834 FINANCIAL REFORM AND THE ECONOMY
the expenses of the local petty officials (hyanggwan) and the gate guards (kun' g-
wan) would also be budgeted in this manner. Once all official expenses had
been allocated in this fashion, it would then become possible to abolish all the
official colony lands (kwandunj6n) used currently to defray yamen costs. Veg-
etable lands currently used to supply districts, public schools. military garrisons,
and post-stations would be maintained, but in carefully regulated amounts.
Salaries and expense costs were also to be budgeted for local yangban associ-
ations that performed semiofficial duties in supervising local clerks (the Hyang-
soch'ong). The chief (Pyolsu) of this association would receive I80 mal/year,
and his assistants (Pyolgam) I 20 mal/year, and their office would receive sup-
port for food and fuel as well. Other allocations were included for officials and
expenses of school and educational officials, constables (changgwan), military
districts, post-station and grain-transport officials.^37Labor Service 0/1 Fishing Weirs and Salt Flats
Yu provided that fishing weirs (6jang) and salt fiats that had been set aside for
the income of estates of princes and princesses (kungbang) and used for offi-
cial expenses should also be abolished and turned back to the common people,
a policy that was not adopted in earnest until the Taewongun's regime in the
I 860s. The peasants would be given legal permission to raise fish and produce
salt for their own benefit and simply be taxed on their income, instead of requir-
ing that they work in the weirs as part of their labor service under the supervi-
sion of officials. The same principle would be followed in abolishing required
labor service for raising of horses, nurturing beehives, and fishing in rivers. In
short, all forms of requircd labor service would be thoroughly eliminated by
Yu's broad reform of the system of government financcJ8
Crop Damage Assessment Costs
This system of budgeted expenses also required provisions for relief and inves-
tigation and supervision of degrees of crop damage and tax reduction that had
been left out of the tribute system but had been part of the land tax in the first
two centuries of the dynasty. If crop conditions qualified for famine relief, offi-
cial salaries and expenses, and funds for entertaining envoys and guests would
all qualify for a 20 percent reduction. A famine would be defined as a loss of
up to 60 percent of tax revenues and the condition would be declared for all vil-
lages in a district. The governor might do so for a province, and the king might
declare it for the whole country. If the loss in tax revenues was greater than 60
percent, the budget could be reduced even more.3^9
Assessing crop damage also required investigation of exactly how much land
had suffered from flood or drought, but the cost of the investigation would be
deducted from the regular budget, not by demanding payment from the peas-
ants. Since Yu realized that the annual damage assessments of all land (taphom)