일제시기 입전(立廛)상인 백씨 집안의 경제활동— 대창무역주식회사의 설립과 경영과정을 중심으로

Abstract

The present study pays attention to the founding and management of the central company of the Baek Family up to the 1920s, which is the Daechang Trading Corporation, in order to analyze the process of transformation from traditional merchant to modern merchant and then to industrial capital. The reason that the Baek family succeeded in transitioning to modern merchant capital while avoiding a collapse at the level of traditional merchant was none other than the background of Han Sang-ryong and Hanseong Bank, with Ito Hirobumi as the broker. Daechang Trading, founded in 1916, was its result, and became the largest beneficiary of the wartime economic boom of the First World War. However, the postwar recession starting in 1920 was the beginning of Daechang Trading’s long-term financial difficulties. In just the year of 1920, it suffered tremendous losses of over 120 thousand yen, and by the end of the 1920s, it went bankrupt. Around 1930, the Baek family planned a revival of Daechang Trading, but they failed time and again. The intentions of Hanseong Bank, the main bank and long-term creditor of Daechang Trading, was a factor in this failure. Hanseong Bank was skeptical to the revival of Daechang Trading, and instead hoped that it devoted itself to the role of product store for subsidiary Daechang Textile Corporation. Founded in 1932 through the funding of Hanseong Bank, Daechangsa Inc. is a result that thoroughly reflects the intentions of Hanseong Bank. With the end of the Daechang Trading era, the Baek family transitioned into industrial capitalists with Daechang Textile and Taechang Textile Corporations as their central companies. This process was not a voluntary choice by the Baek family as Hanseong Bank, armed with funding, exerted powerful influence.