This thesis deals with the trade between Koryo and Sung. At first I'll discuss about the political relationships among North-east Asian nations, because the relationships effected on two nations' trade. Then I looked over their trade policies in such ...
This thesis deals with the trade between Koryo and Sung. At first I'll discuss about the political relationships among North-east Asian nations, because the relationships effected on two nations' trade. Then I looked over their trade policies in such a political environment, and searched for the trade subjects and the style of trade.
Koryo and Sung's political relationship could be divided with three stages. The first stage was from 960 A. D. to 1040 A. D.. At this stage, North-east Asia's international political hegemony was shifted from Sung to Khitan(契丹).
At an early stage, Koryo and Sung were united for control of Khitan. But Khitan's military pressure made Sung admit Khitan's political position, and Koryo entried under entries Khitan's political system. Naturally Koryo and Sung's association was broken. The second stage was from 1068 A. D. to 1126A. D.. We called these days three countries (Koryo, Sung, and Khitan) period. Wang An-shih's(王安石) Reformation caused to lose the international position of Sung, thus Sung tried to restore their position. Koryo also tried to improve the relation with Sung, which has advanced Koryo's culture and released Khitan's pressure on Koryo. The third stage was from 1127 A. D. to 1173 A. D.. During this time the North-east Asia's hegemony was shifted from Khitan to Chin(Jurchen Dynasty). Sung desired to associate with Koryo because Sung wanted to decrease the Chin's military pressure. But Koryo rejected Sung's offer for its safety and kept the neutral policy. Gradually Sung gave up the coalition with Koryo and finally their political relation was broken.
After the Silla Dynasty, the traders who dealt with China had a great power on the sea and threatened the royal authority. Koryo Dynasty's Seong-jong(成宗) made a clean sweep of local control system because he wanted to strengthen the royal authority. In order to get rid of marine power, he prohibited the trade with Sung. Seong-jong limited the trade. He allowed only tribute trade, so all of Sung's imports were exchanged by the envoy. Koryo and Sung's political relationship was ceased and tribute trade was also stopped under the Khitan's military pressure. Koryo wanted to absorb the China's civilization, thus encouraged the trade with Sung continuously by policy. This encouragement policy was changed during Southern Sung Dynasty.
Sung considered the trade with Koryo as one which was connected to North government's political problem. So Sung's tribute trade policy with Koryo was changed. Sometimes it was the encouragement policy and sometimes it was restriction policy. It depended on the Sung's political policy. towards North governments Except early period, Sung's Dynasty private trade with Koryo was strictly controlled. Because Sung was afraid of the information to be drained out. So for a long time they prohibited the trade with Koryo.
To study trades between Sung and Koryo, we divided Koryo and Sung's trade style as four parts. They are Koryo's and Sung's envoy and Koryo's and Sung's merchants. In the public trade by both governments' envoy, Koryo was more aggressive than Sung. But when the North-east Asia's political system was newly changed, like the time of the first stage and the third stage, envoy's activity was focused on the political purpose, so the trade was secondary. These two stages' tribute trade was more symbolic and formal considering it's scale and variety. In the second stage, three countries took a triangular position. At that time Koryo envoy's basic aim was the interchange of economic ∙ cultural aspects. The trade was especially tribute trade but there were many kinds of trade style, like Sa-heon trade(私獻貿易), Cheong-gu trade(請求貿易), Yean-do trade(沿途貿易), Gwan-sa trade(館舍貿易) and so on. Trade items were usually luxury articles for royal or noble class. And the variety of books which included Sung's developed culture and political system was the main items.
The purpose of Sung's envoy was political one so they only thought about northern part's political power. The trade activity was not lively. Sung's formal trade was about 'give and take' tribute trade.
Koryo merchants' activity was so lively in the early Koryo dynasty. But Seong-jong prohibited the Koryo people's private trade and promoted only the Sung's merchants' trade. After that policy, the trade between two countries was very shrinked. During the period of Southern Sung Dynasty, there was a war between Sung and Chin, and Sung's merchants were decreased. Naturally the trade with Koryo was dilapidated. And at that time Koryo's merchants began to trade lively. Koryo's merchants enlarged their range to Fu-jian(福建). And it seemed that their trade items were not only Sung's items but also Sung merchants' trade items such as Nam-yang's(南洋). Koryo's merchants dealt them directly.
Sung's merchants traded actively owing to Koryo's trade-encouraging policy. This trade was the most lively with Northern Sung Dynasty. During the period of Northern Sung Dynasty, Sung's merchants came to Koryo ports more than 110 times, and the number of merchants were over 3,000. During the period of Southern Sung Dynasty, the import routes of Koryo became various, and the favor trade policy towards Sung's merchants was disappeared. Also the safety of trade was not guaranteed. So the trade of Sung's merchants with Koryo was decreased.
In <Koryo-sa(History of Koryo Dynasty)>, Sung's merchants were called with many names, such as '○○ local merchants', 'Song-sang(宋商)', and 'Gang-su(綱首)' and so on. Naming was to classify their character. So the local name merchants (like ○○ local merchants) were authorized by Sung government, and 'Song-sang' was the smuggler under the Sung's restrain. And 'Gang-su' was meant to be both private merchants and government merchants. They were the performers of the policy that the Sung government controlled the international trade.
In short, Koryo led the tribute trade and Sung led the private merchants' trade. During an early stage Koryo merchants' trade was lively and in a time of Southern Sung Dynasty it regained its liveliness.