TRIBUTE AND THE TAEDONG REFORM 797after the Injo Restoration in 1623, began an illustrious career, and was the prime
advocate for the taedong system in Ch'ungch'ong and ChOlla provinces. Unfor-
tunately, his vituperative attacks on Kim Chip left him open to the charge of
overweaning self-confidence that plagued him until the day he died. Yet Hyo-
jong indicated that he was inclined to carry out Kim's deathbed desire by declar-
ing that he could not have found a firmer person to take charge of government
affairs than Kim Yuk.^50
King Hyojong then appointed Kim's protege, So P' ilwon, governor of Cholla,
but because an estimate had revealed that a ten mal/kyol surtax would leave the
budget short by over 5,000 sam, he decided to raise the rate for that province to
thirteen mal/kyol to preclude any need to raise the rate in the future. Minister of
Taxation Chong Yusong also proposed to solve the transportation problem by
having tribute merchants from the capital go to Cholla, receive payments from
the authorities for the purchase of any goods needed in the capital. and then pay
for the costs of transportation themselves from their own profits, but the other
court officials opposed the idea. In the fall of 1658 Hyojong finally decided to
apply the taedong system to the coastal districts of Cholla at a rate of thirteen
mal/kyo!. mostly in accordance with regulations currently in use in Ch'ungch'ong,
and he rejected Chong's proposal for private transportation of taxes by mer-
chantsY
Hyojong himself passed away in 1659 before making a decision on the upland
districts of Cholla. He was willing to do so because he displayed a serious sen-
sitivity to popular grievance and he was not content to accept the governor's
reports about unanimous opposition to reform by the district magistrates. His
request for a further report from the governor provided Kim Yuk with the indi-
rect testimony of district magistrates that at least the lowland districts favored
a transfer of tribute taxes to a land tax. Since everyone agreed that the tribute
burden on coastal Cholla was excessively onerous, Hyojong"s own sensitivity
to popular suffering as well as Kim's zealous advocacy and general support for
reform among many active ministers, persuaded him that the time had come for
a change.
Yu Hyongwon ended his coverage of the taedong reform with the events of
1658, but it is obvious that on balance the history of the reform indicates one
of the most successful examples of institutional reform in the dynasty. It had to
overcome the opposition of a large percentage of the landlord class, the upland
residents of some of the provinces in the south, those peasants who feared that
it would only lead to an additional tax, and officials who feared that the system
would not produce sufficient revenues. Kim Yuk, the leader of the reform, was
one of the most impressive reformers of the dynasty, but he had support from
other officials as well. including members of the Southerner faction like Ho Chok,
and even the Westerner Song Siyol, who originally opposed the reform and later
changed his mind when he interviewed the peasants of the south. King Hyo-
jong, who provided ultimate authority for the reform, naturally played the key