946 FINANCIAL REFORM AND THE ECONOMY
the reason for the "heaviness" or high value of cash at the time was the prohi-
bition against the use or minting of cash and its distribution (or dispersion) beyond
the "five passes." Han had prescribed that the value of cash could be reduced
below the prices of commodities by prohibiting the use of copper for casting
Buddhist statues and bells, thereby increasing the copper supply for minting cash.
Pak might also have mentioned King Sukchong's ban against melting down
cash to make brassware to reverse a trend toward the depletion of the cash sup-
ply, but he was either unaware of it or preferred to hinge his case on the word
of an acknowledged Chinese Confucian master of the ninth century. Pak, there-
fore, took a tolerant attitude toward paper money, but by observing that the money
supply would always remain a problem that required proper regulation and man-
agement by the government, he weakened whatever influence he might have
had on Yongjo who, at this time, was looking for some means of exchange that
would work better than cash in precluding high interest rates, exploitative money-
lending. superfluous consumption, and general immorality.
Third Secretary Cho Chibin also proposed printing paper money, but to be
used in addition to cash, not to replace it entirely. He wanted to preserve cash
as legal tender lest creditors suffer a loss of debts owed them, and he felt that
paper money would be needed to make up for the recent shortage of cotton cloth
caused by the decline in its production and the diversion of it for use as currency.
As Cho Wonmyong argued, there was not enough cloth left for clothing, the bur-
den of cloth taxes under the taedong and military support tax (kunp 0) had
increased, and the quality of the cloth and its length had been reduced.
Pak argued that the cost of printing paper bills was much less and the profits
of seigniorage were much greater than minting cash. Depending on the quality
of the paper used, it would be possible to print bills worth 324 rang at a cost of
only 60 to 70 rang of copper cash. The government could adopt paper money
as a medium of exchange to circulate with cash and silver and use it to pay for
the tribute items purchased by the capital bureaus and to provide relief to peo-
ple in the capital. Not only was paper money cheaper and quicker to make than
cash, it would reduce Korean dependency on the Japanese trade center (Waeg-
wan) at Tongnae for imported copper. Since he had heard a few years ago that
the Office for Dispensing Benevolence bought copper from the Waegwan for
silver but did not receive the full quota of the order, paper money would free
Korea from this kind of loss at the hands of undependable Japanese traders.
Only four of the officials at the conference spoke out in favor of abolishing
cash: Yi Hae, Second Minister of Personnel Yun Sun, Third Royal Secretary
Chong Uju. and Prince Yohung (yohiinggun). Yun attempted to refute the argu-
ment that cash had been circulating for so long that it was impossible to abol-
ish it as legal tender. The public was generally not aware that in the beginning
of the dynasty. Choson kings had tried using silver currency and paper money
together and later switched to cotton cloth. All three were unsatisfactory until
I674 lsic. 167'/1, I. except for Kim Yuk's abortive attempt to introduce cash (in
the r650s). Nevertheless. by 1727 the people had become so used to cash that