不平等深化過程의 展開로서의 韓國의 工業化, 1910~1963(其一) = A Study in the Industrialization of Korea Conceived as the Process of Increasing Inequality, 1910-1963

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

1
It was not until 1876 that Korea, the hermit nation of Oreient, opened her door wide to the world and let the Western civilization come in along with the then prevalent capitalistic mode of production. Once planted, capitalism broke open her way into every part of the until then feudalistic society of Lee Dynasty, smashing away the last remnants of the old structure of social and economic hierarchy. It seemed that capitalism was bring about a new society promising equality and affluence to all by breaking down the Oriental despotism and introducing a new way of life and a novel mode of economic activites.
It was, however,a fatal misfortune for Korean people that the capitalistic development was carried out by foreign capitalists who committed expropriation devouring every gain form industrialization of Korea and shifted the burden to Korean people. Capitalism, as Schumpeter aptly put it, is by nature a form or method of economic change and not only never is but never can be stationary. It was no exception in Korea though it was an alien one introduced by foreigners. By incessantly revolutionizing the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying and incessantly creating a new one, capitalistic process of creative desturction succeeded in accumulating a vast heap of wealth during the last half-century. Hundreds of factories manufactured a variety of conveniences and necessaries of life and in the show window of modern department store, ever kind of goods which make modern living pleasant attracted and allured the eyes of Korean people.
The wealth the capitalistic method of production brought about seemed to contribute to the welfare of the masses of people and to bring forth a sound and balanced development of korean economy. But what actually happened since the open-door only proved that this expectation was nothing but an illusion.
As mentioned above, the capitalism, planted on this land by foreign capitalists, only contributed to the exploitation of Korean people by them, and the Japanese annexation of Korea in 1910, made the exploitation more complete. In one extreme, there was a handful of Japanese rulers and capitalists, with some comprador capitalistic middle-men of Korea around them, enjoying all the benefits of industrialization and in the other extreme, millions of people, driven almost to starvation, hardly managed to live on what little residual the capitalistic rulers sparingly gave them. The capitalistic process of creative destruction bestowed the gifts of creation to the capitalists and destroying at the same time the roots of life of the people, forged out a massive and formidable mechanism of inequality and left a deep scar upon the economic structure of Korea. This essay is a study in the shadow part of industrialization as a disequalizing process.

2
In the long struggle of powers over Korea, the Japanese Empire emerged out as a victor at last and under the protection of her political and military influence Japanese capital flowed into Korea seeking after profit. The Japanese capitalism had not completed the promitive accumulation of capital until then, with the result that the capital flowed in to Korea was not industrial capital but commercial and usury capital. It, nevertheless, played a decisive role to destroy the old-fachioned cottage industry of cotton weaving and spinning by importing cheap manufactured textile of Western countries, and after the destruction of apparently idyllic life

Table 1. The Balance of Trade of Korea (1,000 Won)
Year Import Export Deficit
1876.7.1 ∼1882.6.30 4,603 5,103 +500
1890 4,753 3,576 -1,177
1895 8,339 2,773 -5,606
1900 11,069 9,568 -1,501
1905 32,971 7,916 -25,055
1910 39,781 19,913 -19,866
Total※ 392,767 176,554 -216,213
Source: History of Korean Trade, ed. by Korean Trade Association
※Total from 1876 to 1910 except 1883, 1884, 1885 and 1886

Table 2. The Outflow of Gold (1,000 Won)
Year To Japan To China Total
1893 425 494 919
1894 639 295 934
1895 953 400 1,353
1900 3,065 568 3,633
1905 5,205 2 5,207
1908 4,771 0 4,771
Total※ 48,435 5,921 55,353
Source: Statistical Year Bank, Govt. of Chosen
※Total from 1893 to 1908
of Korean people, they lent the impoverished people the money on usury terms which the transition from natural to money economy made them need badly. (Korean people had been poor indeed before the open-door of 1876 but it cannot be denied that the Japanese merchants adventurer made them orse off.) The devastating effect of foreign capitalistic exploitation can be traced out in Table 1 and 2 in the preceeding page.
The exports mainly consisted of rice, thus preventing the backwash effect of Japanese agricultural backwardness from making their rate of industrial growth slow down and at the same tiem driving Korean people to under-nourishment by reducing the per capita comsumption of rice. On the other hand the import largely consisted of cotton cloths. Thus smashed down with the old cottage industry (the main source of cash income) the poor were constrained to run to Japanese usurers offering themselves as their victims.
In perfect accordance with these changes, the factories built in Korea were largely rice-mills for the processing of rice for export to Japan and some breweries. Table 3 shows the number of factories for each industry.

Table 3. Number of Factories by Industries
Industry Before 1901 1901 - 1904 1906 - 1908 Total
rice-mill - 11 20 31
brewery 9 4 7 20
brick - 6 7 13
iron 1 6 3 10
cotton - 2 - 2
others 4 9 19 32
Total 14 38 56 108
Source: Statistical Year Bank of the Bank of Chosen, 1948

The above-mentioned are some of the characteristics of the opening-up process of Korea during 1876-1910.

3
Hardly had the Japanese empire annexed Korea in 1910 when the Governor of Chosen (Japanese governor in annexed Korea) issued "Company Act", and prohibited the establishment of business enterprise under license. The intention was apparently to keep the native capital from being invested in modern industry, thus shutting out the Korean people from participation in the productive activity. Economic Apartheid policy was deliberately pursued by the Japanese rulers to the benefits of Japanese capitalists and the result was that almost all the companies and corporation were owned by Japanese, and accordingly nearly all the business enterprises were carried out by Japanese. This fact is shown in Table 4. The jointly established companies are to be regarded as Japanese-owned, because the Korean partners were, with few exception, compardors whom the Japanese masters utilized for the betterment of public relations in a insurgent and discontented colony.

Table 4. Number of Company Owned by Each Nation
Year Owner Number Capital
1911 Japanese 109 10,510,550
Korean 27 7,395,000
Joint 71 21,860,900
1915 Japanese 147 16,055,500
Korean 39 9,636,840
Joint 29 27,424,400
1917 Japanese 177 59,192,200
Korean 37 11,518,140
Joint 13 5,986,000
1920 Japanese 414 330,762,950
Korean 99 45,276,200
Joint 29 41,445,000
The Japanese capital that flowed into Korea was largely invested in the field of commerce and transportation and what little capital invested in the manufacturing industry was concentrated to rice-mill with an intenton to supply Japan with food and raw materials.

Table 5. Industrial Product
Porduct Number of Factory Value (Won)
cotton 15 5,642,189
gold 311 24,975,028
rice-mill 427 65,308,756
tobacco 21 25,708,921
alcohol drinks 223 6,847,693

As an inavoidable result of the distortion in manufacturing industry, Korea had to depend for the necessaries and conveniences heavily on the import from Japan. Trade pattern created at the time of the opening-up before Japanese annexation continued to exit. In 1920, the main import was cotton cloths and the main export was rice. The balance of trade was still unfavorable to Korea.

Table 6. Balance of Trade (Unit : Won)
Year Import Export Deficit
1910 19,913,843 39,782,756 19,868,913
1915 49,492,325 59,199,357 9,707,032
1920 191,958,694 238,956,413 46,997,719
Source: Statistical Year-Book, Gov't of Chosen,1920.

The shutting out of national capital from participating in the productive activities in the field of manufacturing industry and the lop-sided investment of Japanese capital to the field of commerce and agriculture distorted the gorwth of Korean economy and resulted in the

Table 7. Exports and Imports Commodities in 1920 (10,000 Won)
Exports Imports
rice 7,701 cotton cloths 3,068
soy bean 1,729 millet 1,809
fish 1,215 coal 1,702
iron 605 other cloths 1,701
cotton 601

inequality of income between and Korean, and among Korean comprador capitalists, laborers and peasants. Though we cannot prove this fact directly by comparing the income distribution among them because of the non-availability of statistics on it, we can, nevertheless, prove it by some roudabout procedure, that is, by comparing the average wage-rate of city and farm laborers of each nation. We can see that averag wage-rate of Korean labors was only two-thirds of that Japanese.

Table 8. Wage-rate by Nations (1920)
Occupation Japanese Korean
carpenter 3.84(Won) 2.60(Won)
brick-layer 4.12 2.65
shoes-maker 3.05 2.10
barber 2.46 1.51
dyer 2.88 1.46
farm laborer 1.72 1.11

Another indirect proof is the change in the post-office savings by each nation. Table 9 shows that despite the spread of knowledge about the post-office as convenient institution for saving, the average amount of savings by Korean decreases while that of Japanese increases. It can by presumed to be another aspect of increasing inequality.

Table 9. Post-Office Saving by Nations (Per Capita)
Year Japanese korean
1910 28.9(Won) 5.4(Won)
1915 29.7 2.2
1920 48.2 2.1
Source: Statistical Year-Book, Gov't of Chosen,1920.
We can add one more proof of the fact. That is the decreasing per capita consumption of rice by Korean. In 1910 the per capita consumption of rice was 0.7 suk (equal to 130ℓ) but it decreased to 0.6 suk (equal to 110ℓ) in 1920, while the Japanese consumed 1.1 suk(equal to 200ℓ). It is shown in Table 10.

Table 10. per Capita Comsumption of Rice
Year Per Capita Consumption Year Per Capita Consumption
1910 0.697 suk 1912 0.639 suk
1914 0.739 1916 0.747
1918 0.669 1920 0.612
Source: Statistical Year-Book, Gov't of Chosen,1920.

Gradually in the course of 10 years of annexation, the Japanese rein over Korea grew tight, their accumulated capital grew strong enough to do away with native middleman and defeat Koraean national capital. The industrialization in their home country was nearly complete. There came a change in the economic role of Korea as a commodity market of Japanese goods. The Japanese captialists could afford to invest their surplus capital in the construction of light-industry in Korea. The surplus of primary products exploited from Korea, together with that of their own was large enough to supply light industry with more raw-materials. Under these circumstances the "Company Act" came to mean a fetter upon them for further industrialization of Japan. It was very wise of them and very natural that they abolished the "company Act" in April, 1920. The abolition of the Act made a new era in the industrialization of Korea. Korea was through the first stage of industrialization and started into the second stage. The first stage covering from 1910 to 1920 can be designated as the period of establishing the desequalizing mechanism.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• 序 論
• 第 1 章 開化過程에의 適應期 1876∼1910
• 第 2 章 不平等機構 確立을 위한 準備期 1910∼1920