988 FINANCIAL REFORM AND THE ECONOMY
the means needed to do so. They erroneously thought that if they could collect
half the taxes and payout half the salaries of officials in cash, that cash would
circulate naturally without requiring much discussion.
In the Chason period, kings had decided to circulate cash a number of times,
but each attempt was curtailed shortly thereafter, not only because there was
much opposition to it. but because the government had not sought to collect the
land tax in cash. The mere fact that cheap cloth was functioning as a medium
of exchange in the market already simply proved without a doubt that copper
cash had to circulate if given a chance. The reason why government prohibi-
tions against the use of cheap cloth had not succeeded in stopping its use as a
medium of exchange was because cash was not yet circulating throughout the
market.
The argument that cash could not circulate because copper and tin were not
produced in sufficient supply in Korea was simply wrong because those metals
could be purchased abroad at reasonable prices. Even the poorest peasants liv-
ing in thatched huts in remote villages deep in the mountains or valleys used
copper to make their eating and drinking utensils. It was certainly possible to
salvage copper from bronze statues, bells, chimes, and implements in the dozen
or so Buddhist temples found in almost every district of the country and mobi-
lize the entire country to find enough cash that would be needed, especially since
ordinary people were already counterfeiting coins on their own even though there
were no copper mines in the country. There was, Yu concluded, no reason why
cash could not circulate.^29
In 1785, Yu's advice was outdated since cash had been in continuous use for
a century, but the problem of securing a sufficient supply of copper was still a
major problem. King Chongjo, however, was so confident that importing cop-
per from China and Japan would be easy that he also decided to ban the min-
ing of copper and silver ore in Korea to conserve Korea's national resources.
Unfortunately. statistical evidence indicates that the Tokugawa Bakufu limited
copper exports to Korea to 100,000 kun/year (133,000 Ibs') from 1713 to 1736,
and that available figures for the mid-1760s apparently stayed near that amounpo
By the late eighteenth century Japan was faced with a copper shortage and
the So clan on Tsushima Island could not find sufficient copper to pay for main-
tenance, let alone expansion of trade. Therefore, despite King ChOngjo's pol-
icy of liberal imports, the annual import total decreased to 28,000 yang in 18 16.
As the source of supply fell, the price of copper rose and the profit of seignior-
age on minting cash fell. as shown in table 12.
Minister of Taxation Kim lyang complained that reliance on China and Japan
for these metals increased their price because of the cost of transportation and
reduced the profits of seigniorage, but the major reason had to have been the
copper shortage in Japan and Bakufu restriction on copper exports. King Sunjo
was then forced to suspend minting and rescind the ban Chongjo had imposed
on copper mining in 1787.