196 ADDEESS TO THE [lect. 



the whole skin. The ownership was proved when the 

 piece fitted in. the hole." True bank notes are said to 

 have been invented about 800 A.D., in the reign of Hian- 

 tsoung, of the dynasty of Thang, and were called 

 feytsien, or flying money. It. is curious, however, though 

 not surprising, to find that the temptation to over issue 

 led to the same results in China as in the West. The 

 value of the notes fell, until at length it took 11,000 

 min., or £3,000 nominal, to buy a cake of rice, and the 

 use of notes appears to have been abandoned. Subse- 

 quently the issue was revived, and Tchang-yang (960 — ■ 

 990 A.c.) seems to have been the first private person 

 who issued notes. Somewhat later, under the Emperor 

 Tching-tsong (997 — 1022), this invention was largely 

 extended. Sixteen of the richest firms united to form 

 a bank of issue, which emitted paper money in series, 

 some payable every three years. 



The earliest mention in European literature of paper, 

 or rather cotton, money appears to be by Rubruquis, a 

 monk, who was sent by St. Louis, in the year 1252, to 

 the court of the Mongol Prince Mangu-Khan, but he 

 merely mentions the fact of its existence. Marco Polo, 

 who resided from 1275 to 1284 at the court of Kublai- 

 Khan, — I do not know whether in 



" the stately pleasure dome 

 "Where Alph, the sacred river, ran 

 Through caverns measureless to man 

 Down to a sunless sea," — 



gives us a longer and interesting account of the note 

 system, which he greatly admired, and he concludes by 

 saying, "Now you have heard the ways and means 



