At least gold glitters. Long before the first paper banknotes fluttered through the financial houses of Europe, the bustling markets of 11th century China birthed an unprecedented financial “innovation”: the use of paper currency. In the 1020s, burdened by the shortage of bronze coins and a rapidly expanding economy, merchants in the southwestern province of Sichuan began issuing paper promissory notes. This marked the genesis of jiaozi, the world’s earliest paper money. Soon, with the imperial...