876 FINANCIAL REFORM AND THE ECONOMY
greatly influenced by Kim Yuk's heroic efforts to introduce copper cash into the
Korean economy, and he became intimately involved in what had become a
national debate over the issue. When he presented his views on currency in his
masterwork, he did so in the hope that they might have some influence on the
consequences by recommending measures that would ensure the success of Kim
Yuk's goals. Even though his ideas did not penetrate the higher levels of the gov-
ernment and society until the middle of the eighteenth century, he did his best
to apply the lessons of history to a program geared toward the use of copper
cash, and by anticipating some of the problems that might occur once cash became
a part of the Korean economy, he provided an alternative plan to the policies
that were adopted after 168 I.