A History of the Market Economy Through Its Evolution - Week 2

The discussion was so lively that it lasted exactly 2 hours and 15 minutes. Sakdongi, Bench Press, Mori, Nanuri, and Yoon participated. We divided up the six subsections of Part 2 and each took responsibility for presenting one. I took sections 1–3 and 5, Nuri took section 4, and Mori took section 6. It turned into a kind of reading enclosure movement, with each person staking out their own section to present. As a result, we were able to prepare more thoroughly and present with a stronger sense of responsibility. Various topics came up, including the silver standard and the inside story of the Anglo-Dutch Wars.

1. Nuri: Reading the part about how Spain entered a period of decline after its 16th-century heyday because of monetary expansion caused by a massive inflow of silver really made me think once again that balance is important.

Yoon: Spain itself was the one bringing in all that silver, so if they knew that a massive inflow of silver would expand the money supply and cause inflation, shouldn’t they have just stopped bringing it in? I had a hard time understanding that.

Mori: At the time, it was a silver standard. Japan had also developed technology for producing silver effectively, which had a major impact. As silver became more common through Spain’s and Europe’s colonial expansion, both silver and gold were used as standards, and later it shifted to the gold standard.

2. Yoon: Among the places said to have been explored by Portugal, the word cape comes up. It turns out the got in gotgam also comes from that same word got (串). Gotgam is dried persimmon made by skewering persimmons and drying them.

3. Yoon: The Netherlands really was a country that once wielded enormous power. Although after losing the Anglo-Dutch Wars, it handed over New Netherland, which was then renamed New York.

Mori: It’s not as if the Netherlands lost all the Anglo-Dutch Wars. In the First Anglo-Dutch War, they won several battles. Also, Britain had an advantage in using its resources more effectively than the Netherlands.

4. Yoon: According to some additional research I did, the French, Dutch, and British East India Companies were established in order to counter Portugal and Spain.

Mori: They weren’t established simply as rivals to oppose them. Since sea routes were so dangerous, the world was divided into eastern and western routes with India as the reference point, mainly for safety. As the book also mentions, this later developed into marine insurance, the earliest form of insurance.

5. Mori: The East’s centralized characteristics—in other words, Korea’s centralized characteristics in contrast to the West—have both strengths and weaknesses, so if we can handle this well, we may be able to achieve dramatic growth. One advantage is that Koreans generally do not see extreme violence as an option. There’s almost an unwritten rule that people are averse to violence.

Yoon: That’s right. Professor Seokchoon Ryu also describes Koreans’ historical characteristics in exactly those terms. As this book also shows, unlike Europe with its manorial system, perhaps one reason local self-government has been difficult in Korea is that centralization has been deeply rooted for such a long time, almost like a kind of DNA. What I found interesting was that even though currency was issued during Goryeo, rice was still used as money. That was because it was still an agricultural society. In the early Joseon period, rural markets were even banned. The logic was basically: why should farmers be out happily shopping at the market? Instead of enjoying themselves, they should be working.

Mori: The reason Korean currencies such as ●● tongbo did not circulate well is clear: the government simply minted coins and gave them names without establishing any clear monetary standard. A given currency should have been recognized according to a fixed weight—so many grams, and a set value per gram—but that wasn’t the case. In the late Joseon period, when King Jeongjo abolished Geumnanjeon-gwon, the market briefly became more active.

Nuri: Earlier, when we were talking about the Korean national character and saying that Koreans dislike violence, if you put it negatively, it sounds like a passive willingness to submit to absolute power. So it comes across somewhat negatively. We really need to find a positive way to interpret this.

Mori: That’s our task. It’s also the task of young people. (This last sentence was added by the writer.)

Sakdongi: Park Chung-hee also tried and succeeded with something like geumnanjeon-gwon. Here, geumnanjeon-gwon is being used metaphorically. He implemented various policy measures to stimulate domestic demand.

6. Sakdongi: When the four classes—scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants—came up, I started thinking that maybe it reflected the order in which they were easiest to tax. In the past, officials would actually go into thriving restaurants and investigate in person, checking how many customers came in and how much revenue they made. It was really difficult. So because it was hard to collect taxes from merchants, they subtly put them down and treated them with contempt. Another interesting point is that taxes were even harder to assess in fishing. If an official boarded a boat to conduct a tax inspection, it was all too easy to get murdered, so the officials themselves were afraid.

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Original title: 흐름으로 읽는 시장경제의 역사 -2주차-

Author: Ja-yu-ju-ui Ip-mun Dok-seo-to-ron-mo-im

Date: 2023-04-13

Source: https://www.cfe.org/bbs/bbsDetail.php?cid=reading01&pn=3&idx=25531