Why Were Koreans So Poor in Late Joseon?

Foreigners who visited Joseon after the opening of its ports generally viewed both the country and its people negatively. Isabella Bird Bishop, a British traveler who journeyed through Joseon and other parts of the Far East in the late 19th century, likewise judged Koreans to be lazy, poor, and highly dependent, much like most other foreigners who visited Joseon.

Unlike others, however, Bishop believed that Joseon still had the potential for development and took a positive view of its future. This was because she found hope in the Koreans who had escaped famine and migrated to Manchuria and Primorsky Krai.

Many of the Koreans who left for Manchuria and Primorsky Krai became prosperous farmers there and transformed into diligent people of admirable character. Had they remained in Joseon, they would likely have continued living in poverty rather than saving money or practicing frugality. What, then, eliminated their chronic indolence and servile mentality and turned them into self-directed and independent individuals?

Bishop found the answer in “the opportunity to make money” and “the disappearance of exploitation by the ruling yangban class.” In other words, a “world without plunder” provided Koreans with the incentives and motivation to work hard.

Bishop was deeply impressed by the sight and way of life of Joseon’s weak and listless people as they migrated to Manchuria and Primorsky Krai and boldly forged their own lives. Through this, she easily cast off any lingering suspicion that Koreans might be the most inferior people in the world.

Watching Koreans prosper, she confessed that “if only the people remaining in Joseon could have their livelihoods protected under an honest government, then though slowly, they too could develop into true ‘citizens.’” In fact, her conviction was proven true fully a century later.

However, Joseon was still a society in which property rights were not guaranteed, and it remained under a feudal system marked by exploitation, expropriation, and oppression by the ruling class. In short, from the perspective of ordinary people, Joseon was by no means a desirable or good state. In the end, Joseon, which failed to harness the strength of its people for national development, met a miserable collapse.

As countless liberals already know well, a society in which property rights are not guaranteed can never develop and prosper. In such a society, it is difficult even for the human instinct to improve one’s condition and the instinct to exchange to find expression.

Moreover, if we fail to learn the lesson of this historical fact and repeat the same mistakes, we may once again fall into crisis, much like the situation in the final years of the Korean Empire. We must therefore guard against misguided populist policies and protect the market and freedom by guaranteeing individual property rights, thereby promoting economic vitality.

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Original title: 구한말 조선인들이 가난했던 이유는 무엇이었을까

Author: Seong-woo Jung

Date: 2019-10-28

Source: https://www.cfe.org/bbs/bbsDetail.php?cid=free_opinion&pn=17&idx=21998