COPPER CASH AND THE MONETARY SYSTEM 873
Kaesong proved that it not only could but had to happen in Korea as well, but
because of his strong convictions and stubborn personality, he refused to listen
to any objection to his methods. Hyojong was also at fault for attempting to force
cash on the population when the economy was not ready for it because he believed
it would increase government revenues. In fact, Won argued that the failure of
this radical approach to cash, the abolition of copper currency as legal tender,
and the reversion to cheap cloth as a medi urn of exchange after 1657 even "dulled
or repressed" the circulation of currency where it had already progressed, in
Kaesong, Anju, and Pyongyang.
Nonetheless, Won did not think that Kim's rashness and stubborness was the
main reason for the demise of Hyojong's cash policy in [657. Commerce and
industry had been repressed by traditional respect for agriculture and disdain
for less productive or nonproductive occupations like commerce or nonagri-
cultural industries. The yangban ruling class based its wealth on land and agri-
culture and objected to both commerce and currency because the emergence of
a wealthy commercial or industrial class would pose a threat to the security of
their own political and social dominance. They feared that economic changes
through commerce might destroy the social order and forced them to drop to
the level of the despised commoners.
Won may have been right in concluding that the use of cash did not derive
from any natural or direct demand arising from economic development in the
Korean economy. Despite the arguments of several economic historians that
increases in agricultural production had led to a surplus over the consumption
of a growing population, the economy remained primarily agricultural and sur-
plus production was subjected to the constraints of periodic drought and flood
as well as population pressure. Industry remained confined to handicrafts with-
out any advance to factory production, and commercial activity had not devel-
oped sufficiently to require metallic cash as a medium of exchange. There was
not sufficient demand to stimulate the mining of copper and other metals. Even
the mining of gold and silver had been repressed after the government obtained
an exemption from Ming demands for tribute in those precious metals because
they were in such short supply. To retain the exemption, the government prob-
ably repressed active mining operations. When the government did attempt to
mine more copper and other metals, it was hampered by backward technology,
irrational methods of management. scattered locations of mining sites, and poor
transportation.
Won also argued that the primary reason for the failure of cash policy by [656
and further constraints on expanding the supply of cash after it was again legal-
ized in [678 was the shortage of copper in Korea. Imports of copper from Japan
did increase the supply but the government was reluctant to increase her depen-
dency on Japan by expanding those imports. The only alternatives left were to
break up metal utensils to extract the copper, import cheap cash from China,
and permit private minting of coins, measures of only temporary etlectiveness.
The amount of cheap cash that could be imported from China was limited in