Korea (Hamilton)/Chapter 2

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Korea is an extremely mountainous country. Islands, harbours, and mountains are its most pronounced natural features, and nearly the whole of the coast consists of the slopes of the various mountain ranges which come down to the sea. There are many patches upon the west, where the approaches are less precipitous and rugged than upon the east. The coast seems to follow the contour of the mountains. It presents, particularly from the east, that lofty and inaccessible barrier of forest-clad country, which has won the admiration of all navigators and struck terror into the hearts of those who have met with disaster upon its barren and rocky shores. From Paik-tu-san to Wi-ju there is one mighty and natural panorama of mountains with snow-clad, cloud-wrapped summits, and beautiful valleys with rich crops and quaintly ​placed, low-thatched hovels, through which rivers course like angry silver. Everywhere in the north the mountains predominate; monstrous in shape and size. They are rich in minerals; they have become sepulchres for the dead and mines for the living—for in their keeping lies the wealth of the ages, coal and iron and gold; upon their summits, resting beneath the sky or within some nook hewn from their rugged slopes, are the graves of the dead. Mining and agriculture are almost the sole natural resources of the kingdom. There are great possibilities, however, in the awakening energies and instincts of the people, which may lead them to create markets of their own by growing more than suffices for their immediate requirements. As yet, notwithstanding the improvements which have been inaugurated, and the industrial schemes, which the government has introduced, the reform movement lacks cohesion. Indeed the nation is without ambition. But the prospect is hopeful. Already something has been accomplished in the right direction.

At present, however, Korea is in a state of transition. Everything is undefined and indetermined; the past is in ruins, the present and the future are in the rough. Reforms are scarce a decade old, and, while many abuses have been redressed, the reform movement suffers for lack of support, comprehension, and toleration. The aspirations of the few are extending but slowly to the nation. Progress is gradual and the interval is tedious. The commercial phase of the movement is full of vitality, and the factories which have been established show the evolution of enterprise from aspiration. Foreigners are introducing education, while the present commercial activities are attributable to their suggestion and assistance. The small response, which these ​efforts elicit, make the labour of keeping the nation in the right direction very difficult. The people can scarcely relapse into the conservatism of ancient days, but they may collapse altogether, owing to the unfortunate circumstances which are now making Korea an object of ironical and interested observation among the Western Powers. She may be absorbed, annexed, or divided; in endeavouring to remain independent, she may wreck herself in the general anarchy that may overtake her. She has given much promise. She has constituted a Customs service, joined in the Postal Union and opened her ports. She has admitted railways and telegraphs, and shown kindness, consideration and hospitality to every condition of foreigner within her gates. Her confidence has been that of a child and her faults are those of the nursery. She is so old and yet so infinitely young ; and, by a curious fatality, she is now face to face with a situation which again and again has occurred in her past history.

The introduction of Western inventions to Korea has gradually eliminated from contemporary Korean life many customs which, associated with the people and their traditions from time immemorial, imparted much of the repose and picturesqueness which have so far distinguished the little kingdom. Korea, in the twentieth century, bears ample evidence of the forward movement which is stimulating its people. Once the least progressive of the countries of the Far East, she now affords an exception almost as noticeable as that shown by the prompt assimilation of Western ideas and methods by Japan. Chemulpo, however, the centre in which an important foreign settlement and open port have sprung up, does not suggest in itself the completeness of the transformation which in a few years has ​taken place in the capital. It is twenty years since Chemulpo was opened to foreign trade, and to-day it boasts a magnificent bund, wide streets, imposing shops, and a train service which connects it with the capital. Its sky is threaded with a maze of telephone and telegraph wire, there are several hotels conducted upon Western principles, and there is, also, an international club.

At the threshold of the new century, the port presents an interesting study. With the adjoining Ha-do, a hamlet of military pretensions, it has grown in the twenty years of its existence from a cluster of fishermen's huts behind a hill along the river at Man-sak-dong into a prosperous cosmopolitan centre of twenty thousand people. Its growth, since the first treaty was negotiated with the West upon May 22, 1882, by the American Admiral Shufeldt, has been extraordinary. Its earlier years gave no promise of its rapid and significant advance. Trade has flourished, and a boom in the trade of the port has sent up the value of local properties. There is now danger of a decline in this state of affluence which may, in view of the chaos and uncertainty of the future of the kingdom, retard the settlement and disastrously affect its present prosperity. From small and uncertain beginnings four well-built, well-lighted settlements have sprung up, expanding into a general foreign, a Japanese, a Chinese, and a Korean quarter. The Japanese section is the best located and the most promising. The interests of this particular nation are also the most prominent in the export and import trade of the port, a position which is emphasised

still further by the important nature of its vested interests among which the railroad between Seoul, the capital, and Chemulpo, with the trunk extension to Fusan, is paramount. The Japanese population increased by nearly five hundred ​

​during 1901. It then numbered some four thousand six hundred, of whom a few hundred were soldiers constituting a temporary garrison for the settlement. However, since the modification by the Japanese Government of the emigration laws with reference to China and Korea, under which, in the first weeks of 1902, the necessity for travelling passports was abolished in the case of these two countries, there has been a great increase in the number of Japanese residents at the treaty ports. The settlement at Chemulpo now embraces one thousand two hundred and eighty-two

houses, and possesses a population of five thousand nine hundred and seventy-three adults. The census of the Chinese settlement fluctuates with the season; considerable numbers of farmers cross from Shan-tung to Korea during the summer, returning to their native land in winter. In the period of exodus from China, the Chinese population exceeds twelve hundred. The complete strength of the general foreign settlement is eighty-six, of which some twenty-nine are British. The one British firm in Korea is established in Chemulpo.

There are many nationalities in Chemulpo, and the small community, excluding the Japanese and Chinese, is made up as follows: British, twenty-nine and one firm, the remaining twenty-eight being attached to the Vice-Consulate, the Customs, and a missionary society; American, eight and two firms; French, six and one firm; German sixteen and one firm; Italian, seven and one firm; Russian, four and two firms; Greek, two and one firm; Portuguese seven, Hungarian five, and Dutch two, the last three possessing no firms in the port.

If British interests are not materially represented in Chemulpo, other nalionalities are less backward. By means ​of the Trans-Siberian Railway, the journey from London to Chemulpo can now be accomplished within twenty-one days. When the Seoul-Fusan Railway is finished, communication between the East and the West will be still further facilitated. It is intended that less than two days shall suffice for the connection between Chemulpo and Tokio. Meanwhile the service of the Chinese Eastern Railway Company's steamers between Port Arthur, Dalny and Chemulpo has been accelerated. In addition, also, imposing new offices have been erected at the port. It is much to be regretted that there is no regular service of British steamers to the ports of Korea. In singular contrast to the apathy of British steamship companies is the action of the Hamburg-America Company, which has now arranged for the periodic visits of its steamers to Chemulpo. From a commercial stand-point the port has become an important distributing centre. Foreign trade with the capital and its environs passes through it, and the administrative officers of the more important gold-mining concessions, of which there are now four, American, Japanese, French, and British, have settled there. A cigarette factory, supported by the Government, is now in operation in the port. During 1901 ninety-three men-of-war entered Chemulpo, of which thirty-five were Japanese, twenty-one English, fifteen Russian, eleven French, five Austrian, four German, one Italian, and one American. Of steamers and sailing-vessels there were 1036, of which 567 were Japanese with 304 steamers, 369 Korean junks and steamers, twenty-one Russian steamers, eight American sailing-ships and one American steamer, four English steamers, three German steamers, sixty-two Chinese junks, and one Norwegian steamer—forty-seven more men-of-war and seventy more merchant vessels than in 1900. ​The shipping which entered and cleared at the port during 1900 was 370,416 tons, realising a small increase upon previous years ; of these, 500 steamers with 287,082 tonnage were Japanese, 261 steamers with 45,516 tons were Korean, forty-one steamers of 27,999 tons Russian, two steamers of 4416 tons British, four steamers of 2918 tons German. The complete return of all shipping entered at the open ports of Korea during the year 1902 — the latest under review — is added as a separate table at the end of this book.

In Chemulpo, as in all the ports of the kingdom which are open to foreign trade, there is a branch of the Imperial Korean Maritime Customs, an offshoot of the excellent service which exists in China under the administration of Sir Robert Hart. The working of the Korean Customs, for which Mr. McLeavy Brown is primarily responsible, is singularly successful, and redounds greatly to the credit of the comptrollng power. In an epoch characterised by the extraordinary ineptitude, indifference, and weakness of our public men, it is much to be deplored that the services of this distinguished Englishman are not more directly dedicated to the needs of his country. The careers of these two admirable officials fill me with mingled regret for the remoteness of their sphere of action, and high appreciation of their unremitting zeal — feelings few public servants may more fitly inspire than these two isolated, hardworking chiefs of a sister service, whose work, carried on in an atmosphere of treachery and deceit, too often meets with the blackest ingratitude.

The advance which the trade of Korea has made is proof sufficient of its innate possibilities under honest administration. If the revenues of the Customs are not diverted in the meantime to less important objects, there is every hope ​to believe that facilities will be given to its development. The Emperor has lately sanctioned the grant of one million yen from the Customs revenue for the provision of aids to navigation. Thirty-one lighthouses are to be built; the two earliest being placed upon Roze and Round Islands off the entrance to the Han river, upon which Chemulpo lies. When this work is accomplished, the increase of shipping in the harbour is sure to create some sympathetic development in the resources of the country.

The net value for 1901 of the combined export and import direct foreign trade throughout the kingdom, exclusive of gold export, was more than twenty-three million (23,158,419) yen, the value of the gold export being a little in excess of four million (4,993,351) yen. The exchange rate of the Japanese yen is roughly two shillings and a half-penny, which gives the combined values of the total foreign trade as 2,873,827 pounds sterling. The trade of Chemulpo during this time was 11,131,060 yen, ​being an increase of nearly one million yen upon the trade returns of the last three years. The exports were gold, rice, beans, timber and hides; the imports comprised American and Japanese goods for the most part, and a small and decreasing trade with England. The total foreign imports reached a value of 5,573,398 yen, and the total exports were 4,311,401 yen. The returns for the year following, 1902, were, in brief: exports, £269,747; imports, £814,470. Foreign interests in the total trade passing through Chemulpo, in comparison with those since 1891, show a great and steady advance. The total revenue for 1891 was a little less than 300,000 yen, and in the year 1900 this sum had advanced to more than 550,000 yen, the increase in the general prosperity during these years correspondingly affecting the total revenue of the kingdom.

Compared with 1901 there was a falling-off in the total trade of the country for the year 1902. In 1902 the entire foreign trade amounted to £2,745,346 sterling, which was composed as follows:

Imports.		Exports.		Exports of Gold.
£		£		£
1,382,351	...	846,034	...	516,961

The balance of trade was against Korea, therefore, to the extent of only £16,356 sterling, whereas the average excess of imports over exports for the past five years was £107,309. Only in 1900 were the exports greater than the imports. The average of trade for the past five years was £2,370,075 sterling, a return which in reality credits the year 1902 with £378,271 more than the average. As a matter of fact, the month of December 1902 showed a larger volume of trade and more duty collected at Chemulpo than ever before. Specifically, in comparison with the ​previous year, the imports of 1902 were less in the amount of ₤117,914, while exports had declined ₤7567. Large stocks were carried over from 1901, hence some depreciation in the volume of the trade was inevitable. However, for the better comprehension of the economic relations of Korea with the trade of foreign countries, I have collected the returns of the years, with which I have dealt here, in one simple table, to which is added a quinquennial average, covering a period which begins with the year 1898.