조선말·대한제국기 漢城府 財政構造의 변화와 歲出入의 추이

Abstract

The finance in Hanseoung-bu(漢城府) during the Joseon Dynasty was composed of a double unlike the other local governments though Hanseoung-bu governed the local residents. Because Hanseoung-bu managed the state and local administrative affairs. But this financial structure in Hanseoung-bu changed the unificial financial structure as Hanseoung-bu became the local government by the reform of local system after the Kabo Reform of 1894. That is to say what Hanseoung-bu expended the labor costs and operating expense under the local allotment system(各郡經費排定制度). This unification resulted in the stability and continuity of fiscal management though financial autonomy of Hanseoung-bu became weakened. Furthermore, Hanseoung-bu propelled positively the health business, mud hut village, road and bridge construction projects to expand the social infrastructure facilities that Kwangmu Regime(光武政權) had planed. As a result, many roads and bridges for the economic and social lives of Korean people were built in inside and outside of Seoul. However, these efforts of Hanseoung-bu went in vain as Imperial Japan usurped the real sovereignty of Korea after the 1905 Convention. Imperial Japan increased the police, local administration expenditure instead of the positive expenditure for the Korean residents to control the Korean people. This authority also undertook the public works for the Japanese residents though the engineering works expenditure increased. Moreover, Imperial Japan promulgated ‘local taxes regulations’(地方稅規則) in 1906 and ‘local expenditure law’(地方費法) in 1909. With this arrangement they aimed not only at shifting the national burden of the local expenditures into the local authorities and lightening the burden of the treasury, but also at extablishing all the social and economic systems for exploiting the Korean people. They tried to collect the taxes from the Korean people and deprived them of the right of participating in local politics. Therefore, the finance in Hanseong-bu was the results of local fiscal policy that reflected this intent of Imperial Japan.