part of the seventeenth century, or possibly 
 early in the eighteenth. When Du Halde's description of China 
 appeared, the financiers of Europe were no longer ignorant of the power 
 of credit and of the dangers of its use in the form of paper money. 
 France had just suffered from the miseries entailed by Law's Miss- 
 issippi scheme and England had but just emerged from the troubles 
 caused by the South Sea bubble. In Massachusetts Bay, paper 
 money, after nearly fifty years of use, was still the only medium of 
 trade in the Province. The value of Du Halde's book was recognized 
 in England and a translation with some abridgments was published 
 there as early as 1738. The brief account of the currency given by 
 Du Halde was preserved and appears in the translation in the follow- 
 ing words : 6 
 
 "In the beginning of the reign of Hung-vu, Founder of the twenty-second 
 dynasty, called Ming .... Money was become so very scarce that they paid 
 the Mandarins and soldiers partly in Paper; giving them a sheet of paper 
 sealed with an Imperial Seal, which passed for a thousand little copper pieces, 
 or a tael of silver. Those sheets are much sought after by such as build, who 
 hang them up as a rarity to the chief beam of the house, the people and even 
 of the quality, being so as to imagine [sic] that it preserves them from all 
 misfortunes." 
 
 Du Halde then goes on to state that this paper currency was aban- 
 doned by the same emperor who inaugurated or, perhaps I ought to 
 say, revived it. 
 
 The works of a Chinese author which have been made use of by 
 writers on the topic of Chinese paper money, the characters in the title 
 of which have been anglicized as " Tung Keen Kang Muh" and trans- 
 lated, "Condensation of the Mirror of History," were rendered into 
 French in 1779-1783 by Father Joseph de Mailla. 7 There was no 
 
 6 A Description of the Empire of China, etc., from the French of P. J. Du 
 Halde. 1, p. 332 (1738). 
 
 7 Histoire Generale de la Chine ou annales de cet Empire, traduites du 
 Tong-Kieng-Kang-Mou. Paris (1779-1783).
 
 254 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 
 
 special reason why economists should turn their attention to the pages 
 of Du Halde or to those of de Mailla, but it cannot be denied that 
 there was information at their command in both these publications, 
 and probably from time to time readers were stimulated by it to 
 further research. 
 
 For a period of about forty years after this the subject does not 
 appear to have excited either orientalists or economists. At any rate 
 there are no contributions on the subject in the literature of the day 
 during this period which have attracted attention enough to cause 
 inclusion in this review of the authorities who have contributed to 
 knowledge or stirred up interest in the subject. When next the matter 
 is taken up, China is no longer a mysterious land shut off from the 
 rest of the world. Students have mastered to some extent the diffi- 
 culties which the language interposes to prevent free interchange 
 of thought between the Chinese and foreigners, and knowledge has 
 been acquired that there is a vast amount of historical information 
 treasured in the pages of Chinese books on the shelves of their great 
 libraries. The time has come when sinologues can make topical 
 investigations of matters strictly Chinese. 
 
 THE SUBJECT FAIRLY OPENED UP. 
 
 The first approach to the subject of Chinese paper money in a truly 
 scientific spirit was made by Heinrich Julius Klaproth, a German 
 oriental scholar and traveller, who published an article in the Paris 
 "Journal Asiatique," in November, 1822, in which he furnished the 
 European world with a brief account of the Chinese paper money 
 experience. 
 
 This article was translated and published in the Journal of the 
 American Oriental Society, 8 by John Pickering, one of the founders of 
 that Society and at one time President of the American Academy of 
 Arts and Sciences, the matter by this publication being brought to 
 the attention of American students. 
 
 In 1824, Klaproth published a little volume entitled "Memoires 
 relatifs a 1'Asie," in which he incorporated his article on the paper 
 currency. The subject was there treated in a general way and neces- 
 sarily with great brevity, covering the dates from 807 A.D. down to 
 
 8 Vol. I., p. 136, et seq.
 
 DAVIS. CERTAIN OLD CHINESE NOTES. 255 
 
 1455 A.D. This research has proved of great assistance to subsequent 
 students and has been much cited and quoted. It is based upon 
 three chinese works, historical in character and covering so much 
 ground that a consecutive story of the experience in the use of paper 
 money was not reasonably to be expected to be found in their pages. 
 What they did disclose was, however, of enormous importance and of 
 great value. 
 
 Two of the chinese books referred to by Klaproth are in the New 
 York Public Library. Their titles indicate the broad field which they 
 seek to cover. One of them has been translated by some "Anti- 
 quarian Researches," by others " General examination of Records and 
 Scholars." The work was originally published in 1322 and afterwards 
 continued in a supplement, in 1586. 9 The original and supplement 
 are bound in twenty-three thick volumes and in the opinion of Mr. 
 Wilberforce Eames, to whose courtesy I am indebted for the informa- 
 tion herein given concerning these chinese books, they would if trans- 
 lated into some European language make about fifty or sixty volumes 
 of the size of the Dictionary of National Biography. They constitute 
 according to Mr. Eames, an encyclopaedia of every subject connected 
 with the government, history, statistics, literature, religion etc., of 
 the Chinese Empire. 
 
 The title of the other chinese work referred to as being in the New 
 York Public Library is generally given as " Condensation of the Mirror 
 of History." 10 It was originally written in the twelfth century and was 
 afterwards continued to 1476 A.D. It was afterwards brought down 
 to 1644, A.D., and was reprinted in the early part of the 19th century. 
 It is bound in 24 volumes. The third work referred to by Klaproth 
 is a literary and scientific encyclopaedia. 11 An edition in the British 
 Museum bears date 1642. 
 
 Klaproth was the pioneer among topical investigators of chinese 
 paper money. The conditions under which he made his research were 
 such that had he not been attracted by the subject the opportunity 
 afforded for work of this sort must soon have welcomed some other 
 student. China no longer kept her doors closed against the entrance 
 of foreigners. Sinologues were at work endeavoring to master the 
 obscurities of the chinese language, and knowledge was being spread of 
 the historical treasures hidden in the pages of the voluminous chinese 
 
 9 Wan Heen Tung Kaou, by Ma-twan-lin. The supplement was compiled 
 by Wang Ke. 
 
 10 Tung Keen Kane Muh. 
 
 11 Keun Shoo Pe Kao.
 
 256 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 
 
 works which filled the shelves of their great libraries. If it had not 
 been Klaproth it must soon have been somebody else. 
 
 In 1837, Edouard Biot, published a series of papers, or rather a 
 single paper which was scattered through several numbers of the 
 "Journal Asiatique." 12 It was based mainly on information derived 
 from the Chinese work by Ma-twan-lin, one of the authorities made 
 use of by Klaproth, and although an interesting contribution towards 
 knowledge of the subject, Biot's paper did not contain much that was 
 new. 
 
 In 1842, Baron S. de Chaudoir published at St. Petersburg, a 
 numismatical work on the coins of the Orient. 13 This volume which is 
 folio in size, is illustrated by sixty plates on which are depicted up- 
 wards of one thousand coins. Fourteen pages are given to a history 
 of the paper-money of China, and engravings of the face and back 
 of a one kwan Ming note are to be found in the plates. Statistics 
 as to the amount of paper-money which had been emitted at certain 
 specified dates are given by Klaproth and Biot. Chaudoir adds to 
 these a table of the annual emissions of Mongol notes from 1260 to 
 1330. Chaudoir relied upon an interpreter for the translation of the 
 Chinese works which he cited or quoted, among which that of Ma-twan- 
 lin was conspicuous. His work is a distinct addition to the knowledge 
 on the subject acquired by students up to that time, one might almost 
 say up to the present time. 
 
 In 1847, Robert Montgomery Martin, published a work in two 
 volumes, entitled "China, political, commercial and social," etc. 
 In the first volume on pages 174 and 175, he gives a perfunctory ac- 
 count of Chinese paper money, based apparently on Klaproth. 
 
 In 1848, Frederick Edwyn Forbes published " Five Years in China," 
 in which he incorporated a brief, unsatisfactory description of the 
 Chinese paper money episode. 
 
 The chronological position of the publications of Martin and Forbes, 
 entitles them to notice, even though their contributions to knowledge 
 upon the subject were not of much value, for at the time when they 
 wrote, English writers had not taken up the subject and whatever 
 was contributed by those gentlemen, no matter how small the amount, 
 was a challenge to the attention of students. 
 
 Henry Dunning MacLeod in his Dictionary of Political Economy, 
 
 12 Memoire sur le Syst&ne Monetaire des Chinoise." 
 
 13 Recueil de monnaies de la Chine, du Japan, de la Cor6e, d'Anam et de 
 Jave au nombre de plus de mille, Pre'c&le' d'une introduction historique sur 
 les monnaies. St. Petersbourg (1842).
 
 Sketch of a one kwan Ming note, A.D. 1368-1398, in the Imperial 
 Academy of Science, St. Petersburg. Reproduced from a photostat, 
 taken by the Massachusetts Historical Society, from a plate in Baron 
 Chaudoir's Recueil de Monnaies de la Chine, etc. The seal on the lower 
 panel is printed in red color in the original. The draughtsman, in repro- 
 ducing the design on the border, has practically eliminated the dragon. 
 The original sketch is about 12 by 7 l /% inches in size.
 
 DAVIS. CERTAIN OLD CHINESE NOTES. 257 
 
 London, 1863, under the titles of Banking and of Currency, deals 
 with Chinese paper money. He relies upon Klaproth and Biot, and 
 under "Currency" gives a chronological narrative of the events 
 connected with the episode. He says : " We have given this account 
 of chinese paper money because we are not aware that any account 
 of it has ever been published in English." Had the dictionary been 
 completed this account might have attracted more attention, but 
 as it was made public in an incomplete work and was hidden under the 
 title " currency," it made little or no impression. 
 
 MacLeod also refers to chinese paper money in his Theory and Prac- 
 tice of Banking. 
 
 In 1873, in the Dictionnaire de I'ficonomic Politique, Courcelle 
 Seneuil describes the chinese paper money experience at some length, 
 under the title " Papier-Monnaie. He relies on Biot, and while 
 he gives an account of the "Deer Skin Money," he adds in a note 
 "ces morceaux de peau ne constituaient par, a proprement parler, 
 un papier monnaie." 
 
 In 1874, A. M. Benadakis, communicated a paper on this subject 
 to the Journal des Economistes etc. He quotes freely from the 
 chinese work of Ma-twan-lin which has already been referred to 
 several times, and speaks of the writer as " The learned Ma-twan-lin, 
 author of an encyclopedia of 100 volumes" 14 and adds an estimate 
 of the value of his work, " He knows the true theory of money and of 
 paper, and what he has written is striking in its precision and good 
 sense." 
 
 In 1875, William Stanley Jevons in "Money and the Mechanism 
 of Exchange gives a brief account of chinese paper money. He relies 
 upon Benadakis and Courcelle Seneuil. 
 
 In 1877, W. Vissering, published at Leyden, a book on chinese coins 
 and paper money. 15 The writer has incorporated in his publication, 
 the more important sections of Ma-twan-lin's celebrated work bearing 
 on this special subject. The chinese characters of the original publi- 
 cation are given by Vissering in connection with a translation, and 
 this again is accompanied by foot-notes explanatory of the special 
 meanings which he has given to some of these characters. The first 
 paper money that Vissering finds was in use in 809 A.D. He stated 
 what knowledge the chinese author furnishes on this and other emis- 
 
 14 Journal des Economistes, etc. March, pp. 366, 367 (1874). 
 
 15 On Chinese Currency, Coins and Paper money. W. Vissering. Leide, 
 (1877).
 
 258 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 
 
 sions and also gives the alleged results arising from the emissions, 
 down to about 1210 A.D. He does not deal with the continuation 
 of the chinese work which was published in 1586. 
 
 In 1885, Alexander Del Mar briefly described Chinese paper money 
 in his History of Money in Ancient Countries. Klaproth was his 
 main authority. 
 
 TOPICAL PUBLICATIONS IN THE ORIENT. 
 
 In 1889, Shioda Saburo published a paper on chinese paper money 
 in the Journal of the Peking Oriental Society, a contribution pre- 
 sumably made at a meeting of that society. 16 Saburo was from Japan 
 and evidently attacked the subject with indefatigable industry. His 
 obvious lack of knowledge as to the economic situation produced by 
 the fluctuation of the quantity of currency in circulation impairs the 
 value of his paper. It is, however, a learned dissertation notwith- 
 standing much obvious confusion of thought on the part of the writer. 
 The paper is founded upon translations from chinese authors but it is 
 difficult to separate the expressions of opinion of the writer from 
 those which he attributes to the authors whom he quotes. 
 
 In 1905, Joseph Edkins, a missionary to China, published a book 
 which was devoted to the development from chinese sources of methods 
 of revenue and taxation in the past in China ; and incidentally to the 
 story of the use of paper money, so far as that story was told by the 
 chinese authors made use of by the writer. 17 
 
 During a long life spent in China, Edkins had acquired a prodigious 
 amount of knowledge of the chinese language and also of its literature, 
 and had published numerous books on different subjects connected 
 with chinese life and history mainly, however, devoted to philological 
 topics. His "Banking and Prices" has, scattered through its pages 
 in a desultory way, substantially the same knowledge concerning 
 paper money as had already been furnished by Chaudoir, with a little 
 additional information, but all of it buried under a mass of statements 
 about other subjects, which make the matter relating especially to 
 paper money difficult of discovery. A writer who made use of " Bank- 
 
 16 The origin of the Paper Currency of China. Journal of the Peking 
 Oriental Society, 3, No. 4. I am indebted to Mr. Edward B. Drew for call- 
 ing my attention to this paper. 
 
 17 Banking and Prices in China, by J. Edkins, D.D. Shanghai, printed at 
 the Presbyterian Mission Press (1905).
 
 DAVIS. CERTAIN OLD CHINESE NOTES. 259 
 
 ing and Prices in China " characterized the book in the following words : 
 " A rich mass of conglomerate for the patient student." The book has 
 a distinct value, for it is the work of a learned sinologue, but the 
 confusion in the arrangement of its contents and the difficulty experi- 
 enced in determining whether one is meeting the opinions of some 
 Chinese historian or those of Joseph Edkins, tend greatly to obscure 
 its merits. It is not to be found in the Harvard Library, or the Boston 
 Public Library. 
 
 In 1907, Mr. H. B. Morse, a member of the staff of Sir Robert 
 Hart, published in the Journal of the North China Branch of the 
 Royal Asiatic Society, 18 a communication dealing with the currency 
 question including paper money. This was illustrated with a litho- 
 graphic reproduction of a one kwan Ming note, 1368-1398, in colors, 
 and two engravings of government notes emitted during the Tae- 
 Ping rebellion which are also printed in colors. This article was 
 incorporated in Morse's book on the trade and administration of 
 China, which appeared in 1908. 19 Morse relied largely on Klaproth 
 and Edkins. It is from his book that the translation already given 
 of the inscriptions on a Ming note was taken. If it may be said of 
 Klaproth that he brought the subject of Chinese paper money within 
 easy reach of students, the claim may be advanced for Morse that 
 his book was the first that actually brought the matter to public 
 notice. 
 
 In 1911, H. A. Ramsden published in Yokohama, a pamphlet 
 thirty-seven pages in length entitled, " Chinese paper money." It is 
 in the nature of a numismatical manual and contains descriptions of a 
 great number of these old Chinese notes, sufficiently definite to enable 
 a collector to identify a specimen which has come into his hands, pro- 
 vided it belongs to one of the emissions thus described. No informa- 
 tion is furnished as to the language used in the inscriptions on the face 
 of the notes. Ramsden acknowledges that he is indebted to a Chinese 
 work for much valuable information. A copy of this work, 20 which is 
 an elaborate numismatical treatise profusely illustrated, with repre- 
 sentations of coins and occasionally of a note, is to be found in the 
 Essex Institute, at Salem. Examination shows that of these old 
 notes, there are given in this publication eighty-one representations 
 
 18 Journal, &c., 38, pp. 17-31. 
 
 19 The Trade and Administration of the Chinese Empire, by H. B. Morse. 
 London (1908). 
 
 20 Chuan Pu Tung Chih or General account of money and coins given by 
 Ramsden as C'hien Pu Tung C'hih.
 
 260 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 
 
 or pictures, furnishing all the details of the inscriptions and drawings 
 on the face of the notes as fully as an actual impression from the wood- 
 cut or stereotype of the note itself would have done. What is perhaps 
 more remarkable is that the inscriptions on the notes and their general 
 arrangement, while not absolutely uniform from dynasty to dynasty, 
 nevertheless correspond so closely with each other and with that of the 
 Ming note, the inscriptions on which were translated by Morse, that 
 one might almost conceive that many of the notes would have circu- 
 lated in the days of the Ming dynasty without attracting much atten- 
 tion. The legends on the face of the notes are said to be legible with 
 ease by any person who can read modern Chinese characters and those 
 inscriptions which are written in seal characters yield readily to the 
 concentration of a little effort on the part of the student who is at all 
 familiar with the various seal characters. The oldest among the 
 notes delineated in this work was emitted in 650 A.D., about one 
 hundred and seventy-five years before the quarrelsome bands of 
 Anglo Saxons who constituted the Heptarchy were brought under one 
 control and organized into the government which has become known as 
 England. It seems incredible that at a time when English History 
 as such had not yet begun, the chinese should have developed the 
 manufacture of paper and cultivated the art of block printing, making 
 use of characters which have persisted to this day. Yet that is what 
 is revealed by the representation of the currency of this period to 
 be found in this chinese numismatical work. My friend, Mr. Edward 
 B. Drew, formerly a Commissioner of Customs on the staff of Sir 
 Robert Hart, to whom I am deeply indebted for his patient examina- 
 tion of the inscriptions on these notes, at my instance scrutinized the 
 date of the notes of this early emission carefully and he says there 
 can be no doubt that the characters which fix the date of the issue 
 actually represent a period covering the years 650-656 A. D. Ramsden 
 hesitates to endorse the authenticity of this emission. He gives it 
 place because the author or compiler of the chinese work above 
 referred to claims that it was the first in use, but says in that con- 
 nection, "I would like to add, however, that no other authority 
 seems to share this contention, which is unsupported by historical or 
 other data." As to this emission being the first an examination of 
 the inscriptions on the face of the notes will disclose the penalty for 
 counterfeiting and the offer of a reward to whomsoever shall furnish 
 information which will lead to the arrest of the counterfeiter. It is 
 not probable that these clauses could have been incorporated in the 
 inscriptions on the notes of the first emission. It would seem as
 
 V -T J V^Vr C 
 
 ^ r~^ ^-x,^^ sd,r li- v - 
 
 \ 
 
 
 Ten kwan note of the Tang Dynasty. Period, Yung Hui; A.D. 650- 
 656. Reproduced from a photostat, taken by the Massachusetts His- 
 torical Society, from the original illustration in Ch'uan Pu T'ung Chih. 
 The size of the original is 9 by 5% inches. The government seal is given 
 separately in Ch'uan Pu T'ung Chih.
 
 DAVIS. CERTAIN OLD CHINESE NOTES. 261 
 
 though the desirability of holding the threat of this penalty over the 
 heads of evil-doers must have resulted from experience. If then we 
 accept these illustrations in the Chinese work, as representations of 
 notes actually emitted about 650 A.D. it would follow that it is quite 
 probable that there were previous issues. 
 
 On the point of there being no other authority to share the conten- 
 tion, the question may be asked, Where did the author procure his 
 picture? It is not conceivable that the compiler of the numismatical 
 work deliberately manufactured the design. If he did not, then his 
 picture must represent an actual note that he has seen, or it must 
 have been appropriated from some other numismatical work, the latter 
 being the more probable supposition. 
 
 A sketch of the history of Chinese paper money appeared in the 
 North China Herald (Weekly Edition) December 21, 1912. It was 
 dated at Ching Kiang and was signed T. M. Bowern. It covered the 
 period from the middle of the twelfth century down to the first hah* 
 of the fifteenth and was obviously based on Klaproth and Morse. 
 Mr. Bowern traces the ownership of a number of these one kwan Ming 
 notes into the hands of different individuals. There is also some 
 contributory information on this subject in the issue of December 14, 
 1912, of the same paper. 
 
 At this point the question of what sources of information have been 
 at given times in the past and what now are at command of a student, 
 may be abandoned. The matter has been followed down to 1912 and 
 has brought to light Ramsden's manual, through which we learn that 
 he has recorded the details of two hundred and sixty-nine varieties of 
 notes with sufficient definiteness to permit of identification and classi- 
 fication. Scattered references to emissions are to be found on the 
 pages of some of the works to which reference has been made. It may 
 be said that we know something about at least three hundred varieties 
 of these notes, and that there are still chronological gaps to be filled. 
 
 WHAT ORIENTAL SCHOLARS KNOW ABOUT EXISTING SPECIMENS 
 OF THE NOTES. 
 
 Up to this point no special effort has been made to indicate where a 
 person interested can find specimens of these notes and what examples 
 he can find at any given point. We know that Chinese collectors have 
 long treasured them and European residents in China agree that speci-
 
 262 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 
 
 mens are to be found in the hands of these collectors. This knowledge 
 does not advance us much in our pursuit of information which can be 
 made use of by an investigator who is not in the Orient and who does 
 not speak or read Chinese. We can, however, turn to the pages of 
 those who have written on the subject and especially to those works 
 which have been illustrated by engravings or photographic pictures 
 of notes. In some instances we shall find that the author has furnished 
 a translation of the inscriptions or legends on the notes depicted in 
 his works. This examination may not reveal much that is of value, 
 but it must be made if we would cover the ground thoroughly. 
 
 The oldest representation of a Chinese note, excluding of course 
 from this statement all illustrated Chinese numismatical works, is to 
 be found in Du Halde. It is a line engraving, giving the outline of 
 the panelling of the face and back of a one kwan Ming note of the 
 Hung Wu period, without the pictorial representation of the ten strings 
 and without the ornamental decorations of the border. The inscrip- 
 tions are however reproduced whether horizontal or vertical, whether 
 in ordinary or square seal characters, precisely as in the original. 
 The notes of this emission apparently had three government seals 
 impressed on them, two on the face and one on the back. The engrav- 
 ing, in du Halde, gives no indication that there was any seal either on 
 the face or on the back of the notes, but in Du Halde's text it will be 
 remembered that he spoke of payment being made to mandarins and 
 to soldiers by giving them a piece of paper sealed with the Imperial 
 seal. He therefore furnishes a detached picture of the government 
 seal without stating that it was stamped upon the note. The back 
 of the note is also represented showing the panelling, but as in the 
 picture of the face of the same, the panel, which should contain the 
 ten strings of cash, is vacant. A translation of the inscriptions is 
 furnished showing phonetically in our alphabet what the Chinese words 
 are and also giving the French equivalents. What Du Halde says 
 about the rarity of these notes and about their being treasured and 
 hung up in the houses in China has already been stated. It depends 
 somewhat upon the date of the relations which treated of this note, 
 what the value of this observation amounts to. The Manchus suc- 
 ceeded the Mings about the middle of the seventeenth century. If 
 at that date these notes were thus treasured, it would tend to confirm 
 those who assert that the abandonment of paper money took place 
 under the Ming dynasty and not at the accession of the Manchus. 
 Any evidence that tends to determine the exact time when paper 
 money was abandoned and specie resumed is welcome.
 
 DAVIS. CERTAIN OLD CHINESE NOTES. 263 
 
 Chaudoir is authority for the statement that in 1842 there were 
 three one kwan notes of the Ming dynasty in The Imperial Academy 
 of Science at St. Petersburg, two in the museum and one in the 
 cabinet. He gave on his plates an engraved representation of one 
 of these with a single impression of the government seal in vermilion 
 on the lower panel. The picture of the ten strings of cash was given 
 in place on the face of the note, but the figure of the panel on the 
 back of the note which ought to contain these strings is left vacant. 
 The decoration of the border of the note is floral in character there 
 being nothing in the pattern that would at first sight suggest the 
 dragon patterns. The peculiarities of these particular representa- 
 tions are the single seal on the note and the lack of the picture of the 
 ten strings on the back. The floral pattern for the decoration of the 
 border is also unusual. 
 
 It is undoubtedly the case that the artists who have undertaken to 
 furnish complete and perfect copies of these notes have labored under 
 great disadvantages and have been obliged to make use of the imagina- 
 tion to fill in existing vacancies. The paper of which the notes are 
 made has little or no sizing, has never been calendered and is more 
 like a felt than a paper. On such a surface as this the impression 
 from the wood cut or stereotype plate of the bold Chinese characters 
 would be more distinct than the delicate ornamentation of the borders 
 and would prove to be more lasting when the note was subjected to 
 use. Such also would be the relative wearing capacity of the vermilion 
 government seals, especially when superimposed. The red ink did 
 not seem to have the same permanency of form as the black. It 
 preserved its color indefinitely, but apparently did not adhere closely 
 to the paper. On some of the badly worn specimens which have 
 been preserved there is scarce a trace of the red seals left. It may be 
 that the note which is delineated in Chaudoir originally had more 
 than one seal and it is probable that the engraver must have called 
 largely upon his imagination to restore the single seal that he gives, 
 and to depict the perfect ornamentation of the floral border. 
 
 Chaudoir makes the following statement relative to the notes which 
 have been preserved: "It seems that these notes, namely: those of 
 1000 cash, are the only ones that have come down to us, for according 
 to the statement of persons attached to the Russian Mission at Peking, 
 they do not know of any other even in China." 
 
 Col. Henry Yule in his edition of Polo's travels, 21 published in 
 
 21 The Book of Marco Polo, etc. London, Note to Ch. XXIV, 1, p. 414 
 
 (1875).
 
 264 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 
 
 1875, gives a reduced photographic picture of the face of one of these 
 notes, bearing two seals and adds that there was difficulty in making 
 a legible copy of the inscriptions on the seals. He asserts that he has 
 "never heard of the preservation of any note of the Mongols," but 
 adds that "some of the Ming survive and are highly valued as curi- 
 osities in China." He procured his picture at St. Petersburg. 
 
 Vissering in his work on Chinese currency gives a photographic 
 process picture of the face of a one kwan Ming note and also furnishes, 
 in black ink, drawings of the two red seals which originally were to be 
 found there. He confesses that the work of the engraver in construct- 
 ing a representation of the impression of the seals has not been without 
 its difficulties but he believes that the pictures of the impressions are 
 substantially correct. Vissering also went to St. Petersburg for his 
 note. 
 
 Edkins says that collectors obtain notes of the Mongol dynasty 
 from Japan and adds: 22 " Notes are found in the possession of Chinese 
 men of wealth. It is a rare thing to see them in shops. There is no 
 fixed price for those curious relics of the 13th and 14th centuries." 
 The statement that Mongol notes are obtained from Japan must pass 
 for what it is worth. There is no evidence of its truth at hand to-day. 
 It is curious, however, to note the time limitation which he puts when 
 he speaks of the prices of the notes. He absolutely excludes from 
 consideration all the earlier emissions. 
 
 T. Dyer Ball, a member of the civil service at Hong Kong, a resident 
 in China for upwards of forty years and the author of several books on 
 China, conceived the idea some years since of publishing a Chinese 
 common-place book, in which under alphabetical arrangement, in- 
 formation was furnished concerning selected topics touching on life 
 in China. 23 Under the title "Banks and Bank Notes," he tells what 
 he knows concerning old and new Chinese notes. He says: "The 
 earliest specimen known to exist in any country was purchased in 
 1890 by the British Museum, where it may be seen in the King's 
 Library placed under a glass case." 
 
 H. B. Morse, writing in 1908, said: 24 " I have been unable to obtain 
 
 a copy of a Mongol government note I give, however, a reduced 
 
 representation of a note for 1000 cash, issued by the first Ming Em- 
 peror, (Hung Wu, A.D., 1368-1398), who may be assumed to. have 
 followed closely the procedure and copied the forms of his predecessor." 
 
 22 Banking and Prices in China, p. 232. 
 
 23 Things Chinese, fourth Edition, p. 79 (1906). 
 
 24 The Trade and Administration of the Chinese Empire, p. 141.
 
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 l^liii 
 
 iif$ 
 
 *H# P irtii.i 
 
 iMp-'B 
 
 r.^WlS^^W' ' 
 
 Wfc* ' T^^ j'wf^si ,/'^X'/t. 
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 fi; .'if ; il 
 
 Mil : 
 
 One kwan note, Ming Dynasty. Emperor, T'ai Tsu; Period, 
 Hung Wu; A.D. 1368-1398. 
 
 Reproduced from the original, which is darker than this half-tone. 
 
 The paper measures 13^ by 8% inches; the impression, 12^ by 8J^ 
 inches. The note had the value given on the back and originally bore 
 two vermilion seals on the face and one on the back. 
 
 From the collection of Andrew McFarland Davis.

 
 DAVIS. CERTAIN OLD CHINESE NOTES. 265 
 
 In the "Imprint" (a publication of the American Bank-Note Co.) 
 for November, 1908, there is a photographic process picture of a 
 Chinese government note for one kwan. The note is there described 
 as a " Chinese Bank Note of the Ming Dynasty about 1400." 
 
 The numismatic manual published in 1911, by H. A. Ramsden, 
 President of the Yokohama Numismatical Society, was illustrated 
 with a flawless picture of a one kwan Ming note, every detail of the 
 ornamental border being represented in absolutely perfect condition. 
 Mr. Ramsden says with reference to this, " The reduced reproduction 
 figuring in Plate I of this Manual, was taken from a clear and genuine 
 specimen in my own collection and is consequently a true and faithful 
 copy of the original Notes themselves." This is probably true, so far 
 as the impression from the plate goes, but it must be remarked that 
 there is not a sign in the picture of the government seals. 
 
 The Numismatist, a New York illustrated monthly devoted to the 
 science of Numismatics, gives a process picture of the American Bank 
 Note Company's note in Vol. XXV, No. 5, May, 1912. 
 
 This review of the information to be culled from the works of the 
 most conspicuous writers on the subject of Chinese paper money as to 
 what they know about existing specimens has resulted in showing 
 that the one kwan note of the Ming dynasty, and of the period of 
 Hung Wu, is the only note made use of by these authors to illustrate 
 their works, and further has disclosed the fact that several of these 
 writers have frankly declared that so far as they knew, no other of 
 these old Chinese notes has been preserved. Ramsden intimates that 
 it would not be difficult to make a collection of Chinese notes, but when 
 it comes to illustrating his Manual he makes use of a one kwan Ming 
 note of the Hung Wu period. 
 
 The only writer other than Chinese who has furnished any pictorial 
 illustration of any other form of note than the one above mentioned 
 is Dr. S. W. Bushell, 25 who has given us through the publications of 
 the Peking Oriental Society, first, a representation of a fragment of a 
 wood-cut for a note of the second half of the twelfth century, second, 
 the full text of the inscriptions on a note issued in 1214, and finally 
 the picture of what appears to be the stereotype plate of a two hun- 
 dred cash note of the Ming dynasty, Hung Wu period. Dr. Bushell 
 asserts that this plate is an actual coin, and that the inscription on its 
 face shows that it belongs to the period of T'sung ChSn and to the 
 
 25 In a communication published in the Journal of the Peking Oriental 
 Society. 3, No. 4, pp. 308-312.
 
 266 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 
 
 year 1639. If the Doctor is correct, the value attached to the dates 
 on the face of these notes, to which implicit faith has been given as 
 indicating the period of their emission, will be greatly diminished, 
 for here we have what seems in the picture to be a Hung Wu note, 
 which is said to bear an inscription of a later date. Whatever it is, 
 whether note or coin, the illustration given by Dr. Bushell, in no 
 way contravenes or limits what was said about the one kwan notes 
 of that particular period being the only existing notes at command 
 of illustrators, since Dr. Bushell says that he extracted what he 
 furnishes concerning the Ming note from a Chinese work, the Chi Chin 
 So Chien Lu, and further the text of the note of 1214 given by the 
 Doctor is also taken from a Chinese book. 
 
 TWELVE OLD CHINESE NOTES AND FOUR OF THE TAE PING REBEL- 
 LION PERIOD. 
 
 I have already stated the circumstances connected with my acquisi- 
 tion of the first of these Chinese notes. This particular note, it will be 
 remembered, was described as " mounted on limp board with embroid- 
 ered work at back." My examination of the authorities treating of 
 Chinese notes disclosed to me the meaning of this mounting, which was 
 all the more plain when, on receiving the note, I found that the 
 "embroidered work at back" proved to be Chinese brocade. It was 
 evident that I had received one of those notes of which the Jesuit 
 fathers wrote, according to Du Halde, that they are hung up "as a 
 rarity to the chief beam of the house, the people and even of the 
 quality being so as to imagine that it preserves them from all mischief." 
 Notwithstanding the loss of opportunity to inspect the back of the 
 note through the mounting on limp board, the added interest given 
 to the specimen from the fact that it had actually hung upon the 
 walls of a Chinese house, possibly for two or three centuries, was more 
 than a compensation. 
 
 My examination of the authorities who had written upon the sub- 
 ject of Chinese paper money had shown me that government notes had 
 already been in use certainly between five and six hundred years, and 
 perhaps longer, when the specimen that was in my possession was 
 emitted. Concerning existing specimens I had ascertained that 
 outside the collections of Chinese men of means, there were none other 
 known than the one kwan Ming note emitted somewhere about 1375.
 
 DAVIS. CERTAIN OLD CHINESE NOTES. 267 
 
 Moreover, it was plain from the pains taken by the North China Herald 
 to trace the ownership of specimens of those notes, that even in China, 
 it was a matter of interest, among the English residents, to follow up 
 the destination of such specimens, in the evident belief that they were 
 the only existing representatives of the great paper money experience 
 of China in early days, which were likely to be found outside Chinese 
 collections. 
 
 In the year 1912, my interest was greatly stimulated by receiving 
 by mail a cutting from the Sunday New York Sun of an article on 
 Chinese paper money, which was illustrated by a picture of a one kwan 
 Ming note, having the legend on the vertical panels enclosing the 
 characters which state the denominational value of the note and also 
 enclosing the pictorial representation of the ten strings of cash, written 
 in ordinary Chinese instead of square seal characters. My efforts to 
 ascertain whether this was a picture of an actual note or if it was from 
 a drawing, in which the artist had substituted a translation for the 
 ancient seal characters proved fruitless. I was, however, told from the 
 Sun office that the original came from and was returned to the Ameri- 
 can Bank Note Company. The photograph of the note in possession 
 of that company shows that their note does not differ in any way 
 from the ordinary one kwan Ming note described by Morse; depicted 
 by Chaudoir; a sketch of which is given by Du Halde; and of which 
 so many photographic copies can readily be obtained. The proba- 
 bility that the substitution of ordinary characters for square seal 
 characters in this inscription was the work of a draughtsman and that 
 there was no note bearing the inscription in ordinary characters is 
 strongly reinforced by the fact that Chaudoir says that " in all poste- 
 rior emissions" that is, after the one kwan note was put forth by 
 Hung Wu the form of that note was preserved, "for," says he, 
 " the minister of finance having asked the Emperor Tching Tsou in 
 1403 to change the form of the eight tchouan characters [the square 
 seal] could not obtain permission." 
 
 In the summer of 1914, 1 met at York Harbor, an English gentleman, 
 Mr. James Orange, who had spent many years in China, who had 
 collaborated with a friend in the publication of an illustrated work 
 on certain specimens of Chinese porcelain and who himself was evi- 
 dently an authority on matters which interest the ordinary collector. 
 My interest being keen on the subject of the notes, I asked him if he 
 had any. He told me that he had not, but that a friend of his in 
 London, Mr. A. W. Bahr, had a number, some of which were very 
 old. Mr. Bahr had himself lived many years in China, was in 1910
 
 268 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 
 
 Hon. Secretary of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic 
 Society, and had in 1911 published a volume entitled "Old Chinese 
 Porcelain and Works of Art in China," a work which was beautifully 
 illustrated and which was in substance a catalogue of an exhibition 
 held in Shanghai, November, 1908. In his preface to this work Mr. 
 Bahr acknowledges his indebtedness to Mr. James Orange for aid in 
 running the volume through the press. 
 
 It will readily be understood that the mere gain of knowledge where 
 some of these notes were lodged, was an advance for me and that I 
 gladly availed myself of the opportunity thus afforded to secure 
 through Mr. Orange's intermediation some knowledge of what the 
 notes owned by Mr. Bahr actually were. On his part Mr. Orange 
 readily undertook the correspondence with the result that he after- 
 ward furnished me with a list of the notes in Mr. Bahr's possession 
 and ultimately offered them to me at a price which he regarded as 
 reasonable. Having full confidence in both of these gentlemen I 
 purchased the notes. 
 
 In the course of my correspondence with Mr. Orange he quoted 
 from Mr. Bahr's letter to him as follows : 
 
 "I may remark that the two Tang notes are very rare and scarce. I know 
 of no others in existence; as well as the one of the West Liao Tartar dynasty. 
 For anyone interested in these things they will realize it is a unique oppor- 
 tunity I guarantee them to be absolutely authentic and genuine. You 
 
 will remember the paper of the Tang notes is quite light in colour, soft to the 
 touch, and as a paper perfectly made; the Sung and Liao are also of nearly a 
 similar quality, but have been darkened by age, or they may originally have 
 been of a grayish colour. Later ones are of a stiffer paper and more resembling 
 the Chinese paper used now; for instance, the earliest notes can be crumpled 
 into a ball in the hand and hardly a crease found when stretched." 
 
 Concerning Mr. Bahr's capacity to judge of the notes, Mr. Orange 
 wrote, " I consider Mr. Bahr one of the best, if not the [best], experts 
 on Chinese matters, speaking and reading the language perfectly, 
 he has the power of acquiring which others must lack." 
 
 Mr. Bahr himself in writing to me said, "I fully guarantee these 
 eighteen notes to be quite authentic as to the periods they are de- 
 scribed, as I have had good opportunities during my thirty-two years' 
 residence in China to differentiate the right from the wrong ones " 
 
 Thinking that there might possibly be something of interest in the 
 story of the acquisition of the notes in China, I wrote Mr. Bahr asking 
 him to tell me where and how he happened upon them. He replied :
 
 Nine kwan note of the Tang Dynasty. Emperor, Wu Tsung; Period, 
 Hwei Ch'ang; A.D. 841-847. Reproduced from the original. 
 
 The paper measures lOJ^ by 7 inches ; the impression, 9 J^ by 5J4 inches. 
 The red seals are not photographically accurate. 
 
 From the collection of Andrew McFarland Davis.
 
 DAVIS. CERTAIN OLD CHINESE NOTES. 
 
 269 
 
 "Regarding how these Notes came into my possession, I am sorry to say 
 that it was not in a very romantic manner that they were secured, as they 
 were purchased by a dealer in antique coins, etc. in Shanghai from a family 
 at Soo-Chow (a provincial city about 200 miles from Shanghai) who had them 
 in their possession, they say, for two or three generations. This refers to the 
 Tang, Sung, and Liao Notes. The Ming notes, as well as those of the Ching 
 period, were purchased from separate sources, from an old bookseller in Peking. 
 I had these Notes, at the time of the purchase, carefully looked over by most 
 of the old and rare book experts in Shanghai and they were all unanimous that 
 the Notes were absolutely genuine of the periods represented. These men 
 of course, understand the papers that were used in the various periods, the 
 printing, etc. through their intercourse with the early books of China 
 
 I may remark before closing that a Mr. P. Petrucci, an authority in Paris 
 of Chinese Painting, and also a Chinese scholar, who saw these notes, after 
 carefully examining them, expressed them to be in his opinion quite authentic 
 and said he thought the Tang paper was manufactured very probably from 
 bamboo pulp." 
 
 The following is a list of the notes furnished by Mr. Orange : 
 
 Particulars of old Chinese Bank Notes: 
 
 Tang Dynasty 
 West Liao Tartar 
 
 Dynasty 
 Sung Dynasty 
 Ming Dynasty 
 Ming Dynasty 
 Ching Dynasty 
 
 Emperor King Chang A.D. 841/6 
 
 Emperor Hsian Ching 
 Emperor Chien Tao 
 Emperor Hung Wu 
 Emperor Hung Tsi 
 Emperor Hien Feng 
 
 A.D. 1136/41 
 A.D. 1165/73 
 A.D. 1368/98 
 A.D. 1425/26 
 A.D. 1851/61 
 
 2 notes 
 
 1 note 
 
 2 notes 
 
 3 notes 
 6 notes 
 
 4 notes 
 
 During Tae Ping rebellion. 
 
 ABOUT THE NOTES THEMSELVES. 
 
 The two Tang notes are both of them yellow in color. The paper 
 is light and flexible, having little or no sizing. The denominations 
 are expressed pictorially in shoes of silver, but the Chinese characters 
 indicating the denomination are interpreted to mean "kwans." The 
 kwan was the equivalent of 10 strings of copper cash, or of one tael or 
 ounce of silver. The term "sycee" which is used by Ramsden as 
 the equivalent of " shoe of silver " is used by Morse to express silver 
 itself thus he says "shoe of sycee." The shoes of which Morse 
 spoke weighed about 50 taels, but he also referred to "obvoid 
 lumps" of silver in circulation, weighing up to two or three taels.
 
 270 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 
 
 The pictorial representation of value must refer to these rather than 
 to the 50 tael shoes. 
 
 The vermilion seals on these notes were apparently printed on the 
 paper before the impression of the note itself was taken in black 
 ink. They are in fairly good condition, being in fact so well preserved 
 that by making use of both notes they could readily be reconstructed 
 by an engraver. There would be little or no call for him to use his 
 imagination. The paper of the two notes is not of exactly the same 
 size. The exterior lines of the impressions measure 9| X 5j inches. 
 
 Ramsden translates the heading to the notes : " Great T'ang Gen- 
 eral Use Treasure Paper Money." The interpretation of these seal 
 characters by Mr. Drew " Great Tang dynasty circulating precious 
 note" is identical in substance. The characters at the right side of 
 the note in the border panel read " For universal circulation through- 
 out the Empire"; those on the left "To be universally accepted." 
 The six vertical rows of characters at the bottom, contain first an 
 announcement of the dynasty and the department of the government 
 authorized by imperial authority to issue the note; second, a state- 
 ment that the note is to circulate on the same footing as silver all over 
 the country for the convenience of the people; third, that the penalty 
 for counterfeiting is death by beheading; fourth, that a reward will 
 be given the person who brings in the counterfeiter, in the case of the 
 one kwan note, of two hundred and sixty taels, in the case of the nine 
 kwan note of seven hundred and fifty taels ; and, finally, if any person 
 knowingly conceals the counterfeiting he shall be punished the same 
 as the counterfeiter. Then follow r s the name of the emperor, or the 
 particular period of the reign, if the reign was thus divided, fol- 
 lowed by the characters representing year, month, day, the 
 particular year, month and day being filled in with a brush when the 
 note was issued. These specific dates put on by a brush, very soon 
 wore off when the note was in use, but the custom that prevailed for an 
 emperor to break his reign up into periods and designate every few 
 years a new group of consecutive years by a new title, enables us to 
 place the emission of any of the old chinese notes within a few years. 
 The entire reign of an emperor is indeed near enough for our purposes. 
 In this particular case the period Hwei Ch'ang is given on the notes. 
 It happens however that the reign of the Emperor Wu Tsung covered 
 the same period, namely 841-847. It will thus be seen that we can 
 fix within six years the date of the emission of these notes. 
 
 The decorative pattern of the border at the top is made up of the 
 dragon pattern; at the bottom of conventional waves; and at the 
 sides on the lower half of conventional representations of clouds.
 
 Three kwan note, Western Liao Dynasty. Emperor, Kan T'ien 
 How; Period, HienTs'ing; A.D. 1136-1142. Reproduced from the 
 original, which is, however, somewhat darker than this half-tone. 
 
 The paper measures 9^8 by 7% inches ; the impression, 7^ 
 by 4% inches. 
 
 The vestiges of the impressions of two government seals in ver- 
 milion can be traced on the face of the note. 
 
 From the collection of Andrew McFarland Davis.
 
 DAVIS. CERTAIN OLD CHINESE NOTES. 271 
 
 The note of 650 A.D., of which we have a pictorial representation in 
 Chuan Pu Tung Chih, was emitted at a period so far back in historical 
 period that there was no England in existence under that name. The 
 two Tang notes that we have just considered were in circulation in 
 China during the childhood of Alfred the Great, at a period in history 
 so far back that Scott did not venture to seek in those times for a hero 
 for one of his romances. The contrast between the cultivated condi- 
 tions of a society which could make use of paper money, in any form 
 or in any manner, and which could also have produced such admirable 
 specimens of workmanship and art, as are preserved for us in these 
 notes, with English life at the same date, when the government then 
 being evolved was in its infancy; when there was neither paper nor 
 block printing in use; nor could there be found anywhere save possibly 
 in some monastery any person who could read or write, does not need 
 that we should dwell upon it. The more one thinks of it, the more 
 the wonder grows. It seems incredible. 
 
 The Western Liao three kwan note was issued in the period 1136- 
 1142. The decorations of the border are perfunctory in the extreme. 
 It was emitted through the Board of Revenue to be used for general 
 military purposes. The penalty for counterfeiting was decapitation 
 and the reward for the arrest of the counterfeiter 500 taels silver. 
 Mr. Bahr expressed some doubt as to whether the color of the note 
 might not have changed. Ramsden gives the prescribed color for 
 some of the emissions; in the case of this particular emission the 
 designated color was blue. It is a fair presumption that some effort 
 was made to have the notes of a given issue uniform in appearance. 
 The distinctive dark color of the paper of this note makes it quite 
 effective but it would not seem that it could ever have been of a blue 
 tint. The marks of the two seals on the face of the note are still 
 apparent though the separate seal characters of the inscription on the 
 seals are totally obliterated. The paper of the notes measures 9f by 
 7| inches. The impression of the note itself, 7f by 4f inches. 
 
 The two Sung notes are of the same color as the Liao note. Rams- 
 den says of these also that the prescribed color was blue. The period 
 of the emission was 1165-1173. The impressions of the wood cut on 
 the notes measure in the one case 8| by 5 j inches, in the other 9 by 5j 
 inches. The paper has about three eighths of an inch margin all 
 around. The decoration of the border is inartistic and conventional. 
 The notes were emitted by the Board of Civil Offices. They were 
 for general circulation and were to be of equal value with copper 
 cash. The counterfeiter was to be punished by decapitation and the 
 person who arrested a counterfeiter was to be rewarded, in the case of
 
 272 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 
 
 the 70 kwan note with eleven hundred taels of silver; in the case of 
 the 100 kwan note, with fourteen hundred taels. If local officers con- 
 doned or concealed counterfeiters they would be subject to punish- 
 ment. The traces of the two government seals on the face of the 
 notes are quite evident. 
 
 The Ming one kwan note of the period 1368-1398 has already been 
 fully described, it being the note translated by Morse. 
 
 The six notes of the Ming dynasty and of the period 1425-1426 are 
 printed on paper of substantially the same color as the Liao and Sung 
 notes. Ramsden says that the prescribed color was blue black. The 
 denominations are 10, 20, 30, 70, 90 and 100 wen the wen being 
 the copper cash. They were therefore of small value and were in- 
 tended for general circulation. The paper is uniformly four inches in 
 width, but the notes vary from 10 to 10| inches in length. The im- 
 pressions on the notes vary slightly in length, running from 9 to 
 8f inches in length, but having a uniform width of 3f inches. They 
 were defined to be War period notes and were emitted on petition of 
 the Grand Council, for military purposes. The counterfeiter was to be 
 decapitated. The reward for the informer or arrester was for the 10 
 cash note 11 taels silver; for the 20 cash note 13 taels silver; for the 
 30 cash note 15 taels silver; for the 70 cash note, 23 taels; for the 90 
 cash note, 27 taels; and for the 100 cash note, 29 taels. The deco- 
 rations of the border are of the same inferior character as those of the 
 Liao and Sung notes. 
 
 The four notes emitted under the Ching dynasty during the Tae 
 Ping troubles (1851-1862) are curiosities but cannot be classed as 
 antiquities. The one tael and the five tael notes each have five 
 dragons in the border ornamentation. The 500 wen and 2000 wen 
 notes each make use of two dragons in the decorative treatment of the 
 border. The paper is white and is sized. The notes are printed in 
 blue, although some of the characters are stamped in black ink and 
 in the dates the brush is used. There are several government seals. 
 Morse, in his article in the Journal of the North China Branch of the 
 Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. XXXVIII, 1907, says of these notes: 
 "From A.D. 1403, it may be said, or at any rate from some time in 
 the reign of Yung-lo (A.D. 1403-1425) there were no fiduciary issues 
 by the government, either of the Ming or the Tsing, until we come to 
 the troubled times of Hien-feng (A.D. 1851-1861) when the necessi- 
 ties of the Treasury drove it to this method of replenishing its depleted 
 reserves." He then quotes from Bushell, a detailed description of 
 the notes, and a statement that they depreciated so rapidly that in
 
 _ Seventy kwan note, Sung Dynasty. Emperor, Hiao Tsung; Period, 
 K'ien Tao: A.D. 1165-1174. Reproduced from the original, which is 
 darker than this half-tone. 
 
 The paper measures 9^ by 5% inches; the impression, 8% by 5% 
 inches. 
 
 The marks of two vermilion seals can be seen on the face of the note. 
 
 From the collection of Andrew McFarland Davis.
 
 DAVIS. CERTAIN OLD CHINESE NOTES. 273 
 
 1861 they were sold by Dutch auction in the streets of Peking at a 
 discount of 97 per cent. 
 
 WHAT CHINESE HISTORIANS SAY OF THE NOTES. 
 
 Our examination of the notes themselves has brought to our atten- 
 tion certain features connected with the respective emissions of 
 which they are representative. There remains, however, to be con- 
 sidered, the information which may be acquired from the accounts 
 of the Chinese historians, as to the functions of the notes, as to their 
 fluctuations, and as to the character of the support received by them 
 from the government from time to time. 
 
 The numismatic manual of Ramsden is the only one among all the 
 works cited, so arranged as to give off-hand any idea of the chronology 
 of the emissions. The fact that the empire was at times administered 
 as a whole and at other times broken up into two or more governments, 
 all of which simultaneously emitted notes, is likely to produce much 
 confusion in the mind of an investigator, who is not familiar with the 
 eras of the dynasties and the areas under their respective control. 
 The dynastic arrangement by Ramsden, of his manual, relieves this 
 confusion somewhat and the simultaneous parallelism of the emission 
 of different dynasties thereby disclosed accounts for some of the 
 perplexities occasioned by the statements of Chinese writers. It is 
 obvious that the student who found in Chaudoir that in 1168 copper 
 plates were first made use of for printing notes, wood cuts alone up to 
 that time having served that purpose, would be surprised when he 
 found on the third page thereafter, the statement made that in 1277, 
 the Mongols first made use of copper plates in substitution for the 
 wood cuts from which they had previously printed the notes. If 
 however he were familiar with Chinese history, he would realize that 
 the Mongol conquerors had merely adopted at that date a practice 
 that they found in use by their more cultivated neighbors whose 
 territory they had invaded. This single illustration will show that 
 one who undertakes to examine this subject even if he follows in the 
 footsteps of European interpreters, needs to have some knowledge of 
 chinese history, would he comprehend clearly what he is dealing with. 
 
 Again, it must not be forgotten that in attempting to discover 
 through chinese records the various experiences of China during this 
 long period of the use of paper money, we are compelled to struggle 
 against the difficulties interposed by a language which is not easy to
 
 274 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 
 
 translate. If we turn to one of the Chinese titles already quoted, 
 we find that the same characters are interpreted by different scholars 
 in one case, to mean "Antiquarian Researches" and in another to 
 read " General Examination of Records and Scholars." 
 
 In the January number of the Atlantic Monthly there is an article 
 entitled "Secret Annals of the Manchu Court," contributed by two 
 well known English sinologues, Messrs. Backhouse and Bland. In this 
 article they quote the title of a work, as "Reminiscences of a Time 
 of Suspicion and Panic." A foot-note announces that the literal 
 translation of this title is "Monkey-like Suspicions and Panic at the 
 Cry of a Bird." Periphrasis of this sort may in a general way be 
 typical, but such a wide variation as this from the literal must be 
 uncommon, and is introduced merely to show one of the difficulties 
 met by the translator. 
 
 We have seen that Chaudoir says that copper plates were first 
 used by the Mongols in 1277. Saburo, writing about the Mongol 
 notes says : " At first the printing machines were made of wood, but 
 in the 13th year [1276] it [sic] was replaced by machines made of copper 
 or brass." It is to be presumed that the wooden printing machines 
 of Saburo were the wood cuts from which the notes were printed, 
 while the copper machines were the plates which we have learned 
 elsewhere were introduced by the Mongols about this time. 
 
 It is stated that Edkins the author of "Banking and Prices in 
 China," was called upon by Sir Robert Hart to translate into chinese 
 a regulation concerning goods passing over the bar at the mouth of a 
 river. He effected the translation, but made use of the chinese 
 character for bar which is associated with cocktails, thus putting in 
 force a customs regulation on goods of quite another character from 
 what was intended. 
 
 These illustrations bring fairly before us the obstacles encountered 
 by one who seeks to render in English an equivalent for sentences 
 expressed by chinese characters, whether arising from mentality, from 
 the necessity for periphrastic rendering, from lack of acute perceptive 
 faculties or from deficiency of analytical capacity. 
 
 Still another obvious difficulty lies in the records themselves. Some 
 of these chinese histories upon which we rely were written hundreds 
 of years ago and they in turn were based upon records and official 
 documents, many of them dating back several centuries before the 
 day of the historians. Now, it would be unreasonable to expect 
 to find among these officials and historians, experts so trained in the 
 analysis of events as to seize in their narrative, upon the exact points
 
 One hundred kwan note. Sung Dynasty. Emperor, Hiao Tsung; 
 Period, K'ien Tao; A.D. 116.5-1174. 
 
 Reproduced from the original, which is darker than this half-tone. 
 The paper measures 9% by 6% inches; the impression, 9 by 6 inches. 
 The traces of two vermilion seals distinctly visible on the face of the 
 
 note. 
 
 From the collection of Andrew McFarland Davis.
 
 DAVIS. CERTAIN OLD CHINESE NOTES. 275 
 
 which are of value to the economist to-day, and to express themselves 
 so as to satisfy fully the demands of the modern investigator. We are 
 compelled to take the records as we find them, and interpret them, as 
 best we may, through the test of subsequent historical experiences. 
 We may feel reasonably sure that the translators have given us a fairly 
 accurate version of the Chinese text, especially when we find a con- 
 sensus of meaning in the papers of different translators. If we reflect 
 that the records with which we are dealing at the beginning of the 
 Chinese paper money experience cover dates six and a half centuries 
 and perhaps more before Columbus made his first voyage across the 
 Atlantic, we shall not be disposed to demand too much of thesechinese 
 historians and officials in the way of exact statements. 
 
 The several writers who have undertaken to furnish us with knowl- 
 edge of these Chinese records unite with a single exception, in saying 
 that the first experience of the Chinese government in the emission of 
 paper money occurred about 806 A.D. That exception throws the 
 date of the inception of the experience back about one hundred and 
 fifty years. The question whether the true date is 650 A.D. or 806 
 A.D. is of slight consequence to us. There is nothing improbable in 
 the statement that the earlier is the true date, but the later has proved 
 to be the one usually accepted as authentic, for although very little 
 is known of the notes then emitted, the causes which led to the emis- 
 sion have been fully portrayed. Interior troubles, continuous wars, 
 a reduction in the output of the mines, and the amount of copper used 
 by the Buddhists in casting statues, led to the total disparition of the 
 metal itself and of the copper coins. Edicts were issued against the 
 use of copper in the manufacture of domestic utensils. Merchants 
 were ordered to bring their metallic currency to the treasury, in 
 exchange for which so-called bonds or letters of exchange payable at 
 short terms in the principal districts of the empire were given them. 
 
 These obligations were called "light money" or as Klaproth more 
 picturesquely translates it "flying money." They apparently had 
 but a brief life at the capital, but in the provinces continued to circu- 
 late for some time. Other emissions followed under the different 
 emperors, some of which were for the nominal purpose of saving to 
 merchants the transportation from place to place, in settlement of 
 debts, of the copper currency on which the country depended as a 
 measure of value. Most, if not all, of these emissions had names. 
 In one case we have seen that the appropriate designation of " flying 
 money" was given them. In another they were called "convenient 
 money." The fitness of this title will be appreciated when it is stated
 
 276 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICA!* ACADEMY. 
 
 that at times and especially in the outlying provinces, where there 
 was a scarcity of copper money, iron money was also made use of as 
 a circulating medium. 
 
 It is evident that at first there was no conception that the govern- 
 ment could maintain a purely credit currency. There was appar- 
 ently no thought of gain in the transaction. The alleged purpose was 
 to save merchants the expense of transporting the cumbrous copper or 
 iron money, which lay at the base of the currency. Nor had they 
 conceived of a demand note. The first notes were said to be for 
 "short terms." Another emission at a latter date was said to be for 
 twenty-two three-year terms redeemable at the end of 65 years. 
 Apparently, at the end of each three years, the notes could be presented 
 for redemption. It is said that this system was originally inaugurated 
 by merchants, who furnished a private currency of their own, on these 
 terms, and it is stated that after a few years the accumulation of 
 outstanding notes which had not been presented for redemption, for 
 the protection of which they had not maintained an adequate reserve, 
 proved too much for the merchants, and being unable to protect the 
 notes, they became bankrupt. Thereupon the government stepped 
 in, forbade the emission of notes by private citizens, itself emitted 
 notes on the same basis as that devised by the merchants and it is 
 asserted with the same result. It would seem as though the failure to 
 provide the funds for the redemption of these notes might better be at- 
 tributed to lack of business foresight than to inflation. The notes were 
 a convenience and so long as the people had confidence in them they 
 were not presented for redemption at the end of the terms. Statistics 
 are furnished from time to time which serve to show that this was the 
 case. There were for instance afloat in 1032 more than 1 .256.340 kwan 
 of these 65 year notes. In 1072, Chaudoir says the 17th term of pay- 
 ment had arrived and only notes to the extent of 6540 kwan had been 
 redeemed. The final redemption was not far away. The government 
 was absolutely unable to procure enough metallic money to effect 
 this redemption. New notes were therefore prepared, running for 
 twenty-five terms of three years each, and holders of the old were 
 ordered to exchange them for the new, the option of a redemption 
 being, nominally at least, offered them. 
 
 These three-year notes running from twenty-two to twenty-six 
 terms held the field for some time, but in the course of events experi- 
 ments were made with notes having other terms. We hear of one 
 year notes, of those having seven-year terms, of ten-year terms, and 
 of notes of forty-three one-year terms whose value was expressed in
 
 DAVIS. CERTAIN OLD CHINESE NOTES. 277 
 
 silver. To further the circulation of these latter notes, which were of 
 large denominations, it was ordained that in all payments exceeding 
 ten kwans, use should be made of notes to the extent of at least one 
 half. The career of these silver notes was short, the depreciation 
 rapid, and the total disappearance from circulation a matter of but 
 a few years. Failure of the government to provide for their redemp- 
 tion is the alleged cause, but the rapidity of the decline suggests 
 inflation. 
 
 So far as it might be revealed by an examination of the phraseology 
 of the inscriptions upon certain actual notes, and also upon a few of 
 the representations of notes in the Chinese numismatical work which 
 has been referred to, there was no effort made to inform the holder 
 of the note, whether it was a seven-year, a three-year, or a one-year 
 note, or indeed whether it was redeemable at any time or at any place. 
 It is difficult to conceive, how the currency of notes could have been 
 affected by failure on the part of the government to provide redemp- 
 tions if no such agreement was to be found on the face of the note. 
 The specimens and the pictorial representations, with their inscrip- 
 tions to the effect that they were to be received as so much copper or 
 so much silver, closely resemble in substance, though not of course 
 in appearance, the fiat-money made use of in Massachusetts during 
 the first half of the eighteenth century. 
 
 The temptation is strong to assert on the strength of this examina- 
 tion that there were no notes containing a redemption clause. Bushell, 
 however, translates an inscription on a Kin note of 1214, to the effect 
 that it was redeemable at certain offices, and Saburo quoting from a 
 Chinese historian also asserts that certain of the Kin notes were 
 redeemable on demand. These notes were emitted by the Tartars 
 during their participation in the contest with the Southern Sung 
 dynasty. 
 
 It is not of importance to follow the meagre details of the various 
 emissions placed at our command by Chinese historians. It is not 
 possible to fix the time when the government awoke to the fact that 
 they could in an emergency emit an unsecured and unprotected paper 
 currency at will. A versatile nation would have made the experiment 
 long before the Chinese did, but this people were fixed in their habits 
 and followed year after year and century after century the customs 
 of their ancestors. It is evident, however, that under pressure of wars 
 and the need of money to purchase supplies and to pay the soldiers, 
 fiat-money was finally issued, only to be followed by depreciation and 
 monetary troubles. Morse says, " For the twelfth and the first half of
 
 278 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 
 
 the thirteenth centuries the country was divided between the Southern 
 Sung and the Golden Dynasty of Niichen Tartars, and both ran a mad 
 race in the issue of assignats." He then quotes from Klaproth certain 
 details concerning an emission in 1131 A.D. for the purpose of furnish- 
 ing money to the soldiers, which was evidently a fiat-currency. Con- 
 cerning the details of these emissions and the description of the notes 
 emitted there is some fragmentary information, but not enough for a 
 continuous, intelligent narrative. 
 
 From 1260 to 1329, inclusive, Chaudoir gives a table of the emis- 
 sions. The table, however, does not furnish details as to the reduction 
 in the amount in circulation during the same period through redemp- 
 tion. The statement is made that the last emission of notes during 
 this long protracted period of the use of paper money was made in 
 1455, but if so the notes then emitted must have remained in circu- 
 lation for years after this date, as we find provision made for their 
 reception in payments to the government as late as 1489. 
 
 Saburo gives some details concerning an experiment made by the 
 Manchus in 1651 in the w r ay of emitting notes, which was continued 
 for ten years and then abandoned. So far as it goes this seems to 
 corroborate the idea that by that time paper money had actually 
 become forgotten so that the attempt at its revival by the invaders 
 proved to be ineffectual. 
 
 Following the slender narrative of events during these centuries it is 
 clear that from time to time reckless rulers acting under bad advice 
 sought to provide for temporary financial emergencies by such over- 
 whelming emissions of government notes that they were brought into 
 disrepute and in some instances were depreciated to such an extent 
 as to become almost valueless. From these pitfalls the government 
 was occasionally released by the conservatism of some intelligent 
 emperor who listened to those advisers who insisted that the trouble 
 lay with the government and not with the people and that a reduction 
 of the amount of notes in circulation would relieve the situation. Ma- 
 twan-lin, the old Chinese author already referred to, occasionally in- 
 dulged in moralizing upon the situation. Vissering was struck with 
 the value of his observations and what Benadakis said of him : " He 
 knows the true theory of money and of paper and what he has written 
 on the subject is striking in its precision and good sense," has already 
 been quoted, but is worthy of repetition. 
 
 Chinese historians apparently relied for their facts upon documents 
 filed in the archives, and these records were made up very largely 
 of discussions carried on by the advisers of the throne cabinet
 
 Ten wen note, Ming Dynasty. Emperor, 
 Jen Tsung; Period, Hung Hi; A.D. 1425, 
 1426. Reproduced from the original, which 
 is darker than this half-tone. 
 
 The paper measures 10J4 by 4 inches; 
 the impression, 8 7 /s by 3% inches. 
 
 The marks of two vermilion seals faintly 
 to be seen on face of note. 
 
 From the collection of Andrew McFarland Davis.
 
 DAVIS. CERTAIN OLD CHINESE NOTES. 279 
 
 meetings we should call them. A petition is presented, let us say for 
 the emission of more notes or perhaps for the extension of the area 
 within which certain of the notes were allowed to circulate; or, again, 
 perhaps the emperor may call attention to the evil condition of the 
 currency. After this there follows a discussion of the subject thus 
 raised. The opinion of each of the advisers present and speaking is 
 preserved in the archives and if the historian thinks it worth while 
 is handed down to posterity in his book. 
 
 Saburo quotes from a petition in the twelfth century, in which the 
 petitioner sets forth his opinions as to the causes of the depreciation 
 of the notes and points out the fact that the notes being easily torn and 
 defaced, the people prefer to keep in their possession the copper cash, 
 and consequently get rid of the paper money and hoard the metallic 
 coins. He then adds : " Now that the government has known only the 
 necessity to issue the note and has not known the advisability of redeem- 
 ing them, is the reason why the value of cash is daily enhanced and the 
 note is depreciated proportionally. Hence it is clear that the depreci- 
 ation of the notes is not created by the people, but it is the govern- 
 ment themselves who have created it, and nothing is more consis- 
 tent, in the opinion of this petitioner, than to withdraw part of the 
 notes from circulation, the amount of notes corresponding to the 
 excess in issue, so that in the alternate process of issue and withdrawal, 
 the people may become trained to perceive the necessity of the use 
 of paper and attach value to it, but if it be attempted to check the 
 depreciation of the notes by means of a new issue, not only will it 
 never accomplish the object but it is much to be feared that the notes 
 newly issued will soon share in the same lot as the old ones." Whether 
 the confusion of thought and expression in the foregoing is to be 
 attributed to Saburo or to the petitioner, it is at any rate evident 
 that the underlying opinion of the latter was that inflation was the 
 cause of the depreciation, and that the remedy was a reduction of the 
 amount in circulation, and a restoration of confidence by redemption. 
 
 Another writer quoted by Saburo says that "the greatest evil of 
 the administration of the paper currency consists in too much inflation 
 and the absence of contraction. This is so much the case that un- 
 limited issue coupled with no withdrawal is often the result. It is 
 too late to discuss the renewing of the issue when the paper is already 
 beginning to fall. The people are choked with it and the paper is 
 speedily depreciated." 
 
 There are numerous recorded opinions indicating that there were 
 from time to time Chinese statesmen of the class of those just quoted,
 
 280 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 
 
 who appreciated the dangers incident to the emission of fiat money 
 by the government, and who announced the opinion not only that the 
 amount must be proportioned to the needs of the people but that 
 provision must be made for redemptions at promised periods and 
 places. 
 
 Arbitrary methods were resorted to in order to maintain the 
 currency in circulation. Edicts were issued making it compulsory to 
 receive paper currency in payment of debts, and forbidding the 
 hoarding of the metallic currency. At other times it was provided 
 that in making payments a certain proportion should be paid in paper 
 money. An avenue for the use of the paper currency was at times 
 afforded through their reception by the government for taxes, but the 
 policy in this regard was not uniform. They were sometimes received 
 in full payment, sometimes in part payment and sometimes not at all. 
 
 As far back as the first note of which we have any representation, 
 there was on the face of the note an announcement that he who 
 counterfeited the note would be subject to the penalty of decapitation. 
 There was also a statement that a reward would be given for the arrest 
 of the counterfeiter. The penalty of decapitation for the counter- 
 feiter seems to have been constant, but the reward for the informer 
 varied with the size of the note, and was doubtless influenced by the 
 temper of the ruler, as well as by the activity of the counterfeiters. 
 On some of the notes threats are hurled against officials who conceal 
 or condone such offenders. At other times, the efforts seemed to be 
 directed towards finding out the real offenders rather than punishing 
 accessories and it was announced in connection with one emission that 
 " accomplices as well as those who attempt to conceal the act will on 
 confessing the fact be pardoned and be allowed to hold official employ- 
 ment." 
 
 Perhaps the most original suggestion in connection with the various 
 discussions concerning counterfeits, occurred during the Sung dynasty 
 after a large seizure of counterfeit money had been made, during the 
 discussion as to what should be done with the counterfeiters. One 
 adviser said that the customary policy of beheading the criminal and 
 destroying the counterfeits was a mistake. "If," said he, "you put 
 the official stamp on that counterfeited paper, it will be just as good 
 as genuine paper, and if you punish these men only with tattooing, 
 and circulate these notes, it is exactly as if you saved each day 300000 
 copper cash together with fifty lives." The writer says the suggestion 
 was adopted. 
 
 The change from wood-cut to stereotype plate could never have
 
 DAVIS. CERTAIN OLD CHINESE NOTES. 281 
 
 meant much. The one kwan Ming notes of the period 1368-1398 
 are the only notes which permit of comparison, one with another, and 
 hence furnish foundation for an opinion as to their thorough uni- 
 formity. There are enough of these, however, accessible for such a 
 purpose, both by actual comparison of the notes themselves with each 
 other, and also with the photographic process pictures made use of in 
 illustration of books, to permit the expression of an opinion that there 
 are well established variations in the different specimens. 
 
 We have already seen what books contain pictorial representations 
 of these one kwan Ming notes of the Hung Wu period. Further we 
 have seen that in 1842 there were three of these notes at St. Peters- 
 burg and that the British Museum has two, one acquired in 1890, 
 the other in 1902. Besides these the note that furnished Morse his 
 lithograph is in the Museum of St. John's University, Shanghai. 
 There is one at the Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts. There 
 is, or was, one in the Knickerbocker Trust Co., New York, and there is 
 one in the possession of the American Bank Note Co. Besides these 
 there are at least the same number of private individuals known to 
 have specimens of this particular note, and some of them have more 
 than one specimen. It may reasonably be inferred that this scattered 
 ownership would be found to be much larger if persistent attempts 
 were made to run down the location of these notes. 
 
 The appearance of the notes justifies the belief that they were 
 printed from wood cuts and the differences which can be established 
 between them lead to the conclusion that there must have been 
 numerous places of issue at which the blocks were cut for that purpose. 
 The first place on the face of the notes which one would naturally 
 select for purposes of comparison would probably be the ornamenta- 
 tion of the border. Ramsden, quoting, it may be inferred, from the 
 Chinese numismatical work, upon which he relied for information as 
 to these old notes, gives their prescribed color as blue -black and 
 describes the ornamentation of the border, thus: "design: dragons 
 on border." Even though the worn condition of the specimens inter- 
 feres with the mechanical comparison of the several notes, yet it does 
 not absolutely prevent it. On some of the notes this dragon pattern 
 is obvious, on others it is hard to find. The statement may be made, 
 not only that the notes are not absolutely uniform, but that they must 
 have come from several independent sources. It may indeed be as- 
 serted that the Chinese characters on the face of the notes are not 
 themselves uniform. My attention was called to this point while 
 examining the question of penalties for counterfeiting and rewards
 
 282 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 
 
 for informing. I noticed that the translation of the inscriptions on 
 the note, furnished by Du Halde gave the reward to the person who 
 should inform and bring in or produce the culprit, while Morse in his 
 translation gave it to the informer, saying nothing about the arrest. 
 At my request Mr. Drew kindly examined the chinese characters in 
 the representations of notes furnished by Du Halde and by Morse, 
 and assured me that Du Halde's translation was undoubtedly correct, 
 that the informer had to bring in his prisoner to secure the reward, 
 and further that on the Morse note, while there was required of the 
 informer in order that he should reap his reward, the performance of 
 a similar service, the character used to express this service was differ- 
 ent from the one used on the Du Halde note and involved the idea 
 of sending the prisoner in rather than of bringing him in. 
 
 Edkins says of the Mongol notes, that each province had a bank for 
 their manufacture. It probably was true of the Ming notes, that they 
 were emitted from various provincial sources. 
 
 The quality of the paper on which the notes were printed had to do 
 with the facility with which they could be counterfeited. There were 
 times when the government left the manufacture of the paper in the 
 hands of private individuals, apparently without supervision, with the 
 natural consequences of a degradation of quality which finally com- 
 pelled intervention. Marco Polo tells us that the Mongol notes were 
 made from the inner bark of the mulberry tree. There has been some 
 discussion as to the probability of this being true, since mulberry trees 
 were of so much value to those who cared for the silk worms, and the 
 conclusion generally reached was that the tree must have been some 
 other species of mulberry than the one which furnished food for the 
 silk worm. In 1217, Edkins says there was a discussion as to the 
 emission of notes. It was stated that there was a scarcity of mulberry 
 tree bark and the question was asked, " How could the notes be made 
 without it?" Certain notes then in circulation were known as "the 
 mulberry bark old paper money." The testimony as to the use of the 
 bark of some mulberry tree for the manufacture of the notes seems 
 conclusive of that fact, but whether or not, some other bark may after- 
 ward have been availed of does not appear. It seems, however, quite 
 clear that the paper of the notes was made from some vegetable fibre 
 pulp. In addition to this there are records of attempts to circulate 
 notes printed on silk. They do not appear to have been successful. 
 
 The value of the notes was as a rule stated to be in copper although 
 there were some that were based on silver. The dynasty is conspicu- 
 ously set forth on the face of the note, oftentimes more than once,
 
 DAVIS. CERTAIN OLD CHINESE NOTES. 283 
 
 and the characters designating the emperor or the period, enable us 
 to determine within a few years the date of the emission. There is a 
 year character, a month character and a day character on each note, 
 and when the note was issued the blanks connected with these char- 
 acters were filled in with a brush, so that until the brush marks 
 wore off in use, the actual day of the emission of the note could be 
 ascertained. 
 
 The circulation of the notes was primarily determined by the area 
 under control of the dynasty at the time of the emission. There were, 
 however, other factors than the limits of the power of the dynasty, 
 which operated to restrict the circulation of some of the emissions. 
 They were sometimes emitted for a particular purpose and for use 
 only within a restricted area. Such restrictions were found embar- 
 rassing and naturally gave rise to complaints. 
 
 There were times during the depreciation of the notes when efforts 
 were made to redeem the outstanding notes with new notes, the latter 
 being emitted perhaps on a par with metallic currency, thus tempo- 
 rarily furnishing two concurrent paper currencies, the one of which 
 was worth three, four, five, or whatever the proportionate value might 
 be, times the other. To a certain extent, such discrepant values 
 could be maintained through provision for the reception of the notes 
 by government officials on this basis. As a rule, however, experiments 
 of this sort did not relieve the situation. 
 
 Two things have operated to reduce the value of this Chinese 
 experience as a lesson to other peoples. One is the sluggishness of 
 the Chinese temperament, its inflexibility under ordinary pressure, 
 its resistance through inertia to change of any sort. The other is the 
 subordination of the people to authority, their readiness to accept and 
 obey the orders of their constituted government, and the difficulty 
 of organizing opposition except on the basis of war. Yet in spite of 
 the passive endurance of the people and notwithstanding the arbitrary 
 efforts of the government to check depreciation, the law of supply and 
 demand overrode edicts and orders and when inflation prevailed prices 
 went up. The total abandonment of paper money, at the end of this 
 protracted experience was thoroughly unscientific, but in this case 
 quite natural. China had no contact with the outer world and but 
 few industries other than agriculture. There being no field for the 
 development of industrial enterprise there was no special occasion to 
 make use of the agency of credit to multiply the resources of the empire. 
 Had the conditions been different, had there been commercial and 
 industrial activity, Chinese intellect would probably have found some
 
 284 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 
 
 other way of curing the abuse than that of abolishing the use, and we 
 should not have been reminded by this throwing away of the enormous 
 advantages possibly to be derived from a well handled government 
 credit, of the wasteful process described by Charles Lamb, through 
 which the delicacy of roast pig was provided in China. 
 
 PAPER MONEY IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 
 
 A word ought perhaps to be said, in closing, concerning the experi- 
 ence in the use of paper money in Christendom which most closely 
 parallels that of the Chinese. It will help us to appreciate the indefi- 
 nite past with which we have been dealing in China, if we recall the 
 fact that the Bank of England was not chartered until 1694, A.D., and 
 while claims are made that continental banks had anticipated that 
 date in furnishing a paper currency to the people, these claims if 
 proved would not carry back the birth of paper money in Europe 
 by many years. Two hundred and forty years had intervened between 
 the tune set by Klaproth for the Chinese abandonment of paper money 
 and the attempt in Europe to inaugurate the use of a representative 
 denominational paper currency. It was not, therefore, until about a 
 thousand years after emission of the oldest note of which we have 
 heard in China, that the conditions of life in Europe led to the develop- 
 ment of a system of paper money. Experiences in the imprudent 
 use of the power to furnish a circulating medium through the means of 
 the printing press, led to catastrophes like Law's Mississippi bubble 
 and later to the depreciation of the government paper of some of the 
 continental powers, but the one experience which most closely re- 
 sembles that of the Chinese was that of the Province of Massachusetts 
 Bay in the first half of the eighteenth century. Our ancestors com- 
 pressed within the brief space of about fifty years, practically coinci- 
 dent with the first half of the eighteenth century, an experience in 
 the use of fiat money, which rivals the Chinese experiment in the 
 variety of the lessons which it can teach, and is in reality far more 
 instructive than its prototype, since we have complete records of the 
 details of action, the methods of emission and the surrounding condi- 
 tions of life. We can see here, the timid efforts of a government, 
 having no borrowing power, to meet a debt, relatively very large and 
 utterly unexpected, by the emission of certificates of indebtedness, 
 in the form of a denominational currency, capable of being made use
 
 DAVIS. CERTAIN OLD CHINESE NOTES. 285 
 
 of as a circulating medium. We can see that through the prompt 
 retirement of the earlier emissions by means of taxation, confidence 
 in the bills of public credit was created, and thus the government was 
 enabled to float enough of them, to cover the expenses of administra- 
 tion at first for a single year and ultimately for several years. We 
 can watch the gradual disappearance of the metallic currency, concur- 
 rent with the increase of the quantity of the bills in circulation, and 
 after silver had been entirely withdrawn from general circulation 
 the continuous rise in prices which paralleled the steadily increasing 
 amount of bills emitted by the province. We can see two sorts of 
 bills circulating side by side, both emitted by the same government 
 and both dependent for the value at which they would circulate upon 
 the language used in the statement of value printed on the face of the 
 note, one of which was worth three times as much as the other, and 
 we can see that this circulation of notes bearing the same denomina- 
 tional values, of which three of the one were required to perform the 
 functions of one of the other, was made possible by the terms on which 
 the government would receive the notes. We can see that while the 
 government could force this unnatural circulation of the two kinds 
 of notes, it did not have the power to retain them or any of them on a 
 par with specie, but that they declined in proportion as the needs of 
 the people for trade were exceeded in the supply furnished for circu- 
 lation. 
 
 The closure of this paper money experience in Massachusetts was 
 like that in China effected by the total abandonment of paper money 
 and the return to an absolute specie basis. There were, however, 
 many reasons which operated to prevent the colonists of Massachu- 
 setts from drawing correct inferences as to the economic laws which 
 governed the circulating medium. They had seen prices go up while 
 the amount of notes emitted by the province was being steadily 
 reduced. The reason for this apparent violation of an economic law 
 is easy to find, the notes of adjacent colonies more than filled the gap 
 in the circulating medium. To a certain extent this was understood 
 but the rebuff that the province had met with in attempting to reduce 
 the amount of the circulating medium, will explain why they felt that 
 the only relief was not alone to abandon the use of their own paper 
 money but also to do it in such a way as would cut off the circulation 
 of emissions by neighboring governments. 
 
 It will thus be seen that the lessons to be learned from this fifty 
 year experience closely resembled on the whole that which was to be 
 derived from the incomplete accounts of what took place in the same
 
 286 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 
 
 line in China during centuries of experience. Neither of these ex- 
 periments has affected economic thought to any measurable extent. 
 One of them has been practically unknown until very recently. The 
 other has been buried in the oblivion of provincial archives.
 
 INDEX
 
 INDEX 
 
 ABANDONMENT OF PAPER MONEY, 
 What Du Halde says, 253, 262; 
 what Morse says, 272; Chau- 
 doir says, 1455 A.D., 278; total 
 abandonment unscientific, 283. 
 ALFRED THE GREAT, 
 
 A contemporary of the Tang 
 
 notes, 841-847 A.D., 271. 
 AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND 
 
 SCIENCES, 
 John Pickering was at one time 
 
 president, 254. 
 AMERICAN BANK NOTE Co., 
 
 Prints picture of one kwan Ming 
 note, 265; note depicted in 
 "New York Sun" came from, 
 267; referred to, 281. 
 AMERICAN ORIENTAL SOCIETY, 
 
 Journal of. Contained translation 
 of Klaproth's article in the 
 "Journal Asiatique," 254. 
 ANTIQUARIAN RESEARCHES, 
 
 Translation of title to Chinese 
 
 book, 255, 274. 
 ATLANTIC MONTHLY, 
 
 Prints translations of a title to a 
 
 Chinese book, 274. 
 ATLANTIC OCEAN, 
 275. 
 
 BACKHOUSE, EDWARD, 
 
 A well-known sinologue, 274. 
 
 BAHR, A. W., 
 
 Has a number of old Chinese 
 notes, 267; Hon. Secretary, 
 North China Branch Royal 
 Asiatic Society, 268; published 
 "Old Chinese Porcelain and 
 Works of Art in China," 268; 
 knows of no other notes in 
 existence, 268; Tang, Sung and 
 Liao notes procured in Shang- 
 hai, 269; suggests color of 
 Liao notes changed, 268, 271. 
 
 BALL, T. DYER, 
 
 Member of civil service, Hong 
 Kong; publishes "Things 
 Chinese," 264. 
 
 BANK OF ENGLAND, 
 
 284. 
 
 BANKING AND PRICES IN CHINA, 
 A work containing information 
 concerning Chinese paper 
 money, 258; characterization 
 of the book, 259. 
 BANKS AND BANK NOTES, 
 
 Title in T. Dyer Ball's book under 
 which he classes Chinese notes, 
 264. 
 BENADAKIS, A. M., 
 
 Communicates a paper on Chinese 
 paper money m the "Journal 
 des Economistes," 257; ap- 
 proves Ma-twan-lin, 257, 278. 
 BERGERON, P., 
 
 His "Recueil de Divers Voyages 
 
 Curieux" cited, 248, note. 
 BIOT, EDOUARD, 
 
 Published a 'paper on Chinese 
 paper money in "Journal Asia- 
 tique," 256. 
 BLAND, JOHN OTWAY PERCY, 
 
 A well-known English sinologue, 
 
 274. 
 
 BONDS OR LETTERS OF EXCHANGE, 
 Given merchants in exchange for 
 
 coin, 275. 
 BOOK OF MARCO POLO, THE, 
 
 By Col. Henry Yule, 263, 
 
 264. 
 BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY, 
 
 Has no copy of Edkins's "Bank- 
 ing and Prices in China," 
 259. 
 BOWERN, T. M., 
 
 Publishes sketch of history of 
 Chinese paper money in "North 
 China Herald," 261. 
 BRITISH MUSEUM, 
 
 Contains two Ming notes, 246, 
 281 ; also a Chinese literary and 
 scientific encyclopaedia, 255; 
 has specimens of notes said by 
 Ball to be earliest known, 264. 
 BUDDHA, 
 
 Image overthrown, 247.
 
 INDEX 
 
 BUSHELL, S. W., 
 
 Refers to a Chinese numismatical 
 work, ix; furnishes illustration 
 of inscriptions on 1214 A.D. 
 note, 265; decline of Tae Ping 
 notes, 272, 273. 
 
 CATHAY, 
 
 249. 
 CHANG, F., 
 
 Assists in explaining about Tang 
 note, vi; character of explana- 
 tion, ix, x. 
 CHANG TSUNG-I, 
 
 Author of a Chinese numismatical 
 
 work, viii. 
 CHAUDOIR, S. BARON DE, 
 
 Picture of note given in his book 
 referred to, vii; published a 
 numismatical work in 1842, 
 256; 1000 cash notes only 
 notes that have come down to 
 us, 263; mention, 267; first 
 use of copper plates, 273; re- 
 ferred to, 274; abandonment 
 of notes, 1455 A.D., 278. 
 CHI CHIN So CHIEN Ltr, 
 
 Title of Chinese work quoted by 
 
 Dr. Bushell, 266. 
 CH'IEN CHIH HSIN PIEN, 
 
 Chinese numismatical work, viii. 
 CH'IEN Pu TUNG CHIH, 
 
 Title given by some to a Chinese 
 book, 245, note; 259, note. 
 See Ch'iian Pu T'ung Chih. 
 CHINA BRANCH OF ROYAL ASIATIC 
 SOCIETY. 
 
 Journal of, quoted, ix. 
 CHINA POLITICAL, COMMERCIAL 
 AND SOCIAL, 
 Title of R. M. Martin's book, 
 
 256. 
 CHINESE BANK NOTE, 
 
 Ming note so described in ad- 
 vertisement, 246; also on labels 
 in British Museum, 246. 
 CHINESE BANK NOTE OP THE MINQ 
 
 DYNASTY, 
 Title given picture of one kwan 
 
 Ming note, 265. 
 CHINESE BOOK, 
 
 How printed, vii. 
 CHINESE HISTORY, 
 
 As written by Chinamen, a rec- 
 ord of Cabinet discussions, 278, 
 279. 
 
 CHINESE PAPER MONEY, 
 
 Title of Ramsden's numismatical 
 manual, 259; contains de- 
 scriptions of 269 varieties of 
 notes, 261; illustrated with 
 picture of flawless one kwan 
 Ming note, 265. 
 CHING T'STJNG, 
 
 On the throne when Ibn Batuta 
 
 was in China, 252. 
 CH'UAN CHIH, 
 
 Title of Chinese book described by 
 
 Bushell, ix. 
 CH'UAN Pu TUNG CHIH, 
 
 A numismatical work which has 
 pictures of Tang notes, 650- 
 656 A.D., misplaced, ix, 245, 
 note; photostat taken from, 
 250, note; 81 illustrations, 259, 
 260. 
 CIRCULATION OF NOTES, 
 
 Sometimes restricted, 283. 
 COLUMBUS, 
 
 v, 275. 
 CONDENSATION OF THE MIRROR OF 
 
 HISTORY, 
 
 Translation of a Chinese title of 
 a book, 253; copy in the 
 New York Public Library, 
 255. 
 CONVENIENT MONEY, 
 
 Name given one of the emis- 
 sions, 275. 
 COPPER CURRENCY, 
 
 Country depended on, 275. 
 COPPER PLATES, 
 
 First made use of 1168 A.D., 273; 
 first made use of by Mongols, 
 1277 A.D., 273; Saburo terms 
 them machines, 274; their in- 
 troduction of little account, 
 280, 281. 
 COUNTERFEITING, 
 
 Constant penalty for, decapita- 
 tion, 280; recommendation to 
 legalize counterfeits, 280. 
 
 DECORATIONS OF NOTES, 
 
 Artists have used imagination in 
 sketching the borders, 263; 
 Decoration of one kwan Ming 
 note described, 247; of Tang 
 notes, 270; of Western Liao 
 notes, perfunctory, 271; of 
 Sung notes, inartistic and con- 
 ventional, 271; of Ming notes,
 
 INDEX 
 
 DECORATIONS OF NOTES Continued. 
 1425-1426 A.D., same inferior 
 character, 272; Tae Ping notes 
 used dragon, 272. 
 DEER-SKIN MONEY, SO-CALLED, 
 Not regarded herein as money, 
 245; not regarded by Courcefie 
 Seneuil as money, 257. 
 DEL MAR, ALEXANDER, 
 
 Described Chinese paper money 
 in his "History of Money in 
 Ancient Countries," 258. 
 DEPRECIATION OP NOTES, 
 
 Law of supply and demand over- 
 rode government edicts, 283. 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE EMPIRE ' OF 
 CHINA, ETC., FROM THE FRENCH 
 OF P. J. Du HALDE, 
 Title of English translation of 
 
 Du Halde's book, 253, note. 
 DICTIONARY OF NATIONAL BIOGRA- 
 PHY, 
 
 Taken as a standard to estimate 
 size of Chinese book, if trans- 
 lated, 255. 
 
 DICTIONARY OF POLITICAL ECON- 
 OMY, 
 
 By McLeod. Contains account of 
 Chinese paper money, 256, 257. 
 
 DlCTIONNAIRE DE L'ECONOMIE 
 POLITIQUE, 
 
 Contains an article on Chinese 
 
 paper money, 257. 
 DREW, EDWARD B., 
 
 Translates inscriptions, vi; calls 
 attention to Shioda Saburo's 
 paper, 258, note; commis- 
 sioner of customs in China, 
 260; translates Tang notes, 
 260; examines characters re- 
 lating to rewards, 282. 
 Du HALDE, JEAN BAPTISTE, 
 
 A Jesuit author; quotation from 
 translation of his "Description 
 de la Chine," 253; mention, 267. 
 DUTCH AUCTION, 
 
 Tae Ping notes sold by, 273. 
 
 EAMES, WILBERFORCE, 
 
 Contributes information, ix; es- 
 timates size of Chinese books if 
 translated, 255. 
 EDKINS, JOSEPH, 
 
 A missionary to China. Published 
 a book containing information 
 concerning paper money, 258, 
 
 EDKINS, JOSEPH Continued. 
 
 259; how he translated the 
 word "Bar," 274; speaks of 
 scarcity of mulberry bark for 
 paper, 282. 
 EDWARD III OF ENGLAND, 
 
 A contemporary of Marco Polo, 
 
 249. 
 EMISSION OF 806 A.D., 
 
 Causes set forth, 275. 
 ENGLAND, 
 
 ix, 253, 260. 
 ESSEX INSTITUTE, 
 
 Has a copy of "Ch'iian Pu Tung 
 Chih, 259; has a one kwan 
 Ming note, 281. 
 EUROPE, 
 
 249, 251, 253, 284. 
 
 FANG CHAN, 
 
 Publishes second edition of ' 'Ch'ien 
 
 Chih Hsin Pien," viii. 
 FIVE YEARS IN CHINA, 
 
 Title of F. E. Forbes's book, 256. 
 FLYING MONEY, 
 
 Klaproth's translation of name 
 
 given to an emission, 275. 
 FORBES, FREDERICK EDWYN, 
 
 Published a work on China, 256. 
 FORD, WORTHINGTON C., 
 
 Takes photostats of notes, vii, 
 
 250, note. 
 FORM OF NOTE, 
 
 Resembles in construction Mas- 
 sachusetts fiat money, 277. 
 FRANCE, 
 253. 
 
 GENERAL EXAMINATION OF RECORDS 
 AND SCHOLARS, 
 
 Translation of title of Chinese 
 
 book, 255, 274. 
 GOVERNMENT SEALS ON NOTES, 
 
 Red on Chaudoir and Morse 
 notes, vii; on Tang notes deli- 
 cate red, viii; two square 
 seals on Tang notes, x; two 
 square seals on face of one 
 kwan Ming note and one im- 
 pressed in vermilion on back, 
 248; seal tinged with vermil- 
 ion impressed, 250; printed in 
 colors by Morse, 259; Du 
 Halde gives one seal in black, 
 262; Chaudoir gives one in 
 red, 263; Yule gives two seals,
 
 6 
 
 INDEX 
 
 GOVERNMENT SEALS ON NOTES 
 
 Continued. 
 
 264; Vissering gives two, 264; 
 Ramsden gives none, 265; 
 Apparently printed on Tang 
 notes before impression of in- 
 scriptions, 270; two seals on 
 face of Liao notes, 271; two 
 on face of Sung notes, 272; 
 no notes without trace of seals 
 on face, viii; several seals on 
 Tae Ping notes, 272. 
 GREAT BRITAIN, 
 
 Libraries there contain informa- 
 tion as to notes, viii. 
 
 HART, SIR ROBERT, 
 
 H. B. Morse on his staff, 259; 
 E. B. Drew on his staff, 260; 
 gets Edkins to translate cus- 
 toms regulation, 274. 
 HARVARD LIBRARY, 
 
 Has no copy of "Banking and 
 
 Prices in China," 259. 
 HEPTARCHY, THE, 
 
 260. 
 
 HISTOIRE GENERALE DE LA CHINE 
 ou ANNALES DE CET EMPIRE 
 TRADUITES DU TONG-KIENG- 
 KANG-MOU, 
 
 Title of de Mailla's translation of 
 "Condensation of the Mirror 
 of History," 253, note. 
 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT 
 COUNTRIES, 
 
 Contains a description of Chinese 
 paper money, 258. 
 
 IBN BATUTA, 
 
 An Arabian traveller. His ac- 
 count of paper money quoted, 
 251, 252. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS OF NOTES, 
 
 To be found in "Ch'uan Pu T'ung 
 Chih," ix; one kwan Ming 
 in Du Halde, 252, 262; one 
 kwan Ming in Morse, 247, 259; 
 one kwan Ming in Chaudoir, 
 256; one kwan Ming in Yule, 
 264; one kwan Ming in Visser- 
 ing, 264; one kwan Ming in 
 "The Imprint," 265; one kwan 
 Ming in Ramsden's "Chinese 
 Paper Money," 265; one kwan 
 Ming in "The Numismatist," 
 265. 
 
 IMPERIAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCE, AT 
 ST. PETERSBURG, 
 Contains three one kwan Ming 
 
 notes, 263, 281. 
 IMPRINT, THE, 
 
 A publication of the American 
 Bank Note Co. Contains pic- 
 ture of one kwan Ming note, 
 265. 
 INFLATION, 
 
 Described by Morse, 277, 278; 
 opinions of Chinese states- 
 men, 279; methods of preven- 
 tion, 280. 
 INSCRIPTIONS OF THE NOTES, 
 
 Uniform from dynasty to dy- 
 nasty, 260; legible to any per- 
 son who can read Chinese, 260; 
 on Tang notes, 270; not ab- 
 solutely uniform, 281, 282; 
 differences between Du Halde 
 and Morse, 282. 
 IRON MONEY, 
 
 Sometimes made use of, 276. 
 
 JAPAN, 
 
 258; notes of Mongol Dynasty 
 
 obtained there, 264. 
 JEVONS, WILLIAM STANLEY, 
 
 Gives a brief account of Chinese 
 paper money in "Money and 
 the Mechanics of Exchange," 
 257. 
 JOURNAL ASIATIQUE, PARIS, 
 
 Contained Klaproth's article on 
 Chinese paper money, 254; 
 Biot's paper published there, 
 256. 
 JOURNAL DBS ECONOMISTES, 
 
 Contains Benadakis's paper, 257. 
 
 KANBALU, 
 
 City has so-called mint of Grand 
 
 Khan, 249. 
 KEUN SHOO PE KAO, 
 
 Title of Chinese book, 255, 
 
 note. 
 KING'S LIBRARY, 
 
 British Museum contains two 
 
 Ming notes, 264. 
 KLAPROTH, HEINRICH JULIUS, 
 
 Published article on Chinese paper 
 money in "Journal Asiatique," 
 254; published "M&noires Re- 
 latifs a 1'Asie," 254; mention, 
 255, 259, 261, 275, 284.
 
 INDEX 
 
 KNICKERBOCKER TRUST Co., 
 
 Has or did have a one kwan 
 
 Ming note, 281. 
 KUBLAI KHAN, 
 
 Not on throne when Ibn Batuta 
 in China, 252. 
 
 LAMB, CHARLES, 
 
 His essay on roast pig referred to, 
 
 284. 
 LAW'S MISSISSIPPI SCHEME, 
 
 253, 284. 
 LEE, THE REV. SAMUEL, 
 
 Translates Ibn Batuta's travels, 
 
 251, note. 
 LETTERS OF EXCHANGE OR BONDS, 
 
 Given merchants in exchange for 
 
 coin, 275. 
 LEYDEN OR LEIDE, 
 
 248, note; 257. 
 LIGHT MONEY, 
 
 Name given an emission, 275. 
 LONDON, ENGLAND, 
 
 246, 257, 267. 
 
 MA-T WAN-LIN, 
 
 A Chinese author, 255, note; 
 Biot's paper based on his work, 
 256; appreciation of, by Bene- 
 dakis, 257; his work trans- 
 lated by Vissering, 257; value 
 of his observations, 278; opin- 
 ion of Benedakis, 278. 
 MACLEOD, HENRY DUNNING, 
 
 Published an account of Chinese 
 
 paper money, 256, 257. 
 MAILLA, JOSEPH DE, 
 
 Translated into French "Tung 
 
 Keen Kang Muh," 253. 
 MANCHESTER, ENGLAND, 
 
 viii, ix. 
 MANCHU NOTES, 
 
 Alleged emission, 1651 A.D., 278. 
 MANDEVILLE, SIR JOHN DE, 
 
 Corroborated use of paper money 
 
 in China, 250, 251. 
 MANGHU KHAN, 
 
 Stamp on paper money resembles 
 
 his seal, 249. 
 MARCO POLO, 
 
 See Polo. 
 MARTIN, ROBERT MONTGOMERY, 
 
 Published a book on China, 256. 
 MASEFIELD, JOHN, 
 
 Wrote introduction to Polo's tra- 
 vels, 249, note. 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS, MASSACHUSETTS 
 
 BAY, 
 
 253, 277, 281, 284, 285. 
 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SO- 
 CIETY. 
 
 Furnishes photostat of note, vii. 
 MEMOIRS SUR LE SYSTEME MONE- 
 TAIRE DBS CHINOISE, 
 Title of Biot's paper, 256, note. 
 MEMOIRES RELATIFS A L'ASIE, 
 
 By Klaproth. Contains account 
 
 of paper money, 254, 255. 
 MING NOTE FOR ONE KWAN, 1368- 
 
 1398 A.D., 
 
 To be found in some of our mu- 
 seums, v; folds made by per- 
 sons carrying, easy to see, viii; 
 one acquired by me, 1910 A.D., 
 246; described in advertisement, 
 246; described by Morse, 247, 
 248; inscriptions translated by 
 Morse, 247, 248; translated 
 by Du Halde, 252; engraving 
 of in Chaudoir, 256, 263; il- 
 lustrations of referred to, 259; 
 ownership of notes traced, 261; 
 Hung up in Chinese houses as 
 rarities, 253, 262, 266; speci- 
 mens at St. Petersburg and 
 London, 264, 281 ; at Shanghai, 
 281; at Salem, 281; at New 
 York, 281; reproduced by vari- 
 ous authors, 264, 265; collectors 
 of Chinese paper money have 
 only this note, 266; picture 
 without seal characters in Sun- 
 day "Sun," 267; my note 
 mounted in China as rarity, 
 266; notes .of this denomina- 
 tion alone can be compared 
 with each other, 281 ; museums, 
 etc., containing them, 281. 
 MING NOTES, 1425-1426 A.D., 
 
 Described, 272. 
 MONETARY COMMISSION, 
 
 Throws light on use of paper 
 
 money, vi. 
 
 MONEY AND THE MECHANISM OF 
 EXCHANGE, 
 
 Contains brief account of Chi- 
 nese paper money, 257. 
 MONGOL NOTES, 
 
 Edkins says obtained from Japan, 
 264; Morse says unable to ob- 
 tain one, 264; Edkins says each 
 province manufactured, 282;
 
 8 
 
 INDEX 
 
 MONGOL NOTES Continued. 
 
 Marco Polo says paper made 
 of mulberry bark, 249. 
 282. 
 
 MONKEY-LIKE SUSPICION AND PANIC 
 
 AT THE GEY OF A BlRD, 
 
 Literal rendering of a Chinese 
 book title, 274. 
 
 MOORS, THE, 
 
 In Spain. May possibly have 
 known of Chinese paper money, 
 251. 
 
 MORSE, H. B., 
 
 His picture of note referred to, 
 vii; his book referred to, 247; 
 on the staff of Sir Robert 
 Hart, 259; published communi- 
 cation in "Journal of North 
 China Branch, Royal Asiatic 
 Society," 259; inscriptions on 
 Ming note, translated by, 247, 
 248, 259; unable to procure 
 Mongol note, 264; mention, 
 267; says "Shoe of Sycee" 
 meaning Shoe of Silver, 269; 
 says no emissions from Ming 
 Dynasty to 1851 A.D., 272; 
 treats of inflation, 277, 278; 
 note lithographed by him in 
 St. John's College, Shanghai, 
 281. 
 
 MULBERRY BARK OLD PAPER MONEY, 
 Certain notes so-called, 282. 
 
 MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON, 
 Has possession of these Chinese 
 notes, xi. 
 
 NEW YORK, 
 
 281. 
 NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY, 
 
 Contains Chinese books, 255. 
 NEW YORK SUN, SUNDAY, 
 
 Publishes picture of one kwan 
 Ming note having no seal 
 characters, 267. 
 
 NORTH CHINA BRANCH OF THE 
 ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, 
 Journal of. Contains Morse's 
 paper on Chinese paper money, 
 259; A. W. Bahr, Hon. Secretary 
 of, 268; quoted, 272. 
 NORTH CHINA HERALD, 
 
 Contains account of Chinese paper 
 money, 261; traces ownership 
 of one kwan Ming notes, 261, 
 267. 
 
 NUMISMATIST, THE, 
 
 A New York illustrated monthly. 
 Gives a picture of a one kwan 
 Ming note, 265. 
 
 OLD CHINESE PORCELAIN AND 
 WORKS OF ART IN CHINA, 
 Illustrated work by A. W. 
 
 Bahr, 268. 
 ON CHINESE CURRENCY, COINS AND 
 
 PAPER MONEY, 
 
 By W. Vissering, 248, note; de- 
 scribed, 257. 
 ORANGE, JAMES, 
 
 Collaborates in publication of 
 work on Chinese porcelain, 267, 
 268; has friend who owns old 
 Chinese notes, 267; writes and 
 obtains offer of sale, 268; pro- 
 nounces Mr. Bahr best of ex- 
 perts, 268 ; gives list of notes, 269. 
 ORIGIN OF THE PAPER CURRENCY OF 
 
 CHINA, THE, 
 
 Paper in "Journal of Peking 
 Oriental Society," 258, note. 
 
 PAPER OF NOTES, 
 
 Made of mulberry bark, 247, 
 249, 250, 282; color dark slate, 
 247; expert thinks of bamboo 
 pulp, 269; has little or no siz- 
 ing, 263, 269; color of differ- 
 ent emissions, 269, 270; Tae 
 Ping notes, 272; Mongol notes 
 certainly made of vegetable 
 fibre pulp, 282. 
 
 PARIS, 
 
 254, 269. 
 
 PEKING, 
 
 Summer palace looted, 247; Rus- 
 sian mission knows no other 
 Chinese note than one kwan 
 Ming, 263; Mr. Bahr buys 
 Ming notes there, 269; Tae 
 Ping notes sold in streets of, 273. 
 
 PEKING ORIENTAL SOCIETY, 
 
 Journal of. Contains Saburo's 
 paper, 258; contains paper of 
 S. W. Bushell, 265. 
 
 PETRUCCI, P., 
 
 Thinks paper of notes made from 
 bamboo pulp, 269. 
 
 PICKERING, JOHN, 
 
 A founder of American Oriental 
 Society, 254; translates and 
 publishes Klaproth's article,
 
 INDEX 
 
 9 
 
 PICKERING, JOHN Continued. 
 
 254; president of American 
 Academy of Arts and Sciences, 
 254. 
 
 POLO, MARCO, 
 
 When in China, 246, 247; his 
 travels quoted, 249, 250; his 
 account compared with that of 
 Ibn Batuta, 251, 252; says 
 notes made of mulberry bark, 
 249, 282. 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN MISSION PRESS., 
 SHANGHAI, 
 
 Prints " Banking and Prices in 
 China," 258, note. 
 
 RAMSDEN, H. A., 
 
 Publishes "Chinese Paper 
 Money," 259; hesitates to en- 
 dorse Tang note, 650-656 A.D., 
 260; president Yokohama Nu- 
 mismatical Society, 265; Sycee 
 used by him for "Shoe of Sil- 
 ver," 269; translation of Tang 
 notes, 270; prescribed color of 
 Liao notes, 271; prescribed 
 color of Sung notes, 271; pre- 
 scribed color of Ming notes, 
 1425, 1426 A.D., 272; chrono- 
 logical arrangement of his 
 manual an advantage, 273; 
 his descriptions of notes, 281. 
 RECUEIL DE DIVERS VOYAGES CURI- 
 
 EUX PAR P. BERGERON, 
 Voyage de Rubruquis en Tar- 
 
 tarie, 248, note. 
 RECUEIL DE MONNAIES DE LA 
 
 CHINE, ETC., 
 
 Title of Chaudoir's book, 256, note. 
 REDEMPTIONS, 
 
 Discussed, 276, 277; some copper, 
 
 some silver, 277. 
 REMINISCENCES OP A TIME OF 
 
 SUSPICION AND PANIC, 
 A Chinese title for a book, 274. 
 REWARDS FOR INFORMERS, 
 
 One kwan Ming, 248; Tang 
 notes, 270; Western Liao, 271; 
 Sung, 272; Ming, 272. 
 ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, 
 
 See China Branch and North 
 China Branch. 
 
 RUBROUCK OR RUBRUK, 
 
 A Franciscan friar who mentions 
 early Chinese paper money, 248; 
 what he said, 249. 
 
 RUSSIAN MISSION AT PEKING, 
 
 Knows only the one kwan Ming 
 
 note of 1368-1398 A.D., 263. 
 RYLAND'S LIBRARY, MANCHESTER, 
 ENGLAND, 
 
 Has a copy of "Ch'ien Chih Hsin 
 Pien," viii. 
 
 SABURO, SHIODA, 
 
 Published paper on Chinese paper 
 money, 258; translated state- 
 ment concerning wood cuts, 
 calling them machines, 274; 
 Manchu notes, 278; tran- 
 slated opinions of Chinese 
 statesmen, 279. 
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, SHANGHAI, 
 Receives gift of a Ming note, 247; 
 
 note now in museum, 281. 
 ST. PETERSBOURG, ST. PETERSBURG, 
 256; Yule procured his picture 
 there, 264; Vissering went 
 there for his, 264; three one 
 kwan Ming notes there, 263, 
 281. 
 SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS, 
 
 259, 281. 
 SCOTT, SIR WALTER, 
 
 Tang notes antedate his most 
 
 ancient heroes, 271. 
 SEAL CHARACTERS ON NOTES, 
 
 On half-tone of Tang notes, not 
 photographic, viii; one kwan 
 Ming has conventionalized 
 square seal characters, 247; 
 two seals on face, one on back, 
 each bearing square seal char- 
 acters, 248; legible to persons 
 familiar with the style of writ- 
 ing, 260; reproduced by Du 
 Halde, 262; translated by 
 Du Halde, 262; translated by 
 Morse, 247, 248; Emperor pe- 
 titioned for their removal, 267. 
 SEAMAN, MAJOR Louis LIVINGSTON, 
 Acquires bundle of one kwan 
 
 Ming notes, 247. 
 SECRET ANNALS OF THE MANCHU 
 
 COURT, 
 
 Article in "Atlantic Monthly," 
 274. 
 SENEUIL, COURCELLE, 
 
 Author of article on Chinese paper 
 
 money, 257. 
 SHANGHAI, 
 
 247, 258, note, 268, 269, 281.
 
 10 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Soo CHOW, 
 
 A provincial city from which old 
 
 notes came, 269. 
 SOUTH SEA BUBBLE, 
 
 253. 
 SPAIN, 
 
 251. 
 STOCKHOLM, BANK OF, 
 
 246 
 SUNG NOTES, 1165-1178 A.D., 
 
 Described, 271, 272; prescribed 
 
 color, 271. 
 SYCEE, 
 
 Chinese expression for silver, 
 269. 
 
 TAB PING REBELLION, 
 
 Notes emitted at that time, 259, 
 
 269 272 
 TANG NOTES, 6507656 A.D., 
 
 F. Chang assists in removing 
 doubts, vi; how this was done, 
 ix, x; possible recognition of 
 date of notes, 245; condition 
 of England at this date, 260; 
 not necessarily first in use, 
 260, 261; forged illustration 
 not conceivable, 261; con- 
 temporary affairs in England, 
 271. 
 TANG NOTES, 841-847 A.D., 
 
 Printed in three colors, vii; 
 colors approximately correct, 
 yiii; referred to, 246; described 
 in detail, 269, 270; contem- 
 poraneous with Alfred the 
 Great, 271. 
 TAXES, 
 
 Custom as to receiving notes for, 
 
 280. 
 
 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF BANKING, 
 Contains reference to Chinese 
 
 paper money, 257. 
 TIME NOTES, 
 
 Of various terms, 276, 277. 
 TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE 
 
 CHINESE EMPIRE, THE, 
 247, 259, 264, note. 
 TRANSLATION OF CHINESE TEXT, 
 Difficulties set forth, 274, 275. 
 TRANSLATIONS OF NOTES, 
 
 The Tang notes, 650-656 A.D., 
 x; the one kwan Ming note, 
 1368-1398 A.D., by Morse, 
 247, 248; by Du Halde, 252; 
 of Tang notes, 270. 
 
 TRAVELS OF IBN BATUTA, 
 
 Translated by the Rev. Samuel 
 
 Lee, 251, note. 
 TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO, ETC., 
 
 249, note. 
 T'UNG, 
 
 The family name of the owner of 
 the Tang note, 650-656 A.D., x. 
 TUNG KEEN KANG MUH, 
 
 Title of a Chinese historical work, 
 
 253, 255, note. 
 
 TWELVE VARIETIES OF OLD NOTES, 
 
 Meaning of heading, page 22, made 
 
 plain, xi; list of the notes, 269. 
 
 VALUES OF NOTES, 
 
 Some expressed in silver, some in 
 copper, 282; discrepant values 
 in concurrent circulation, 283. 
 
 VISSERING, W., 
 
 Published a book on coins and 
 currency, and paper money, 
 248, note; description of book, 
 257; his opinion of Ma-twan- 
 1m, 278. 
 
 WAN HEEN TUNG KAOU, 
 
 Title of Chinese book, 255, note. 
 WANG KE, 
 
 A Chinese author, 255, note. 
 WESTERN LIAO, THREE KWAN 
 
 NOTES, 1135-1142 A.D., 
 Description of, 271; prescribed 
 
 color, 271. 
 
 WHERE NOTES MENTIONED HEREIN 
 ARE TO BE FOUND, 
 In Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 
 xi; three one kwan Ming at 
 St.Petersburg, 263, 281 ; two one 
 kwan Ming in London, 246, 
 264, 281 ; one one kwan Ming in 
 Knickerbocker Trust Co., 281; 
 one one kwan Ming in Essex 
 Institute, 281; one one kwan 
 Ming, St. John's College, 
 Shanghai, 281; one one kwan 
 Ming, American Bank Note 
 Co., New York, 281; H. A. 
 Ramsden, Yokohama, 265. 
 WOOD CUTS, 
 
 Alone made use of up to 1168 
 A.D., 273; Saburo terms them 
 machines, 274; introduction of 
 copper plates meant little, 280, 
 281; blocks cut simultaneously 
 in many places, 281.
 
 INDEX 
 
 11 
 
 Yi CHAN, 
 
 Furnishes preface for edition of 
 "Ch'ien Chih Hsin Pien," viii. 
 YOKOHAMA, 
 
 259. 
 
 YOKOHAMA NUMISMATICAL SOCIETY, 
 H. A. Ramsden is president, 
 265. 
 
 YORK HARBOR, MAINE, 
 
 207. 
 YULE, COL. HENRY, 
 
 Edits Polo's Travels, 263, 264; 
 has never heard of preserva- 
 tion of Mongol note, 264; Ming 
 notes highly valued as curiosi- 
 ties, 264.
 
 - 
 
 '32 
 
 of California
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL UBRARY FACIUTY