중세 동아시아 해상교역의 재구성 - 김영제, 『고려상인과 동아시아 무역사』, 푸른역사, 2019 -

Abstract

The East Asian maritime trade between 11th century and 14th century is represented by the remarkable activities of the maritime merchants. Private enterprise, rather than state regulation, played the salient role in the emergence and expansion of maritime trade in East Asia. Although the amazing performances of the East Asian merchants such as Koryo merchants, Song merchants, and Hakata merchants had caught the eyes of historians, the previous researches on them had been mainly carried out from national historical perspective.BR The book, Koryo Merchants and the History of East Asian Maritime Trade, however, challenges the existing common ideas about the medieval East Asian maritime trade with the transnational perspective. In terms of the nationality of the maritime merchants, the author of the book argues that the China-born merchants who settled down in Koryo or Japan owned the Peaked-bottom-ship (尖底船) and led the trade between China and Koryo or Japan. In addition, according to his research, the traders were not largely constrained by the seasonal wind on the East Asian seas.BR The author of this book shows several typical East Asian maritime merchants who was born in China but later on settled down in Koryo and married Korean women. They did not only carry out the trade between Koryo and Song but played the significant diplomatic roles. Their trading goods, however, included cheap household goods besides luxury items. Since the household goods had price competitiveness, the traders could export them overseas.BR Due to his devoted studies, many aspects of the East Asian maritime trade during the Medieval period could be restored. As the author mentioned in this book, however, there are still in many aspects open to future further researches, which will be carried out with the transnational perspective, in the true sense of word.