Paper money
Sichuan merchants issue notes, and the state takes the idea over.
- When
- Known to
- ± 5 years
- Era
- Post-Classical, Holocene
Deposit receipts circulating among Sichuan merchants become government-issued notes in 1024 — the first true paper currency anywhere. It solves a real problem: copper coin is heavy and China was short of it. It also introduces a new one, since a government that can print money can overprint it, and Song and later Yuan issues do inflate badly. Marco Polo's account of paper money astonished European readers.