해방 이후 인문지리적 변화와 상업도시 강경의 대응－어물객주에서 젓갈판매상으로

Abstract

The salted seafood market in Ganggyeong-eup, Nonsan-si, Chungcheongnam-do boasts of its over two hundred years’ tradition. However, It was only after 1997 that the number of salted seafood sellers increased as at present. The foundation of that was set in the 1970s by merchants transformed from Gaekju(客主) in the fish trade business. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate that the current situation of Ganggyeong, the largest salted seafood market in Korea located in, resulted from responses of Gaekju in the fish trade business to the change of the human and geographical environment and commercial conditions since the 1970s. Taking its advantage of an inland port of Geumgang(Geum River), Ganggyeong had already flourished as an important distribution hub of rice and seafood in the late Joseon Dynasty. And until the 1960s, Ganggyeong had been developed as a commercial city relying on the convenience of water transportation. Gaekju was in the center of this prosperity, and among kinds of Gaekju, some in the fish trade business were the most active until late. However Gaekju, the seafood brokers faced a crisis in the 1970s. It was because the amount of ships entering into Ganggyeong from Geumgang had been decreased and there were no ships entered the port from 1978. This situation was the result of those changes; the central fishing grounds of the West Sea were moving since the size of fishing boats became lager, and the center of the distribution structure of seafood had been shifted to Suhyup (National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives). Since the flow of ships was cut off, Gaekju in fish trade business could not continue their previous method of business. To cope with the situation, Gaekju in fish trade business changed their business to the salted seafood sales industry. Salted seafood was an item only handled in winter season, however, as number of fishing boats decreased and the proportion of salted fish increased, they had to transform to a wholesaler specializing in salted seafood. Relationships and information they had acquired from the previous business, and their own essential assets, such as manufacturing technologies, facilities, storage, and so on, played important roles to change their jobs to salted seafood business. Therefore, the choice of Gaekju in fish trade business to become salted seafood merchants, was not only based on the correlation between their previous and later business industries, but also a reasonable choice using their own assets.