MILITARY FINANCE 473Reducing Soldier and Support Taxpayer Quotas
Every administration from Kings Hyonjong through Yongjo (1650-I 776) was
aware of the problem of high quotas and sought to do something about it. The
process of reducing quotas was begun even while the total was expanding, and
the first cuts were made in 1650. Subsequently reductions werc ordered in the
IO,OOO extra-quota service soldiers in 1669 and in three of thc capital Military
Divisions in 1682. The most ambitious attempt at quota reduction, however, did
not occur until 1704.
TAXING SCHOLARS AND YANGBAN: 1626-59King Injo: Enroll School Failures for Service, 1626There were two methods advocated throughout the entire last half ofthc Choson
dynasty to provide adequate funding for the military. The first departed from the
support-taxpayer system of military finance altogether by substituting a differ-
ent type of tax on a different subject than adult males. Proposals in this category
included a cloth levy on household units called the "household cloth" (hop '0),
a capitation tax in cash called the "mouth [i.e., head] cash" (kujon) tax propos-
als, and a surtax on land of either cloth or cash (kyo/p '0, kyo/chon). The second
method retained the support-taxpayer system of finance but attempted to expand
the tax base by including men who had been left out of the military service require-
ment, either by legal exemption, claim of superior status privilege, or corrupt
falsification of status. This method was considered because previous attempts
to round up tax evaders or the tax-exempt had not been successful.'2
Back in 1626 King [njo had ordered that all students who failed their peri-
odic qualification examinations be dismissed from school and signed Lip imme-
diately for military service. Injo and some officials - no less than Yu Hyongwon
a generation later - were appalled that not only sons of yangban but anyone able
to gain entrance to a school felt that they were too prestigious or exalted for mil-
itary service. He even had to point out that sincc the dynastic code already pro-
vided that students who failed their tests were supposed to become soldiers, he
was really only affinning existing law.
Within six months, however, he was forced to rescind the order because of
the fierce opposition of a number of officials who complained that military ser-
vice had by then become so demeaning that the sons of yangban could not bear
the loss of status that would accompany enrollment for service. He was finally
forced to accept the compromise solution ofYi So. who proposed collection of
cloth taxes from students who failed their tests for a period of three years as a
penalty. As Ch'oe Yongho pointed out in his study or this question, it was about
this time that governmcnt schools in the capital and provinces no longer func-
tioned as centers of study ror bona fide students and scholars of the elite class,
but rather tax shelters for the sons of commoners and peasants seeking a means