From Grain Merchants to Millers: The Kims of Seoul and the Origins of Korean Capitalism

The Kim merchant family was brokers [gaekju] operating in the Dongmak area of Seoul near the Han River. This article examines the establishment and operations of the Dongil rice mill of the Kim family, which used an oil engine or electric motor, transmission gears, and the operating systems from 1910. Rice polishing was the manufacturing industry that many Korean capitalists entered in the Hanmal and early colonial periods. Utilising the account books of the Kim family, this paper examines the space and facilities of the Dongil rice mill, the purchasing and processing of raw materials (non-husked rice and brown unpolished rice), sale of products (brown rice and white rice), employment and wages, bank transactions and capital usage, and daily operations in the 1910s. An analysis of this information wil l show the transformation of Korean merchants and brokers into bourgeoisie and the conversion of commercial capital into industrial capital. In other words, this article demonstrates the internal origins and continuous nature of Korean capitalism. JEL Codes: L66, N55, N65, N75, N95.