[3] The Ever Victorious Army, p. 395

CHAPTER LXXVI.

DESCRIPTION OF THE GREAT CITY OF KINSAY, WHICH IS THE CAPITAL OF THE WHOLE
COUNTRY OF MANZI.

When you have left the city of Changan and have travelled for three days through a splendid country, passing a number of towns and villages, you arrive at the most noble city of Kinsay, a name which is as much as to say in our tongue “The City of Heaven,” as I told you before.[NOTE 1]

And since we have got thither I will enter into particulars about its magnificence; and these are well worth the telling, for the city is beyond dispute the finest and the noblest in the world.  In this we shall speak according to the written statement which the Queen of this Realm sent to Bayan the conqueror of the country for transmission to the Great Kaan, in order that he might be aware of the surpassing grandeur of the city and might be moved to save it from destruction or injury.  I will tell you all the truth as it was set down in that document.  For truth it was, as the said Messer Marco Polo at a later date was able to witness with his own eyes.  And now we shall rehearse those particulars.

First and foremost, then, the document stated the city of Kinsay to be so great that it hath an hundred miles of compass.  And there are in it twelve thousand bridges of stone, for the most part so lofty that a great fleet could pass beneath them.  And let no man marvel that there are so many bridges, for you see the whole city stands as it were in the water and surrounded by water, so that a great many bridges are required to give free passage about it. [And though the bridges be so high the approaches are so well contrived that carts and horses do cross them.[NOTE 2]]

The document aforesaid also went on to state that there were in this city twelve guilds of the different crafts, and that each guild had 12,000 houses in the occupation of its workmen.  Each of these houses contains at least 12 men, whilst some contain 20 and some 40,—­not that these are all masters, but inclusive of the journeymen who work under the masters.  And yet all these craftsmen had full occupation, for many other cities of the kingdom are supplied from this city with what they require.

The document aforesaid also stated that the number and wealth of the merchants, and the amount of goods that passed through their hands, was so enormous that no man could form a just estimate thereof.  And I should have told you with regard to those masters of the different crafts who are at the head of such houses as I have mentioned, that neither they nor their wives ever touch a piece of work with their own hands, but live as nicely and delicately as if they were kings and queens.  The wives indeed are most dainty and angelical creatures!  Moreover it was an ordinance laid down by the King that every man should follow his father’s business and no other, no matter if he possessed 100,000 bezants.[NOTE 3]