COPPER CASH AND THE MONETARY SYSTEM 863
by the government, at least in the seventeenth century, to fix the value of cash,
or set an exchange rate between cash and rice - a policy fraught with serious
policy implications. In the absence of specific testimony, one might speculate
that the officials of thc Ever-Normal Bureau had little ideological commitment
to free market principles and preferred to ensure a stable value of the currency
by fiat to build confidence in the minds of a suspicious public in the worth of
the new medium of exchange. Decreeing the value of cash in grain at the pre-
vailing market rate may have seemed like a safe-and-sane policy, but any vari-
ation in the supply of or demand for grain would throw havoe into the system
of legal values.
The Ever-Normal Bureau also suggested permitting payment of cash to obtain
royal permission to take the examinations, to gain release from base status to
become commoners, to purchase blank office warrants, or to gain exemption from
corporal punishment for criminal action. Cash would be permitted for the pur-
chase of all commodities on the market including rice, and the bureau would
also act as a clearinghouse for people who wanted to obtain cash for the pay-
ment of rice taxes or vice versa. By these devices, "currency would circulate
without rest and commodity prices would shoot up, and a correct, harmonious
and standard balance [between commodities and currency would be achievedl."
Evidently these measures were adopted, but they did not prove effective. I~
At the beginning of 1652 a dispute broke out between Yun Sunji, a supporter
of Hyojong's cash policy, and HiS ChiSk, who claimed that there had been some
"obstructions" in the system. Hyojong conceded that cash could not be forced
on the people and agreed to conduct an investigation of popular feelings about
cash. A few days later a royal lecturer, Hong MyiSngha, who was lecturing on
the Great Plan (Hung-fan) of the Chou dynasty, mentioned that the text had
stressed the necessity that all laws of the state had to be drawn up in accordance
with the feelings of the people. By contrast, however, King Hyojong's intention
to provide benefit for the people by adopting copper cash had been frustrated
because officials were actually forcing people to use cash by beating anyone
who refused to do so. Merchants and shopkeepers were refusing to use it, and
everyone was complaining about the situation.
Hyojong replied that the policy required patience and that cash had circulated
without trouble in the northwest. He had planned to begin its circulation in the
capital as well and was not willing to rescind his order because the sages of ancient
times taught that it took a long time to obtain successful implementation of a
law. His currency edicts would continue and cash would be stimulated by requir-
ing all penal redemptions to be paid in cash. Kim Yuk. now councilor of the left.
was overjoyed to hear this and promised to discuss it with H6 Ch6k and con-
vince him that slow and methodical planning was needed to solve the problem. 19
Yi Man 'ling's Criticism of Cash, 1652In 1652, the fourth censor of the Office of Censor-General, Yi Man'ling, attacked