조선 태종대 저화 발행 배경에 대한 재검토 -‘화폐정책’이 아닌 ‘재정정책’의 맥락에서

Abstract

The Jeohwa (paper-note) issued in the early Joseon Dynasty have been an interesting subject to the researchers. It has been a opinion that the paper-note called ‘Jeohwa’ was issued led by King Taejong of Joseon Dynasty but it had failed to settle down among people due to inexperienced socioeconomic conditions. Attempts and failures of Jeohwa were evaluated as showing the degree of development of commodity-money Economy in the early Joseon Dynasty. As reached the late Joseon Dynasty later, the development of the commodity-money economy deepened, it became a historical consequence of the wider use of coins, that is currency. However, Jeohwa from the historical records of the days had a purpose as monetary policy rather than the purpose of introducing money. The two-time introduction of Jeohwa was both aimed at resolving the country's shortage of rice. In particular, the second Jeohwa issue, which began in earnest from the 10th year of King Taejong, produced considerable financial results. In the process, the country was also wary of the active circulation of Jeohwa in the private sector as currency. In short, the issue of Jeohwa at the time should be approached as a financial policy, not as a monetary policy, so that it can be read its intention, process and outcome of the policy in the perspective of the time. In addition, the face value of Jeohwa issued at that time was also set twice differently for the purpose of issuing it. To replace the silk distributed on the stipend day, Jeohwa was issued with two kinds of values, and the value unit was ‘Po(布)’. On the other hand, at the time of the second issue, when it was intended to secure the rice of the country through direct trade between rice and Jeohwa, the value of one Jeohwa was fixed at 1 ‘du(斗)’ to be easy to exchange with rice. Based on these fundings, this article is to reexamine the background of the issue of Jeohwa (paper-note) and review the process and results of the system operation.