17世紀前後 兩班家 婦人의 經濟活動 硏究

Abstract

The seventeenth century is known as a time of switchover in women's history caused by the development and reinforcement of the Neo-Confucian social order. It marked a watershed in women's history, a time that intensified the restrictions on women's rights, for instance, to funeral rite, rituals, and inheritance. This Study examines economic activities by the Yangban ladies, particularly focusing on household economy, as part of its attempt to bring into light the actual status of women of the seventeenth century from an economic historical point of view. Through all ages, household economy has been closely linked to the social economy; the household economy is significant in that it is a part of social activities of the Yangban ladies in the seventeenth century. With an aim of discovering the true state of the Yangban ladies, economic activities around the seventeenth century this Study concentrates on economic activities in agriculture, the then supporting industry, and in commerce, which showed a remarkable growth in the latter part of the Joseon era. Chapter Two explores social circumstances which made it possible for Yangban ladies to lead active economic activities in Joseon era, particularly noting a trend of the recognition of property rights of the Yangban ladies and social networks then formed in the Yangban class. Under the equal inheritance system among sons and daughters in the earlier Joseon era, a woman was allowed to have her own property and this pre-matrimonial property was managed separate from her husband's property. In addition, a married couple shared a view of joint ownership of property. A controversy found in Gyeonggukdaejeon is an example of such a trend: the government made an unprecedented case in which a widow in economic distress was permitted to sell her deceased husband's servant upon a condition that she would not remarry. With the intention of stabilizing the patriarchal system, the governing class permitted the Yangban women's economic rights and their rights to use property. Furthermore, occasional exchanges of goods such as 'Chingnyeom'(稱念) and 'Sujeung'(受贈)-reciprocal exchanges of goods- are found in records or personal journals written in the Joseon era. Such exchanges were not only barter but also a proof that human networks had been formed in the Yangban class for the purposes of building up intimate relationships and mutual help to fight financial difficulties. In some instances, a wife participated in such exchanges as well as a patriarch himself did. These networks became an avenue to solving problems arising out of social relationships in regards to the supervision of servants, lawsuits, real estate sale and purchase, and so forth. In the premodern society the household economy has a characteristic of the unity of production and consumption, which correlates with activities in agriculture as the supporting industry of those times. Accordingly, Chapter Three deals with Yangban ladies's economic activities in agriculture by examining the actual status of farmingl management, land sale and purchase, and the management of serfs. These women supervised serfs and controlled the farming business of the household by making a decision on their own on farming schedules and workforce assignment. They also participated in domestic affairs through the management of agricultural products by assessing a harvest and deciding the volume of crops in stock and the amount of purchase. Some Yangban women even utilized their knowledge of the overall farming trend and adopted advanced agricultural management methods, such as commodity crops or the double cropping system, in order to maximize profits. The Yangban ladies at that time faced little restrictions on the sales and purchase of land, which took up a significant portion of the household assets. In some case, they sold out land to resolve their economic difficulties; in other cases, they also bought land to enlarge the family property, or even accumulated neighboring tracts of land in order to achieve a more profitable agricultural management system. Some Yangban lady even initiated land reclamation to enlarge the real property. In additional to land transactions, supervising serfs was also a crucial part of agriculture at that time from the standpoint of a supply of manpower. Towards that end, the Yangban ladies attempted to maintain a good relationship with serfs to elicit their voluntary cooperation, or even took a suppressive control over them. In the event of some impediments such as a geographical remoteness from a serf's residence, or a hardship in control, the use of human networks in the Yangban class came up as an effective tool to manage serfs. Chapter Four examines commercial activities by the Yangban ladies of the seventeenth century through the production of hand-made fabrics and dyed goods, the economic values thereof, and commodities trade. The use of textilesproduced by Yangban ladies was initially for domestic consumption, such as clothes materials, a gift, tax payment, and the like. With the development of commerce in the latter part of the Joseon era, however, textiles were in full circulation as a currency or a commodity. This phenomenon is in a correlation with household economic activities in the seventeenth century. In fact,『默齎日記』(Mukje's Journal) evidences that yarns and textiles produced by Yangban ladies constituted a significant part of the household economy of the Yangban class at that time. A profit earned out of the production of yarns and textiles was regarded as an element of increasing a family estate. Moreover, along with the development of markets since the sixteenth century, Yangban ladies entered into commercial transactions for the purpose of making a fortune, rather than for self-consumption or foodstuffs procurement. Commercial activities by these ladies can be classified into two types of commercial transactions: first, household-wealth-increasing transactions and forestalling transactions. For an example of the former type of transaction, I reviewed 『丙子日記』(A Wife's Journal). The author of this journal, Ms. Cho of the Nampyeong Cho clan, made a number of the self-subsistence type of transactions, but, as the case may be, she engaged in large-scale commercial transactions with counterparts in a remote place. Through these transactions Ms. Cho was able to make a substantial fortune. Yet, her transactions largely were simply for the household management, and little is found in them to feature a reinvestment of profits, which is a characteristic of full-scale commercial activities. In some cases, however, Yangban ladies sought a profit-making by investing a tremendous amount of capitals to forestall a commodity. These ladies with remarkable fund management skills invested an enormous sum of money upon usury and there was a high possibility that these monies flew into the commercial world. In other instances, Yangban ladies owned rights of a tribute merchant (who was a type of merchants with official licenses), on which they engaged in the de facto management to make substantial profits.