조선 후기 資本主義萌芽論과 그 代案

Review: on the Thesis of the Capitalist Embryo in the Late Joseon Korea

The studies on the Capitalist Embryo had aimed to build a historical view of developing economy in the Late Joseon Korea through introduction of worldly advanced theories and empirical researches. However, since 1970 their limitations of empirical evidences has been pointed out, moreover since the 1990s studies negating the thesis of the Capitalist Embryo were published on the ground of criticizing Marxist history and empirical evidences. While it was mainly the nationalist and Marxist traditions in the society of Korean history which gave birth to the Internal Development thesis including the Capitalist Embryo literatures, the withering of such traditions and the influence from the mainstream of economic history have demanded a new historical view. The emergence of the capitalist embryo based on the growth of commodity and money markets showed development of the late Joseon economy, which is the same as ‘smithian growth’ in the recent writings of the mainstream of economic historians. In this respect, the thesis of the Capitalist Embryo contributed to surmounting the Stagnation thesis of the Joseon economy. However, the Capitalist Embryo, entrepreneurs hiring wage workers, is justone of preconditions for modern economic growth, and could not be the core element signaling a transition to modern economy. I propose, as a substitute for the Capitalist Embryo thesis, a thorough research to investigate the extent to which the preconditions for modern economic growth were fulfilled and especially delve into markets, technology, institutions, and social capabilities in the Late Joseon economy. Examining the extent is not to argue that there was the possibility of internally spontaneous modernization, but to discuss how it affected Joseon's capabilities to cope with the historical task of modernization under impact from the modern world after the Port Opening. Notwithstanding the fact that the economy was growing and a basis for modern economic growth was built up in the Joseon period, the Joseon Korea did not have the prospect of spontaneous modernization, like almost all the countries except England, without impact from the modern world. Therefore, the more productive historical researches would be trying to answer the questions such as how geography, international environments, institutions, and culture affected Joseon's economic development, how preconditions for modern economic growth were built up, and by which Joseon's capabilities to respond to impact from the modern world was affected. We also need to explore the identity of Korean history, comparing with other countries.