904 FINANCIAL REFORM AND THE ECONOMY
pie in general preferred the status quo to reform and lacked the patience to test
new programs for enough time to allow some chance of success. High officials,
particularly in the Koryo era, simply lacked understanding and foresight.37
Superiority of Cash to Paper
Yu ended his account of currency in the Koryo period by citing two proposals
on currency made in 1391. Judging from the way he edited these two propos-
als and the content of his own commentary endorsing the use of metallic cash,
it is clear that he had adopted Ch' iu Chiln's view about the worthlessness of paper
money. Yu copied out in his own text a copy of a proposal made by Pang Saryang
in the third lunar month of 139 I, but he amended the text by disingenuously
omitting one key phrase in Pang's memorial to make him appear to have been
an advocate of the superiority of metallic cash to any other medium of exchange.
Pang argued that even though the world was divided into regions each of which
had its own differences and special customs, society as a whole was divided into
four occupational groups, scholars (or scholar-officials), farmers, artisans, and
merchants, each of which earned its living by its own calling. Cash performed
the necessary function of allowing people to exchange what they had for what
they lacked and maintain a constant circulation of goods. Metallic currency been
in circulation in the world since the Grand Duke of Chou (rai-kung) initiated
its use, primarily because of its physical virtues: it was light and easy to trans-
port, firm and indestructible, unlike grain that could be eaten by rats in storage
or cloth that could be cut into pieces. In Korea, coarse cloth had been used as
the prime medium of exchange primarily because it had originated in the East-
ern Capital (Kyongju) and other surrounding districts, no doubt a tradition bor-
rowed from the Silla dynasty. When stored in warehouses it could rot from
dampness, burn up in fires, or be eaten by rats. According to Yu's version of
Pang's memorial, Pang then proposed that metallic cash be minted and that the
use of coarse cloth for currency be prohibited, but he omitted the key phrase
that paper money be printed along with copper cash and that both be used as
currencyp8
The power of Yu's conviction about the superiority of copper cash had led
him to a serious violation of the high standards of honesty and truth in histori-
cal reporting that was part of the Korean, as well as the Chinese, tradition. Per-
haps because of a certain uneasiness over this misrepresentation of Pang's true
words he did include another proposal by the Supreme Council of State
(Top'yong'uisasa) in the seventh lunar month of 139 I advocating the use of paper
money instead of cash, but to indicate his disdain for the recommendation he
relegated it to a footnote written in half the size of the main portion of his text.
The Supreme Council carried the history of currency further back to the use
of gold coins by the sage Emperors YO of the Hsia (B.C. 2205) and rang of the
Shang (B.C. 1766), and praised the utility of cash and its long history in China
and Korea as well, citing the examples of purely Korean coins since the Three