868 FINANCIAL REFORM AND THE ECONOMY
agreed with the idea of having the Ever-Normal Bureau buy scrap copper with
its silver and cloth reserves, hire men to cut wood for fuel, and pay wages to
vagrants to go to work minting cash. By this means it would be possible to sup-
ply raw materials and labor without burdening government finances for mint-
ing twenty or thirty thousand strings of cash, and it would obviate the need for
importing cash from Liao-tung or Shen-yang.
In other words, sensitive to the criticism of Yi Kyongyo and others that cash
should not be forced on either officials or the people, Kim believed that restrict-
ing the policy only to willing magistrates, allowing the taxpayer to pay taxes in
cash of stable value rather than depreciated rice, and restricting the portion of
tax payment to a gradually increasing fraction of their tax quotas, would be bet-
ter methods to achieve successful circulation of cash. Kim, however, was either
unaware of the inflationary potential for an unchecked minting policy that would
render cash less stable than grain unless carefully managed by monetary author-
ities, or he put it out of his mind because of his determination to introduce cash
into the economy at any cost. Kim's proposal was obviously motivated by an
attempt to respond to Yi Kyongyo's diatribe against a coercive policy to pre-
serve the king's policy to introduce cash as a favored medium of exchange.^26
Kim Yuk's Revised Regulations of 1655Sensing that he was corning to the end of his career as well as his life, Kim tried
to initiate more action to guarantee the success of the cash policy before he died.
In mid-r655 Kim, now chief state councilor, obtained King Hyojong's permis-
sion to discuss revisions in cash policy with Minister of War Won Tup'yo and
Minister of Taxation Ho Chok.27 Kim was then elevated to a sinecured post as
director of the Agency for Royal Relatives (Tollyongbu Y6ngsa), and at the end
of the year declared in court that he was much concerned over the failure of cash
to circulate in any great quantity in the marketplace. Since Kim was not in good
health. he proposed that another man who currently held no post but had been
recommended to him for his capacities, Pak Susin, be given a military post of
sufficient rank, appointed to the post of staff official (Nangch'ong) of the Ever-
Normal Bureau, and put in charge of the circulation of cash as well as the activ-
ity of the markets.
Although Kim was still not entirely optimistic that revised regulations under
Pak Susin's supervision would be successful because Hyojong's cash policy
had been in effect for five years already without favorable results, he had dis-
cussed cash policy at length with Minister of Taxation Ho Chok and the two
had submitted a revision of the regulations, but Hyojong had decided to move
slowly on the proposal and eventually brought the changes to a halt. Linger-
ing precariously on the edge between life and death, and faced with a ten-year
limit that Hyojong himself had imposed on the policy, Kim's only prospect for
success would come if Hyojong adopted his and H6 Ch6k's revised regulations,
hold both of them responsible, let Pak Susin take charge of implementation,