TRIBUTE AND THE TAEDONG REFORM 785
to enforce. The tribute middlemen did their business with individual peasants
or whole districts in which official involvement was far less than the taedong
system when purchasing agents employed by government agencies bought goods
from the merchants.
So Song also supported abolition because the tri bute system of the early Choson
dynasty was only a copy of the ancient system of tribute. the people resented
the replacement of tribute by a land surtax, and the clerks and runners were just
as corrupt as they had been before. Second State Councilor Yun Pang also
remarked that when the taedong system was first adopted, only the powerful
people and residents of large (or important) districts opposed it, but now every-
one but the king hated it.^23
At the end of the year the Taedong Agency for the Three Provinces proposed
reducing the tax rate for Ch'ungch'ong Province from fifteen to fourteen mal/kyol,
five mal of which would pay for all the operational costs of each district and the
governor's office, local tribute (pangmul) and royal tribute (chinsang) as well.
Not only would this leave a surplus of 10,000 sam of revenue, but the remain-
ing nine mal (per kyol) of the surtax could be remitted to the capital for the cost
of ordinary tribute goods (used by the capital bureaucracy). Yun Pang, however,
demanded total abolition of the taedong surtax, or at least adjustment of the tax
rate according to the needs of each magistrate, and he reminded King Injo that
he had only approved that the law be tested until the end of the year. Undoubt-
edly aware that Chief State Councilor Yi Won' ik had turned against the taedollg
law. he also urged Injo to ask his opinion.
Third State Councilor Sin Hum also reported recent complaints that a single
surtax payment was too hard to pay and tax burdens were heavier in remote
provinces than Kyonggi. Although he had also "heard" that the ordinary people
favored the taedong system, wealthy landlords complained that the more land
they owned, the higher the taxes on them, an average of one sl5m (fifteen mal)
per kylil. Sympathizing with the plight of the rich, he predicted that their bitter
resentment might signal the onset of an "age of decline" (soese). While he admit-
ted that he had heard that the residents of ChOlla favored the taedong law, those
in Ch'ungch'ong at least wanted a reduction of the tax rate to fourteen mal/kyi'5l.
Since the court could not be sure whether reports of popular feelings were true
or simply representations by the provincial governors, he also suggested that
King Injo ask Yi Won'ik's opinion. Yi Won'ik finally abandoned his support of
the taedong system because of popular discontent and recommended canceling
the law immediately or at the end of the month.^24
King Injo's response as recorded in the Veritable Record (Sillok) was rather
cryptic since he decreed that matters be carried out in accordance with regula-
tions in other provinces, and that no "additional" land tax of five mal/kyi'5l (for
paying provincial and other costs) be adopted. On the second point, the Tae-
dong Office had not requested an "additional" tax of five mal, but had recom-
mended that it only be deducted from the overall taedong rate of fourteen mall"yol
for Ch'ungch'ong Province. Injo may have mistakenly believed that the taedollg