826 FINANCIAL REFORM AND THE ECONOMYmoral standards of a class of well-educated and morally trained and selected
bureaucrats would be able to overcome human greed to ensure a plentiful sup-
ply of goods without oppressive taxation of the common peasants, in this instance
he called upon the coercive power of the state to enforce government payments
above market prices to prevent official exploitation of the merchants under a
taedong system.
OFFICE, TRAVEL AND OTHER EXPENSESMarket Purchases for Office Expenses
Yu specified that the Ministry of Taxation be made responsible for establishing
quotas for office expenses of capital bureaus and provincial and district gov-
ernment units and setting "designated prices" (chOngga) for the purchase of goods
by the purchasing agents from rice funds set aside for the purchase of goods
(kami). Yu remarked that since clerks in the governors' yamen had been respon-
sible for supplying the pens and ink used in their offices, and they had used this
requirement as an excuse for squeezing the funds from the peasants to pay for
them, henceforth every magistrate, military garrison, post-station, and official
school would pay for these costs from their own official funds.^20
Even though in his own time labor service taxes and in-kind tribute had been
replaced by cloth taxes or grain and cloth substitute payments in tribute con-
tracting arrangements, Yu noted that officials still had authority to demand addi-
tional goods and services to meet emergency expenses, and they frequently
crossed the line separating official and private needs. Because government salaries
were quite low, high officials in the capital felt justified in demanding gifts from
officials in the provinces. District magistrates had to send gifts to their friends
at court as well as high officials and noblemen, especially when they first obtained
their posts, and they had become so bound by the obligations of courtesy and
gift-giving to superiors (insa) that they had transformed what originated as a
private act into a public duty. Yu criticized Chief State Councilor Hwang Hi.ii in
the mid-fifteenth century because he had indicted one official for failing to pre-
sent a gift to a higher court official: "Nowadays everyone regards this kind of
action as beautiful and thinks that the purpose behind it is for the provinces to
show respect for the court. In addition, everyone says that anybody who becomes
a magistrate is obliged to help his friends, for a magistrate is not the same as
other officials. This is also one of the current opinions around."21
Yu, however, reminded his readers of the aphorism that bribes - including
gifts of tea, medicine, paper, and ink - should not be brought "to the gates of a
high officials [taebu]" because all such gifts were ultimately "taken from the
people." Even though the highest capital officials were expected to behave with
the utmost integrity, when they first started their careers as district magistrates,
they were expected to exploit the people to aid their own friends. The common
practice of gift-giving could be eliminated by providing adequate salaries for