김포군 3·1운동 발발의 경제적 기초

Abstract

In the article I tried to closely examine the socioeconomic reason why the Korean national movement in Kimpo in 1910s was started specially with the propertied classes as the central figures centering in Tongjin area through the composition of productive capacity by region and class, ownership structure, the issues of the heavy tax on land, etc. Its analysis is as follows; Firstly, Tongjin county before Yangcheon, Kimpo and Tongjin county were integrated into Kimpo county in 1914 was a region with rich soil relatively, however, both Yangcheon and old Kimpo were underdeveloped and their productivity of labor lagged behind the other counties in Kyeonggi province. Also it was not distinguished for Japanese people to advance into old Kimpo till the early 1910s where lots of independent farmers resided, however, as Japanese people’s entry into this region increased after 1917, the background to boost anti-landowner and anti-plantation movement among the farmers who had suffered a heavy blow due to the dissolution of the peasant class was created. Secondly, it is estimated that the Korean landowners traditionally had strong vested rights in Tongjin and Yangcheon region. And as the colonial Japanese government made a close investigation of the hidden holdings of the landowners and men of substance through Investigation Project on Land, it seems, the size of arable land increased rapidly after 1913. Also it is captured that the colonial Japanese government imposed a heavy tax on the whole land of Kimpo region in 1910s. According to the Japanese plundering structure through taxation at that time, the low tax rates or tax reduction were applied to the residents in big cities including Seoul to win the hearts of the people, however, the higher tax was levied on the Korean landowners in Korea’s rice belt like Tongjin in Kimpo region, that is, a tax burden on the residents in the big cities was passed on to the Korean landowners. It seems that such a tendency seriously threatened the Korean landowners. Under such a condition “Kimpo 3·23 Hurrah Movement (Kimpo 3·1 Movement)” took place in Tongjin which had high productive capacity and where the landowners had great influence. In short, the national movement in Kimpo in 1910s was a struggle for productive capacity between the Korean propertied classes who held existing productive capacity and the colonial Japanese government which wanted to realize the state agricultural management and increase plundering through taxation. Moreover, as infiltration of Japanese large-scale agricultural capital(farm management) into the region created the sense of crisis among the Korean propertied classes, an incentive to give rise to 3·23 Kimpo Orari Hurrah Movement which was led by the Korean propertied classes was set in motion. In this sense, it is still valid to understand that Kimpo 3·1 Movement was a bourgeois democratic movement.