The typical peasants in the early period of the Yi dynasty were those who owned one or two Kyul of land and cultivated it through their own labor. This self-sustained peasantry constituted a system of farming most adequately suited to the level of agr...
The typical peasants in the early period of the Yi dynasty were those who owned one or two Kyul of land and cultivated it through their own labor. This self-sustained peasantry constituted a system of farming most adequately suited to the level of agricultural productivity of the time in terms of size of land owned by peasants and labor productivity.
However, the peasants at the time were burdened with high extra-institutional taxation in addition to institutional duties such as land taxation, military service, labor service, and tribute. Thus the peasants in the early period of the Yi dynasty had gradualy lost their self-sufficiency by solding out their land and been demoted into the status of the serf in the estate of the ruling class.