The Beginnings of Japan’s Economic Hold over Colonial Korea, 1900-1919

Abstract

For this first study in French language on the economics of the Japanese colonial empire, we have chosen to focus on the Korean case, from the establishment of the first railways on the peninsula in 1900 until the crisis of the colonial system in 1919 (March 1st Movement). The colonization of Korean was promising: an extensive land with a large population located very close to Japan. But rapidly, it was hampered by several grave difficulties. The colonial main infrastructures, as railways and banking system, suffered from, alternatively, the lack of investment and the “Manchuria policy” promoted by Terauchi Masatake. The industrial production remained marginal, despite its vigorous growth. This sector has been stimulated greatly by a stock-exchange fever starting in 1916, but suddenly collapsed as the bubble burst in 1919. The exterior trade of Korea (including with Japan) continued to increase its deficit. Japan used the colony just to obtain rice an iron ore, but the lack of investments in these sectors did not enable Korean production to compete successfully with other Asian producers (French Indochina, Taiwan, China etc.). This economic failure made the Japanese domination particularly unbearable to the Korean people: the bursting of the economic bubble in Japan just after the end of the War in Europe meant the end of any hope for a better life in the colony. The fast and high inflation, coupled with the absence of any economic policy, contributed greatly to the sparkling of the March First Movement.