The first known examples of paper currency as we would understand it today were created in China during the Song Dynasty (AD 960–1279). Promissory notes known as “Jiaozi” were printed by a group of merchants in Sichuan during the reign of Emperor Zhenzong (AD 997–1022). “Paper money was the first form of Chinese printing met with by European travellers, was independently discussed by at least eight pre-Renaissance European writers, and so far as is known, is the only form of Chinese printing described in European writings of pre-Gutenberg days. Marco Polo’s description is the most detailed” (Carter, op. cit., 109).