858 FINANCIAL REFORM AND THE ECONOMYKing Injo's Ever-Normal Bureau and Choson T'ongbo, 16JIIn 1633, King Injo established the Ever-Normal Bureau (Sangp'yongch'ong) in
charge of price stabilization activities and ordered it to mint a coin called the
Choson Circulating Treasure (Choson t 'ongbo), and he forbade minting by other
agencies of government or private individuals. The coin was modeled after the
Wan-Ii Circulating Treasure (Wan-Ii t'ung-pao) that was larger and weighed twice
as much as the Choson Circulating Treasure coins minted in the previous decade.
The original regulations established the exchange rate for the coin at I toe (. I
mal) of rice per mun of cash (100 mun per yang), but because of objections that
the coin would be overvalued, the Ministry of Taxation proposed reducing its
value in half to .5 toelmun but setting the value of coins cast in pewter at I toe!mun.
The ministry also proposed allowing one-third or one-fourth of all taxes and
tribute owed the state in cloth or grain to be paid in cash. This would include
the land tax or grain rations for musketeers, bowmen, and pikemen (samsubyong)
of the Military Training Agency, but the ministry anticipated that residents in
remote districts would have difficulty in obtaining enough cash to make pay-
ments. In the capital, redemption payments in lieu of punishment, office
expenses for the capital bureaus, royal grants, and compensation for labor ser-
vice could all be paid in cash. Injo accepted these suggestions but rejected the
ministry'S idea of allowing interpreters in embassies to China to bring back Chi-
nese cash to circulate along with the Chason t'ongba.^5
In 1634 Injo adopted the Ever-Normal Bureau's recommendation to remedy
obstructions in the flow of currency. It had already permitted the samsu soldiers
to receive one-tenth of their rations in cash, but it had not recommended impos-
ing any cash taxes on the people. The samsu soldiers were authorized to pre-
sent their cash to the Ever-Normal Bureau's granary to buy food, but because
there was not enough grain on reserve to supply their needs, people were already
beginning to lose confidence in the cash. Then, when the government allowed
peasants who had not yet paid their taxes to do so in cash, many living near the
capital took advantage of it, and its circulation and availability increased there.
Not enough cash had been minted for distribution in the countryside, so prof-
iteers took cash to the provinces and demanded higher exchange rates than autho-
rized by the government. To counteract this problem, the agency asked that 30,000
kun of the year's Japanese "tribute" copper be allocated to regional centers for
minting in major towns in the south - Andong (later shifted to Taegu), Chonju,
and Kongju to insure uniformity of distribution in the countryside. The value
of coins minted in these districts would be slightly greater than those in the cap-
ital and a part of their taxes could be paid in cash so that the use of cash would
not constitute a de facto increase in the tax rate. These tactics were designed not
only to spread the circulation of cash throughout the countryside, but to elimi-
nate the tricks of the clerks and runners by rejecting tax payments because the
quality of the cloth or grain they presented for taxes was not up to standard.