852 FINANCIAL REFORM AND THE ECONOMYof a major crop disaster in I7I6, tax receipts had been reduced to only 58,000
sam. In I726, the Ministry of Taxation stated that its annual revenues were around
100,000 sam ofrice, 70-80,000 p'il of cloth, and 160-I70,000 yang of cash,
which was sufficient to balance its budget, but that year revenues were down to
60,000 sam of rice, 20-30,000 p'i! of cloth, and 40-50,000 yang of cash (from
the upland regions of Hwanghae and five other districts that paid their taxes in
cash). The shortage had to be supplemented by taking rice taxes from Kanghwa
Island and using cloth and cash from P'yong'an Province. Again, in 1738 the
Minister of Taxation reported that his annual (rice?) expenditures were around
110,000 s6m but revenues were only 68,000 sam.?'
In 1738 King Yongjo was informed by Third State Councilor Song Inmyong
that expenditures by the Office for Dispensing Benevolence had annual expen-
ditures of 140,000 sam, or 240-250,000 s6m if cotton cloth expenditures were
added (i.e., about 100,000 s6m in grain equivalents). When YOngjo proposed
cutting the taedong tax in half in I740, Song replied that if he cut the taedong
tax (in half), he would be left with 240,000 s6m, and if he cut the land tax (chOnse),
he would have 170,000 sam (combined total for rice, cloth, and cash?). Han Woo-
keun therefore deduced that total revenues from the taedong tax must have been
twice 240,000 s6m, or 480,000 s6m. He also estimated that of this total revenue,
approximately half was used to pay tribute agents to purchase what had been
tribute items for the capital, and the other half was retained in the provinces for
use by provincial governors, military commanders, district magistrates, and mil-
itary garrisons. Since any surplus left over from the taedong tax was probably
being used to supplement shortages in the Ministry of Taxation's budget caused
by reduction in land tax revenue, the Office for Dispensing Benevolence's tae-
dong tax resources had also diminished.
Han estimated the combined revenues of both the Ministry of Taxation and
the Office for Dispensing Benevolence at 350,000 s6m per year (why not 4 I 0,000
s6m based on funds available to the capital?), which had been sufficient for pay-
ing the salaries of regular officials and rations for duty soldiers (exclusive of
support taxes for soldiers) in normal years, but at the end of King Sukchong's
and the beginning of King Yongjo's reigns (ca. I7 I 5-40) a series of crop dis-
asters and famines had created chronic fiscal shortages. Although Han lacked
detailed statistical information, he found a report in 1718 that reductions of tax
revenue from poor crop conditions had meant that the government had not been
able to meet salaries for regular officials and rations for troops, and another report
in 1760 that the combined revenues of the Ministry of Taxation and the Office
for Dispensing Benevolence was short by 20-30,000 s6m on an annual basis,?2
Kim Okkun's far more detailed study of the taedong system has shown that
in the last part of the Choson dynasty about 1.450,000 ky6l of land was regis-
tered for the whole country, but the amount of "true land" (silkyal) or taxable
land that was left after deducting tax-exempt land, damaged land, or land
exempted because of temporary climatic conditions or natural disaster amounted
to 800,000 kyal. An additional 50-60,000 kyal was also deducted as special tax