조선후기 조선･일본의 동남아시아 산물 교역

Abstract

This study reviews the trade and consumption of commodities in late Joseon that were imported from Southeast Asia via Japan based on a trade network encompassing Southeast Asia, Japan, Joseon, and China. The items Joseon commonly imported from Southeast Asia were water buffalo horn, pepper, sappanwood, and alum. Water buffalo horn was used to make handicraft and bows, while pepper was used for cooking or medicinal purposes. Sappanwood was used to extract dye and alum was a mordant. These items were imported via the Ryuku Kingdom and Japan during the first half of the Joseon Dynasty, but during the second half, they were only imported through the Tsushima Domain. The Tsushima Domain would acquire such items from Chinese or Dutch ships that visited Nagasaki, then bring them over to the Japanese guest house in Joseon called waegwan. The volume of Southeast Asian commodities traded between late Joseon and Japan peaked at the end of the seventeenth century. However, because the commodities weren’t produced in Japan, the amount the Tsushima Domain was able to bring to the waegwan in Joseon fluctuated heavily depending on how prosperous trade was at Nagasaki. This caused the trade of particular items to be nonexistent during certain years. In 1776, the Edo bakufu acknowledged the Tsushima Domain’s claim that its private trade with Joseon had become discontinued and decided to support the domain by granting 12,000 ryō in gold coins each year. The Bakufu also prohibited the domain from obtaining commodities at Nagasaki for private trade with Joseon and obligated the domain to report the volume of commodities necessary for public trade with the Joseon government. The Bakufu thereafter approved of the budget the Tsushima Domain submitted, although it was a false estimate that far exceeded the actual cost required to secure the amount of the aforementioned four Southeast Asian items necessary for public trade with the Joseon government. Nonetheless, beyond the eighteenth century, a significant drop occurred in the incoming volume of these four items at Nagasaki due to the Bakufu policy to downscale trade at the port as well as the Dutch East India Company’s dissolution in 1799. Until the first half of the nineteenth century, the Tsushima Domain was able to deliver the amount of pepper, sappanwood, and alum it promised to procure for Joseon. However, it failed to do so with water buffalo horn because of a sharp drop in its supply through Nagasaki so that in 1832, the domain paid Joseon 3,968 pounds (3,000 geun) of copper instead.