Professional Documents
Culture Documents
First paper, then paper money. This is pure logic. It is hardly surprising that the first notes or
better, the first paper money, appeared in China. With the invention of paper and printing on its
account, this country was almost destined to produce the first paper money.
For centuries the mulberry tree has been cultivated in the Valley of the Yellow River (Shang period,
18th to 12th century BC). The first traces of paper date back to the 2nd half of the 1st century BC but
then it was not used as writing material. For their traditional calligraphy with brushes they used linen,
hemp, bamboo (cane) and bark of the mulberry tree. Important progress has been made between the
2nd and 4th century AD: Thanks to the use of soaked bast of the mulberry the quality of the pulp
significantly improved and paper became less heavy. The improvement was such that paper gradually
replaced the former bamboomats. Clerical texts and reports for the Court were henceforth written on
paper but still in a vertical direction. This centuries-old way of writing is probably a result of writing on
strips of bamboo which were tied together.