IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hit/hitcei/2019-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A Consequence of Coerced Free Trade: Biological Living Standards of Korea during the Port-Opening Period, 1876-1910

Author

Listed:
  • Kim, Duol
  • Park, Heejin

Abstract

After several hundred years of closed-door policy, Korea finally opened its ports in 1876. Historians have traditionally claimed that the port-opening was coerced by foreign countries, deteriorated the Korean economy, and made Korea become a colony. We examined this traditional view by measuring biological living standards and found the opposite. The height of the Hangryu Deceased, who died on the street but no one claimed their body, increased by 0.82 cm in this period. This finding implies that the colonization of Korea originated from political impotence that could not realize the benefit of foreign trade. This result also proposed that economic growth during the colonial period could be more related to free trade than colonial policies or new institutions

Suggested Citation

  • Kim, Duol & Park, Heejin, 2019. "A Consequence of Coerced Free Trade: Biological Living Standards of Korea during the Port-Opening Period, 1876-1910," CEI Working Paper Series 2019-9, Center for Economic Institutions, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    • Handle: RePEc:hit:hitcei:2019-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hermes-ir.lib.hit-u.ac.jp/hermes/ir/re/30852/wp2019-9.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Luigi Pascali, 2017. "The Wind of Change: Maritime Technology, Trade, and Economic Development," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(9), pages 2821-2854, September.
    2. Neal,Larry & Williamson,Jeffrey G. (ed.), 2014. "The Cambridge History of Capitalism," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107019645, November.
    3. Kimura, Mitsuhiko, 1993. "Standards of Living in Colonial Korea: Did the Masses Become Worse Off or Better Off Under Japanese Rule?," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 53(3), pages 629-652, September.
    4. Young Hoon Rhee, 2014. "Economic Stagnation and Crisis in Korea during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 54(1), pages 1-13, March.
    5. Antony Young, 2014. "1 + 1 = 3," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Brand Media Strategy, edition 0, chapter 0, pages 81-99, Palgrave Macmillan.
    6. Broadberry, Stephen & Guan, Hanhui & Li, David Daokui, 2018. "China, Europe, and the Great Divergence: A Study in Historical National Accounting, 980–1850," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 78(4), pages 955-1000, December.
    7. Bodenhorn, Howard & Guinnane, Timothy W. & Mroz, Thomas A., 2017. "Sample-Selection Biases and the Industrialization Puzzle," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 77(1), pages 171-207, March.
    8. Ruixue Jia, 2014. "The Legacies of Forced Freedom: China's Treaty Ports," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 96(4), pages 596-608, October.
    9. Williamson, Jeffrey G., 2011. "Trade and Poverty: When the Third World Fell Behind," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262015158, December.
    10. Duol Kim & Ki‐Joo Park, 2012. "A Cliometric Revolution In The Economic History Of Korea: A Critical Review," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 52(1), pages 85-95, March.
    11. Joerg Baten & Matthias Blum, 2012. "Growing Tall but Unequal: New Findings and New Background Evidence on Anthropometric Welfare in 156 Countries, 1810–1989," Economic History of Developing Regions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(S1), pages 66-85.
    12. Koyama, Mark & Moriguchi, Chiaki & Sng, Tuan-Hwee, 2018. "Geopolitics and Asia’s little divergence: State building in China and Japan after 1850," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 178-204.
    13. Zimran, Ariell, 2019. "Sample-Selection Bias and Height Trends in the Nineteenth-Century United States," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 79(1), pages 99-138, March.
    14. Morgan, Stephen L., 2004. "Economic growth and the biological standard of living in China, 1880-1930," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 2(2), pages 197-218, June.
    15. Baten, Joerg & Ma, Debin & Morgan, Stephen & Wang, Qing, 2010. "Evolution of living standards and human capital in China in the 18-20th centuries: Evidences from real wages, age-heaping, and anthropometrics," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 347-359, July.
    16. Neal,Larry & Williamson,Jeffrey G. (ed.), 2014. "The Cambridge History of Capitalism," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107019638, November.
    17. Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2011. "Trade and Poverty: When the Third World Fell Behind," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262015153, December.
    18. Kim, Duol & Park, Heejin, 2011. "Measuring living standards from the lowest: Height of the male Hangryu deceased in colonial Korea," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 590-599.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kitae Sohn, 2015. "A World Record in the Improvement in Biological Standards of Living in Korea: Evidence from Age at Menarche," CEH Discussion Papers 037, Centre for Economic History, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    2. David Chilosi & Carlo Ciccarelli, 2021. "Southern and Northern Italy in the Great Divergence: New Perspectives from the Occupational Structure," Quaderni di storia economica (Economic History Working Papers) 47, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    3. Guimaraes, Bernardo & Sheedy, Kevin D., 2024. "Institutional specialization," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    4. Réka Juhász, 2014. "Temporary Protection and Technology Adoption: Evidence from the Napoleonic Blockade," CEP Discussion Papers dp1322, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    5. Martin, Lisa & Baten, Joerg, 2022. "Inequality and Life Expectancy in Africa and Asia, 1820‐2000," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 201(C), pages 40-59.
    6. Jean-Pascal Bassino & Marion Dovis & John Komlos, 2018. "Biological well-being in late nineteenth-century Philippines," Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), vol. 12(1), pages 33-60, January.
    7. Blum, Matthias & Colvin, Christopher L. & McLaughlin, Eoin, 2017. "Scarring and selection in the Great Irish Famine," QUCEH Working Paper Series 2017-08, Queen's University Belfast, Queen's University Centre for Economic History.
    8. Duol Kim, 2021. "The great divergence on the Korean peninsula (1910–2020)," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(3), pages 318-341, November.
    9. Juhász, Réka, 2014. "Temporary protection and technology adoption: evidence from the Napoleonic blockade," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 60697, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Nakabayashi, Masaki, 2019. "From family security to the welfare state: Path dependency of social security on the difference in legal origins," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 280-293.
    11. Afnan Al-Malk & Jean-François Maystadt & Maurizio Zanardi, 2022. "The Gravity of Distance: Evidence from a Trade Embargo," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2022014, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    12. Aslanidis, Nektarios & Martínez Ibáñez, Oscar & Tadei, Federico, 2020. "The Integration of West Africa in the Global Economy, 1842-1938," Working Papers 2072/417678, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Department of Economics.
    13. Jeremy Atack & Robert A. Margo, 2019. "Gallman revisited: blacksmithing and American manufacturing, 1850–1870," Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), vol. 13(1), pages 1-23, January.
    14. Chilosi, David & Federico, Giovanni, 2015. "Early globalizations: The integration of Asia in the world economy, 1800–1938," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 1-18.
    15. Vincent Geloso & Peter Lindert, 2020. "Relative costs of living, for richer and poorer, 1688–1914," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 14(3), pages 417-442, September.
    16. Williamson, Jeffrey G. & Bassino, Jean-Pascal, 2015. "From Commodity Booms to Economic Miracles: Why Southeast Asian Industry Lagged Behind," CEPR Discussion Papers 10611, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    17. Rodríguez Weber, Javier, 2015. "Estimación de desigualdad de ingreso y otras variables relacionadas para Chile entre 1860 y 1970. Metodología y resultados obtenidos [Income inequality estimates for Chile between 1860 and 1970. Me," MPRA Paper 68400, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Meissner, Christopher M., 2014. "Growth from Globalization? A View from the Very Long Run," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 8, pages 1033-1069, Elsevier.
    19. Deirdre Nansen McCloskey, 2016. "The great enrichment: a humanistic and social scientific account," Scandinavian Economic History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 64(1), pages 6-18, March.
    20. Giovanni Federico & Antonio Tena‐Junguito, 2017. "Lewis revisited: tropical polities competing on the world market, 1830–1938," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 70(4), pages 1244-1267, November.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hit:hitcei:2019-9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Reiko Suzuki The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask Reiko Suzuki to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cehitjp.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.