Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1850-1854, 1850-05-24

The invention of Paper Money is much more
ancient than the establishment of the earliest
Banks. The bank of St. George, of Genoa, the
most ancient we know of was founded in l407
but before the thirteenth century, Koblat, grand
son of Ghengis Khan, the Tartar conqueror, in
troduced paper money into China, and his exam
pie was at once followed by his cousin, Kaiga-
ton, the sultan of Persia; both were obliged to
abolish it on account of the great disorders it pro-
duced in their extensive dominions.
Since this epoch, the Chinese Government has
again established paper money, and in Russia
they can now show "Chinese assgnat."
In Turkey, also, the collectors of certcin tax
es deliver receipts to those who pay them, and
these papers have the currency of money.
1t is not pretended that paper money was first
invented by the Mongols; ON the contrary, its
invention was every where as easy as its use was
obvious and particularly attractive for all govern
ments, for its temporary advantage in crises of
difficulty.
The idea of substituting token or promisso-
ry obligation, for present. intrinsic value, could
occur even to a simple or barbarous people, of
which there are many examples.
Aristotle, in his Economies, tells us that Denis
the Tyrant of Syracuse, coined money of tin
which he declared TO be legal and equivalent to
silver!
Timotheus, the General of the Athenians, in
a moment of difficulty, coined brass money, as
surfing his murmuring soldiers that he would re-
ceive it, in the purchase of the spoils he was to
make. We have heard much of the leathern
money used by the Carthagenians.
1t is true. none of these are paper money, but
they resemble it, as merely "tokens of value"
the money of confidence; the |. .. U.
We read also OF the iron money of ByZantium,
.,,1 aSNffh a oifi of
In Eng land, copper money is only token or
sign, current for nearly double its value in me-
tai.
In Russia, skins and furs have been used for
money, but their inconvenient bulk gave rise in
early time, to an ingenious representative fthese
natural coins, which was small pieces OF leather
stamped, which were used as money, to be IL
quidated by furs and skins, as expressed. This
leathern coin was used in some parts as the trac-
tons of the silver copeck, down TO the year 100.
Among the simple Hndoos, whose wants are
few, and the produce of the earth acquired with
little labor, gold and silver, or even copper or
iron, are of no great value in comparison; and
their small money is cowry shells, collected on
the shores of Ceylon and of the Maldrve Islands !;
these shells have been the current money of the
Mongols, of Bengal, and Botan, as well as of
Guinea. On the discovery of America, grains
of Cacao served for money In Abyssinia, their
merchandise are valued by salt and pepper on
the island of Newfoundland by Goldfish in Ice
land, by a sort of wool; pieces of nankeen serve
for the money of comparison, in the exchanges
between the Chinese and the Russians, at Kiak-
tn; among the Creeks of the lower empire, pie
ces of silk performed this function; in ancient
Chronicles, gold, silver, and silk are mentioned
equally as money.
The basis of the currency of the Chinese and
of the Russians, seems TO be more curious and
substantial than any other. The small coins of
the Chinese appear to cost more in the labor OF
fabrication than they are worth in their currency;
they cannot therefore, be forged, and the mate
rial is a mixed metal worth less in the crucible,
or for expectation, than in its use coin.
Russia, the abundant base of their currency
is copper, whose value in coin is less than in
commerce as metal; this is an unusual condition
but happy one as far as it extends.
As riches and calculations increased with civ
ization and confidence and after the discovery
of America and the working in its mines gold
and silver took with advantage the place of all
those expedients one step further has been ia
ken on the basis of credit in the use of paper
money.
Metallic money, in its value, its quantity, its
facility and rapidity of crculation-in its trans
port and presence, can no longer be suitable or
equal to the eXigenc:es of our trade and exchan-
ges paper has become indispensable every
where in foreign commerce, and as useful as ne
cessary in the great internal trade of an impro-
we'd, active and productive country.