OFFICIAL SALARIES AND EXPENSES 845
for equal work even though confined only to women of servile status working
in government jobs. He conceded that it might be justified to reduce salaries
for female slaves because their strength or labor power was lower than men,
but they deserved additional consideration because they had been required to
perform the kind of oppressive labor that had never been required of women
in China. As if to add insult to injury, the state also took their offspring from
them by forcing them into inherited slave status. Yu argued that the current quo-
tas of male and female slave service for each government office only caused
confusion in the requirements of service and in the support budgets, which could
be eliminated by providing a uniform grant of fifty myo of land in addition to
equal salaries. On the other hand, by no means did Yu advocate that women be
allowed into his new school system and made eligible for positions of regular
office.^68
In short, the essence of Yu's plan for the support and compensation of offi-
cials was to extend government responsibility not only to clerks and runners in
the lowest unit oflocal administration, but also to include male and female slaves
and those of base status as functionaries deserving of remuneration for the work
expended. If the abolition of slavery became impossible or protracted, the gov-
ernment was obliged to refrain from compounding an unjust inheritance of slave
status by failing to provide them with adequate salaries. One cannot help but be
impressed by Yu's humane concern for the welfare of the men and women of
the lowest rank in government service, and his rational proposals, had they been
met, would have served to alleviate much distress in the operation of the cur-
rent system of remuneration.
ESTIMATE OF ANNUAL EXPENDITURES
Finally, Yu drew up an estimate of annual national expenditures based on reports
of current expenses adjusted for reductions that could be made in his plan for
cutting down the size of the bureaucracy. These expenditures included the cost
of salaries for all employees of the state including military officials, clerks, offi-
cial slaves, and women servants - not just regular civil officials - the expenses
of government offices, and miscellaneous costs involving transportation of goods,
entertainment of foreign guests, rituals, and even tribute to China. Presumably
the budget would be funded according to his calculations of revenues under his
reform plan for land redistribution and taxation. Table 9 shows Yu's budget, con-
verted to contemporary sam (15 mal).
This proposed budget of expenditures for the whole government was based
on the model provided by the taedong reform, which had already replaced ordi-
nary tribute and a large percentage of royal tribute, transportation costs, and office
expenses by provision of funds from tax revenues on land. Yu expected that this
wholesale rationalization of government finance could have been made feasi-
ble by the elimination of superfluous posts and the reduction of expenditures.