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CURRENCY IN EARLY CHOSEON KOREA: ISSUANCE, PRINCIPLES AND CONTROVERSIES*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Hidenori Sukawa
Hidenori Sukawa
Affiliation:
Yokohama National University E-mail h-sukawa@ab.wakwak.com
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Abstract

In the beginning of the fifteenth century, the Choseon court issued currency in the form of paper money and enacted a prohibition of the long-standing custom among the populace of using commodity currencies. Because commodity currencies were restricted by the value of the materials from which they were made, and because the amount in circulation was determined by what was produced by the populace, they did not conform to the financial concept of “royal prerogative” (ikkwon jaesang) – the state control of the production and distribution of resources. From the middle of the fifteenth century, however, there was a loosening of the prohibition against commodity currencies, a change of policy entailing the recognition of material currency as long as it conformed to certain standards. Thereafter, even transactions involving substandard materials gradually came to be tacitly recognized. During the sixteenth century, inferior cloth whose weave was only three-fifths of the standard became the general accepted level of quality for currency among the populace. Other transformations, such the tacit recognition of regional markets in times of poor harvest, and the alignment of periods of substitute payments of tribute and substitute military service, demonstrate that the rigid financial oversight of the early Choseon court, dependent as it was upon the collection of tribute in kind and military and other labour services, had to accede to the demands of the populace for sufficient liquidity.

Type
Asian Monetary History Revisited [5]
Information
International Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , January 2009 , pp. 65 - 85
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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References

REFERENCES

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Kyeongguk taejon (Great Code for the Management of the State). Preface dated 1469, revised four times by 1485. Keijō: Chōsen sōtokufu chūsuin ed. 1934.Google Scholar
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T'aejong sillok 太宗実録, The Veritable Records of King T'aejong. Choseon wangjo sillok, ed. National Historical Compilation Committee, 48 vols. Seoul: Tongguk munhwasa, 1955.Google Scholar
Xu, Jing. Xuanhe fengshi Gaoli tujing (Illustrated Record of the Chinese Embassy to the Koryeo Court during the Xuanhe Era). Taibei: Dongfang wenhua shuju, 1971.Google Scholar
Cheon 1983 Cheon, Subyeon. “Choseon T'aejongdae e hwap'e cheongch'aek” [Monetary Policy in the Time of T'aejong of Choseon]. Hanguksa yeon'gu 40 (1983).Google Scholar
Kuroda 1998 Kuroda, Akinobu. “Concurrent but Non-negotiable Currency Circuits: Complementary Relationships among Monies in Modern China and Other Regions.” Financial History Review 15:1 (April 1998), pp. 17–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pak 1994 Pak, Chongjin. “Koryeo hugi chaejeong unyong eui byeonhwa” (Changes in Financial Management in the Late Koryeo Period). In Sibsa segi Koryeo eui cheongch'I wa sahwe. Seoul: Mineumsa, 1994.Google Scholar
Pak 1997 Pak, Pyeongsik. “Choseon cheongi eui sangeob kwa sangeob cheongch'aek” [Early Choseon Commerce and Commercial Planning]. Doctoral dissertation, Yeonse University, June 1997.Google Scholar
Pak 1999 Pak, Pyeonsik. Choseon cheongi sangeobsa yeongu [A Study of Early Choseon Commercial History]. Seoul: Chisik saneopsa, 1999.Google Scholar
Song 1985 Song, Jaeseon. “Simnyuk segi myeonp'o e hwap'e kineung” [The Currency Function of Cotton Cloth in the Sixteenth Century]. In Byeon T'aeseob baksa hwagab kinyeom sahak nonch'ong. Seoul: Somyeongsa, 1985.Google Scholar
Palais 1996 Palais, James B. Confucian Statecraft and Korean Institutions, Yu Hyŏngwŏn and the Late Chosŏn Dynasty. Seattle and London, University of Washington Press, 1996.Google Scholar
Sukawa 1997a Sukawa, Hidenori. “Kōryō koki ni okeru syogyo seisaku no tenkai” [Changes in Trading Policy in the Late Koryeo Period]. Chōsen bunka kenkyū 4 (March 1997).Google Scholar
Sukawa 1997b Sukawa, Hidenori. “Kōryōmatsu kara Chōsen hajime ni okeru kaheiron no tenkai” [Development of Debates about Currency from the End of the Koryeo Period to the Beginning of the Choseon Period]. In Yukio, Takeda, ed., Chōsen shakai no shiteki tenkai to Higashi Ajia. Tokyo: Yamakawa shuppansha, 1997.Google Scholar
Sukawa 1998 Sukawa, Hidenori. “Chōsen jidai no kahei” [Currency in the Choseon Period]. Rekishigaku kenkyū 711 (June 1998).Google Scholar
Tagawa 1964 Tagawa, Kōzō. Richō kōnōsei no kenkyū [A Study of the Tribute System of the Yi Dynasty]. Tokyo: Tōyō bunkō, 1964.Google Scholar
Yi H. 1994 Yi, Heok. “Koryeo hugi such'ui ch'aeje eui byeonhwa” [Changes in the Tax Collection System in the Late Koryeo Period]. In Sibsa segi Koryeo eui cheongch'i wa sahwe. Seoul: Mineumsa, 1994.Google Scholar
Yi K. 1987 Yi, Kyeonsik. “Simnyuk segi changsi eoi seongnip kwa keu kiban” [The Formation of Regional Markets in the Sixteenth Century and Their Basis]. Han'guksa yeon'gu 57 (June 1987), pp. 43–91.Google Scholar