The Bans on Po in the Early Years of the Joseon Dynasty

조선 초기 포화 금지령

This paper studied the ban on 'Po[포]', including hemp and ramie, on the basis of Joseon Wangcho Silok (the True Record of Joseon Dynasty). Po is the important point which can help to understand the people's life related with clothing. This paper showed that in the early years of the Joseon Dynasty, the state had forced kinds of bans on some fabrics many times. Among the bans of the fabrics-making the main part was the bans on Po, along with rice, used as money in those days. The state had on Po enacted on the policy to intend to promote paper money circulation more widely. However, people didn't want to use paper money. The reason why cloth could be practical and functional as a kind of currency was that people could make clothes with it at any time while they used it as money. People avoided using paper money that could not be used in that way, and so did public officials. At that time, Po that was generally used as money was the hemp of five warp threads. The measurement of the hemp in 7chi[촌; a Korean inch] by 35chok[척] and 32cm by 16m by modern metric. It also showed that it has been thought that the blended fabrics are the fabrics that were made of raw silk-threads and cotton threads as warp and weft respectively. However, the fact that there is a record of 'Jeo Ma Gyo Jik Po[저마교직포의]'(blended fabrics and clothes made of ramie and hemp) and there appear the new proofs of the fieldwork investigation shows that the concept of blended fabrics might be various or changeable as time passed.