The History of the Statistical System of Korea: from the Choson Period to the US Occupation Period

Insang Hwang


Introduction


The history of statistical systems occupies an important place in the Asian Historical Statistics Project. In 1998, reflecting this importance, a separate Statistical Systems Research Group was established within the Project. Prof. Kiyokawa Yukihiko, in his "The Significance of Cross-Country Comparisons of Statistical Systems" (Newsletter, No. 10, 1998), outlined the necessity for more cross-national comparative research on government statistics, representative sample survey systems, and statistical organizations in order to clarify the variations between the different countries.

Especially in the case of Korean and Taiwan under Japanese colonial rule, historical research on the respective statistics and statistical systems is important to understand the nature of the extant statistical data and to understand the economic conditions of the times. It is dangerous to use statistics from the past, when statistics and statistical systems were not developed as they are today, without taking into account regional variations and the particular economic conditions of the period in question. Failure to take into consideration such factors can lead to mistaken conclusions. On the basis of further historical research on various statistical systems, modern economic methodology can be applied to historical cases to generate new analysis of the colonial period economies. This would facilitate, in my view, a better understanding of the linkages and inter-flows between the market economy and the colonial economy.

As I have a particularly strong interest in the statistical system and the quality of the statistical data in colonial period Korea, I intended to write an overview of the history of the Korean statistical system from the Choson period to the establishment of the Republic of Korea. As it turned out, although there are numerous primary and secondary sources on the colonial period, there are almost no works which have thoroughly analyzed the history of the Korean statistical system from 1910 to the present that I could use. Fortunately, the Korean Statistical Bureau recently published the History of the Development of Korean Statistics (2 vols., 1992). At this point, this is the most integrated and organized study of the history of the Korean statistical system.

In the rest of this paper, I present a translation and summary of the main narrative contents of the History of the Development of Korean Statistics, Volume 2 (pp. 22-38). I hope this will prove to be of some interest and use for researchers interested in the history of Korea's statistical system.

1. From the Choson Period to the Great Han Empire: 1392-1910


Household surveys in Korea were started as a form of census, and this system was maintained from the Shilla period and late-Koryo period onward. However, the first time household surveys were conducted nation-wide and included commoners was during the Choson period (1392-1910). Further systemization in the surveys occurred during the reign of King Songjong (8th Choson dynasty monarch, reigned 1470-1494). The legal codes of the Choson period, including ones related to the household surveys, are still preserved in the Administrative Statutes (Kyo ngguk Taejo n).

One of the six major government ministries of the Choson period, the Ministry of Taxation (Hojo-the equivalent of the contemporary Ministry of Finance) was responsible for household surveys and family register surveys. The Ministry of Taxation supervised households, tributes, paddy harvests, taxes, and food. Also, within the Ministry was the Office of the Register of Land and People. In addition to the Ministry of Taxation, the Ministry of War (Pyongjo), and the Ministry of Works (Kongjo-akin to the contemporary Ministry of Trade and Industry) also handled other types of surveys. In addition, the Household Office (Hobang), which handled household codes, was placed within the Royal Secretariat (Sungjongwon).

Regional Household Offices, which handled all work related to household registries, household codes, and paddy harvests, were established within local administrative offices as well. Household surveys were taken every three years, with one copy each of the updated records placed in the Ministry of Taxation, the Hansong City government (the capital, present day Seoul), in the provincial government, and in the village. The survey categories included the place of residence, employment, name, family age, clan seat (pong'wan -ancestral seat or locality of clan origin), and ancestors up to four generations (sajo), wife and wife's age, clan name and four generations of ancestors, and a head count of children and women, servants and slaves living on the premises. This information was entered in a directory similar to the present day certified copies of family registries, and the results sent in to the village, province and the capital.

Land surveys were conducted every twenty years. During the reign of King Sejong (4th king, 1419-1450), the tribute assessment tax office and the harvest tax assessment office was charged with the land survey. The annual payment system, the collective payment system, and the average-level payment system were all products of this period. These surveys were carried out on a self-reporting basis. Depending on social status and harvest rates, the survey coverage often excluded women, who had no connection to military service requirements, and the discriminated classes such as slaves and outcasts.

Late-Choson Period Statistical System and Organization


The household surveys and land surveys underwent great transformation in the late-Choson period. As a result of the administrative reforms started during the Kapsin Coup (1884), various tax agencies were amalgamated, and during the Kabo Reforms, (1894-95) household surveys and tax supervision were integrated under the "Takjibu," a modernized version of the Ministry of Taxation (Hojo). The Kabo Reforms were modernization reforms of the government structure instituted during the Tonghak Rebellion (1894) and the Sino-Japanese War (1894-95). Under the new administrative codes defining the division of labor within the various levels of central government, statistical projects, in the modern sense of the term, were launched for the first time. In 1908, a formal Statistics Division was created within the Takjibu Secretariat. In 1898, a Land Survey Division was established to survey the land area of the entire country, and a number of American survey technicians were employed in the Division.

Following the conversion to the solar calendar in 1896, in 1897, the name of the country was changed to the Great Han Empire, and the era name was changed to Kwangmu (for King Kojong, used 1897-1907). In 1899 the Great Han Empire constitution was announced. A Records Bureau was established in the State Defense Office which was responsible for all statistical projects of the central government. Later on, the survey projects of the General Affairs Bureaus of the Foreign Ministry and the Finance Ministry were both disbanded and their statistical projects integrated into the Records Bureau's domain.

After the Kapsin Coup, the Office of the Register of Land and People in the Ministry of Taxation was transformed into the Registrar Bureau in the Home Ministry (Naebu-formerly the Internal Office), responsible only for the family registrar. Thus, the supervision of the household registrar was given to the Home Ministry, while the responsibility for the land and agricultural tax was placed in the Ministry of Taxation. Weights and measures had been standardized on October 1, 1894 under the Internal Office's "New weights and measures system" order, and the currency was reformed to a new convertible silver-based currency. After 1905, the Japanese Police Advisory and after 1910, the Government General Police Superintendent's Office (later the Police Bureau) conducted the household surveys.

Although many of the reforms in the survey structure and statistical systems were the results of Japanese influence through advice, pressure, and monitoring, the original initiatives and efforts for change, started voluntarily in the Great Han Empire, were at the root of these reforms. After 1900, the expansion of Japanese economic powers in Korea was symbolized by developments such as the introduction of a new gold-based currency, the official recognition of the use of Japanese money, the establishment of Japanese banks, and the proliferation of Japanese schools on Korean soil. In 1905, the same year that the Protectorate Treaty was signed in the aftermaths of the Russo-Japanese War, the Great Han Empire had Japanese surveyors conduct a land survey. In March 1910, the Great Han Empire government issued a new Land Survey Law based on the 1905 survey. In the same year, the government established a Land Survey Bureau, and accelerated its preparations for a more extensive, full-scale land survey. In August 1910, under the Treaty of Annexation, the newly-formed Government General of Korea inherited the land survey project through its Temporary Bureau for Land Surveys. Judicial powers and policing rights were all transferred to the Japanese following the abolition of the Korean military.

2. The Japanese colonial period, 1910-1945


After annexation in 1910, the Statistics Division of the Great Han Empire period was dissolved, and statistical work was taken over by the Government General Secretariat's Records Department and the Police Superintendent's Office. There was a Statistical Department during the colonial period, but it existed for only four years, 1918-1922. In its stead, the Japanese colonial administration established a reporting system, and had central and local administrative bodies send in population, industrial, and other statistics to the Records Department, which then synthesized and edited the information. Population censuses were directly conducted by the Records Department and the Police Bureau.

The Government General's General Population Census


The general population census was set to be conducted in 1920, and in 1918, a Temporary General Census Department was established within the Secretariat to write up regulations for the census and conduct preparatory committee meetings. However, due to the March First Movement, the census was canceled. The first census was taken in 1925, a simplified general census, and five years later, the first general census was taken. Until 1940, five general censuses, both simplified and full, were conducted.

The general census was intended the supplement the data on annual resident population which was collected under the existing reportage system. On September 29, 1924, as a support group for the general census, the Government General established the Korean Statistical Research Group in the Research Department of its Administrative Division of the Secretariat. The Research Group published Korea's Statistics (Cho sen no to kei). This association toured the country before the start of the general census, explaining and promoting the importance of the survey, but once the census was over the Research Group ceased activities until the next general census.

In 1935, a Korea Statistics Association was established with the Government General Secretariat Records Division Head as the President, and bureaucrats engaged in statistics-related work from the city, province, and localities as members. The Association published the Korean Statistics Review (Cho sen to kei jiho) three or four times a year. The previous incarnation, the Korean Statistical Research Group, had been formed of officials in the higher level offices and bureaus, and published specialized research; in contrast, the Korean Statistics Association included both officials and common citizens. This was reflected by the membership numbers, which amounted to around 6,000 at the association's inception. In 1944, under the 1929 Resource Survey Ordinance, a sudden census was undertaken in an effort to determine human resources available for war. The results were classified top secret, and only two volumes were published as bulletins. Due to the effects of the war, detailed results and statistics were not published.

The Land Survey


After Japan colonized Korea in August 1910, in addition to constructing the necessary political structures for rule, it also proceeded to establish economic control mechanisms. Colonial economic exploitation and control was symbolized by the Land Survey and the Company Law. The Land Survey in particular formed the foundation of Japan's colonial rule, and the structural basis for economic exploitation of the colonial economy.

The key feature of the land survey was that all necessary papers proving ownership of land needed to be turned in to the Government General's Temporary Land Survey Bureau within a fixed time period. If the papers were sent in, and the land accurately surveyed and measured, than private ownership of the land would be established. However, most of the lands whose applications for recognition of ownership could not be processed were taken over by the Government General. As a direct consequence, considerable amounts of private land fell into the hands of the Government General. Further, under the Forest Law of August 1911, all government mountain forests were placed under Government General control. In 1918, a Forest Survey Ordinance was issued, and the mountain and forest areas under Government General ownership became even larger.

In 1929 the Resource Survey Law was promulgated, and surveys of all sectors were conducted under the jurisdiction of each of the thirteen provincial governors. No edited general results were published. But sector-specific industrial resource surveys were not classified secret, and as a result, the findings were made available to the public.

To analyze the results of the resource surveys, the Government General organized several Resource Survey Committee meetings, with invited delegates from Tokyo, such as the Resource Bureau Director, and officials from the Army and Navy Ministries. Often, after the Committee meetings, the visiting delegates were taken on inspection tours of Korea.

Special General Census


The number of tenant farmers increased dramatically in the 1930s due to the land survey, the rice production increase plan, and other economic policies of the Government General. The number of laborers also increased in this period, but there was a corresponding increase in the number of unemployed. The Internal Bureau of the Government General mobilized police to conduct unemployment surveys on an annual basis at the local levels. In 1938, an emergency system, the National Mobilization Law, was invoked. Under the National Mobilization Law, a special general census was taken in 1939. The survey subject for this census was not population, but corporate entities, something along the lines of the present-day corporation census. The result of the 1939 census was classified top secret, and very few of the reports from this survey remain extant in Korea. From June 1, 1939, a new Labor Capacity Reports order decreed that citizens must report in regarding ability to work. At the end of each month, all employers with male workers from the ages to 16 to 50 were to send in reports. These reports were used in coercively mobilizing Koreans to munitions factories and mines. In order to supplement the Labor Capacity Reports, a Korean Labor and Technology Survey was conducted three times, in 1941, 1942, and 1943.

3. From the U.S. Military Government to the Establishment of the R.O.K.


In the confusion immediately after liberation, under the U.S. Military Government in Korea (hereafter USAMGIK) and the caretaker Korean government, the political and economic instabilities continued. In the economic arena, from being a part of the Japanese economic sphere, Korea was divided into U.S. and Soviet spheres. The division of the peninsula paralyzed economic activities, industrial structure, and education and cultural endeavors. The results were insufficient production, inadequate supplies of essential goods, inflation, and a population increase from an influx of Koreans from the North and from other places.

In the post-liberation period, because the Government General destroyed many of its records, including survey records and reports, and there were no experts in statistics, it was virtually impossible to conduct any statistical surveys. During this period, the institutions related to statistics were restructured as described below.

The administrative statistics handled by the prewar Cabinet Secretariat, Prime Minister's Secretariat, Government General Secretariat Records Department and Administrative Department, were all taken over by the newly formed Survey Research Association. Surveys which had been formerly conducted by the Statistics Division of the Great Han Empire and the former Government General Survey Department, were relocated to the Statistical Office of the Administrative Bureau. Later on, the Statistics Office absorbed the Survey Research Association. Within the Statistics Office, there was a First Division (Statistics Officials), Administrative Division, Population and Household Division, and a Supervisory Division.

Population surveys were conducted by the Health and Sanitation Department, and labor surveys were transferred to the Labor Department. In the prewar period, agriculture, forestry, and fisheries statistics had been compiled by reports sent in by local administrative offices, but in June 1947, the USAMGIK issued Ordinance No. 143, and established an Agricultural Statistics Committee which centralized powers over all records of agricultural output and other types of agricultural statistics. As the implementation arm of the Agricultural Statistics Committee, the Survey and Statistics Division was established in the Agriculture and Forestry Department. 1,928 statistical technicians were assigned to all levels of administration as members of an independent statistics organization. However, when the Republic of Korea was founded in 1948, the independent statistics organization was dissolved, and the personnel reassigned to various local state bodies. During this period, the Choson Bank (the current Bank of Korea) was very active in compiling economic statistics. Other private organizations which survived the transition from colonial status to liberation, such as the Chambers of Commerce and the People's Credit Unions (the present-day Farmers' Cooperative), also conducted statistical surveys on a greater scale and scope than the government during this period.

4. Conclusion


I have described above the history of Korean statistics from the Choson Period to the establishment of the Republic of Korea through an abridged and translated version of the History of the Development of Korean Statistics edited by the Korean Statistical Bureau. Due to space limitations, I have elided many details in this summary; hence, there may be some points and issues which remain less than clear. I anticipate that the Statistical Systems Research Group will produce research which will make greater contributions than this paper to the understanding of the history of modern Korean statistics.

(Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University)

Sources Cited

Korean Statistical Bureau. History of the Development of Korean Statistics. Vol. 1 (By Period). 1992.

Korean Statistical Bureau. History of the Development of Korean Statistics. Vol. 2 (By Fields). 1992.

Kiyokawa Yukihiko. "The Significance of Cross-Country Comparisons of Statistical Systems-on the Inauguration of the Statistical Systems Research Group," Asian Historical Statistics Project Newsletter, No. 10 (August 1998).