Yu's ANALYSIS OF CURRENCY 915district magistrate would provide them some support by exempting them per-
manently from the shop tax and granting them loans in grain to get started.
Yu's policy was to keep the number of shops within limits set by the govern-
ment but allow capitalization and benefits to private shopkeepers outside the
licensed monopolies, even those who would not have qualified for land grants
under his land distribution system.^56 Nevertheless, this proposal was by no means
a radical proposition for the liberalization of commerce to create a free market;
on the contrary, it remained within the constraints of the current system under
which licensed monopoly shops coexisted with a growing private shop and mar-
ket sector, a pattern that persisted to the middle of the nineteenth century, even
though the number and economic power of the private merchants increased.
Promotion and Regulation of Cash Transactiol1s
Yu insisted that any transactions in cash would be held to the strictest standards
of honesty. Any yangban (civil or military official in this case) or clerk who dared
to charge as much as one mUI1 of cash over a fair price for any transaction would
be subject to severe punishment, and an admonition against price gouging would
be engraved on a board and hung over the doorways of shops. Yu therefore
assumed that the government would have to regulate prices and monitor sales
to prevent tradesmen and other persons from using unfamiliarity with cash and
prices to hoodwink the gullible.57
The government would also promote the use of cash for room, board, and ser-
vice in the hostels (ch am) established on the main thoroughfares by paying daily
travel costs of one mUI1 per person and another mUI1 for every horse for any per-
son on government business. It would provide costs for hiring torch-bearing
guides for night travelers in the vicinity of the hostel town. He insisted that this
policy be followed even though the government had not been paying travel
expenses to civil and military officials (yangban in the narrow sense of the term).
This policy would also eliminate the depredations of court officials and yang-
ban on funeral processions who sent their retainers in the villages to demand
people to serve as porters and torchbearers. Perpetrators of this behavior would
henceforth be subject to punishment, and if the local official felt powerless to
take action against them, he would be obliged to report it to the provincial gov-
ernor. Government provisions for travel expenses would put an end to the actions
of eunuchs from the capital, commanders of garrisons in frontiertowns, and mil-
itary aides and officers (kul1 'gwan) who demanded far more for their upkeep as
they passed through hostels and towns on their travels. The magistrates of each
district would also provide fodder for the horses of these last three categories
of officials.
The state also had the obligation to provide for the upkeep of the hostels, and
it could do this by eliminating their obligation to pay support taxes in cloth for
military service (pop (). Jeaving them with only the household (hose) and shop
taxes (p ose). Hostels would only pay a tax of 40 mun/year, and shops established