872 FINANCIAL REFORM AND THE ECONOMYMunhonbigo in the f780s by quoting the remarks of Kim Yuk, who recounted
his lifetime experience in spearheading the movement to introduce copper cash
into Korea beginning with his first trip to China as an envoy in 1636. He remarked
that Kim was overwhelmed by the level of Chinese civilization at the time and
had tried to recommend the adoption of both cash and wagons. On his way back
from a second mission to China, Kim sent in another memorial from Shen-yang
in Manchuria again requesting the adoption of cash, but without success. Later,
while magistrate in Kaesong, he was inspired by the active circulation of cash
in the area but failed to gain adoption of his recommendation to spread its use
throughout Hwanghae and P'yong'an provinces. In 1650, on the way to China
again, he sent another request from Pyongyang, and when he arrived in Beijing
used his travel funds to buy 150,000 mUll of cash. On the way back he heard in
Uiju that the court had accepted his recommendation, and he distributed the cash
to the districts along the coastal route, but the measure did not succeed in stim-
ulating widespread circulation.
In the spring of 1651, when he first became a member of the highest coun-
cilors of state, the whole population was still using the cheap rough cloth (ch 'upo)
for currency, and even though Hyojong prohibited its use, it continued. Because
he thought that if cash were legally introduced, the use of cloth would stop on
its own, he requested that cash be minted and that old, cheap Wan-Ii coins be
purchased from the Liao-tung area of Manchuria. This coin was lower in value
than the T'ien-ch 'i and Ch 'ung-chen coins, but when they were brought into Korea
they were mixed with newer Korean minted coins and circulated with them.
Within a year, this cash had begun to circulate in Hwanghae and P'yong'an
provinces until opposition to it arose at court in 1652 before circulation had had
a chance to spread widely. Finally Hyojong decided to adopt Yi Sibang's rec-
ommendation to abolish it in the ninth month of 1657.^34
The simplicity ofYi's laconic description of these events was by no means a
neutral recitation of the facts. His main point was that Hyojong had finally under-
stood what Kim had been advocating for fifteen years, that copper currency would
prove enormously beneficial to the economy and help Korea catch up to the level
achieved by Ming China. Converting the Korean population to appreciation of
cash would take some time, but signs of success had been achieved within a
year after Hyojong's adoption of the policy in 1651. What stopped the signs of
initial success was the protest of court officials.^35
Wein Yuhan's Explanation for the Failure olCash PolicyThe contemporary scholar Won Yuhan, however, has chosen to assign a mod-
icum of responsibility to Kim Yuk and Hyojong for the failure to achieve suc-
cess in the circulation of cash. Kim Yuk had advocated methods too rash and
radical, and King Hyojong had supported the use of cash only because he wanted
to raise funds for a military campaign of revenge against the Manchus. Kim was
inspired by the use of cash in Ming China and thought that its circulation in