Appendix 6: Relationship between the Persian System of balish, sum and miskal, the Chinese System of ding, liang and qian, and Marco Polo’s saggi and grossi

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the relationship between the persian system of balish, sum and miskal, the Chinese System of ding, liang and qian, and Marco Polo's saggi and grossi. In China and Uighuristan the terms ding and yastuq were used for counting paper money, for instance in expressing it in such terms as five hundred ding worth of paper money. Both Schurmann and Yule assumed a weight of about 37.6 g for the liang or 3.76 g for the qian. The lowest and highest values in the relationship between saggio or miskal on the one hand and the Chinese liang on the other will especially be adopted in the calculation of the salt revenues and the total revenue of the Mongol Yuan empire. Keywords:Chinese system; Marco Polo; Mongol Yuan empire; paper money; Persian system; Uighuristan