Household Military Cloth Tax (Hopoje)

The Heungseon Daewongun levied the military cloth tax per household rather than per adult male, so yangban households also had to pay.

Even after the Gyunyeok Law (1750) yangban stayed exempt from military service, and the cloth levy was pushed onto farmers — charged to the dead, to infants, to neighbours and to relatives. In 1871 the Heungseon Daewongun switched the levy from each adult male to each household, so yangban households, long exempt, had to pay too; to spare their dignity they paid in the names of their slaves.

It reformed the military-tax part of the "three administrations"; land registers were resurveyed to find hidden land, and state grain loans were replaced by village-run granaries (sachang). Farmers’ burdens eased, but touching yangban privilege provoked resentment.