Paper money, backed by the authority of the state, was an astonishing innovation, one that reshaped the world. The instruments of trade and finance are inventions, in the same way that creations of art and discoveries of science are inventions-products of the human imagination.

He took measures to insure the authenticity of his currency, and if you didn’t use it-if you wouldn’t accept it in payment, or preferred to use gold or silver or copper or iron bars or pearls or salt or coins or any of the older forms of payment prevalent in China-he would have you killed. Genghis Khan’s grandson didn’t have that difficulty. The problem with many new forms of money is that people are reluctant to adopt them. Anyone forging it would be punished with death. And when all is prepared duly, the chief officer deputed by the Khan smears the seal entrusted to him with vermilion, and impresses it on the paper, so that the form of the seal remains imprinted upon it in red the money is then authentic. All these pieces of paper are issued with as much solemnity and authority as if they were of pure gold or silver and on every piece a variety of officials, whose duty it is, have to write their names, and to put their seals. When these sheets have been prepared they are cut up into pieces of different sizes. What they take is a certain fine white bast or skin which lies between the wood of the tree and the thick outer bark, and this they make into something resembling sheets of paper, but black.

He makes them take of the bark of a certain tree, in fact of the mulberry tree, the leaves of which are the food of the silkworms, these trees being so numerous that whole districts are full of them. It's still my hope that we're going to figure out ways.He makes his money after this fashion. So we're going to continue to look at that. 'You could have a situation where the top two teams in the league are meeting in the conference finals or somewhere else. 'You also would like to have a format where your two best teams are ultimately going to meet in the Finals,' Silver said. The teams would be reseeded 1-16 at the start of the postseason, allowing for inter-conference matchups before the Finals. The solution Silver hinted at was a compromise of sorts - the playoffs would still consist of eight teams from each conference. Some have argued for a change that would take the top 16 teams into the playoffs regardless of conference. The potential change comes after years of imbalance between the Eastern and Western Conference, which has occasionally resulted in the two teams with the best record meeting before the NBA Finals. NBA commissioner Adam Silver hinted at a possible change to the NBA postseason during his annual All-Star Saturday news conference.

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