Marco Polo Research Paper

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Marco Polo is an Italian merchant, explorer and writer from wealthy merchant family. In 1271, Marco Polo set off for the voyage to Asia with his father and uncle, and during this adventure, he passed though China and met with Kublai Khan, a Mongol ruler, who found the Yuan Dynasty China. After he made a great fortune, he returned to his homeland, Venice, in 1295, but during this time, Venice was at war with Republic of Genoa. Unfortunately, Marco Polo was captured in the war and imprisoned. He spent several months of his imprisonment writing a detailed documentation of his travel with his inmate, Rustichello da Pisa. And, they named the travelogue, “The Book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian: Concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the East”. …show more content…

In Marco Polo’s travelogue, he told the readers that there are “many roads and highways leading to variety of province” and every twenty-five miles there’s a resting station called Yamb. This Yamb has “all the rooms furnished with fine beds and all other necessary articles in rich silk, and where they are provided with everything they can want. If even a king were to arrive at one of these, he would find himself well lodged” (Polo and Rustichello da Pisa 1; ch. 26). The construction of road and highways gave easy access to merchants to travel faster and safer because the road provide direction and avoid them from getting lost. The roads and highways also connected provinces together meaning merchants are provided with more options as where they can travel to. This expanded their trade route and allows them to meet with more people and make a greater profit. Since the Mongol territory was so vast, having roads allow easy access for people from different regional area to explore, gather and trade. Furthermore, the resting station also promoted trade and cross-cultural exchange. The resting station provided a safe and cozy place for merchant to rest and get their necessities to prepare them for the next day’s journey. The important thing is there are many resting area and they are only twenty-five miles away so this promote people to travel around and ensure …show more content…

The advancement of road and highways provided easy transportation for travelers and merchant to travel throughout the kingdom. The establishment of the Yamb provided a safe and cozy place for people of different cultural background to rest and exchange information. The Yamb also played an important role in the messenger system. The messenger system once again show the advancement of communication throughout the kingdom and the benefits of road providing an easy access to travel around the kingdom. The issue of paper money allow merchant from different countries to have a common currency, which eliminates the problem of currency conversion and provide common ground for different people. Although paper money is a good way to unify currency, yet there there is an underlying problem that the Emperor is issuing too much paper money, which might lead to the problem of inflation and concentrating the wealth in the hand of a person. We should look into the life of commoner to examine how the issuing of paper money affected their