LATE CHOSON PROPOSALS 381crop rotation practiced on dry fields in Hwanghae and Pyong'an provinces would
also be used. Peasants from those areas would be recruited for membership in
the colonies to instruct others in those methods.
For the colonies to be established on the outskirts of Seoul, the men from
these provinces would be brought to the capital with their wives and children
as part of their rotating duty in the capital guard divisions. So assumed that these
peasants were probably already existing on the margin of subsistence and would
have been happy to move to the capital voluntarily, especially considering the
gcnerous wage inducement. The other cultivators on these capital colonies would
consist of the available unemployed and landless farmers or wage workers in
the capital who had migrated there recently. So hoped that by this method of
recruitment, the best methods of cultivation could be spread throughout the coun-
try as a whole.^67
In addition, thc management ofthe statc farms (or colonics) was to be recruitcd
from people who had the most skill in managing agriculture and handling wage
labor. Those peoplc would be selected to become agricultural managers
(chiJnnonggwan) on the colony-estates. So expectcd that these managers would
transfer the most advanced and productive methods developed over the years
by the most successful landlords to these state farms, and eventually hecome
prime candidates for the posts of district magistrates. As Kim Yongsop argued,
So did not reject the existing landlord system itself, but planned to have the state
adopt its methods to increase production on the state farms, expand the statc-
farm system of collective cultivation and wage labor, and solve the evils of land-
lessness and unemployment that had virtually accompanied the "enclosure" of
land by the enterprising landlords.
In addition to the four colonies he planned to create around the capital, he also
wanted a network of others established in the colonies, some in conjunction with
military defense garrisons and command ccnters. Along the southern coasts he
hoped to establish official colonies (kwandun) of 5,000 kyiJng in every key defen-
sive district and 3,000 ky6ng in every garrison town, but these colonies would
function by renting out land to tenants rather than using hired lahor and direct
management by the local officials or commanders.
In addition, civilian colonies (mindull) would be estahlished and organized
along the lines of the well-field model, but under the control of the people them-
selves rather than officials. They would pay a tithe to the magistrate, half of
which would be used for the support of the colony chief and the other for emer-
gency reserves. The colonists would be exempted from military service but would
pay the cloth-support tax for duty troops. Aware of the danger of rebellion hy
landlords if the state tried to confiscatc land for establishing these well-field
colonies, he proposed simply that thcy only be created on unused land by tbe
reclamation efforts of peasants, but thcy would he managed either by an offi-
cial or by a commoner, not by a landlord. Any private individual who raised
capital, bought tools, and recruited peasants to work on reclaimed land who
wanted to become the agricultural manager of such an estate would be granted