CHAPTER 12
The Search for Alternative
Modes of Military Finance
]he idea of cutting military costs by shifting to rotating duty soldiers and sup-
port taxpayers failed for a number of reasons. The government found itself
increasing the demands on the peasantry in its search for more support taxpay-
ers, a problem exacerbated by its inability to curtail its penchant for expanding
the number of troop units and soldiers. The state's need for revenues also con-
tributed to this phenomenon by allowing adult males to purchase exemptions
(napsok) to become service-exempt yuhak or kun 'gwan, or to obtain a place in
the Loyal or Righteous Guards. (Yuhak was a term originally meaning student
or scholar who had not passed one of the state examinations, then denoting a
living student rather than a deceased haksaeng, and finally a student of yang-
ban or sajok status not necessarily registered in school; kun 'gwan was a mili-
tary aide to an official.) As the pressure for more revenue increased, the state
kept lowering the price for these benefits. Even though it sought to limit these
measures to emergencies, recurrent famine prevented it from suspending them
indefinitely, and in 1661 the government again permitted purchase of service-
exemption privileges because of famine and need for contributions. I
These legal reductions in the number of available adult males only exagger-
ated the pressures on military finance by expanding the quotas of duty soldiers
and support taxpayers. Available statistics reveal that the number of men regis-
tered for either mode of service increased greatly in the next century.
The crisis in military finance had, of course, not been created in 168 I. It had
been a problem since the beginning of recovery after the Imjin War, and a num-
ber of officials had sought ways either of reducing the number of men required
for duty and support taxes, expanding the tax base by forcing those exempted
from service to register, or shifting the mode of military taxation away from
adult males to some other tax base. These movements culminated in a major
debate over restructuring the military tax base in 1681 and 1682. a debate that
is particularly interesting because it was founded on principles that Yu Hyongwon
had rejected.