COPPER CASH AND THE MONETARY SYSTEM 857COPPER CASH IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
Reviving the Use o.fCash, 1551-1627
Interest in currency resumed briefly in 155 I when the government considered
minting copper cash as the fastest way to raise funds to provide revenues and
relief in the midst of a famine? Later in that century Yulgok complained about
the absence of metallic or paper money and recommended copper cash over paper
bills and suggested that it be enforced by stiff penalties. Yi Hangbok agreed that
metallic cash was the most convenient form of currency, but he was more cau-
tious because it had been used a few times in the past without success, copper
was in short supply in Korea, and official permission for mining would not be
sufficient to attract poor peasants into mining. He urged that thorough consid-
eration of methods to gain its circulation had to be attempted before it should
be adopted permanently.3
The next suggestion for metallic currency came in 1598 from Yang Hao, a
Ming general stationed in Korea during the Imjin War against Japanese invaders.
Since Ming China already had a cash economy, he thought the Korean govern-
ment would be able to provide some financial support for their own government
as well as funds for purchasing supplies for Ming soldiers by minting copper
cash. Korean court officials opposed the idea and King Sonjo politely declined
the suggestion because copper and other metals were in short supply and eco-
nomic conditions were currently so bad that any attempt to mint cash might cause
popular unrest. When Yang returned home later that year, Chinese pressure for
currency was relaxed.^4
After the war was over, a group of fourteen officials led by Chief State Coun-
cilor Yi Tokhyong in 1603 urgently proposed minting copper cash, but opposi-
tion led by the ministers of the left and right blocked the plan because copper
and other metals were not plentiful in Korea. Furthermore, bad relations with
Japan blocked Korea's main source of copper imports. Then, in 1625 the late
Ming general, Mao Wen-lung, who had established an island base at Kado (Ka
Island) near Manchuria had suggested that Korea import Ming cash. Injo did
not accede to this request, but he did accept the recommendation of Minister of
Taxation Kim Sin'guk that the Korean government mint its own copper cash to
provide government revenue. Injo minted two coins at this time, the Eastern Coun-
try Circulating Treasure (Tongguk t'ongbo) and the multiple denomination Ten-
cash Circulating Treasure (Sipchon t'ongbo). lnjo suspended operations only a
few months later but resumed minting again in 1626. However, only 600 strings
(or 6,000 yang at TOO yang/string, in which the yang (tae!, or 1.3 ounces), orig-
inally a measure of weight, functioned as a unit of account) of cash were minted
until the Manchu invasion of 1627 brought operations to a halt.