Latest / Trade Routes That Changed Human History Forever — Fexingo History
The Silk Road's Forgotten Currency: The Paper Bill of Exchange
Before credit cards and banks, there was the bill of exchange — a piece of paper that could move a fortune across continents without a single coin changing hands. In this episode, Lucas and Luna trace the origins of this financial revolution back to Tang dynasty China, where merchants and the state experimented with 'flying money' (feiqian) to avoid hauling heavy copper cash across bandit-ridden roads. They follow the idea westward along the Silk Road, through the Islamic world's hawala system and suftaja, to the Italian city-states, where the bill of exchange became the…
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