대한제국의 석탄자원 인식과 탄광경영

Abstract

This study is designed to examine the historical meaning of a coal resource in the period of Daehan empire.(大韓帝國) Since modern era a coal has become a fuel of transportation such as a train and a ship. The value of a coal has been acknowledged as a power supplier of various kinds of machines. Thus Daehan empire elucidated self development of coal mines and used a coal as an energy resource of modernization while employing French engineers to develop a Pyungyang coal mine(平壤炭鑛) and procuring modern machineries. Nevertheless the exploitation of the Pyungyang coal mine was forced to stop by Japanese imperialism after the Russo-Japanese war in 1905 and was assigned as a fuel warehouse for Japanese navy in 1910. The use of the Pyungyang coal which was admired as a 'black diamond' and boasted of a high quality was restricted as a fuel for only Japanese navy. There was a clear distinction between the meaning of the coal mine development which was carried out side by side with the Daehan empire's modernization movement and the meaning of the coal resource under the occupation of Japanese imperialism. The Korean coal resource under Japanese imperialism was not a resource to propel Korean modernization but a munitions fuel for militaristic Japan. Various institutions were established and all sorts of laws were enacted to achieve the goal.