CONFUCIAN STATECRAFT 53
establishment of the Choson dynasty in 1392. These earlier developments were
obviously the product of the expansion of commerce in China prior to the Ming
dynasty in the fourteenth century, and the shift away from commerce and for-
eign trade toward a greater concentration on agriculture after the Ming dynasty
was founded in 1368.76
Early Chason PolicyOne of the intriguing features of early Chason economic policy is that while the
Neo-Confucian supporters of the new dynasty objected to the expansion of indus-
try and commerce beyond the levels needed to facilitate the exchange of goods
in a subsistence economy founded on agricultural production, a number of kings,
with the assistance of many high officials, attempted to promote the relatively
advanced use of copper cash and paper money in place of holts of cloth and
bags of grain. The anomaly between Confucian statecraft ideology and royal
policy is most easily explained by the much weaker commitment to Confucian
economic precepts by some kings than by the true believers among the schol-
ars and officials. They were certainly far more appreciative of the prospect of
improving the flow of revenue and the dispensation of relief during drought and
famine by the relatively effortless printing of paper money or minting of cop-
per coins.
In an era when the majority of the population was so distrustful of paper money
and copper coins, the government had to find the means of supporting the value
of its money by refraining from debasement, controlling counterfeiting, and reg-
ulating the money supply to prevent either excessive inflation or deflation. The
most formidable obstacle to paper money was that it had very little intrinsic value
and was easily worn out by use. The shortage of copper ore, the backwardness
of mining technology, and the limited imports of copper from Japan were the
main obstacles to providing sufficient copper cash to meet national demand. That
should have el iminated the possibility of inflation and created the likelihood of
deflation by increasing the value of the copper coins, but the public had lost con-
fidence in copper coins and their value dropped below the intrinsic value of the
copper in the coins. Once this occurred, the population began to melt down the
coins and convert them to raw copper or copper utensils, which were worth more
than the cash and could be exported abroad to pay for imports.
The use by the early Chason kings of coercion and punishment to enforce the
use of paper money or copper cash - even by a king like Sejong, who had a
great reputation for compassion and benevolence - succeeded only in intensi-
fying the misery and oppression of the general popUlation. Most people were
either afraid of severe financial loss by holding on to money as it depreciated
rapidly in value, or were simply unable to obtain coins because they were either
too expensive or too worthless, depending on the conditions at the time. It was
also a violation of Confucian values by using violence just to maintain the value
of the money supply.