Ming banknote

Ming banknote

This week Neil MacGregor's history of the world is exploring the great empires of around 1500 - the threshold of the modern era. Today he is in Ming Dynasty China and with a surviving example of some of the world's first paper bank notes - what the Chinese called "flying cash". Neil explains how paper money comes about and considers the forces that underpinned its successes and failures. While the rest of the world was happily trading in coins that had an actual value in silver or gold, why did the Chinese risk the use of paper? This particular surviving note is made on mulberry bark, is much bigger than the notes of today and is dated 1375. The Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, and the historian Timothy Brook look back over the history of paper money and what it takes to make it work.

Producer: Anthony Denselow

Jaksot(101)

Lachish Reliefs

Lachish Reliefs

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Statue of Ramesses

Statue of Ramesses

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Mold Gold Cape

Mold Gold Cape

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Minoan Bull Leaper

Minoan Bull Leaper

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Rhind Mathematical Papyrus

Rhind Mathematical Papyrus

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9 Helmi 201013min

Flood tablet

Flood tablet

A small tablet was found in modern Iraq and brought back to the British Museum. When it was translated, back in 1872, it turned out to be an account of a great flood that significantly pre-dated the f...

8 Helmi 201013min

Early Writing Tablet

Early Writing Tablet

This week's programmes in the history of the world looks at the growing sophistication of humans around the globe, between 5000 and 2000 BC. Mesopotamia had created the royal city of Ur, the Indus val...

5 Helmi 201013min

Jade Axe

Jade Axe

This week's programmes in the history of the world look at the growing sophistication of modern humans around the globe between 5000 and 2000 BC. Mesopotamia had built the royal city of Ur, the Indus ...

4 Helmi 201014min

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