# The passing of Korea/Chapter 15

CHAPTER XV
REVENUE
The prefect of each of the three hundred and forty-one districts in Korea is supposed to have in his office a map and a detailed description of every piece of arable land in the district, excepting kitchen-gardens. This forms the basis of the land tax, which yields two-thirds of the national revenue. Although there are no fences, the limits of the fields are clearly marked by earthen banks or by the natural conformation of the land, and no farmer would dare to throw two fields together or divide a field into two without the cognisance and consent of the local prefect; and even then the latter would have to obtain permission from the central government. This arable land is considered under two heads, - rice-fields and ordinary fields. The owner of each plot of land owns a deed for the same, stamped with the magistrate's seal or signed with his name. In many instances where property has been in the same family for several centuries, these deeds may have been lost or destroyed; but if the land is sold, new deeds must be issued. The prefect's records, as well as the deed of each field, indicate the relative grade of the latter. There are six grades of rice-fields and three of ordinary ​fields. These grades are determined by several factors, the natural fertility of the soil, the ability to irrigate, the roughness or smoothness of the topography, and the lay of the land ; for if it slopes toward the north it is considered much less valuable than if it slopes toward the south.
New fields are constantly being made, which for a few years are not shown on the prefect's records and do not pay taxes to the government. For this reason the authorities periodically order a remeasurement of arable land, or rather a readjustment of the prefectural records, so as to include the new fields. There is no definite interval of time between these readjustments. Sometimes half a century passes without one, and then again they may follow each other by an interval of only a few years. Korean history shows that with the beginning of each new reign, or the inauguration of a new government policy, or under stress of some national calamity which has emptied the treasury, a readjustment of land values is likely to be ordered. A royal commission goes about and examines the new fields and estimates their value, noting carefully all the conditions above enumerated. They do not actually measure the land, but they find out how long it will take to plough it with a single bullock, and how much seed grain it requires to plant. By these means they estimate how many kyul there are in the field. Now a kyul is one hundred man-loads of unthreshed rice, and each man-load is composed of ten sheaves. Ten per cent is the legal rate, and so a field of thirty kyul would yield the government three kyul. This again must be reduced to threshed rice in the bag, as that is the form in which, until very recently, the tax has been paid. It was a very clumsy arrangement.
THE KOREAN FARMER Showing methods of ploughing the soil and threshing of grain
Rice being the staple article of food, it naturally forms the measure of value. Until very recently the farmer had to pay all his taxes in rice, and therefore was obliged to barter his barley, millet or beans in order to obtain the wherewithal to settle his debts to the government. To-day all taxes are collected in money. This simplifies taxation in one sense, but in another sense it complicates matters, as we shall see. The tax is ten Korean dollars a kyul.
Such is the law in regard to the land tax, but there are great discrepancies in its operation and administration. The prefect and all his underlings receive a nominal salary, which is annually deducted from the tax money or rice which is to be sent up to Seoul, but it is notorious that this salary is insufficient and that it is supplemented by various means. As these are an actual charge upon the productive portion of the population, they require mention. The amount of special taxation depends upon the personal character of the prefect and his deputies, the ajuns, and we can indicate only the general lines upon which it is levied. We have already seen that the tax is levied on the estimated average yield of the land. Now, if this average yield is exceeded in a year of plenty or through unusual thrift on the part of the farmer, a portion of the overplus or increment is commonly appropriated by the ajuns, who share it with their chief; but it all depends upon the status of the owner of the field. If he be ​a country gentleman who has influence at Seoul, the ajuns may not dare to take even the legal rate of tax. If he has slightly less influence, he may pay the legal tax on good years but less in years of scarcity. If he has no influence, he may pay the legal tax but nothing extra, in case of overplus. It is the common farmer who has practically no rights in the case and must always pay in full, and whatever proportion of the overplus the ajuns may require; or if there be no overplus, he may still have to give up part of the nine-tenths remaining after his legal tax is paid. No fields within the walls of Seoul are subject to taxation. The annual amount received from the land tax by the government is in the neighbourhood of eight million Korean dollars ; but exchange varies so much that this may mean anywhere from two million to three million in American currency. The lack of an adequate currency in the country districts makes it difficult for the farmers to pay their taxes in money, and so they often turn over their rice to the ajuns, who act as agents for its sale. These ajuns are not there for their health merely, and this form of trade is one of their handsomest perquisites.
With the exception of Seoul and its western and southern suburbs, every house in Korea is subject to a tax of fifteen hundred Seoul cash, or sixty cents, irrespective of the size or quality of the structure. The annual amount collected from this source is about half a million dollars. At sixty cents a house, this would mean something less than a million houses; and reckoning five people to the house, we should have only five millions as the population. Of course this is an absurdly low estimate, and the conclusion is inevitable, either that all the houses are not taxed or that there is a serious leakage in transit. When a new house is built, the magistrate gives a deed for it, and from that time it is supposed to be on the tax list. When a house burns or is swept away by a flood, the tax is always remitted.
All salt is made by evaporating sea-water ; and the " works " are so easily accessible and salt is such an indispensable commodity that this government, like most oriental ones, finds it ​a reliable and lucrative source of revenue. The tax is levied on the actual amount produced, and amounts to about four per cent ad valorem. This seems small compared with the ten per cent levied on cereals, but it must be remembered that in the case of the latter nature does by far the larger part of the work. The evaporation of salt is exceedingly laborious. The apparatus is costly, considering the annual output, the cost of fuel is heavy, and the goods are marketed only in spring and autumn. For these reasons a heavier tax than four per cent would kill the business. This tax brings about ninety thousand dollars into the treasury.
Ginseng is one of the most distinctive products of Korea. The Chinese, who are its principal purchasers, consider the Korean red ginseng the best on the market. The culture and preparation of this root is a government monopoly, and it is carried on in two ways. The government owns certain ginseng farms, and carries them on through skilled agents, but more often it gives licenses to responsible parties who turn over the entire crop to the government. After the latter has marketed the goods in China it deducts its own twenty or twenty-five per cent and turns the rest over to the tenant of the farm. The annual income from this source varies from one hundred and fifty thousand to three hundred thousand Korean dollars.
All minerals are supposed to belong to the government, and no man has a right to open a mine even on his own ground without special permission from the Department of Agriculture, Commerce and Public Works at Seoul. If a man wants to mine gold (and by far the greater part is of the placer variety), he applies at the bureau at Seoul, and if he has influence enough he will succeed in buying a license to open a placer mine in a certain specified locality. For this he pays a round sum, though it may not come within the purview of the law. After opening the mine he will be called upon to pay over to the agents of the government probably sixty per cent of his gross earnings. The rate differs with different circumstances, but at the lowest it is ​enormously high. The idea seems to be that as he is working government property he must divide the proceeds, just as a farmer often does when he works another man's land. The annual revenue from this source is subject to great fluctuations. Sometimes it rises to nearly half a million, and then it may drop to a hundred thousand.
Copper mining is a considerable industry in Korea; but as the profits are relatively smaller than those of gold mining, the government takes only thirty per cent of the proceeds, or, more exactly, five ounces out of every sixteen. It is difficult to get at the figures to show what revenue is derived from this source. There are a number of iron mines, but they are carried on in only a small way comparatively. The government receives a tax of about nine per cent of the gross output. There are said to be over fifty iron mines in the peninsula, mostly in Kang-wun Province, east of Seoul.
Korean fisheries annually render a neat sum to the national exchequer. The tax is levied not on the amount of fish caught but upon the boats themselves. These are of about ten grades, according to the number of the crew and the size of the nets. Such is the law, but it must be confessed that when the money is actually collected cognisance is taken of the amount of fish caught, and the amount of money paid bears no special relation to the sum received by the central government. The Korean government possesses no navy, but from time immemorial it has owned a large number of boats along the coast, which are supposed to be ready for use in time of war. These are regularly let out to fishermen, and the revenue from them is naturally much larger than from the native-owned craft. Of late years these boats have been sold in considerable numbers to the fishermen, but so far as we can learn the proceeds have not sufficed to put the Korean navy on a firm footing ! Furs have always been an important product of Korea, and have frequently figured in the tribute to China, and in indemnities paid to Chinese, Manchu or Mongol. They have been ​REVENUE 231 considered as a sort of government monopoly, and gangs of trappers have been regularly sent out by the authorities, the entire catch being taken by the government and paid for. If other people take furs, especially sea-otter, sable, tiger or leopard, the rule is to carry them to the nearest prefect, who is sure to buy them in for the government. Within the last few months a Korean in Whang-hai Province got into serious trouble because he carried a tiger skin directly to Chemulpo, and sold it to a foreigner rather than offer it first to the prefect. The foreigner doubtless paid him six times as much as the prefect would have given. The method adopted makes it quite impossible to estimate the amount annually received, as it never appears in the columns of dollars and cents.
All merchant craft are subject to a tax which is levied upon their carrying capacity. About three cash per bag is collected at the port of entry. This is only a small fraction of one per cent. Before the days when government taxes were payable in money, these boats often paid by bringing government rice up to the capital, just as in rural districts in America farmers "work out" their taxes on the road.
The forests of Korea are considered crown lands, and no one can cut timber without special permission. The tax is paid in kind and amounts to three per cent of the product. Cowhides, in which the trade is considerable, form a special source of revenue; the hides are graded into three classes and pay a tax of twenty, sixteen and twelve cents apiece, respectively. The various guilds of Seoul, of which we shall speak at length in another place, pay no regular taxes, but they are frequently called upon to help in various forms of government works. Sometimes they are required to repair a road over which a royal procession is to pass ; and in case of a royal funeral or marriage, each guild is supposed to supply a gorgeous banner to be carried in the procession, and the members of the guilds are called upon to act as bearers of the catafalque of the dead.
Up to the time of the China-Japan war every man was ​obliged to carry on his person a small piece of wood on which were written his name, the year of his birth and his rank. Anyone who failed to carry this tag was considered an outlaw. It was called the " name-tag." Every two or three years, or every year in which a great national examination was held, all these tags were changed or renewed. Each bore the stamp of the mayor of Seoul or of the country prefect, and the application of this stamp cost the sum of five country cash. This was a sort of poll tax, but was discontinued when the use of the name-tag was abolished.
There never has been a tax upon spirituous liquors, nor any license required for their sale. In country districts there is a slight tax on the malt used in making beer. This is made of barley and comes in the form of round cakes. The tax on each cake is one cash.
Besides these regular taxes, the government sells licenses for a large number of industries. These are not all worthy of mention, but among them we find the pawn-shop license, which amounts to two dollars a month in the case of large shops. The cutting of firewood in government preserves is carried on under license..
It must not be imagined that these are the only sources of income. There is another long list of " donations " to the palace. These are not actual taxes, and yet they are so fixed in Korean custom that they amount to the same thing, and their discontinuance would be the signal for an instant and searching investigation. These donations take the form of fruits and vegetables. Certain districts are noted for the production of particular kinds and superior qualities of fruits and vegetables. For instance, the Pongsan pears, Namyang persimmons, Sunchun walnuts, Poeun jujubes, Kwangju tobacco and Kuchang turnips are the best in the country. The growers annually send up the best selection of their products for use by the imperial household. The amount is not regulated by law, but the prefect is sure to see to it that the quantity and quality of these gifts do not fall far ​below the limit established by custom. A failure to attend to this matter would soon get him into trouble.
Several kinds of sea products are also sent up, such as edible sea-weed, beche-de-mer, dried clams, pearls, cuttle-fish, cod and other denizens of the deep; among industrial products, linen and cotton cloth, fans, screens, mats, tables, cabinets, pipes, paper, human hair, silk, furs, horses, hats, head-bands, pens, ink, candles, grass-cloth, tiger skins, deer horns, mountain ginseng, game, honey, ginger, crockery and porcelain, medicines, embroideries, cranes, musical instruments and coral. These are a few of the varieties.
The most reliable source of income is the Maritime Customs, and it forms the only asset that the government can use as collateral for the purpose of making loans. Up to the early eighties there was no such institution, but in 1882 the government requested that the Chinese Customs send a man to open up a service in Korea. P. G. von Mollendorff, Esq., was sent, and with him a considerable staff of foreigners. The service was established on lines similar to those in China, but after a few years Mr. Von Mollendorff resigned, and the service came more directly under the Chinese control. From the very first it was a decided success, one of the very few that Korea has achieved along financial lines; and under the admirable management of J. McLeavy Brown, C. M. G., it has formed an anchor to windward that has helped the government ride out many a storm, not merely financial but political as well. The subject of imports and exports will be mentioned elsewhere, but under the head of revenue it will suffice to say that, according to the latest reports, the gross value of a year's trade is approximately fifty million yen or twenty-five million dollars, on practically all of which a small import or export duty is imposed.