Tae expansion of commerce and the necessities of governments gave origin to paper money in the west, The Venetians were the first Huropeans to establish a bank, and this was seven hundred years ago. That the course which has been ran by banks and banknotes in the modern western world has not been longer than this is a suggestive fact, for paper money was existent in China two hundred years before that time. Len centuries ago copper money was the standard in mercantile transac. tious and was found insufficient.
Wen-kang complained. of the things in the following mann present our grain is abundant and our silk clothing ohéapin price. Why is it, then, that men are so poor? The field cultivators being few, the harvests are more than enough. The tenders of sill worms are not many, and the quantity of silk produced is not too little. Why, then, are the people too poor to live in comfort The Chinese political economists answered that thoro was a sonroity of money. After this, silver was introduced, and in course of time as the centuries rolled on it was found that in cases of exigency silver could not be bad and in consequence paper roprosentative was adopted. The advantages of paper money were stated by a Ming dynasty Viceroy to be ten. Itis cheap to make, It can be circulated. It is light to carry. It is ensily concealed, It la not liable to discount for alleged impurity, Its weight does not vary. There is no temptation to the silver. smith to abstract a part of it. Robbery is rendered much more impracticable. Copper, not being required, can be need in making weapons for the army, Silver, not being required, can be stored up in the public Treasury for future contin. gencies. The Chinese being aware of these ten conveniences attendant. on the use of paper money in the Ming dynasty, it is not surprising that as far back as the Sung dynasty this method of relieving the Government in times of difficulty should have been often tried by way of experiment, and this we find to have been the case.
The use of paper money by the Chinese in the Sung. dynasty was olealy anterior to its use in Venice,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.