TRIBUTE AND THE TAEDONG REFORM 8I1Since capital bureaus often demanded extra goods from the tribute agents
(kongjuin) beyond the limits ofthe taedong law and left them no margin of profit,
in 1666 Minister of Taxation Kim Suhung requested that rice reserves from the
land tax in P'yong'an Province be taken over for a year and transferred to the
Office for Dispensing Benevolence. Shortages in the supply of meat required
by the king for the royal table occurred because the introduction of firearms into
the countryside had increased the efficiency of hunting, depleted the number of
animals, and raised their cost on the market. Higher prices could not solve the
problem of demand, and officials had to recruit peasants forcibly to go on hunts
to trap animals for tribute. King Hyonjong tried to solve the problem by reduc-
ing the meat required for the palaces of two queens in 1670 to reduce the pres-
sure on the villages. In 1668, the government reduced the number of guards,
attendants, and tomb construction workers for the funerals of queens, princesses,
and high officials.^78
Despite all these difficulties with the implementation of the taedong tax in
the upland area of Cholla, Han Yongguk, the leading scholar of the taedong
reform, still believed that the population must have welcomed the reform.
Although the evidence for this assertion was sparse, Han discovered some impor-
tant indications. In 1673 court officials, disturbed by the shortage of taedong
revenues in Ch'ungch'ong Province, argued that the taedong system in that
province should be abolished because it was no longer possible to raise the tax
rate. A classics licentiate (saengwon) from Ch'ungch'ong, Kim Mindo, however,
wrote to the court that the taedong system had reduced the taxes on the peas-
ants in Ch'ungch'ong from eighty to ninety mal/kyo/ before 1658 to ten mal/kyo/.
If the tax rate were increased to the twelve mall kyo/ rate currently used in Cholla
and Kyonggi, the peasants would have no grounds for protest.7^9
A few days later Third State Councilor Kim Suhiing remarked that Kim Mindo's
request for a two mallp 'if raise in the taedong rate was based on popular opin-
ion in Ch'ungch'ong and the Office for Dispensing Benevolence's need for more
revenue, and King Hyonjong mentioned that the new governor was also in favor
of some act of reform. Minister of Taxation Min Yujung reminded them that the
stubborn and violent people of Ch'ongju were opposed to abolishing the tae-
dong system because it would mean that the district magistrate would then make
demands on them for his daily requirements. A minor official in the Office of
Special Counselors, Yi Inhwan, however, opposed a raise in the tax rate because
it would would hardly be different from abolishing the taedong system altogether.
When Kim Suhiing disparaged Yi's objection because it was only a personal
defense of his hometown of Ch'ongju. King Hyonjong accepted Kim's advice
to raise the taedong tax by two mal.
The Sillok historian (writing in King Sukchong's reign. 1674-I 720) chose to
insert his opinion into the record that it was not the taedong system itself but
the profligate spending of the government that necessitated the unfortunate raise
in the tax rate: