<論説>近代朝鮮における中国農民の野菜栽培に関する研究 : 京畿道を事例として

Abstract

本稿は在朝中国農民の野菜栽培の実態について、朝鮮開港期から一九二〇年代までの時期を対象に京畿道を中心に考察するものである。まず、中国農民の野菜栽培面積、野菜生産額の推計を行った上で、中国農民は大都市及び地方の主要都市の野菜供給において高い比重を占めていたこと、それに対して朝鮮人と在朝日本人が警戒感を抱いていたことを明らかにする。次に、なぜ中国農民が野菜栽培において相当な勢力を形成するに至ったのかを探るために、その生成過程及び中国農民の朝鮮移住の背景について分析を行った後、中国農民生産の野菜が朝鮮及び在朝日本農民が生産する野菜より割安で品質が優れていた原因について、中国農民の野菜生産の特徴、販売ネットワークを中心に分析する。最後に、以上の考察結果が朝鮮近代史及び朝鮮華僑史に示唆することは何かについて検討する。

This article considers the circumstances of vegetable cultivation by Chinese farmers in Korea, and particularly Gyeonggido, from the period of the opening of the nation's ports to the 1920s. Based on estimations of the area devoted to vegetable cultivation by Chinese farmers and the value of vegetable production, the first section of this article clarifies the fact that Chinese farmers were responsible for a large percentage of the supply of vegetables to the metropolitan areas and regional cities and that the Korean people and Japanese residents were alarmed by this fact. In the following, second section, which explores how the considerable power was gained by Chinese vegetable cultivators in Korea, I first analyze the process of growth and the background of Chinese immigrant farmers to Korea. As a result, I have made clear that vegetable cultivation by Chinese farmers began in the Incheon area around 1887, earlier than that of the Japanese, that vegetable cultivation by Chinese farmers spread throughout Korea with the increase in demand for vegetables that accompanied the increase in Japanese and other immigration and the inability of Korean farmers to fill the supply needs, that many of the Chinese farmers in Korea were from the east coast of Shandong and the percentage in 20-40 year-old age group was relatively high, and that the motivation for immigration was the prospect of obtaining large profits cultivating vegetables in Korea rather than poverty in Shandong and thus it was the attraction of Korea, the pull rather than the push, that was the major cause. In the third section I analyze why the vegetables produced by Chinese farmers were less expensive and better quality than those produced by Korean or Japanese farmers. Special characteristics of vegetable cultivation by Chinese farmers were their diligence, generous use of natural fertilizers, concentration on vegetable cultivation, superior techniques in vegetable cultivation, and the use of high-quality seeds produced in China. I also make clear that the vegetables produced by Chinese farmers were supported by a network of Chinese vegetable dealers resulting in smoothly handled transactions that promoted vegetable cultivation by Chinese farmers. The results of the above considerations are suggestive for the study of modern Korean history and the history of overseas Chinese in Korea. The main topics of modern Korean history have been concentrated on the rulers, i.e. Japanese imperialism and Japanese in Korea, and the ruled, i.e. the Korean people, and there has been little or no effort to incorporate the Chinese in Korea into modern Korean history, but this article has proposed that the Chinese people in Korea are fully worthy of becoming a topic in the study of modern Korean history. Moreover, studies of the overseas Chinese in Korean have been weighted toward Chinese merchants, but due to this article it is now clear that the overseas Chinese community in Korea was much more varied.