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joset238
joset238
15.12.2021 • 
History

The Great Khan resides in the capital city of Cathay which is called Cambalue, It is cholosed all round by a great Wall forming a square, each side of which is a mile in length. It is also very thick, and a good ten paces in height. Whitewashed and loop-holed all round. At cach angle of the wall there is a very fine and rich palace in which the war-harness of the Emperor is kept, such as bows and arrows, saddles and bridles, and bowstrings, and everything necessary for an army. Also midway between every two of these corner palaces there is another of the like' so that in the whole enclosure you find eight vast palaces stored with the Great Lord's harness of war. The Emperor's Mint then is in this same City of Cambalue, and ….he makes his money after this fashion. He makes them take of the bark of a certain tree, in fact of the Mulberry Tree, the leaves of which are the food of the silkworms- these trees being so numerous that whole districts are full of them. What they take is a certain fine white skin which lies between the wood of the tree and the thick outer bark, and this they make into something resembling sheets of paper, but black. There is a kind worth one Bezant of gold, and others of three Bezants, and so up to ten. All these pieces of paper are [issued with as much solemnity and authority as if they were of pure gold or silver; and on every piece a variety of officials, whose duty it is, have to write their names, and to put their seals. And when all is prepared duly, the chief officer deputed by the Khan smears the Seal entrusted to him with vermilion, and impresses it on the paper, so that the form of the Seal remains printed upon it in red; the money is then authentic. Excerpt from The Travels of Marco Polo, late 13th century 1. To what is Marco Polo referring to in the second paragraph of the excerpt? (A) the cultivation of mulberry trees, sericulture and silk-making (B) the printing of books using wooden blocks (C) the necessary ingredients for a strong paper currency (D) the practice of alche

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