18세기 영조대 양잠정책과 양잠업

Abstract

In the Joseon Dynasty, sericulture was considered as a major industry along with agriculture. In the early Joseon period, the sericulture was growing into one of main subsidiary works by virtue of running sericulture stations and encouraging active sericultural development policy by the nation. In the Late Joseon Dynasty, Yeongjo was the king who gave attention to the sericulture encouragement policy greatly. The king Yeongjo used to hold the Chinjam-ryae ceremony by himself, and drove actively the mulberry trees planting policy through the local governors of each province. The mulberry trees planting policy by the king Yeongjo was called as Mulberry Tree Politics, or Sang-Jung(桑政), and this shows that sericulture played much of a role in the important political issues in the king Yeongjo dynasty. The active drive of the mulberry trees planting policy by the king Yeongjo caused to accelerate the sericulture activity, and resultantly to give the economy a welcome boost. In the Late Joseon Dynasty, a variety of products, such as grains, fabrics and vegetables were merchandised as commercial goods. These products were to become famous in many producing places, and to be recognized nationwide. Such phenomena were no exception in the field of sericulture. In the 18th Century, a gradual increase was shown in the number of counties and prefectures which were attending to work at weaving by hand, and the producing area were expanded also. In the Late Joseon Dynasty, many silk fabrics of high quality representing the famous producing places were shown and distributed actively in rural markets. Considering the facts that the areas attending to work at sericulture were expanded and some famous producing places were established, we can see that sericulture in the Late Joseon Dynasty was gradually prospering rather than declining.