1883년~1905년 인천항 일본상인의 영업활동

Abstract

Incheon Port was the largest port for trade during Josen dynasty and served as a link between overseas market and domestic market. Japanese merchants, who resided in the foreign settlement, comprised the foreign settlement community and established business relationship with people from outside the foreign settlement through the trade of products. Thus, their sales activities provide an insight into the economic conditions of Japanese residing in the foreign settlement and the market environment of the foreign settlement, and at the same time, provide an window into the relationship of international market and the foreign settlement. This paper analyzed the characteristics of sales among the upper-class capitalists in the foreign settlement by considering the activities of the Japanese who carried on the trade and transaction of products, particularly the upper-class major capitalists who expanded their contact with the people from outside the foreign settlement in Incheon port, the port of trade. The surge in the population of Japanese in the foreign settlement led to excessive competition, and the competition to gain profits from trade resulted in a situation where the investment could not be made without taking the losses. Under this circumstances, Japanese merchants formed the partnership association under the pretext of controlling the purchase of grains and trade of imported products, ultimately securing a monopolistic position in the market. In some cases, they set up the branches in major trade ports in Korea to expand the sales network into the domestic market directly. However, most traders and brokers formed the trade network with the regions in Japan, such as Osaka, and engaged themselves in large-scale trade with Korean merchants in domestic market, and resultantly, they became the largest capitalists in the foreign settlements. Major Japanese capitalists were involved in the credit transaction, such as deferred payment transaction, deposited promissory note transaction, etc., with the Korean merchants in Seoul, and were known to have high credit ratings among the Korean merchants. They secured monopolistic position in the trade of products within the Japanese community of the foreign settlement, while forming a symbiotic relationship with the Korean merchants through the credit transaction to expand the sales channel beyond the foreign settlement into Josen market.