In Ming Dynasty China, a significant portion of the southern grain tax is commuted to payments in silver, known as the Gold Floral Silver (jinhuayin). This comes about due to officials' and military generals' increasing demands to be paid in silver instead of grain, as commercial transactions draw more silver into nationwide circulation. Some counties have trouble transporting all the required grain to meet their tax quotas, so it makes sense to pay the government in silver, a medium of exchange that is already abundant amongst landowners through their own private commercial affairs.
The Florentine polymath Leon Battista Alberti begins writing the treatise On Painting, in which he argues for the importance of mathematical perspective in the creation of three-dimensional vision on a two-dimensional plane. This follows the ideas of Massacio and his concepts of linear perspective and vanishing point in artwork.
Abi Ahmet Celebi, chief physician of Ottoman empire. Produced a study on kidney and bladder stones and supported the research of the Jewish doctor Musa Colinus ul-Israil on the application of drugs. He founded the first Ottoman medical school.
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