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)

Benin plaque - the Oba with Europeans

Benin plaque - the Oba with Europeans

This week Neil MacGregor's history of the world is exploring the impact of the great European age of expansion and discovery during the 15th and 16th Centuries. In the last programme he described the ...

21 Syys 201013min

The mechanical galleon

The mechanical galleon

Neil MacGregor's world history as told through things. This week he is exploring the impact of Western European travel, trade and conquest between 1450 and 1600. He kicks off with an exquisite miniatu...

20 Syys 201013min

Durer's Rhinoceros

Durer's Rhinoceros

Neil MacGregor's world history as told through things that time has left behind. This week he is exploring vigorous empires that flourished across the world 600 years ago - visiting the Inca in South ...

17 Syys 201014min

Jade dragon cup

Jade dragon cup

The history of humanity as told through one hundred objects from the British Museum in London is this week exploring powerful empires around the world in the 14th and 15th centuries. Today he is with ...

16 Syys 201014min

Inca gold llama

Inca gold llama

The history of humanity - as told through one hundred objects from the British Museum in London - is back in South America. This week Neil MacGregor, the museum's director, is with the powerful elites...

15 Syys 201014min

Tughra of Suleiman the Magnificent

Tughra of Suleiman the Magnificent

Neil MacGregor's world history as told through things. This week he is exploring the great empires of the world around 1500 - from the Inca in South America to the Ming in China and the Timurids in th...

13 Syys 201013min

Hoa Hakananai'a Easter Island statue

Hoa Hakananai'a Easter Island statue

This week Neil MacGregor is exploring the sophisticated ways in which people connected to gods and ancestors in the Middle Ages. He is looking at religious images from India, France, Mexico and Turkey...

9 Heinä 201014min

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