How Did Marco Polo Introduce Western Civilization

Marco Polo played a pivotal role in introducing Western civilization to that of the East, specifically China, and vice versa. He traversed throughout Asia from 1271 to 1295 CE, and his travels along the Silk Road eventually guided him to the territory of the Yuan Dynasty (Mongols), who were under the reign of Kublai Khan at the entry of Polo. Polo arrived in Beijing, which was then known as Cambaluc, translated as “city of the Khan” (Boorstin). Polo was surrounded by pristine ideas and products unheard of in the West. Thus, Marco Polo’s travel to Cambaluc introduced new intellectual products in Europe, including paper currency, the imperial post office, and curfew, as well as advances in cartography and the stature of an affluent leader.

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Polo viewed paper currency in stupefaction: “With these pieces of paper they can buy anything and pay for anything. And I can tell you that the papers that reckon as ten bezants do not weight one” (Polo). Polo asserted that the paper weighed close to nothing yet was worth an unbelievable amount of money. What seemed to surprise him even more was that the people accepted paper currency throughout Kublai’s empire: “I assure you that all peoples and populations who are subject to his rule are perfectly willing to accept these papers in payment, since wherever they go they pay the same currency” (Polo). Polo further attributed Kublai’s prosperous reign to the concept of paper replacing precious stone (gold, silver) as currency. Polo introduced paper currency to Europe when he returned to Venice in 1295; however, it wasn’t fully accepted until the 1800s, when French leader Napoleon Bonaparte standardized banknotes as currency (Haw). Thus, Marco Polo’s travel to Cambaluc contributed to the development of banknotes, an important intellectual advancement from the 12th century.
Postal systems had previously been used in Europe but were diminishing at the time of Polo’s arrival in Cambaluc.

There, Polo observed the role that postage stamps played in communication within the Yuan Empire. Discrepant stamps designated certain letters as either Top Priority, First-class, and Second-class, which aided in determining the method in which the mail was delivered, similar to how Americans can choose to mail items based on price and the time of arrival in the contemporary day (Silk Road Foundation). Additionally, postage stamps served as a source of revenue for the khan and provided jobs, which aided the economy. The intellectual bliss of the postage stamp helped create effective communication as well as a stable economic addition. Polo introduced the concept of stamps through his magnum opus The Travels of Marco Polo, which aided in the development of an improved postal system during the Renaissance Period in Europe.

Cambaluc served as the last destination of Polo’s travels eastward on the Silk Road, and the outlines of his journey aided in establishing reliable maps of the area, which helped other merchants travelling the Silk Road easily find their destinations: "He was the first traveler to trace a route across the whole longitude of Asia, naming and describing kingdom after kingdom” (Yule). The effective maps drawn from Polo’s description aided in exploration as well. Thus, Polo’s travel to Cambaluc was intellectually significant as it provided the West with maps to the East, promoting business and

commerce.
In his description of the city of Cambaluc, Polo states, “It contains many beautiful houses and palaces, and a very large one in the midst, containing a steeple with a large bell, which at night sounds three times; after which no man must leave the city without some urgent necessity” (Polo). Polo seems to be describing a curfew, as the people of the city are not allowed to leave past a designated time. Along with the one issued by William the Conqueror which stated that fires should be extinguished by 8:00 PM each day, the idea of curfew was relatively new in Europe at the time of Polo’s return to Venice (Bailey). The idea, however, has ever since spread, and was first defined by Nathan Bailey in An Universal Etymological English Dictionary in 1726. It remains a prominent issue in many countries today, such as the United Kingdom and Egypt.
Aside from these somewhat tangible products, Polo brought back something perceptively intangible as well: the stature of an affluent leader. Throughout his book, Polo continually establishes the greatness and accomplishments of Kublai Khan. Polo even states, “He surpasses every sovereign that has heretofore been or that now is in the world” (Polo). He is simply stating that Kublai is the best leader of his time.
The first quality that Polo established of Kublai is his physical stature, in that “his whole figure is a just proportion, his complexion is fair, [and] his eyes are black and handsome” (Polo). Kublai also had four wives, which is evidence of polygamy, as practiced in European history by the patriarchs under the Roman Catholic Church as justified by Saint Augustine. Hindu kings were also known to practice polygamy, evidenced by the scriptures and writings of the Baudhayana Dharmashastra.
While one may dispute the mentality that the attributes of a political leader are not political but rather intellectual, note that the ideas of Kublai Khan proposed by Polo did not immediately go into effect, nor did they apply to any rulers at the time. The conceptual ideas of Polo remained concept, and were only increasingly adopted as time passed, as evidenced earlier.
The second quality that Polo establishes of Kublai is religious tolerance. Polo asserts that Kublai stated the following words, “There are four great prophets who are reverenced and worshipped by the different classes of mankind. The Christians regard Jesus Christ as their divinity; the Saracens, Mahomet, the Jews, Moses, and the idolaters, Sogomombar-kan, the most eminent amongst their idols. I do honor and show respect to all the four, and invoke to my aid whichever amongst them is in truth supreme in heaven” (Polo). Here, Kublai is mentioning Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism, respectively, and shows no bias towards one over the other, but rather that each religion can coexist with the other within his empire. Polo further glorifies this action by discussing an encounter where Kublai chose not to conform to Christianity for the sake of his position, power, and people.
The third quality that Polo describes is Kublai’s intelligence: the reward system. In simple terms, Polo states that the grand khan appointed twelve intelligent nobles to secretly become acquainted with the military and determine which of them was the most diligent in order to promptly promote them to a higher position (Polo). He also describes how those warriors received customary gold tablets, each individually inscribed with specific duties that the officer would retain in his new position.
Conclusively, Marco Polo’s trip to Cambaluc had a profound impact of European society, as the intellectual products of paper currency, the imperial post, curfew, cartograms, and the intangible item of kingly stature strongly influenced future historical events. Polo’s use of writing aided in accomplishing many facets of European society, some of which many readers still emulate today.