Undermining Silver: The Political Economy of Silver Production and Circulation in Chosŏn Korea

From the sixteenth to eighteenth century, Korea sat at the crossroads of a booming global trade network for silver. On the one hand, there was a high demand for silver from China, and on the other Japan was rapidly rising to become one of the world’s main silver producers. This both increased silver infusion into Korea, which served as an intermediary between the two, and provided an opportunity for Korea to profit from mining its own silver for circulation. In spite of this, the Chosŏn regime not only often cracked down on the domestic production of silver, but also moved towards an almost complete disengagement with the global silver economy, a general policy that continued until the late nineteenth century. What could explain Chosŏn’s apparent action against its own self-interest? Silver mines were a special pressure point in the Chosŏn economy. Some historians have argued that increased wage labor, which resulted from small-scale growth in mining, indicated a transition to a capitalist mode of production in society in this era. However, this was antithetical to the ideal of proper agrarian economy promulgated by the state, and state agents worked to close mines whenever possible. Ultimately, the capitalistic impulse of ever-increasing production and consumption was suppressed, and the Neo-Confucian regime stayed in place for more than another century.