'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎478] (537/714)

PERSIA
of the attempt made by Thai-tsu of the Sung Dynasty to introduce
paper money into China three centuries before, and of its revival
in that country within the last fifty years; a proceeding with
which we have been rendered familiar by the writings of the learned
Venetian, and of Ibn Batutah, the Moor of Tangier. The Persian
Mongol, finding himself over two millions sterling in debt, conceived
the bright idea that, by issuing a paper currency, which would be
bought by his faithful subjects, all the gold and silver in the king
dom would flow into the royal exchequer; while the paper would
become the universal medium of exchange. For this purpose a
royal edict was issued, forbidding the circulation of the precious
metals as currency. Banks, called, after the Chinese name, Chow-
khaneh, were erected at Tabriz and other places ; and notes, or Chow,
were issued for sums varying from %d. to 4s. 7d., bearing a Moham
medan inscription and the value written in a circle upon them, and
the imperial mandate to accept this novel currency. The subjects of
Kei Khatu were, however, less docile or more wide-awake than he
had anticipated. A howl of universal execration greeted the promul
gation of the scheme; the minister who had suggested it was torn to
pieces by an infuriated mob ; and within three days the decree was
repealed, and the first Persian experiment of paper money igno-
miniously expired.
Warned by this example, or timorous of empirical finance, no
subsequent Persian sovereign repeated the experiment of the Mongol.
Modern Indeed, in the present century, the introduction of the
opinion Russian paper rouble into Persia was regarded with the
gravest suspicion by the ruling powers as an insidious attempt to
drain the country of its silver and gold. So strong did this feeling
become that, in ] 883, the Shah actually issued a royal edict which
declared that ' the people are very foolish who take dirty pieces of
paper for gold and silver, and in future all Russian rouble notes will
be confiscated.' Like many royal decrees, this was fortunately
allowed to become a dead letter almost as soon as promulgated.
It is, therefore, in the face of inauspicious historical omens, and
among a people and court whose ideas of finance are rudimentary,
Notes of that the Imperial Bank has started upon this part of its
imperial programme. Some time was spent in selecting a suitable
Bank and handsome design; and in 1890 the new bank
notes, having a Persian inscription with the badge of the Lion
and the Sun on one side, and an English inscription with the