After defeating its former Tang allies in the Silla–Tang War, Silla removed remaining Tang forces and secured control over most of the Korean Peninsula. This created the political setting for later efforts to standardize taxation and land administration across a larger territory. Unified Silla’s rulers then faced the challenge of rewarding elites while keeping peasants productive and taxable.
King Sinmun issued an edict ending the nogeup (“stipend village”) system, which had compensated officials by granting control over villages and their labor and taxes. He replaced it with office land meant to limit officials to collecting grain taxes rather than exercising broad local control. The reform aimed to weaken aristocrats’ independent economic base and strengthen central authority.
During King Seongdeok’s reign, Silla records first mention the distribution of jeongjeon (“able-bodied fields”) to working-age commoners. Although details are debated, the policy is widely interpreted as an attempt to stabilize peasant livelihoods and secure a reliable tax base. It also signaled continued royal efforts to balance aristocratic land power with support for farming households.
By the mid-8th century, Unified Silla’s court promoted stronger central control over administration, including tighter management of officials and standardization measures. These moves mattered economically because land grants and tax collection depended on clear administrative authority. Centralization, however, also increased conflicts over who controlled local revenues—royal government or powerful families.
After years of reforms aimed at limiting aristocratic control over land and people, later 8th-century political unrest reduced the monarchy’s ability to enforce centralized economic policies. Britannica describes how rebellions and succession struggles helped aristocrats regain influence. As central authority weakened, local powerholders found more ways to retain or capture land revenues outside direct royal supervision.
In 822, the aristocrat Kim Hŏnch'ang led a major rebellion, reflecting deep disputes within the ruling elite. Such conflicts mattered for land and taxation because civil war and factionalism disrupted administration and encouraged local strongmen to act independently. The revolt also showed how political instability could undermine consistent collection of taxes and labor obligations.
In the 820s, the naval commander Jang Bogo built a powerful maritime base that helped protect shipping and expand trade with Tang China and Japan. Increased trade could enrich the state and elites, but it also strengthened private power networks that did not always depend on central tax systems. This shift made it harder for the Silla court to monopolize economic resources.
Jang Bogo was killed in 845, and his network declined afterward, reducing one of the major tools Silla had for controlling piracy and channeling overseas trade. The loss mattered economically because weakened maritime security could reduce trade and tax flows and shift advantages to local groups. It also reflected the broader pattern of powerful figures operating with semi-independent resources.
After a year of famine, the Silla government sharply increased taxes in 889, helping spark multiple uprisings. This crisis highlights how fiscal pressure—especially when layered on hardship—could push peasants and tenants toward rebellion. The revolts also accelerated the rise of local powerholders (often called hojok) who began to dominate regional resources.
In 892, Kyŏn Hwŏn established Later Baekje, one sign that Silla could no longer control the peninsula’s political economy. New regimes relied heavily on local elites and their ability to command land, labor, and food supplies. The emergence of rival states meant Silla’s tax base and land control shrank further.
In 901, Kung Ye proclaimed Later Goguryeo (later Taebong), expanding the challenge to Silla’s authority. As territory and population slipped from Silla’s control, the court’s ability to levy taxes and mobilize labor weakened. Political fragmentation thus directly translated into economic fragmentation, with land revenues increasingly captured by regional rulers.
In 918, Wang Geon overthrew Taebong and founded Goryeo, building a new political center that would eventually absorb the competing states. This marked a transition toward a different system of rule, in which integrating regional elites became a key strategy. For land and taxation, it signaled that the old Unified Silla framework was no longer the main organizer of economic life.
In 935, King Gyeongsun, the last ruler of Silla, formally surrendered to Wang Geon’s Goryeo. This ended Unified Silla as an independent state and closed the era in which its land and tax reforms were debated within a single kingdom. After 935, economic governance on the peninsula increasingly followed Goryeo’s institutions rather than Silla’s.
Land Policies, Taxation, and Economic Change in Unified Silla (8th–10th centuries)