188 Asiatic Sovereigns and Paper Currency. [No. 2, 



state, proposed to introduce into Persia the scheme of an inconverti- 

 ble paper currency, which the branch of Chenghiz Khan's family 

 that reigned in China, was then carrying out with some success. 

 The eastern historians tell us that the minister consulted the Chinese 

 ambassador, and obtained from him the details of the measure ; but 

 Sir John Malcolm plausibly suggests that Marco Polo may very 

 probably have had something to do with it. He arrived in Persia 

 about this very time, having accompanied the train of a princess, 

 whom Kublai Kaan had consented to give in marriage to Arghun 

 Khan. On their arrival in 1292 or 1293 they had found that monarch 

 dead and his successor Ky Khatii on the throne. Marco Polo remain- 

 ed in Persia nine months, residing at the capital ; and he reached 

 Venice in 1295. 



Whether, however, the keen Venetian traveller was consulted or 

 not on the scheme, it was resolved by the king and his minister that 

 the attempt should be made. It proved, as we shall see, a miserable 

 failure, but the record of it remains, forming in fact the one cir- 

 cumstance of interest in Ky Khatu's imbecile reign. 



I subjoin the following account of the measure from Mirchond's 

 history.* I regret that I cannot present the contemporary account 

 of Rashid-ud-din, who wrote his history, the Jami'-ut-Tuwarikh, 

 under Ghazan Khan (Ky Khatu's successor) and his son Uljaitii 

 Khan ; but unfortunately the only MS. of that rare and interesting 

 work which is in the Society's library, is incomplete, and this part of 

 the history (which occupies the first volume and is often called the 

 Taiikhi Ghazani) is missing. 



Mirchond relates how the Sultan's Chancellor of the Exchequer, 

 ( Ulj-Jd <—^.Uo ) Sadri Jehan, used every means in vain to meet the 

 increasing financial difficulties of the empire. He tried loans, but 

 these only increased his embarrassments ; and what with the Sultan's 

 extravagance and his own, the treasury became empty, and he had 

 no money for the current expenses of the government. In the midst 

 of these perplexities, an officer of the Revenue department, named 



* M. de Langles published a similar extract from the Habib-us-siyar (written 

 by Mirchond's son, Khondemir) in the Memoires de 1' Iustitut (Literature, &c.) 

 vol. IV. p. 129. Mirchond wrote his history towards the close of the 15th 

 century. 



