SLAVERY 249and local officials were shifting their commoner tax and service burdens to rel-
atives and neighbors. Cho argued that the abolition of the matrilineal rule in 1689
only benefited the scholar-officials (sadaebu) who wanted their sons by slave
concubines to be able to inherit their father's good status, and if the 1669 matri-
lineal law had not been abolished, there would have been an additional several
hundred thousand more commoners by that time. It was then that YOngjo changed
his mind and agreed to adopt the matrilineal rule despite his earlier reservations
because in the struggle for the control of manpower the pendulum of fortune
had once again swung too far to the side of the slaveowners.'57 Hiraki Makoto
was unable to give credit to the influence ofYu Hyongwon or other rusticated
scholars on King YOngjo in 173 I, but he did feel that they undoubtedly con-
tributed to a favorable climate of opinion for the matrilineal rule. I 58
Decline in the Eighteenth-Century Slave Population?
It is not entirely clear, however, whether the matrilineal law of 173 I deserves
the credit for reducing the the size of the slave population after 1760 or so. Some
scholars have assigned more importance to other trends such as the adoption of
the taedong tribute reform that stimulated the growth of commerce and provided
opportunities for slaves to become tribute merchants. Kim Yongsop has argued
that because of the expansion of double cropping, transplantation, and irriga-
tion facilities, there must have been an increase in agricultural production that
may have provided enterprising slave cultivators with sufficient surpluses to buy
their way out of slavery (napsok).'59
In 1718 the government first allowed official slaves to buy good or commoner
status by paying a lump sum equal to the total value of all tribute due the state
from that time to the slave's retirement from service and tribute obligations at
the age of sixty-five. The government lost nothing by such a transaction - in
fact, it may have even gained if the manumitted slave was then required to per-
form service and pay taxes due from ordinary commoners. There is some evi-
dence that private as well as official slaves were able to purchase their release
from slavery or bribe petty clerks to falsify their status on the population regis-
ters. Some wealthy slaves also gained freedom by purchasing other slaves as
substitutes for themselves, leaving only the poor in the ranks of slaves.
Changes in the military service system provide another possible factor in the
decrease of the official slaves. Because of a shortage in the number of peasants
of good status for the military ranks the government began to recruit official
slaves to fill the vacant slots, and then to hire commoners to take their place in
government bureaus. Once slaves and commoners were allowed into the same
military units, the difference in status between them was narrowed consider-
ably. Furthermore, to reduce the double burdens placed on slaves by adding on
military service to their personal slave tribute and service obligations, the gov-
ernment began to release them from base status and servitude if they passed