With the implementation of the Gyun’yeok institution, the amount of textile materials(“Gapo”) collected from households by the military offices(“Gunmun”) was reduced from 2 ‘pil’ units to 1, but the Hullyeon Dogam office, compared to other offices such as Geum’wi-yeong and Eo’yeong-cheong, was rather well compensated(“Geubdae”) for its losses. At the time, Hullyeon Dogam was having trouble securing grains that would be distributed to the soldiers as salary(“Ryomi, 料米”) and military demands[軍需], but was provided with ‘Geubdae’ by the Gyun’yeok-cheong office, in the form of Daedong rice(“Daedong-mi”). Also, it was provided with interest which was generated by the Sangjin-gok(常賑穀) reserve, operated by the Gyun’yeok-cheong office as part of the Hwan’gok(還穀) practice. Other than this, Hullyeon Dogam was offered the right to collect taxes from Gungbang(宮房) bodies’ lands, which had actually been exempted from taxation(“Myeonse-gyeol”). And when the Hullyeon Dogam soldiers had to step in as Geum’wi-yeong and Eo’yeong-cheong soldiers were unable to post their shifts in the capital area, those two offices were obliged to provide the Hullyeon Dogam soldiers with compensation, in the form of Yeosu-jeon(旅需錢). Finally, since 1758, the 34th year of king Yeongjo’s reign, Hullyeon Dogam was authorized to annually take advantage of the grain under the jurisdiction of the Finance “Hojo” Ministry, in case it needed additional resources to pay their Bokma-gun soldiers with Ryomi salary.
It should also be noted that during the time the Gyun’yeok institution was in operation, Hullyeon Dogam continued to create over 100,000 ‘nyang’ units of coins, and earned more than 60,000 nyang units from that venture. With such newly garnered profits, Hullyeon Dogam purchased silver, loaned it to soldiers and brought in additional income. And in the meantime, monitoring the Yang’hyang-cheong office’s failure to collect adequate amount of taxes from the garrison farms(“Dunjeon”), Hullyeon Dogam also newly rented, purchased, or even initiated reclamation efforts of those farms, to use it as another source of income that could be diverted to resources which would facilitate the Hullyeon Dogam’s sub-offices.
In short, Hullyeon Dogam was continuously aided and supported by central financial offices even when other central military offices were suffering from the government’s overall [financial] retrenchment policy. As a result, Hullyeon Dogam, which was operated by rotated servicemen(“Jangbeon-gun”), became a liability to the Joseon government’s financial management. Yet, in order to protect the king and the population from foreign threats, and foster political stability by managing internal social strifes, maintaining Hullyeon Dogam as it is was more than an imperative task for the government. The way the Hullyeon Dogam office secured necessary budgets for itself was a little complicated, but it was also a policy-based effort intended to minimize financial pressure upon the government, sanctioned by the government itself which had to operate a military full time.