This dissertation examines the colonial urbanization, the strategical industrialization, and the formation and changes of the capitalists groups in Korea from 1876 when the Japanese imperialism set out to penetrate into Chosun, to 1945 when Japan surr...
This dissertation examines the colonial urbanization, the strategical industrialization, and the formation and changes of the capitalists groups in Korea from 1876 when the Japanese imperialism set out to penetrate into Chosun, to 1945 when Japan surrendered to the Allies. This study illuminates the characteristics of the colonial capitalism. The study was focused on Busan(釜山), the city which expanded from the back settlement area for the first open port to a present metropolis. In the study, I examined the courses of development of the colonial cities, capitalists, and the industrialization in Korean under the Japanese rule according to my own periodization. I divided the colonial period into three periods : the period of the settlements stabilization (1876-1910) ; the formative period of the colonial cities and the capitalists' groups (1910-1933) ; and the period of development of the new cities and the transformation of the capitalists' groups (1934-1945). In the first period (1876-1910), traditional Korean cities were transformed into commercial cities or monopoly market cities while Japan penetrated into Choson and built her bases for expansion around the Japanese settlements at open ports and open markets. The Japanese settlement areas (居留地) appeared in Inchun(仁川), Mokpo(木浦), Masan(馬山), Jinnampo(鎖南浦), and Sungjin(城津) as well as Busan. Japan made the colonial cities and introduced a consumer industry to encourage the Japanese immigration into Korea. The industry was confined on consumer goods and rice mills industry developed with its relation to rice export to Japan. The Japanese immigrants were granted the land as permanent rent and they accumulated the land capital. In the advantageous international atmosphere of the period, Japan acquired the settlement areas, expanded the land to build the colonial cities, and raised the value of the cities. In the process of expanding the land, the Japanese investors were informed of land-building project first to allow them to invest in the new land. In the beginning of the second period (1910-1933), the Government General of Korea promoted the former settlement areas to cities (府). Especially, the Japanese moved the capital cities of the provinces to these new cities, and developed their infrastructure. The process was also a preliminary step to the colonial industrialization. The Japanese immigrants continued to obtain the land at the center of the cities through public auctions. They benefited from the Japanese land survey project which introduced the modern legal land registration system (不動産證 明制度) in Korea. During the period, the Japanese capitalists invested on commerce and manufacturing, and they established themselves as industrial capitalists. Also large sum of capitals from Japanese textile industry and cement industry were put into Korea. During the period, the early Japanese immigrant capitalists dominated the colonial economy and they formed an excusive network of capitalist groups. They were four such groups in Busan, Seoul, Sineiju, and Mokpo. In the third period, as an aftermath of the Great Depression, the Colonial Chosun became a producer of some industrial goods, and she produced the low grade cotton textiles goods and chemical products. Newly penetrated Japanese monopoly capitalists initiated and dominated it. To bring this new capitals effectively, the Government General of Korea proclaimed the decree of city planning in 1934 to provide the infrastructure. It developed some new cities such as Najin and Heungnam, while it built industrial sites in the existing cities such as in Seoul and Busan. The Japanese capitalists formed in the early colonial period could not compete with the Japanese monopoly capitalists except some business which succeeded in their experimental enterprises. To complement the weakness of their native capitals, the early Japanese capitalists formed eight networks of groups such as Noguchi Group and Keijo Group in which mutual investment and concurrent appointment as executive directors were distinguished characteristics. It is noticeable that the early Japanese capitalists were also local influential elites and that many Korean capitalists participated in the capitalist groups as executive directors. This can be said as "economic Japan-Korea Conformity (内鮮一體)" However, the Korean capitalists could not dominate the group as they occupied minor positions such as inspectors. With the Japan's defeat to the Allies, the Colonial Korea capitalist groups network collapsed. And this was the very weakness of the colonial capitalism. The capitalism in colonial Chosun had to be reorganized newly into the world economy under the U.S. military rule.