972 FINANCIAL REFORM AND THE ECONOMY
of copper from Japan, as Yu Hyongwon had in the previous century, but in this
period it may not have been possible anyway because the Japanese had cut back
on their copper exports.
Song added that changing the entire money supply by reminting was a tactic
that could be repeated but no more often than once every fifty years, a rather
conservative estimate since the cash shortage had reached a crisis situation thirty
years after minting was banned in 1697, and only twelve years after YOngjo agreed
to more minting in 173 I. Pak Munsu feared that once the old cash was banned
as legal tender, there would be a sharp reduction in the money supply until the
old coins were reminted as new cash, presumably causing a sharp deflation in
prices. Whether the new cash was minted by official agencies or private parties,
the artisans might illicitly debase the coins with lead or steal copper for their
own use. Coins debased with lead would be darker in color and readily detected
by the people, and the government would ultimately lose as much as 30 or 40
percent (of the copper) in the process of reminting the cash. YOngjo agreed that
the point was well taken, but the officials in charge should be able to prevent it.
Kim Yangno: Multiple-denomination Cash
Because changing the currency to force savings onto the market must have seemed
barely adequate to solve the cash shortage, Second Minister of Rites Kim Yangno
again raised the suggestion of minting multiple-denomination coins like the 10-
cash or 100-cash, to be used in conjunction with the old small coins. Two other
officials supported Kim's idea, and even YOngjo appeared to soften his earlier
stance by remarking that it might be all right to do so, but Fourth Royal Secre-
tary Yun Hwijong objected because circulating multiple-denomination cash along
with small denomination coins would only make it easier for the counterfeiters.
Yun's objection was apparently sufficient to dissuade yongjo.
Thus far four plans had been discussed to increase the money supply: import-
ing Ch'ing cash, minting iron cash, introducing multiple-denomination cash, and
replacing the entire money supply to force the expenditure of savings, and only
the last, the most cautious plan, had been approved. The discussion then moved
away from these practical remedies to more fundamental consideration of the
possible moral causes of the cash problem. Fifth Counselor of the Office of Spe-
cial Counselors Yun Kwang'iii thought that the problem was not the volume of
currency in circulation, but whether the king could practice frugality and show
special concern for popular welfare, but YOngjo, as much a moralist as any man,
was put off by Yun's self-righteousness and told him he was talking like a scholar
who had no knowledge of the real world.
Yongjo must have felt constrained to demonstrate his ethical concerns by
asserting that despite the advice of scholars and officials to the contrary, he had
always thought cash should be abolished because the amount of cash in circu-
lation had nothing to do with whether "rites and music" flourished after a cen-
tury of rule (i.e., whether a king had succeeded in producing a record of virtuous