902 FINANCIAL REFORM AND THE ECONOMYMark Elvin has argued that conservative economic policies restricted the vol-
ume of cash in the economy and caused a recession in the fourteenth century
that lasted until the resurgence of prosperity after 1570. These policies also had
effects on currency. The inconvertible paper money of the Yuan period led to a
depreciation of paper money and the flight of sil ver from China to Western Asia.
After 1400 the Ming regime tried to ban the use of silver currency and enforce
paper money, but it weakened its value by inflationary expenditures for military
campaigns. The government then supported a shift to the use of silver currency
in 1436 by allowing its use for tax payments, a practice that spread widely by
the end of the century, and in the sixteenth century silver imports from Japan
were increased by Spanish and Portuguese silver.34
In short, even though the major monetary outcome of these conservative and
isolationist policies was the shift from paper to silver, these trends may well
have produced Ch'iu Chiln's conservative views on paper money and copper
cash. Since Yu was influenced by Ch'iu's ideas, one might also deduce that he
himself was by no means a proponent of either the free market, expanded for-
eign trade, or a more flexible monetary system to support a trade system of
greater volume.
MONEY IN KOREAN HISTORY
KoryrJ Dynasty and Resistance to Change
Even though Yu concluded his survey of money in China on a negative note,
when he turned his attention to Korea he argued positively for the need for money
in the Korean economy even though the first attempt to adopt metallic coins in
the Koryo dynasty had not been marked by success. He wrote that King
Songjong of the Koryo dynasty first ordered the use of iron cash in 996, and
that the prime minister, Han On'gong, in 1002 recommended the adoption of
cash and the abolition of rough cloth (ch'up'o) as a means of exchange, "but
because this was startling to local custom and gave rise to resentment, [the use
of cash] was abolished."35
The first successful attempt occurred in I I 02 when King Sukchong established
an official Directorate of the Mint (the ChujrJn-dogam), minted 15,000 strings
of a coin called "The Circulating Treasure of the [Country] East of the [Yellow]
Sea" (Haedong t'ongbo), and accompanied the coin with the statement that
Korean customs had been too simple and that putting cash into circulation was
the best means available for promoting "the wealth of the people and profit of
the nation." The mint then declared that because the people all thought that cash
was a good idea they were requesting the king to legitimize the decision to mint
cash by announcing it to the royal ancestral shrine. The cash was distributed to
all civil officials and soldiers and shops were established in the capital at Kae-
gyong to accept payment in cash.
Yu noted, however, that the government had to establish more wine and food