How Life in Pre-Capitalist Korea was Qualitatively Different from Capitalist Korea

How Life in Pre-Capitalist Korea was Qualitatively Different from that of Capitalist Korea
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How Life in Pre-Capitalist Korea was Qualitatively Different from that of Capitalist Korea
Western scholars have long assumed that Korean culture was incapable of indigenous economic growth. This notion ended with the economic miracles in the 1960s and 1980s in Korea and other East Asian countries (Kim, 1980). During this period, Korea quickly developed into one of the largest industrialized nations with a rapid annual growth rate of its gross domestic product (Palais, 1995). According to Sewell Jr (2008), this historic growth was the discerning stress of Confucian virtues, causing employees to be subordinate to their superiors and meticulous within their work. Korea’s economic boom eventually inflicted jealously on other developing countries. This paper examines how life in pre-capitalist Korea was qualitatively different from that of capitalist Korea. According to researchers, the transition was initiated by the Japanese opening and the country’s colonization at the turn of nineteenth century into twentieth century. To date, Korea lives under capitalism.
Life in Pre-Capitalist Korea
Until early twenty first century, Korea operated under a tribute system imposed by the Choson dynasty in late fourteenth century (Larsen, 2013). The tribute consisted of a permanent, steady, and hierarchic system, with China as the hegemon, deeming cultural achievement as important as military and economic aptitude (Kang, 2010). Hegemony refers to dominance of one country over another, where a dominant state has a legitimate authority to shape the global politics rules based on its interests (Kang, 2010). Developed on both substantial and authentic power, the tribute system offered a normative social order that involved Chinese commitment not to exploit nations that assimilated its authority. Korea, for instance, did not face any Chinese military threat after accepting China’s authority (Kang, 2010). Although explicit, the system promoted inequality.
Korea also used the tribute system to collect taxes in the form of various products and mobilize workforce to obtain the required services and handicrafts. Towards the end of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth century, Japanese and Chinese armies that invaded Korea devastated the command system, forcing a change to a market economy (Larsen, 2013). The dented administration began to obtain taxes in merchandises such as textile and rice, encouraging them to lift trade restrictions. The wars also affected slavery, creating room for labor markets.
During this period, merchants found it hard to improve markets. Grain markets in Korea seemed less cohesive than those in Japan and China (Larsen, 2013). However, population and property recuperated swiftly from the severe effects of the wars. The beginning of eighteenth century saw a halt in population growth followed by a long period of demographic sluggishness due to increased mortality (Kang, 2010). Living standards deteriorated during the nineteenth century before capitalism in Korea. This was demonstrated by a reduction in wages and rents and an increase i...