Banknote

Paper money The westward trip of paper money is documented almost to the year, and it ended badly. Notes called jiaozi began as a private merchant scheme in Chengdu under the Song, and after several issuers went bankrupt the government took over, founding an official note office in 1023. The Yuan dynasty's notes impressed foreign visitors, Marco Polo's account among them. In 1294 Gaykhatu, the Mongol ruler of the Ilkhanate in Persia, introduced paper money in Tabriz, modeled so closely on Yuan notes that they even carried Chinese words. The experiment collapsed within about two months, and Gaykhatu was overthrown and killed soon after. Include it for what it shows: a transfer that is fully on record can still fail to take root.