1000 FINANCIAL REFORM AND THE ECONOMYcraft writers like Yi Ik. The majority of statesmen and practical scholars, how-
ever, did remain committed to the extension of cash in the economy. After fur-
ther minting was reinstituted in 173 I, King Yongjo restrained further monetary
progress by declining to experiment with the recommendations in 1742 of more
progressive officials like Pak Munsu, Kim Yaro, and Min Ongsu for multiple-
denomination copper, silver cash, or imported Chinese cash, let alone paper
money.
Copper cash was accepted fully by the eighteenth century, but only in the form
of pennies. For that matter, the government came increasingly to accept the devel-
opment of private merchant activity and wage labor as well, and even partici-
pated in the weakening of the state-authorized licensed monopolies, but in the
end the expansion of private enterprise was not able to overcome the limits of
licensed commerce or agrarian physiocracy.
Those few statecraft scholars in the eighteenth century who did begin to chal-
lenge the supremacy or primacy of agriculture were still limited by certain aspects
of tradition. Yu Suwon wanted to promote the circulation of cash and commer-
cial activities, but he saw it as a means of converting idle yangban who had been
unable to obtain official posts into useful and productive citizens who would at
least be able to support themselves by commerce rather than continue their par-
asitic reliance on the support of others. Pak Chega and Pak Chi won also advo-
cated similar ideas, that commerce be opened to yangban as well as commoners
to reduce the number of yang ban who depended on gratuities, bribes, or gen-
eral support by the whole popUlation, and convert them to more useful lives. I
They took their model of development from contemporary Ch'ing China, which
meant that they hoped to eliminate the prejudice against both manual labor and
commerce that had become so deeply ingrained in the yangban psyche and cre-
ate an economy and a social elite like that of the late Ch'ing. Their economic
vision was limited because their model of progress was not an appeal to com-
merce and industry as the lifeblood of the economy. They lacked the capacity
to see the need for infrastructural improvements, the expansion of overseas trade,
and the development of more efficient institutions for mobilizing savings and
stimulating investment. Some scholars and officials did recognize the benefits
of silver coins and multiple-denomination copper coins -let alone commercial
paper and banks - but they could not win enough support among the bureau-
cracy and persuade kings to take bold initiatives. Some also criticized the evils
that flowed from status restrictions and argued for permission for yangban to
engage in business, but too many felt that the open pursuit of profit was a demean-
ing affair. Private merchants succeeded in putting a dent in the armor of the
licensed monopolies, but the result was only a compromise between the two.
Once they had broken through the barriers, too many private merchants sought
to become monopolists themselves rather than destroy the licensed monopoly
system completely. Yu Suwon could see the advantages of state-led economic
development, but hardly anyone sought total liberation from government restraint
as a means of creating opportunity for individual entrepreneurship, and the gov-