Read Marco Polo's account of the use of paper money
in Mongol-ruled China:
"How the Great
Kaan Causeth the Bark of Trees, Made Into Something Like Paper, To Pass for
Money Over All His Country"
[Chapter XXIV, from The Book of Ser Marco Polo: The Venetian Concerning Kingdoms and Marvels of the East, translated and edited by Colonel Sir Henry Yule]