Korea under Siege, 1876-1945: Capital Formation and Economic Transformation PDF
Preview Korea under Siege, 1876-1945: Capital Formation and Economic Transformation
Korea Under Siege, 1876–1945: Capital Formation and Economic Transformation YOUNG-IOB CHUNG OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Korea under Siege, 1876–1945 This page intentionally left blank KOREA UNDER SIEGE, 1876–1945 Capital Formation and Economic Transformation Young-Iob Chung 1 2006 1 OxfordUniversityPress,Inc.,publishesworksthatfurther OxfordUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellence inresearch,scholarship,andeducation. Oxford NewYork Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto Withofficesin Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright(cid:1)2006byOxfordUniversity Press, Inc. PublishedbyOxfordUniversityPress,Inc. 198MadisonAvenue,NewYork,NewYork10016 www.oup.com OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recording,orotherwise, withoutthepriorpermissionofOxfordUniversityPress. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Chung,Young-Iob. Koreaundersiege,1876–1945:capitalformationandeconomictransformation/ Young-IobChung. p. cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN-13978-0-19-517830-2 ISBN0-19-517830-0 1. Savingandinvestment—Korea—History. 2. Korea—Economicpolicy. 3. Korea—Economic conditions—1864–1910. 4. Korea—Economicconditions—1910–1945. I. Title. HC467.S3C582005 330.9519'09'041—dc22 2004019149 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica onacid-freepaper To my parents, who have lived behind the 38th parallel This page intentionally left blank preface Korea is a small, peninsular country with rugged terrain, few natural resources, and dense population.1 Until modern times, it attracted little interest in the outsideworld,sinceittraditionallylanguishedintheshadowofthemajorpowersof Asia, namely, China and Japan. In many people’s minds, it was no more than an appendage to Sino-Japanese civilizations. In recent decades, however, Korea has become a household word. South Korea has gained a reputation as an underdevel- opedcountrythathassuccessfullyundergonespectaculareconomicgrowthsincethe Korean War, while North Korea remains as only one of two or three surviving communist countriesthat are isolated from the outside world. Theso-calledmiraculouseconomicgrowthinthesouthernhalfofthepeninsula hastransformedSouthKoreafrombasicallyanagrarianeconomytothatofamajor industrial power in a very short time period, and it is now considered one of the dozen or so industrialized countries in the world. During the three decades before the economic crisis of 1997, its real gross national product expanded more than 8 percent a year on average, while export earnings increased, often by more than 30 percent annually. Also, by 1988 South Korea took its place on the world stage when ithostedthe summer Olympics,followed by the World Cup Soccer finalsin 2001. In short, South Koreans have achieved what many people, including most Koreans, once thought impossible,2 and this has attracted much interest in the country’s achievements. Witnessing such accomplishments, an increasing number of scholars and jour- nalists have begun studying, writing, and reporting about South Korea’s phe- nomenal accomplishments in economic development in the last four decades. Notwithstanding such efforts, there has been little careful analysis, especially by Western scholars, of the heritage of the Korean economy in the traditional and transitional periods, from which the southern half of the country launched into viii Preface a phenomenal modern economic success. This was the period when the hermit kingdom of Korea came under siege by the world powers in the last half of the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth centuries, before South Korea had climbed out of its economic doldrums. No study had been undertaken to examine how the traditional and closed Korean economy and a people under siege re- spondedtotheonslaughtofforeignpowersandtheIndustrialRevolutionandwere able to enter the market-oriented era with a bang. The time has come to assess and reassess Korea’s economic heritage of trans- formation and economic development fairly, objectively, and with an open mind. One of the major weaknesses of a few studies, by both Korean and Japanese scholars, evaluatingtheKoreaneconomy intheseventy-yearperiod between1876 and 1945 often has been their one-sidedness, their lack of objectivity. They fre- quentlyhavepreconceivednotionsandaredogmaticanddoctrinaire.Koreanschol- ars frequently have taken traditional and politically correct positions, condemning the aggression and harshness of Japanese rule,3 while their Japanese counterparts havetendedtoblindlyjustifyJapan’shandlingandcolonialruleofKorea,pointing outonly the achievements inthe former colony under Japanese rule. These difficulties hopefully may be overcome by someone who was reared in Korea under Japanese colonial rule but who was trained and has conducted his entire professional career abroad. An impartial examination of the development of Korea during this early modern period, considered from a global perspective and based on empirical data, is long overdue. This perhaps ‘‘politically incorrect’’ and more detached approach toward Korea’s development, which might have been a liability in the past, eandeavors to illuminate the truth through analysis, compari- son, metaphor, and perspectives that reflect on the objective of human welfare in the long run. This book has been in the making for many years. In spite of deliberate effort, my teaching and academic administrative responsibilities did not leave much time forresearchandwriting,makingspeedyprogressdifficult.Therestillremainareas in which more time could have been spent to make this study more definitive, but I am happy that this volume is seeing the light before the follow-up volume on capital formation and economic development of South Korea is in print and avail- able for public scrutiny. Overtheyears,Ihavebenefitedagreatdealfrompioneersinthefield,andIam indebtedtomanypeopleandorganizationsinthecompletionofthisbook.Iwould liketoexpressmyappreciationtoEasternMichiganUniversity,whichassistedme through sabbatical leaves and faculty research fellowships as I carried out this work, the Korea Foundation for their financial support under its Faculty Research Fellowship program, and the Academy of Korean Studies for allowing me the use of its facilities, as I undertook research in Korea under its Research Residency program. I would also like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to my colleagues in the economics department at Eastern Michigan University for their understandingandforallowingmetoconductthisstudywhenagreaterdedication toaccommodatingtheirneedswouldhavebeenwelcomedbythemduringmylong tenure as an administrator.
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