EDUCATION AND FOREIGN TRADE
Korean education has hitherto failed to produce patriots, thinkers, or
honest men. It has been conducted thus. In an ordinary Korean school
the pupils, seated on the floor with their Chinese books in front of
them, the upper parts of their bodies swaying violently from side to
side or backwards and forwards, from daylight till sunset, vociferate
at the highest and loudest pitch of their voices their assigned lessons
from the Chinese classics, committing them to memory or reciting them
aloud, writing the Chinese characters, filling their receptive memories
with fragments of the learning of the Chinese sages and passages of
mythical history, the begoggled teacher, erudite and supercilious, rod
in hand and with a book before him, now and then throwing in a word of
correction in stentorian tones which rise above the din.
This educational mill grinding for ten or more years enabled the
average youth to aspire to the literary degrees which were conferred
at the _Kwa-ga_ or Royal Examinations held in Seoul up to 1894, and
which were regarded as the stepping-stones to official position, the
great object of Korean ambition. There is nothing in this education
to develop the thinking powers or to enable the student to understand
the world he lives in. The effort to acquire a difficult language,
the knowledge of which gives him a mastery of his own, is in itself a
desirable mental discipline, and the ethical teachings of Confucius and
Mencius, however defective, contain much that is valuable and true, but
beyond this little that is favorable can be said.
Narrowness, grooviness, conceit, superciliousness, a false pride which
despises manual labor, a selfish individualism, destructive of generous
public spirit and social trustfulness, a slavery in act and thought to
customs and traditions 2,000 years old, a narrow intellectual view, a
shallow moral sense, and an estimate of women essentially degrading,
appear to be the products of the Korean educational system.
With the abolition of the Royal Examinations; a change as to the
methods of Government appointments; the working of the Western leaven;
the increased prominence given to _En-mun_, and the slow entrance of
new ideas into the country, some of the desire for this purely Chinese
education has passed away, and it has been found necessary to stimulate
what threatened to become a flagging interest in all education by new
educational methods and forces, the influence of which should radiate
from the capital.
There are now (October, 1897) Government Vernacular Schools, a
Government School for the study of English, Foreign Language Schools,
and Mission Schools. Outside the Vernacular and Mission Schools there
is the before-mentioned Royal English School, with 100 students in
uniform, regularly drilled by a British Sergeant of Marines, and
crazy about football! These young men, in appearance, manners, and
rapid advance in knowledge of English, reflect great credit on their
instructors. After this come Japanese, French, and Russian Schools,
at present chiefly linguistic. Mr. Birukoff, in charge of the Russian
School, was a captain of light artillery in the Russian army, and in
both the Russian and French schools the students are drilled daily by
Russian drill instructors.
Undoubtedly the establishment which has exercised and is exercising
the most powerful educational, moral, and intellectual influence in
Korea is the Pai Chai College (“Hall for the rearing of Useful Men”),
so named by the King in 1887. This, which belongs to the American
Methodist Episcopal Church, has had the advantage of the services
of one Principal, the Rev. H. G. Appenzeller, for eleven years. It
has a Chinese-_En-mun_ department, for the teaching of the Chinese
classics, Sheffield’s _Universal History_, etc., a small theological
department, and an English department, in which reading, grammar,
composition, spelling, history, geography, arithmetic, and the elements
of chemistry and natural philosophy are taught. Dr. Jaisohn, a Korean
educated in America, has recently lectured once a week at this College
on the geographical divisions of the earth and the political and
ecclesiastical history of Europe, and has awakened much enthusiasm.
A patriotic spirit is being developed among the students, as well as
something of the English public school spirit with its traditions of
honor. This College is undoubtedly making a decided impression, and
is giving, besides a liberal education, a measure of that broader
intellectual view and deepened moral sense which may yet prove the
salvation of Korea. Christian instruction is given in Korean, and
attendance at chapel is compulsory. The pupils are drilled, and early
in 1897, during the military craze, adopted a neat European military
uniform. There is a flourishing industrial department, which includes a
tri-lingual press and a book-binding establishment, both of which have
full employment.
Early in 1895 the Government, recognizing the importance of the secular
education given in this College, made an agreement by which it could
place pupils up to the number of 200 there, paying for their tuition
and the salaries of certain tutors.
There are other schools for girls and boys, in which an industrial
training is given, conducted with some success by the same Mission, and
the American Presbyterians have several useful schools, and pay much
attention to the training of girls.
The _Société des Missions Etrangères_ has in Seoul an Orphanage and
two Boys’ Schools, with a total of 262 children. The principal object
is to train the orphans as good Roman Catholics. In the Boys’ Schools
the pupils are taught to read and write Chinese and _En-mun_, and
to a limited extent they study the Chinese classics. The religious
instruction is given in _En-mun_. They aim at providing a primary
education for the children of Korean converts.
The boys in the Orphanage are taught _En-mun_ only, and at thirteen are
adopted by Roman Catholics in Seoul or the country, and learn either
farming or trades, or, assuming their own support, enter a trade or
become servants. The elder girls learn _Em-mun_, sewing, and housework,
and at fifteen are married to the sons of Roman Catholics. At Riong
San near Seoul there is a Theological Seminary for the training of
candidates for the priesthood.
Besides these there is a school established in 1896 by the “Japanese
Foreign Educational Society,” which is composed chiefly of “advanced”
Japanese Christians. The course of study embraces the Chinese classics,
_En-mun_, composition, the study of Japanese as a medium for the study
of Western learning, and lectures on science and religion. This school
was intended by its founders to work as a Christian propaganda.
In 1897 there were in Seoul nearly 900 students, chiefly young men,
in Mission and Foreign Schools, inclusive of 100 in the Royal English
School, which has English teachers. In the majority of these the
students are trained in Christian morality, fundamental science,
general history, and the principles of patriotism. A certain amount of
denationalization is connected with most of the Boys’ Schools, for the
students necessarily receive new ideas, thoughts, and views of life,
which cannot be shaken out of them by any local circumstances, changing
their standpoints and the texture of their minds for life. When they
replace the elder generation better things may be expected for Korea.
The Korean reformed ideas of education, which had their origin during
the Japanese reform era, embrace the creation of a primary school
system, an efficient Normal College, and Intermediate Schools. Actually
existing under the Department of Education are a revived Confucian
School, the Royal English School, and the Normal College, placed in
May, 1897, under the very efficient care of the Rev. H. B. Hulbert,
M.A., a capable and scholarly man, some of whose contributions to our
knowledge of Korean poetry and music have enriched earlier chapters
of these volumes. Text-books in _En-mun_ and teachers who can teach
them have to be created. It is hoped and expected that supply will
follow demand, and that in a few years the larger provincial towns
will possess Intermediate or High Schools, and the villages attain
the advantages of elementary schools, all using a uniform series
of text-books in the vernacular. Chinese finds its place in the
curriculum, but not as the medium for teaching Korean and general
history, or geography and arithmetic, which must be acquired through
the native tongue.
In spite of the somewhat spasmodic and altogether unscientific methods
of the Education Department, it has succeeded in getting the revived
Normal College under way, as well as a fair number of primary schools,
where over 1,000 boys are learning the elements of arithmetic,
geography, and Korean history, with brief outlines of the systems of
government in other civilized countries. Seventy-seven youths are
studying in Japan at Government expense, and have made fair progress
in languages, but are said to show a lack of mathematical aptitude and
logical power. Altogether the Korean educational outlook is not without
elements of hopefulness.
Though the Foreign Trade of Korea only averages something less than
£1,500,000 annually, the potential commerce of a country with not less
than 12,000,000 of people, all cotton-clad, ought not to be overlooked.
The amount of foreign trade which exists is the growth of thirteen
years only, but when we remember that Korea is a purely agricultural
country of a very primitive and backward type, that many of her finest
valleys are practically isolated by mountain ranges, traversed by
nearly impassable roads, that the tyranny of custom is strong, that
the Korean farmer is only just learning that a profitable and almost
unlimited demand exists for his rice and beans across the sea, that
the serious cost of his cotton clothing can be kept down by importing
foreign yarn or piece goods, and that his comfort can be increased by
the introduction of articles of foreign manufacture, and that such
facts are only slowly entering the secluded valleys of the Hermit
Kingdom, the actual bulk of the trade is rather surprising, and its
possibilities are worth considering. The net imports of foreign goods
have increased from the value of $2,474,189 in 1886 to $6,531,324 in
1896.[48] Measured in dollars, the trade of 1896 exceeds that of any
previous year except 1895, when the occupation of Korea by Japanese
troops, with their large following of transport coolies, created an
artificial expansion.
Among Korean exports, which chiefly consist of beans, fish (dried
manure), cow-hides, ginseng, paper, rice, and seaweed, there are none
which are likely to find a market elsewhere than in China and Japan,
but Korea, so far as rice goes, is on the way to become the granary
of the latter country, her export in 1890 having reached the value of
£271,000.
With imports, European countries, India, and America are concerned.
Without, I think, being over sanguine, I anticipate a time when, with
improved roads, railroads, and enlightenment, together with security
for the earnings of labor from official and patrician exactions, the
Korean will have no further occasion for protecting himself by an
appearance of squalid poverty, and when he will become on a largely
increased scale a consumer as well as a producer, and will surround
himself with comforts and luxuries of foreign manufacture, as his
brethren are already doing under the happier rule of Russia. Under
the improved conditions which it is reasonable to expect, I should
not be surprised if the value of the Foreign Trade of Korea were to
reach £10,000,000 in another quarter of a century, and the share which
England is to have of it is an important question.
Our great competitor in the Korean markets is Japan, and we have to
deal not only with a rival within twenty hours of Korean shores,
and with nearly a monopoly of the carrying trade, but with the most
nimble-witted, adaptive, persevering, and pushing people of our day. It
is inevitable that British hardware and miscellaneous articles must be
ousted by the products of Japanese cheaper labor, and that the Japanese
will continue to supply the increasing demand for scissors, knives,
matches, needles, hoes, grass knives, soap, perfumes, kerosene lamps,
iron cooking-pots, nails, and the like, but the loss of the trade in
cotton piece goods would be a serious matter, and the possibility of it
has to be faced.
The value of the import trade in 1896 was £708,461 as against £875,816
for 1895 (an exceptional year), and the larger part of this reduction
took place in articles of British manufacture, the decrease of £134,304
in the value of cotton imports falling almost entirely on cottons of
British origin, the Japanese import not only retaining its position in
spite of adverse circumstances, but showing a slight increase. Japanese
sheetings showed a substantial increase, more than counterbalanced
by the diminished import of the British and American article, and
Japanese cotton yarn continued to arrive in larger quantities, and is
gradually driving British and Indian yarn out of the Korean market. It
can be sold at a considerably lower price than the British article, and
practically at the same price as the Indian, with which its improved
quality enables it to compete on very favorable terms.
As the result of inquiries carried on during my two journeys in the
interior, as well as at the treaty ports, it does not appear to me
that Japanese success is even chiefly caused by proximity, and in 1896
she had to compete with the enterprise and energy of the Chinese, who,
having returned after the war to the benefits of British protection,
were pushing the distribution of Manchester goods imported from
Shanghai.
Rather I am inclined to think that the success of our rival is mainly
due to causes which I have seen in operation in Persia and Central Asia
as well as in Korea, and which embrace not only imperfect knowledge
of the tastes and needs of customers, but the neglect to act upon
information supplied by consular and diplomatic agents, a groovy
adherence to British methods of manufacture, and the ignoring of native
desires as to colors, patterns, and the widths and makes which suit
native clothing and treatment, and the size of bales best suited to
native methods of transport. I do not allude to the charge ofttimes
made against our manufacturers of supplying inferior cottons, because
I have never seen any indications of its correctness, nor have I heard
any complaints on the subject either in Korea or China, but of the
ignoring of the requirements of customers there is no doubt. It is
everywhere a grievance and source of loss, and is likely to lose us the
prospective advantages of the Korean market.
The Japanese success, putting the advantages of proximity aside, is,
I believe, mainly due to the accuracy of the information obtained by
their keen-witted agents, who have visited all the towns and villages
in Korea, and to the carefulness with which their manufacturers are
studying the tastes and requirements of the Korean market. Their goods
reach the shore in manageable bales, which do not require to be adapted
after arrival to the minute Korean pony, and their price, width,
length, and texture commend them to the Korean consumer. The Japanese
understand that cotton 18 inches wide is the only cotton from which
Korean garments can be fashioned without very considerable waste, and
they supply the market with it; and on the report of the agents of the
importing firms, the weavers of Osaka and other manufacturing towns
with adroitness and rapidity closely adapted the texture, width, and
length of their cottons to those of the hand-loom cotton goods made in
South Korea, which are deservedly popular for their durability, and
have succeeded not only in producing an imitation of Korean cotton
cloth, which stands the pounding and beating of Korean washing, but
one which actually deceives the Korean weavers themselves as to its
origin, and which has won great popularity with the Korean women. If
Korea is to be a British market in the future, the lost ground must
be recovered by working on Japanese lines, which are the lines of
commercial common sense.
To sum up, I venture to express the opinion that the circumstances of
the large population of Korea are destined to gradual improvement with
the aid of either Japan or Russia, that foreign trade must increase
more or less steadily with increased buying powers and improved means
of transport, and that the amount which falls to the share of Great
Britain will depend largely upon whether British manufacturers are
willing or not to adapt their goods to Korean tastes and convenience.
As instances of the aptitude of the Koreans for taking to foreign
articles which suit their needs, it may be mentioned, on the authority
of a report from the British Consul-General to the British Foreign
Office on Trade and Finance in Korea for 1896, presented to Parliament
July, 1897, that the import of lucifer matches reached the figure of
£11,386,[49] while that of American and Russian kerosene exceeded
£36,000.
In 1896 the export of gold increased, and was $1,390,412, one million
dollars’ worth being exported from Wön-san alone. The gold export
included, the excess of Korean imports over exports was only about
£50,000, and as it is estimated that only one half of the gold actually
leaving the country is declared, it may be assumed that Korea is able
to pay for a larger supply of foreign goods than she has hitherto
taken. The statistics of Korean Foreign Trade which are to be found in
the Appendix are the latest returns, supplied to me by the courtesy
of the Korean Customs’ Department,[50] the returns of shipping and of
principal articles of export and import being taken from H.B.M.’s
Consul-General’s Report for 1896, presented to Parliament July,
1897.[51] With reference to the shipping returns, it must be observed
that the British flag is practically unrepresented in Korean waters,
even a chartered British steamer being rarely seen. The monopoly of the
carrying trade which Japan has enjoyed has only lately been broken into
by the establishment of a Russian subsidized line as a competitor.
In addition to the trade of the three ports open to Foreign Trade in
1896, to which the returns given refer exclusively, there is that
carried on by the non-treaty ports, and on the Chinese and Russian
frontiers.
In concluding this brief notice of the Foreign Trade of Korea, I may
remark that Japanese competition, so far as it consists in the ability
to undersell us owing to cheaper labor, is likely to diminish year by
year, as the conditions under which goods can be manufactured gradually
approximate to those which exist in England; the rapidly increasing
price of the necessaries of life in Japan, the demand for more than “a
living wage,” and an appreciation of the advantages of combination all
tending in this direction.
On the subject of Finance there is little to be said. The principal
items of revenue are a land tax of six dollars on a fertile _kyel_, and
five dollars on a mountain _kyel_, a house tax of 60 cents annually,
from which houses in the capital are exempt, the ginseng tax, and
the gold dues, making up a budget of about 4,000,000 dollars, a sum
amply sufficient for the legitimate expenditure of the country.
The land tax is extremely light. Only about a third of the revenue
actually collected reaches the National Treasury, partly owing to the
infinite corruption of the officials through whose hands it passes,
and partly because provincial income and expenditure are to a certain
extent left to local management. If the Government is in earnest in
the all-important matter of educating the people, the increased
expenditure can readily be met by imposing taxation on such articles of
luxury as wine and tobacco, which are enormously consumed, Seoul alone
possessing 475 wine shops and 1,100 tobacco shops. But even without
resorting to any new source of revenue, with strict supervision and
regular accounts the income of the Central Government is capable of
considerable expansion.
In spite of the awful official corruption which has been revealed,
and the chaos which up to 1896 prevailed in the Treasury, the
Korean financial outlook is a hopeful one. At the close of 1895 the
King persuaded Mr. M’Leavy Brown, LL.D., the Chief Commissioner of
Customs, to undertake the thankless office of Adviser to the Treasury,
confirming his position some months later by the issue of an edict
making his signature essential to all orders for payments out of the
national purse. Korean imagination and ingenuity are chiefly fertile
in devising tricks and devices for getting hold of public money, and
anything more hydra-headed than the dishonesty of Korean official life
cannot be found, so that it is not surprising that as soon as the
foreign adviser blocks one nefarious proceeding another is sprung upon
him, and that the army of useless drones, deprived of their “vested
interests” by the judicious retrenchments which have been made, as
well as thousands who are trembling for their ill-gotten gains, should
oppose financial reform by every device of Oriental ingenuity.
However, race, as represented by the honor and capacity of one
European, is carrying the day, and Korean Finance is gradually
being placed on a sound basis. With careful management, judicious
retrenchments of expenditure, the reduction of the chaos in the
Treasury to an orderly system of accounts, and a different method of
collecting the land tax, which is now being remitted with tolerable
regularity to the Treasury, an actual financial equilibrium was
established and maintained during the year 1896, which closed with a
considerable surplus, and in April, 1897, one million dollars of the
Japanese loan of three millions was repaid to Japan, and there is
every prospect that the remaining indebtedness might be paid off out
of income in 1899, leaving Korea in the proud position of a country
without a national debt, and with a surplus of income over expenditure!
The prosperous financial conclusion of 1896 is all the more remarkable
because of certain exceptional expenditures. Two new regiments were
added to the army, the old Arsenal, a disused costly toy, was put
into working order, with all necessary modern improvements, under the
supervision of a Russian machinist, the Kyeng-wun Palace was built,
costly ceremonies and works connected with the late Queen’s prospective
funeral were paid for, and a considerable area of western Seoul was
recreated. All civil Government _employés_ (and they are legion),
as well as soldiers and police, are paid regularly every month, and
sinecures are very slowly disappearing.
A Korean silver, copper, and brass coinage, convenient as well as
ornamental, is coming into general circulation, and as it gradually
displaces _cash_, is setting trade free from at least one of the
conditions which hampered it, and increased banking facilities are
tending in the same direction.
FOOTNOTES:
[48] For detailed statistics of Korean Foreign Trade, see Appendix C.
[49] This seems incredible, and compels one to suppose that £ is a
misprint for $.
[50] See Appendix B.
[51] See Appendix C.