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@article{ART002153110},
author={ChangHoi Kim},
title={The Transition of The Household Class System and The Distribution of Tribute Items in the Period from Taejo to Sejong of Joseon},
journal={The Review of Korean History},
issn={1225-133X},
year={2016},
number={123},
pages={5-45}

TY - JOUR
AU - ChangHoi Kim
TI - The Transition of The Household Class System and The Distribution of Tribute Items in the Period from Taejo to Sejong of Joseon
JO - The Review of Korean History
PY - 2016
VL - null
IS - 123
PB - The Historical Society Of Korea
SP - 5
EP - 45
SN - 1225-133X
AB - Joseon’s household class system was first enacted by King Taejo, but it was first applied to the allocation of tributes by the 4-class system in the 6th year of King Taejong. The 4-class system evolved into the 5-class system based on the land tax between the later years of King Taejong and the early years of King Sejong. The 5-class system was officially enacted in the 17th year of King Sejong. The household class was variously assigned according to the financial capacity of each household, but it was actually operated as a 3-class system. The households at that time were obliged to provide labor and pay taxes. The government thought that large, medium, and small households are able to support themselves after providing labor and pay taxes, but other households are not. Thus, other smaller households were tied into one to form small households. Small households were perceived as the smallest unit of households that can support themselves while providing labor and paying taxes. The requirement was 5 units of land tax in the time of King Taejong and 10 units of land tax in the time of King Sejong. The amount of tributes allocated to the local towns was determined by how flourishing or impoverished the towns were based on the size of lands and the number of households. The name of each town was directly related to how flourishing or impoverished the towns were. The names were actively changed during the time of King Taejong to match the name to the scale and condition of each town. It was quite successful by the 16th Century as the tributes were mostly collected according to the level of names. The most important factor for the change of town names was the number of households. The size of lands was measured by the domicile of households and the financial capacity of towns was carefully calculated by the number of households in each household class. The number of households, which remains fixed for a long time, became the standard for the allocation of tributes. This allocation system was established during the time of King Taejong with the enactment of household class system. The tributes were imposed on each household by assigning an equal amount of combination of various goods based on the premise that all households in the same class have the same capacity. Even if there were substitutions, the value of goods assigned to each household was considered important rather than the quantity. For this reason, it is assumed that more valuable goods were assigned to higher classes and less valuable goods were assigned to lower classes. In addition to this allocation method, the increasing market prices, unstable harvest, and high tax rates must have been burdening to the taxpaying households. The raising of allocation standards was an effort to reduce the burden of tax imposition. In other words, the households with relatively greater financial capacity were classified in a greater detail to collect the tributes to reduce the burden of lower classes. Also, the regional divide was eliminated to apply the same household class system nationwide and the gap between the classes was gradually increased to maintain the class in case of unpredicted events when it was difficult to exempt any one household due to the fixed amount of taxes.
KW - household class(戶等);tribute items(貢物);compulsory labor(徭役);tribute taxation(貢賦);registered residence(戶口);distribution(分定)
DO -
UR -
ER -

ChangHoi Kim. (2016). The Transition of The Household Class System and The Distribution of Tribute Items in the Period from Taejo to Sejong of Joseon. The Review of Korean History, 123, 5-45.

ChangHoi Kim. 2016, "The Transition of The Household Class System and The Distribution of Tribute Items in the Period from Taejo to Sejong of Joseon", The Review of Korean History, no.123, pp.5-45.

ChangHoi Kim "The Transition of The Household Class System and The Distribution of Tribute Items in the Period from Taejo to Sejong of Joseon" The Review of Korean History 123 pp.5-45 (2016) : 5.

ChangHoi Kim. The Transition of The Household Class System and The Distribution of Tribute Items in the Period from Taejo to Sejong of Joseon. 2016; 123 : 5-45.

ChangHoi Kim. "The Transition of The Household Class System and The Distribution of Tribute Items in the Period from Taejo to Sejong of Joseon" The Review of Korean History no.123(2016) : 5-45.

ChangHoi Kim. The Transition of The Household Class System and The Distribution of Tribute Items in the Period from Taejo to Sejong of Joseon. The Review of Korean History, 123, 5-45.

ChangHoi Kim. The Transition of The Household Class System and The Distribution of Tribute Items in the Period from Taejo to Sejong of Joseon. The Review of Korean History. 2016; 123 5-45.

ChangHoi Kim. The Transition of The Household Class System and The Distribution of Tribute Items in the Period from Taejo to Sejong of Joseon. 2016; 123 : 5-45.

ChangHoi Kim. "The Transition of The Household Class System and The Distribution of Tribute Items in the Period from Taejo to Sejong of Joseon" The Review of Korean History no.123(2016) : 5-45.