청･조선 해관일체화와 근대적 종주권의 대두

Abstract

Joseon Maritime Customs, Suzerainty, Customs Integration, Li Hongzhang, Robert HartThis study examines the Qing Empire's suzerainty over Joseon and its evolution into a modern conception during the transformation of East Asia's international order in the late 19th century, focusing on the Joseon Customs Service (1882–1894). The Joseon Customs Service functioned as a dual-purpose institution, simultaneously reinforcing Qing suzerainty and enabling Joseon’s pursuit of economic autonomy, thereby playing a crucial role in mediating interdependence and conflicts within Sino-Joseon relations. By analyzing the interactions between Li Hongzhang, the Beiyang Minister, and Robert Hart, the Inspector General of the Qing Customs, alongside the activities of Paul Georg von Möllendorff and Henry F. Merrill, successive Chief Commissioners of the Joseon Customs, this study empirically explores the contradictions and tensions between traditional and modern forms of suzerainty as manifested in the operations of the Customs Service. Notably, in the mid-1880s, amid Joseon’s increasing aspirations for independence and the emergence of loan-related disputes, the “compromise” between Li and Hart demonstrates how the Qing’s traditional tributary authority was reconstituted within a modern framework of suzerainty, underscoring the transition from a ceremonial tributary order to a modern imperial construct.