MILITARY FINANCE 481ence of ministers had concluded that it was in fact possible to devise a new "per-
sonal cloth tax" (sinp 0) to be imposed on previously untaxed men, but the scope
of the new tax was to be kept conservativcly small. The ministers decided to
exclude passers of the intermediate level chinsa and saengwon (literary and clas-
sics) examinations from the law, and only included the vuhak or general cate-
gory of student, not necessarily registered in a school, or lower types. They also
incorporated into the draft law the proposal ofYu Kye in 1659 that these previ-
ously exempt students would only be required to pay one p'i! in cloth and not
be registered for military duty.
Second State Councilor Chong Ch'ihwa responded that this kind of individ-
ual or per capita levy was not as good as a household cloth tax (hop II). If indi-
vidual males were taxed, then families with large numbers of adult males would
have to bear a heavy burden. Kim Suhi1ng, on the other hand, believed that it
would be easier for people to evade registration for a household tax than for a
per capita tax. Chong replied that this could be avoided and a household cloth
tax successfully adopted if the families of the highest officials set a model for
others by paying the tax and advertising their compliance with the law.
King Hyonjong gave some indication of where his sentiments lay when he
askcd which of thc two methods was morc likely to yield the larger revenue.
Kim replied that the personal tax (sinp 0) would yield far more than a house-
hold cloth tax. Royal Secretary Yun Sim raised the point that so many persons
had bcen able to cvade registration under the normal ccnsus (household regis-
tration system or hojok) that the initiation of a per capita cloth tax would
inevitably result in the discovery of many unregistered persons, obviously requir-
ing large scale punishment, but Minister of War Kim Man'gi retorted that men
so discovered could be excused from criminal punishment. and Hyonjong agreed
with him.22
Although Hyonjong's appetite was whetted by the prospect of more revenue.
he did not havc the heart to prevail against the spokesman of yangban-scholar
class interests. A fcw days later Inspector-General (Taesahon) Kang Paengnyon
argued (erroneously) that the state had been showing favor to the scholar class
for three hundred years by exempting them from military service. If this policy
were changed overnight and the scholars lumped together with ordinary peas-
ants on the cloth tax rolls, there would be tremendous opposition to it.
Kim Suhi1ng then reversed his opinion, claiming that the imposition of a per
capita lax would be too onerous in families that had five to ten adult males. The
plight of the poor scholar families living in remote areas was particularly dis-
heartening. They might call themselves yangban, but they could hardly scrape
together cnough to support a scholar in the family. If a new cloth tax were imposed
on them, they would not be able to pay it, and they would end up in jail for vio-
lating the tax law. He had heard so many criticisms sinee the law was fIrst
broached that he was certain it would have to be rescinded soon after adoption.
Hencc. it was better not to implement it at all.
When Hyonjong turned to other officials for advice, most, including Kim