Daedongbeop

Overview

The Daedongbeop (大同法) was a late Joseon tax and fiscal system that replaced the tribute goods (貢物) imposed on each county as local specialties with payments of rice, cloth, cotton, or money calculated by the number of land gyeol. In principle, 12 mal of rice were collected per gyeol, and the proceeds were distributed to central and local government offices, which then bought the goods and hired the labor they needed from the private sector. It was first trial-implemented in Gyeonggi Province in 1608 (the first year of King Gwanghae's reign) under the name Seonhye Law (宣惠法). It expanded over a century until reaching Hwanghae Province in 1708 (34th year of King Sukjong), and it was maintained for about 300 years until it was merged into the land tax during the Gabo Reforms of 1894.

Background

Abuses of the Tribute System

In early Joseon, peasants bore, in addition to the land tax (jeonse), tribute and royal offerings as well as various expenses of local government offices, assessed by household. Among these, tribute goods had ambiguous assessment standards and consisted of several hundred items, and their share of state finances was well over half. Because it was difficult to produce goods of the same quality and quantity every year, and delivery to Seoul took time, a practice called bangnap (防納) gradually spread, in which merchants paid the tribute on behalf of the county and charged the county for the cost. As merchants and government offices colluded, the prices of tribute goods were greatly inflated, and behind the bangnap agents lay the vested interests of the royal court and senior officials.

Reform Debates

Among the people, a practice arose in which counties collected rice and paid merchants for the tribute goods, known as "daedong jeyeok" (大同除役). In 1569 (2nd year of King Seonjo), Yi I proposed the Daegong Subimi Law (大供收米法), which collected tribute in rice instead, but it was not realized. When securing military grain became urgent during the Imjin War, the Daegong Subimi Law was implemented in 1594 at the suggestion of Yu Seong-ryong, but it was abolished in less than a year. Drawing on this experience, Han Baek-gyeom, Yi Won-ik, and others supplemented its content and implemented the Seonhye Law in Gyeonggi Province at the beginning of Gwanghae's reign.

Development

The Seonhye Law and Its Setback

The Gyeonggi Seonhye Law is said to have collected 16 mal of rice per gyeol, of which 14 mal were given by the Seonhye Office to licensed merchants (貢人) to deliver the goods needed by government offices in Seoul, and 2 mal were given to the magistrate for county expenses. However, since the local share was only one-eighth of the amount remitted to the center, additional levies continued, and for this reason the Korean Encyclopedia of Culture (한국민족문화대백과) regards the Seonhye Law as not identical to the Daedongbeop.

Right after the Injo Restoration of 1623, Yi Won-ik pursued nationwide implementation, but due to the crop failures of 1623–1624, the inadequacy of detailed implementation rules, and opposition from landowners and bangnap agents, the Daedongbeop in Chungcheong and Jeolla was abolished in 1625, and only Gangwon Province remained.