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



gance and profligacy might continue unbroken. It was begun only 

 to gratify a tyrant's selfishness, and of course it miserably failed. 

 But as far as we can tell from our meagre accounts, it was much 

 more successful in China ; it was once extensively used by the native 

 sovereigns ; and Marco Polo in his various travels abundantly proves 

 that the royal notes of the Moghuls had a wide circulation through 

 the different provinces. As long as the Moghul dynasty governed 

 well, the experiment seems to have succeeded ; and it certainly lasted 

 under them for nearly a century. We cannot tell the exact causes of 

 its final failure ; but it is not improbable that, as the Moghul dynasty 

 grew debased, the effeminate puppets who succeeded to such great 

 Kings as Kublai Kaan, under the guidance of designing ministers, 

 kept increasing the issues, in the vain idea that it was an inexhausti- 

 ble source of revenue, until it ended in a revolution. A change of 

 dynasty would introduce new feelings — the old paper currency would 

 naturally become associated with the remembrance of the later evils, 

 and the earlier benefits be forgotten ; and national hatred would link 

 it with the detested name of the expelled Moghul dynasty. Under 

 these circumstances we need not be surprised at the failure of the 

 attempt which the Chinese successors to the Moghuls made to 

 revive it. 



I need not add to the length of this paper, by subjoining any 

 detailed remarks on the wide difference between the circumstances of 

 the present time and any of these three previous periods, — more 

 especially the Indian period under Mohammad Toghluk. India now 

 and India then in every respect present a perfect contrast. With 

 regard to China, the partial success of the plan there seems highly 

 encouraging; and every circumstance which in that case tended to 

 impair public confidence, will be absent in the present time. With 

 all those drawbacks, we know that the " tschaos" did circulate far 

 and wide ; and in Marco Polo's time they were apparently received 

 with good will ; and if this effect followed under a semi-barbarous 

 despotism in China, why should it not follow to a far wider extent 

 under a paternal and civilised government in India ? 



