韓末 度量衡制의 개혁과 성격

Abstract

The reform of the weights and measures system in the late Korean Empire is summarized as follows. First, because the weights and measure system in the 19th century have had a variety of problems in its production and usage process, its reorganization plan was to be presented. Its first reform proceeded during the Gabo Reformation period. One the one hand, the government abolished Pyongsiseo(平市署) and made the Gongeobgwa(工業課) in Sanggongguk(商工局), Nongsangamun(農商衙門) administer the weights and measures system as a part of the reform of government organization. In line with this, although the government intended to revise the system, the actual reform was not conducted at all. In this process, the western metric system became a center of attention as a possible alternative. Second, the Korean Empire established Pyongsikwon(平式院) as an affiliated organization of Gungnaebu(宮內府) and issued regulations for the weights and measures system in order to prosecute its reform in 1902. Even though the regulations, which stipulated that measurements were to be written using metric system, were supposed to be implemented from July 1 of the following year, the reform could not be implemented due to the limitations in the production of tools for the system. The regulations were legislated based on Japanese weights and measures system law. Third, after the repeal of Pyongsikwon, Pyongsikgwa(平式課) in Nongsanggongbu(農商工局) was in charge of controlling the weights and measures system. Nongsanggongbu promulgated the law of the weights and measures system in the first law in order to reform the system on March 1905 and the government operated its secretariat from November of the same year. It seems that this law was partly in effect for some regions around Seoul and Incheon, considering that the new tools for the weights and measures system were sold in the number of 240,000 in the late October around those areas. In addition to this, the petitions to revise the law were filed on December 1905. Consequently, the government distributed the law of weights and measures system in the 26th law on September 20, 1909. This law started to implement in the partial areas of Seoul and Gyeonggido from November 1, 1909 and then were applied in Gangwondo, Hamgyeongnamdo and Hamgyeongbukdo, which means that the law could be implemented universally throughout the Korean peninsula. To sum up, the history of the weights of measures system underwent substantial changes during the late Korean Empire period: the regulations of 1902 stipulated the measure(尺) based on the Japanese measure(曲尺); the law of 1905 standardized the unit system and volume of tools with those of Japan; the law of 1909 unified the unit system and weight based on the Japanese unites, Mun(匁) and Gwan(貫); in addition, the square measures—Gyeol(結), Bu(負), Sok(束), and Pa(把)—were replaced with Pyeong(坪) and Jeong(町); the law of 1909 accepted the Japanese unit system of the law of Cheokgwan(尺貫法).