The study of Maritime Transportation by Official Steamships in the Last years of the Yi-Dynasty.
The opening of ports in 1876 brought an end to the long period of her seclusionism and put her under the influence of Western capitalism by procuring st...
The study of Maritime Transportation by Official Steamships in the Last years of the Yi-Dynasty.
The opening of ports in 1876 brought an end to the long period of her seclusionism and put her under the influence of Western capitalism by procuring steamships and developing the enterprise of maritime transportation.
The maritime transportation in this period can be classified as follows. Maritime transportation
(1) by domestic capital
(a) by governmental investment
(b) by civilian investment
(2) by foreign capital
(a) by capital of the foreigners settled in Korea
(b) by large maritime entrepreneurs in foreign countries
This dissertation is a study of the maritime transportation by governmental investment at the beginning of maritime enterprise in Korean history, and the author tries to investigate the essential characters of maritime transportation of the Korean government by clarifying eh managements, the governmental organs in charge of maritime transportation, as well as their inner phases
The managements of governmental maritime transportation in those years and the period of their enterprise are as follows.
(1) Tongri Kyowup Yongsang Samu Amun(統理交涉通商事務衙門)‥‥(1883-1886)
(2) Junun-kuk(Transportation Burear)‥‥‥(1886-1892)
(3) Yiun-sa(Name of Maritime Transportation Company)‥‥‥(1892-1895)
(4) Management consigned to foreign companies(1895-1901)
The essential characteristics of maritime transportation by stea mships can be understood from three facets of change of the man agements their basic characters and inner phases of management.
(A) Change of managements
All the change of the managements as well as the beginning of maritime transportation by steamships resulted from the political influence of the struggling among the foreign forces such as China, Japan and Russia. Maritime transportation by steamships was reg arded as an objective of political dealings very often in the process of change of managements.
(1) Outgrowth
The maritime transportation by steamships was brought in by Paul Georg von Moellendorff, who was sent by China to Korea for the purpose of hindering the Japanese power in Korea, and he adhered faithfully to the Chinese policy in the management of maritime transportation in Korea.
(2) Tongri Kyosup Tongsang Samu Amun
Moellendorff, who wanted to organize the maritime transportation in Korea as one of the policies of China toward Korea, induced the Jardine, Matheson & Co. of England, John Middleton & Co. of U.S. A.,E. Meyer & Co. of Germany and China Merchant Steamship Navigation Company of China, to check the invasion of Japanese maritime transportation, for the management of the maritime transportation of this organization.
(3) Junun-kuk
Junun-kuk, which could not perform its function during the period when Moellendorff administered the maritime transportation in Korea according to his policy, stepped forward in the management of maritime transportation after Moellendorff had been discharged and left Korea owing to the Change of political situation, and it joined hands with the Japanes maritime transportation in direct opposition to the Tongri Kyosup Tongsang Samu Amun.
(4) Yiun-sa
China. fearing that Junun-kuk worked hand in hand with the maritime transportation of Japan that was becoming more and more powerful in Karea, tried to curry favor with Korea by offering loans with favorable conditions for purchasing steamships and this resulted from the Chinese policy to recover her lordship over Korea.
(5) Consigning of Yiun-sa to N.Y.K.
When Japanese power expelled that of China out of Korea, Yiun-sa, which had been founded for the purpose of carrying out the Chinese policy toward Korea, was taken over by Japan under the disguise of consigned management.
(6) Consigning of Official Steamships to E. Meyer & Co.
When the Japanese influence was weakened with the appearance of Russians on the scene, the managerial right of Yiun-sa that had been taken up by Japan, was forced to be returned back to Korea, and the management of maritime transportation by official steamships was consigned to E. Meyer & Co., the company of Germany in Korea, the interest of which country was parallel with that of Russia.
The maritime transportation, which had been brought in by the Chinese, with political intention to hinder the invasion of Japan, perished as a result of the political dealings of Japanese intrigues.
(B) Basic characters
Even if the managements of the maritime transportation by official steamships were changed many times, the basic character of returing back to the traditional transporting of tribute(tax in rice), being a long established custom, did not change.
(1) Tongri Kyosup Tongsang Samu Amun
Mollendoff, who was in charge of maritime transportation by steamships of this organization, tried to disorganize the self-supporting and self-sufficient system of Korea with the introduction of maritime transportation into Korea, recognizing the effects of maritime transportation in the modernization of Korea, and he tried to prompt merchandising of the agricultural products and to link the economy of Korea with that of the Western Europe. But in the meantime, these efforts of improvement ended in vain, and eventually, maritime transportation teturned back to the traditional form of transporting tribute(tax in rice).
(2) Junun-kuk
This office, regardless of their variegated effects, limited the maritime transportation by steamships to the transporting of tribute(tax in rice) only. It looked forward to the ease and safety of navigation of steamships, which invited a greater degree of reliance upon this conventional transportation by sea because it strengthened the system of collecting tribute(tax in rice).
(3) Yiun-sa
Although Yiun-sa was in possession of mechanized means of production, steamships and a form of enterprise and tried to carry out "Transportation for others" by steamships, it lacked economic foundation. Consequently, it had to depend upon the monopoly of transportation of tribute(tax in rice).
(4) After restoration of managerial right of Yiun-sa
It was after the repeal of the rice tax system that Yiun-sa was returned back to the Korean government from N.Y.K. The Korean government, that had been enthusiastic about the introduction of steamships with the largest loan for a single project, hesitated in management of the steamships after the reform of tax system, and finally gave it up.
(C) Inner phases of management
Economic activities by officials are always apt to give rise to many defects. It goes without saying that maritime transportation administered by the then officials who hardly understood the Western efficiency and rationality was ineffective.
(1) Tongri Kyosup Tongsang Samu Amun
This organization tried to utilize the foreign steamships by inducing them into Korean waters with conditions of compensation for deficit, but what with preferential political objective of hindering the invasion of the Japanese maritime transportation and what with unfamiliarity with capitalistic dealings of commerce, it was obliged to accept the unfavorable conditions and was subject to ineffective management. And consequently, maritime transportation by steamships was transformed into the means of acquiring rights for advanced capitalistic nations over this underdeveloped country, becoming the first example of a sacrifice resulting from political dealings.
(2) Junun-kuk
This office performed its maritime transportation with foreign steamships chartered and its own steamships procured with foreign loans, but the problem of selecting suitable steamships was evident from the beginning. Therefore, the intention for effective management by eliminating uneconomical operating of sole purpose ships, and for a synthetic policy of organic conjunction with other effective administrative policies besides transportation of sole goods of tribute(tax in rice) by steamships that were mechanized means of production, operating as a kind of sole purpose ship, and for the overcoming of the difficulty that the character of seasonal cargo of tribute(tax in rice) brought, is hardly to be observed.
(3) Yiun-sa
This was modernized in its system of enterprise and means of production, but could not be free from the category of trite management by the officials in its production methods.