1S8 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 Khán's family 

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

 The eastern historians tell us that the minister consulted the Chínese 

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

 Sir John Malcolm plausibly suggests that Marco Polo may very 

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

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

 wliora Kublai Káán 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 Khátú 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 ldng and his minister that 

 the attempt shouid 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 Khátú'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 Bashíd-ud-dín, who wrote his history, the Jámi'-ut-Tuwáríkh, 

 under Gházán Khan (Ky Khátú's successor) and his son Uljáítú 

 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 

 Táríkhi Gházáni) is missing. 



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

 ( <j[¿.j¿ t-j^Le ) Sadri Jehán, 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 midsfc 

 of these perplexities, an ofíicer of the Eevenue department, named 



* M. de Langlés published a similar extract from the Habíb-us-siyar (wrifcten 

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

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

 century. 



