For example, around 700 BC, northern India was still divided into Janapadas or “tribal territories,” some of them monarchies and some republics, and in the sixth century there were still at least sixteen major kingdoms. In China, this was the period where the old Zhou Empire first devolved into vying principalities (the “Spring and Autumn” period, 722–481 BC), then splintered into the chaos of the “Warring States” (475–221 BC). Like the Greek city-states, all of the resulting kingdoms, no matter how diminutive, aspired to issue their own official currency.
city-states, all of the resulting kingdoms, no matter how diminutive, aspired to issue their own official currency.
