A History of Agriculture in India v2.c58.s10.8

v2.c58.s10.8

[^]: Ibn Battuta giving an account of his travels in China states, 'The Chinese use neither (gold) dinars nor (silver) dirhams in their commerce. All the gold and silver that comes into their country is cast by them into ingots, as we have described. Their buying and selling is carried on exclusively by means of pieces of paper, each of the size of the palm of the hand, and stamped with the Sultan's seal. Twenty-five of these pieces of paper are called a balisht, which takes the place of the dinar with us (as the unit of currency). When these notes become torn by handling, one takes them to an office corresponding to our mint, and receives their equivalent in new notes on delivering up the old ones.'