...told by Marco Polo and David Russell

“..and the silk, a tenth part is applied to the Lord’s Government. And the duty on the Silk of which they have so great an abundance that it is a wonderful thing ... and the amount is in untold money.”.

So wrote 20-year old Marco Polo, on encountering Silk for the first time in the court of Kublai Khan and learning how important the revenue from its sale was to Khan.

The Polo family, known as Pol in Venice, were international traders often venturing out on far-reaching selling and buying trips. Returning from one such a trip in which Marco had been included, the family found their way blocked by both bandits and pirates. With the only route open to them being to the East, Marco’s father, Nicholai, decided to seize the opportunity to explore trade relations with the Chinese leader, Kublai Khan, whose Mongol Golden Horde were, at that moment overwhelming both Asia and Europe. However, when Marco, his father and uncle, turned towards China, they never anticipated that their decision was prelude to a journey which would take 4 years to complete. Begun with a ship voyage across the Mediterranean, they landed at Hormous, Persia, then trekked overland to a Polo owned trading post at Bukara, now part of Uzbekistan. Unbelievably, there, they were forced to remain three whole years, before finally being able to negotiate safe travel passage over Chinese Mongol-held lands.

Finally, with approved papers in hand, they departed Bukara by camel train, on a route later to known as the Silk Road. For months, they crossed snow-packed mountains of great height, then over huge desert tracts with fierce daytime heat; a journey of almost a full year, before the Polos reached Cambulac (Beijing), home of the great Khan’s court.

Overwhelmed by the riches of Khan’s palaces, Marco was especially fascinated by how Kublai came about his fortune through a system of authoritarian taxes which not only grew him richer each day, but also funded the Golden Horde expeditions.

In his Travel diary, Marco described Cambulac and its riches, specifically, noting how it was the tax on the sale of silk, the trade in jewelry and other desired commodities that helped build the Kublai Khan fortune:

“for this town is so good a market that the merchants ...come from all sides (more) than into any city of the world, and greater quantity of all things...precious stones and pearls and silk and all the spicery and all other dear things are brought to this town.”

Though the origin of silk is believed to have begun with “the little goddess of Silk”, Lady Hsi-Ling-Shih, wife of the mythical Yellow Emperor, said to rule China in 3000 B.C., silk was not widely known in Europe. So, with no previous knowledge of it’s existence or use, it was not surprising that the riches the sale of silk provided Khan so impressed Marco.

It was his interest in all the minute details at court plus a demonstrated expertise at mathematics, which in turn, impressed Khan. So much so, that he appointed Marco to be for the ruler, the trusted title of “tax collector”, a role which pleased Marco – a born traveler - since it provided him authority to go wherever he chose within the kingdom, with guaranteed safe passage. As official sign of this new authority, Khan presented Polo a personally signed Golden “Piazza”, which not only guaranteed him safe passage on his travels, but the privilege to request assistance from any person at any time all along the way. Polo described it in his diary:

“...a tablet of gold...(is) portrayed with the Lion or the image of a gerfalcon or different animals – and above the Lion...they have the great Khan’s warrants of great authority...(so anyone possessing the “piazza”) can take all the horses of any person...(and) thus in all things in which he ought to be obeyed...and if any dared not to obey in everything according to the will and command of those who have their tablets, he must die as a rebel against the Great Khan.”

While diligently applying himself to collecting taxes for the Khan, Marco traveled the length and breadth of the Kingdom, describing in his diary those travels in great detail. Specifically described are peoples he meets, where and how they live, their unique habits and tribal rites. This is part of his entry from Quinsai (Hangzhow):

“...the great revenue which the great Khan has from Quinsai,I will tell you (yields from) the duty on silk...(merchants pay a tax of) three percent...(there is also) sugar...and of salt...because it is in so great a quantity ...five other kingdoms ...are supplied..(more than) is made in all the rest of the world ...many people say it is the truth...and is again a great source of revenue. And then the spicery...all spiceries pay three and a third percent to the king....(and) the wine which they make of rice and of spices they have very great revenue also, and from charcoal ...and from...twelve crafts ...for these crafts have great revenue, each craft (has) 12000 stations (and) ...that you may know the sum of it, I Marc Polo...was sent by the great Khan to see...the count of the annual revenue which the Lord had from all these things...quite one of the most great and incalculable amounts of revenue of money...ever heard tell....yet the great Khan has all these revenues spent on the armies.”.

Quinsai (Hangzhow), then one of China’s largest cities, home to arts and artisans, also attracting rich merchants who built great mansions complete with magnificently landscaped, grand gardens. One has been replicated in New York’s Metropolitan Museum. As an arts center, Quinsai fostered many different schools, some favoring an advanced style with a distinct sense of dimensional imagery.

“They have houses very well built and richly worked andthey take so great delight in ornaments, paintings and buildings, that the sums they spend on them are a stupendous thing...They do their merchandise and arts with great sincerity and truth...Inside the city, is a lake very beautiful and great which is quite thirty miles round and allround this lake are built may very beautiful and great palaces and many beautiful houses so wonderfully made that they could not be better devised”.

That is West Lake. Aside from palatial lake resorts, the entire region is well known for growing a highly prized Black Tea. Polo continues:

“...(these homes) belong to gentle men...and they are marvelously adorned inside and outside...and men and woman are fair and handsome and always dress for the most part in silk because of the great abundance which they have of that materials which is produced in the whole territory of Quinsai, besides the great quantity which is continually brought in from other provinces by merchants...and they go to gardens where they are received by the gardeners...and there they stay to give themselves a good time all day with their ladies.”.

As he often does, Polo returns to Khan’s fortune, citing another method employed to grow it, both startling and amazing to Marco as he learns:

“..how the great lord can do much more and spend more than I have told you..how the great Khan causes sheets to be spent for (like) money.”

So taken with this, was Marco, he dedicated three full diary pages to the subject: “The Description Of The World; Paper Given For Gold”, “All Debts And Wages Are Paid With Paper” and “Paper Sheets Are Made & Spent As Money”. Here’s what he wrote:

“He takes the middle bark of the trees which are called gelus, mulberries of which the worms that make silk eat their leaves – for there are many of them......and they take the skin which is the thick outer bark and the wood of the tree and they grind and pound it and of that thin skin he makes them...glue the sheets like those of cotton paper and they are all black. And when the sheets are made he has them cut...in large portions and so they form money (equal to different denominations of) ...silver...and gold...."

"...And all these monies are sealed with the mark...of the great lord, for otherwise (they could not) be spent. And they aremade with as much authority and formality as they were of pure gold or silver...officials... deputed for this write their mark on every coin...(then) the Lord stains the seal...dipped in cinnabar...and the money is authorized. If anyonewould counterfeit it he would be pained with that lastpenalty to the third generation...And in almost all kingdoms subject to his rule none is allowed to make or spend any other money. And...he has all the payments made with them, and has them distributed...through all the provincesand kingdoms...and none dare refuse them on pain of losinghis life....And I tell you...the merchants come many together...with pearls...precious stones ...gold...silver...cloth of gold and of silk...(and) give all...to the great Lord...(who has) them paid ... with those sheets of which I have told you...which cost him little or nothing... (which is) the reason why the lord...has more treasure than any man of this world.”.

On Diary page 104 on through page 151, Polo’s travels take him to a vast number of tax-paying cities, where silk is grown and used, starting with the city of Catai:

“...they go into the hall supposing that the lord asks for them, and they put on these white slippers and give the others to the servants; and this, so as not to soil the beautiful and cunningly made carpets of silk.”

In Giogiu: ..for many clothes of silk...are made there”.

In Taianfu: “There is...a great quantity of silk for they have mulberries upon those mountains and breed the worms which make silk in such abundance that it is a marvel.

In Caramoran: “..and they have silk in very great abundance”

In Quengianfu: “And again I tell you that all the country and the land is full of...a very great number of mulberries, these are the trees of which the worms that make silk live on their leaves...so that the whole land abounds very greatly in silk...For clothes of silk...are made there. All the equipments ...needed for the armies of the great Khan are made there.”.

In Sindfu: “They people)...live by industry, for some very beautiful clothes of silk of several kinds are made There in great quantity.”

In Tebet: “Again ... in this province is camlet and other cloths of...silk.”

In Cacanfu: “they live by trade and by crafts, for they have silk enough in great abundance of which they make clothes...and the finest sendal in great abundance.”.

In Ciangli: “And you may know that through the middle of the city of Ciangli goes a very great river...on which go many ships ..they carry great quantities of...cloth of..many silks.”

The diary continues thru the cities of Tundinfu, Pingliu and Paughin, and the reader reaches that point where a sense of redundancy sets in with the sense that it has also for Polo, for soon he begins to repeat the single phrase “Silk in great abundance.” which exactly appears in his entries for Paughlin, Namghin, Saianfu, the Churches of Cinghianu, Sigoi and Vughin.

Beginning with Page 151 of the diaries 232 pages, the story begins to transition to how the Polo’s travel home to Venice , after release from their court fealty by a (somewhat) grateful Kublai Khan just before his death on February 18, 1294.

The next portion of the diary is dedicated to their homeward voyage on a great ocean-going India trading ship. during their journey, they visited many Indian Ocean ports, then those of Africa and finally, home to Venice. Each port is lovingly detailed as to people, the way they lived and dressed, religious beliefs, tenets, the local animals, the island’s unique fauna and flora, all very similar to how Marco described his visits to cities in China. On this home voyage, Silk is mentioned just once and for the last time, in Polo description of the Pirates of Melibar:

“And they carry also...cloth of silk...and take their ships to Aden and...to Alexandrie..and the merchants come therewith their ships loaded and they discharge them all and then they load them with the wares of the island, and being loaded, off they go, and they carry them to their home countries.”

Finally, 24 years after leaving Venice, the Polo’s returned. For them, a very different and strange Venice from what they remembered and Venetians remembering them. Not difficult to imagine as they trod the piazzas in their multi-silk adorned Mongol dress, with hair in long braided Mongol style.

As it were, they’re arrival was also ill timed. During a feast in which they hosted family and friends, where they broadly recounting stories of their travels, they bragged a bit too much about how those travels rewarded them with a vast fortune. This, at a period when Venice was in an uproar, blaming it’s “elite” families for all the city’s ills. When word of their fortune got about, the rich Polos qualified as “elite”. Add, that now 44-year old Marco, was on the wrong side of an on-going verbal to-do, an overblown economic “battle” between the states of Venice and Genoa, for which Marco found himself taken to “jail, albeit a privileged, luxury “jail” apartment in the Piazza San Marco, where his every wish was met.

There Marco met another Piazza San Marco “guest”, a writer from Pisa named Rustichello, who became his closest confident. Rustichello, from a family of notaries, had mastered the notary’s skill of shorthand writing. Employing that skill, Rustichello made copious notes as day after day Marco detailed the contents of his diary, with Rustichello adding more than a hint of his own flamboyant writing style.

The Polo-Rustichello collaboration resulted in the diary published under the non-to-subtle title of “The Description Of The World”. These are the final words of the book written by Marco Polo, perhaps embellished by Rustichello:

“Here Ends The Book Of The Milion By Ser Marco Polo...You have heard of... how we left the great Khan...and of the great fortune which we had at our departure. And know, that if the fortune had not been, we should...have never been able to leave him, so that I believe we should never have come back to our country. But, I believe that our return was the pleasure of God, that the things which are in the world might be known. For...there was never any man, neither Christian nor Saracen nor Tartar nor Pagan, who ever explored so much of the world as did Master Marc son of Master Nicolau Pol noble and great citizen of the city of Venese"

Thank..............................................God....................................................Amen.


Silk – the thread that fed the “Golden Horde” ® & © Registered 5/08