CHAPTER 2 I
Tribute and the Taedong Reform
Yu Hyongwon's plan for a significant restructuring of state finances was heav-
ily influenced by the major change in the operation of the tribute tax that had
been under way since the last half of the fifteenth century. The tribute contracting
system carried on sub rosa operated to expand commercial transactions despite
the legal bans against it a long time before the first adoption of the taedong sys-
tem in 1594.
The taedong law was primarily a recognition of de facto marketing arrange-
ments, a legalization of practices of long standing. At the same time, by remov-
ing all legal barriers to government purchases of goods from merchants, the
reform also served to remove the costs imposed on the peasant villagers to dis-
guise illegal tribute contracting, such as extra fees, bribes, and high prices for
tribute goods purchased. It also stimulated more trade than before and weak-
ened the attempt of the Choson government to control all trade through monop-
olistic licensing arrangements.
CRITIQUES OF THE TRIBUTE SYSTEM
Yu Hyongwon's treatment of the history of the taedong reform was rather brief
and cursory, carrying the story only up to 1658, but it was sufficient to indicate
the depth of his admiration for the reform and the men who played leading roles
in urging it. Even though he was not explicit or effusive in articulating his admi-
ration, one can easily deduce the intensity of his feelings from his use of the
taedong model for a restructuring of the whole of the Choson fisc (see chap.
22). He also revealed his feelings by incorporating into his own work the key
statements on the evils of the tribute system by three sixteenth-century advo-
cates of reform, Cho Kwangjo, Yulgok (Yi I), and Cho Han.
Cho Kwangjo
Yu began his own history of the reform of the tribute system by citing Cho