Editing Marco Polo (section)

=== Assessments ===
Morgan writes that since much of what ''The Book of Marvels'' has to say about China is "demonstrably correct",  any claim that Polo did not go to China "creates far more problems than it solves", therefore the "balance of probabilities" strongly suggests that Polo really did go to China, even if he exaggerated somewhat his importance in China.<ref>Morgan, D.O. "Marco Polo in China—Or Not" 221–225 from ''The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society'', Volume 6, Issue # 2 July 1996 pages 225.</ref> Haw dismisses the various anachronistic criticisms of Polo's accounts that started in the 17th century, and highlights Polo's accuracy in great part of his accounts, for example on features of the landscape such as the [[Grand Canal of China]].<ref>Stephen G. Haw (2006), ''Marco Polo's China: a Venetian in the Realm of Kublai Khan'', London & New York: Routledge, pp. 1–2, {{ISBN|0-415-34850-1}}.</ref> "If Marco was a liar," Haw writes, "then he must have been an implausibly meticulous one."<ref>Stephen G. Haw (2006), ''Marco Polo's China: a Venetian in the Realm of Kublai Khan'', London & New York: Routledge, pp. 2–3, {{ISBN|0-415-34850-1}}.</ref>

In 2012, the [[University of Tübingen]] Sinologist and historian Hans Ulrich Vogel released a detailed analysis of Polo's description of currencies, [[Salt in Chinese history#Early modern technology|salt production]] and revenues, and argued that the evidence supports his presence in China because he included details which he could not have otherwise known.<ref name="vogel">{{cite book |author=Hans Ulrich Vogel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ydo_9TEmuVQC&pg=PA1 |title=Marco Polo Was in China: New Evidence from Currencies, Salts and Revenues|publisher=  Brill |year= 2012|isbn= 978-90-04-23193-1}}</ref><ref name=uot1204>{{cite news | url = http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=119306&CultureCode=en | title = Marco Polo was not a swindler – he really did go to China | work = [[University of Tübingen]] | publisher = Alpha Galileo | date = 16 April 2012 | access-date = 3 May 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120503104150/http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=119306&CultureCode=en | archive-date = 3 May 2012 | url-status=dead | df = mdy-all }}</ref> Vogel noted that no other Western, Arab, or Persian sources have given such accurate and unique details about the currencies of China, for example, the shape and size of the paper, the use of seals, the various denominations of paper money as well as variations in currency usage in different regions of China, such as the use of [[cowry shell]]s in Yunnan, details supported by archaeological evidence and Chinese sources compiled long after the Polos had left China.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://newobserveronline.com/marco-polo-did-go-to-china-new-research-shows-and-the-history-of-paper/ |title=Marco Polo Did Go to China, New Research Shows (and the History of Paper) |date=31 July 2013 |work=The New Observer |access-date=25 October 2016 |archive-date=4 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170204134202/http://newobserveronline.com/marco-polo-did-go-to-china-new-research-shows-and-the-history-of-paper/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>  His accounts of salt production and revenues from the salt monopoly are also accurate, and accord with Chinese documents of the Yuan era.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120416100439.htm |title=Marco Polo was not a swindler: He really did go to China |work=Science Daily }}</ref> Economic historian [[Mark Elvin]], in his preface to Vogel's 2013 monograph, concludes that Vogel "demonstrates by specific example after specific example the ultimately overwhelming probability of the broad authenticity" of Polo's account. Many problems were caused by the oral transmission of the original text and the proliferation of significantly different hand-copied manuscripts. For instance, did Polo exert "political authority" (''seignora'') in Yangzhou or merely "sojourn" (''sejourna'') there? Elvin concludes that "those who doubted, although mistaken, were not always being casual or foolish", but "the case as a whole had now been closed": the book is, "in essence, authentic, and, when used with care, in broad terms to be trusted as a serious though obviously not always final, witness."<ref>{{cite book |author=Hans Ulrich Vogel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ydo_9TEmuVQC |title=Marco Polo Was in China: New Evidence from Currencies, Salts and Revenues|publisher=  Brill |year=2012|isbn= 978-90-04-23193-1|page = xix}}</ref>