DescriptionThe country of Jordan was created out of the carving up of the Middle East by the British. Most of it had been Palestine. It was something of a sop to the Hashemi family, who had wanted to rule in Arabia, but the Saudis won. An attempt by a Hashemi to create a “Greater Syria” failed, the British moved him to Iraq and made him king there. A brother was set up in Jordan. The descendants have run the country since.Aside from China, other governments started using circulating “banknotes” starting in the 17th century AD. The practice became general in the 19th century. In the 20th century value of paper money in circulation far surpassed the value of coinage. In the 21st century paper money is fading and credit transactions are growing.Paper money, meaning the promise of a government to pay a set amount, and the paper promise allowed to circulate at will, was probably first used in China in the 12th century AD. At that time the merchants and governments of Europe were just writing letters to each other about what they owed.
