Tinto Maps #24 - 25th of October - Japan and Korea

[Linbot#6018]

I feel like ginseng would be better represented by the medicaments good because if you are to add a new trade good it ends up creating global demand for that good when in reality ginseng is demand pretty localized to culturally East Asian populations.

The main thing I suppose is that it would feel more immersive to having Ginseng be the name of a trade good. But I suppose we can't have everything.

 

[Deleted user]

It's quite detailed. However, I suppose Kushiro might be better suited as a wetland.

 

[Mef]

So this is something that seems to not have been brought up yet:
I counted 4 livestock locations in Japan, and more in Hokkaido.
As far as I know, meat consumption in Japan was extremely low in this time period (for religious reasons) and the only meat that was consumed somewhat regularly was wild game (did I miss it or is there not a single wild game location south of Hokkaido?).

Since livestock is used as an input that represents animal power (which was done in Japan), I guess it makes sense to have some livestock locations here, but I'm wondering if livestock's irrelevance as a food source is portrayed somehow?
I'm assuming it will still generate the same amount of food as anywhere else in the world, which means that some unique historical flavor would be lost.

 

[lemosus1]

1.Kuma location is too big ,could be split in half , also split Sagara clan in half , since they split in to two main branch and fight each other , can split out a location called Taragi in the East

2.Also, please have those small clans represented , at least let them own buildings in a location

Sources: 熊本県の中世城跡P.284 https://sitereports.nabunken.go.jp/ja/16331 and https://kuma.atukan.com/rekisi/tyusei3.html

 

[lemosus1]

1.some things that is important in my opinion is not implemented:wages, pop loans, local faction system(bottom up faction system)
>>Governor vassal
To simulate and Japan better, great for other countries too.
Since japanese local governor have much autonomy and will fight each other

2.Prices volatility is not enough for elastic goods like food
E.g. price spikes, price spikes usually cause many crises which if fail to simulate, will lost a big component that cause crises in countries

3.Not enough uprisings

4.Can metal currency be diluted?

5.Here are some RGO Suggestions

Source:1.日本史年表・地図 by 児玉 幸多
2.《太平記》的時代──南北朝時代．室町時代 by 新田一郎
3. https://yamatake19.exblog.jp/i8/

 

[Goblin Slave]

Some information about Japanese pearls, they were rather well known for their wealth in gold and pearls by the Yuan, could do with more Pearl provinces

真珠 - Wikipedia

ja.m.wikipedia.org

(Japanese Wikipedia article on pearls and their history in Japan)

.
Japan has long been famous for its pearls. Freshwater pearls with holes in them, which are believed to have been threaded, have been excavated from Jomon-era sites in Hokkaido and Iwate Prefecture. In the "Biography of Wei Wei," it is written that Taino of Yamataikoku sent 5,000 white pearls to Cao Wei. The Nihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan), Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters), and Manyoshu (Anthology of Myriad Leaves) also mention pearls, and the Manyoshu includes 56 poems that mention pearls. In those days, pearls were called "tama," "matama," and "shiratama (white gem). In particular, Omura Bay in Hizen Province was a major source of natural pearls, as described in the "Hizen Province Fudoki. Emperor Keiko took from Hayaritsuhime [7] [8], Kenzusangen, and Yan Yan, who lived on the northern shore of the bay, three colored balls: a white ball, an Iso-no-kami itabidama (a ball of wood from the god Ishigami), and a beautiful ball. The emperor ordered that the land be called "Tamasonaukoku (Land of Tamashinaudama)" because of its abundance of jade, which is said to have given rise to the place name Sonogi. Those three colored balls became the sacred treasures of Ishigami Jingu Shrine.
In the Heian period "Engishiki" (Engi Shiki) "Zoshiki," it is described that the nobles sent their retainers to buy Tsushima pearls so actively that the people were confused.
Pearls were collected from Ago Bay in Shima Province (now eastern Mie Prefecture) and the Uwa Sea in Iyo Province (now Ehime Prefecture) from Akoya oysters, but they were smaller than pearls from other countries (foreign pearls).
Pearls were not only used as ornaments, but also had a magical meaning. Pearls are sometimes counted as one of the seven treasures of Buddhism, and pearls have been unearthed from temple sites as one of the ritual objects used in ground-breaking ceremonies when the temples were built. Because of their unique luster, they were also believed to be effective as a medicine for eye diseases and as an antidote [9].
The beauty of Japanese pearls was even introduced to Europe, and Columbus was said to have admired them.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

(Forgot to post the other half of this)

Pearls
In China pearls were the theme of numerous legends; they symbolized wealth, beauty, and supernatural powers. The harvesting of pearls was practiced from the first centuries of the common era on the southern coast of Guangdong. But Chinese pearls were of an inferior quality compared to those of other countries, and they soon became a typical import item from Southeast Asian and Arab sources. According to an account from the thirteenth century, the merchants of these countries concealed pearls in the linings of their clothes and the handles of their umbrellas to avoid taxes. Pearls were used in China in the decoration of ceremonial furniture and as jewels for men's and women's fashions; in particular, they adorned the headdresses of emperors. But they did not escape the crushers of doctors and alchemists, who treated cataracts and other diseases of the eye with amalgams of powdered pearls, because pearls were round like the eyes and luminous as the full moon. Taoists also considered them to have the power to prolong life.

The shipment of pearls from Japan to China as tribute was reported in 654 and 838. Pearls were harvested in Japan on the western coast of Honshü (Shimane Prefecture), Tsushima Island, and in Ise, which is still renowned for the cultivation of pearls. The pearl trade no doubt was profitable. An account from the thirteenth century reported that a Japanese merchant bought a precious pearl for sixty bolts of silk fabric and that he resold it in China for five thousand pieces of twill damask. Furthermore, in the middle of the eleventh century, a Kyush official informed the governor of Ise that a Chinese person had just arrived on a quest for "pearls as bright as the moon."167

According to these sources, the principal exported items were gold, mercury, sulfur, and pearls. These products and others were enumerated in a Chinese text from the thirteenth century, the "Treatise of Siming (Mingzhou] of the Baoqing Era" (Baoqing Siming zhi):

"Japan, that is, Yamato, is situated in the far east, near the place where the sun rises. The trees of this country are of the very finest quality, having formed rings over the course of many years. Normally, the Japanese are skilled manufacturers of paper in five colors and, using gold leaf, they decorate it with orchids and other flowers in a manner still unmatched by the Chinese. They mainly use this paper for copying sutras. Their bronze craft also is more refined than that of China. Their trade ships arrive on our shores by a northeasterly wind, and they bring us all sorts of merchandise: products of high value-gold leaf, gold dust, decorative pearls, pearls for medicinal use, mercury, stag horn, and dichrocephala [dichrocephala latifolia DC., a medicinal plant grown in southern Japan]; and second-class products-sulfur, mother-of-pearl shells, rush mats, pine wood, cryptomeria wood, and planks of Luo tree wood, 68"

(Source)

Across the Perilous Sea: Japanese Trade with China and Korea from the Seventh to the Sixteenth Centuries by Charlotte Von Verschuer​

Amazon.com

 

[Freshplayer]

Halan Tumen in Jurchen script (Hala-an)

 

[Sizvahstar]

So this is something that seems to not have been brought up yet:
I counted 4 livestock locations in Japan, and more in Hokkaido.
As far as I know, meat consumption in Japan was extremely low in this time period (for religious reasons) and the only meat that was consumed somewhat regularly was wild game (did I miss it or is there not a single wild game location south of Hokkaido?).

Since livestock is used as an input that represents animal power (which was done in Japan), I guess it makes sense to have some livestock locations here, but I'm wondering if livestock's irrelevance as a food source is portrayed somehow?
I'm assuming it will still generate the same amount of food as anywhere else in the world, which means that some unique historical flavor would be lost.

Compared to rice which yields 10 food, Livestock only yields half IIRC. Either way, it's not as efficient as rice fields, so in that sense meat is "eaten less."

 

[yangzilata]

okay so i’ve been reading about private property in japan during the daimyo era (14th–16th century and after), and it’s nothing like how we think of owning land today. seriously, it’s wild.

before that, there was the shōen (荘園) system—private, tax-exempt estates run by lords or temples, kinda outside the state. super decentralized.

then during the muromachi and azuchi-momoyama periods, it got more intense. daimyos basically ran the land—collecting taxes, assigning samurai (Like Tımar System?), etc. officially, the land still “belonged” to the emperor (The same as eastern Romans' and Ottomans' model, no?) or shogun, but daimyos had full control.

but get this—they didn’t own the land like we think today. they had usufruct rights—they could use and profit from it, but not sell it or claim it outright.

• power > paperwork.

if you could defend it, you kept it.

land = military asset.?

more land meant more troops, more power. literally feudal Civ.

then the Edo period (1603–1868) Tokugawa shogunate locks down society: samurai can’t own land, peasants pay fixed taxes, and everything gets super bureaucratic.

land becomes more about money than war, but still—not private property like today. no free buying/selling. everything depended on

1. class,
2. loyalty,
3. and location.

historians now say it was a hybrid system—part feudal, part early bureaucracy. some even call the Edo era proto-capitalist 'cause of merchants and markets popping up, even though the social structure stayed tight.

Ultimate Result:
Monthly Progress to Capitalist +10 for Honshu. No?

 

[EasterEgg3323]

So in one of the most informative videos we can see some changes to Korea's raw materials:

Old​	New​
View attachment 1294877	View attachment 1294876

For better visual clarity I have marked in the changes:
View attachment 1294878
Boseong on the southern coast was split, the new location has fish. Beeswax was added to two locations. Yeongcheon has medicaments now instead of lumber.
My suggestion for adding iron and coal to the north, where Korea first industrialized, was implemented. Nice!

However, I have three comments to make regarding the current raw material setup...

• Since coal and iron were added but none were removed, Korea, a country that did not industrialize until the 20th century, now has quite a lot of it.
  The general policy, according to Pavía, is that resources which were exploited in the time period are represented in the game. I suggested iron and coal in the north as a compromise, since that region was the first to industrialize, but at the same time, I don't think other parts of Korea should have as much coal. The two coal locations on the eastern coast don't even line up with existing coal deposits, neither historical nor modern, so I'm suggesting for them to be removed and for the coal in Mungyeong to be swapped with the wool in Yeongwol, as this location is a historical site for coal production (as mentioned in my linked post).
  As for iron, I don't have sources for historical iron mining sites in the time period (if anyone does, please post them!), so I can't comment on the distribution, but I guess that the iron locations that exist now are just below what would feel "too much". The east coast could maybe do with one less...
• In the video I took the screenshot of, Korea was able to produce a huge amount of gold (and later jewelry), exporting it to all the markets in range. That makes me wonder: should Korea really have 6 locations with gold? That's a very high density! Gold mining was absolutely a thing, but to this degree? There was a post here in this thread that also questioned the gold density, and I think the gameplay video made the problem pretty obvious.
• With soybeans merged into legumes, there more legumes here now. Maybe a few could be changed for rice? I'm especially looking at the farmland locations of Inju (fish) and Namgyeon (legumes) that could be rice instead...

I like the vegetation map by the way!

I think yyyyes, this godforsaken mountainous semi-island peninsula with hardly any flat land definitely has a lot of gold. On top of that, there is iron and coal (though the problem is that it's anthracite) and an abundance of limestone. And these are the resources that remain even after being ruthlessly mined in the last century, whether we wanted them or not. This land has quite a lot of resources. The problem is that they are rarely concentrated in one place, so profitability is a major consideration, and the easier-to-mine resources are located on the North side. I agree to some extent that since coal was infrequently used, replacing it with other resources would be a suitable option.

 

[Mef]

I think yyyyes, this godforsaken mountainous semi-island peninsula with hardly any flat land definitely has a lot of gold. On top of that, there is iron and coal (though the problem is that it's anthracite) and an abundance of limestone. And these are the resources that remain even after being ruthlessly mined in the last century, whether we wanted them or not. This land has quite a lot of resources. The problem is that they are rarely concentrated in one place, so profitability is a major consideration, and the easier-to-mine resources are located on the North side. I agree to some extent that since coal was infrequently used, replacing it with other resources would be a suitable option.

Pavía has made it clear that their policy is to only include resources that were exploited during the game's timeframe, so resources that are exploited today or were exploited during the last century are irrelevant.

Compared to rice which yields 10 food, Livestock only yields half IIRC. Either way, it's not as efficient as rice fields, so in that sense meat is "eaten less."

But that's true everywhere in the world, it doesn't represent Japan's meatless diet which is pretty special.

 

[Goblin Slave]

Some information on the evolution of Korean gold and silver mining from Everyday Life in Joseon-Era Korea: Economy and Society

https://www.amazon.ca/Everyday-Life-Joseon-Era-Korea-Economy/dp/9004261125

“The Korean peninsula has been known for its mines since at least the Three Kingdoms period, but the exact origins of mining are unclear. As a very mountainous region, minerals can be found all over the country, but the best mines are concentrated in the north. Geography and climate dictated that the southern regions would be the center of agriculture with its fertile land and plentiful rainfall. The mountainous northern regions did not have much arable land, and rainfall was not sufficient to enable proper irrigation of paddy fields. However, the north was active in commerce and mining with mountains rich in copper, gold, and iron.

In the late nineteenth century, foreign powers sought to extract mining concessions from the government. The Unsan mine in North Pyeongan province was granted to an American concern in 1895, later developing into one of the world’s leading producers of gold. Mining continues to be a major industry in North Korea today, producing important minerals such as magnesite, tungsten, and zinc.

This chapter provides a brief overview of the development of mining in the Joseon period and also examines the lives of the various people who worked in the mines. Initially tightly regulated by the government, the mining industry gradually became dominated by investors who provided capital and hired workers who received wages for their labor. During the end of the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth century, it transformed into an industry based on capitalist principles.

**A Brief History of Mining**

In the early Joseon period, the government’s policy was to discourage gold and silver mining. The peasantry was also opposed to mining since they would be forced to do difficult labor without receiving any benefits. They bribed government officials and technical experts to submit false reports that their regions had no gold. Magistrates and local officials were also reluctant to develop mines because of the added obligations they would entail and the stiff resistance of the peasantry.

The Great Code of 1469 (Gyeongguk daejeon) prohibited digging for gold and established regulations for its mining. In the fifteenth century, mining focused on iron ore rather than gold and silver; iron was used to produce daily necessities, weapons, and other metal goods. Mine workers did not work there by choice; the peasants residing near the mine were conscripted for compulsory labor. They had to extract ore, transport it, prepare firewood, and smelt the iron. Private mining production did exist, but it was strictly controlled and taxed.

Mining underwent gradual development over the succeeding centuries as the government loosened restrictions on it. When trade with China expanded in the sixteenth century, silver was needed to pay for the increased imports of silk. In addition to the official government mines, people engaged in illegal private mining of silver. In silver mining regions such as Dancheon in Hamgyeong province and nearby areas, independent miners emerged, having learned techniques when they worked as forced or paid labor in government mines.

However, silver mining was still not a lucrative profession. Even in the reign of Jungjong in the sixteenth century, the residents of Dancheon did not have any fixed assets and were much poorer than other people in the province. In the seventeenth century, the government stopped direct management of mining operations, shifting to a system of indirect regulation through the collection of taxes.

After the Manchu invasions in the seventeenth century, King Hyojong advocated an invasion of Qing China, and the production of iron, sulfur, and wrought iron—all used to make military goods—increased. The most sought-after mineral in this period was still silver. In the middle of the century, the government opened silver mines in places such as Paju, Gyoha, Goksan, Chuncheon, and Gongju and levied taxes on them. By 1687, about seventy silver mines had been built across the country, and the largest one was the mine in Dancheon. Government authorities forced peasants in the surrounding area to work in the mines, and they did most of the work except for tasks such as digging or refining which, at the time, required specialists known as *jangin*.

The next stage of development came at the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth centuries, when the Ministry of Taxation took control of mining; particularly, lead and silver mines. The ministry had the authority to appoint merchants in Seoul as officials called *byeolj jang*, allowing them to open mines and collect taxes on them. The people in charge of the actual mining were called *jeomjang*, whose skills were more advanced than those of earlier mine workers. If they discovered a deposit of silver ore, they would notify the office in the capital. After a *byeolj jang* was appointed to open the mine officially, workers called *yeongun* (lead miners) or *eungun* (silver miners) would gather in the area.

Forced off their land, they were so unable to make a living that their names were not even recorded in household registers. They were more like wage laborers, receiving fixed wages either once a month or once a year. In the first half of the eighteenth century, it was said that hundreds or even thousands of workers gathered at the mines, depending on the size of the deposit.

At the end of the eighteenth century and the early nineteenth century, private mining began to emerge. Under the government’s inefficient system of regulation, silver mining actually declined, but the development of gold mining, which was highly profitable, was very active. It became increasingly common for miners to be paid wages and to work together with their families.”

*Continued*

Spoiler

Selling One’s Labor to Survive

Who were the people who came to work in the mines? A good amount of information can be found in the texts produced in the aftermath of the Hong Gyeongnae rebellion of 1811–1812. Mine workers were generally poor peasants who had lost their farmland or were overwhelmed by famine and worked as day laborers or peddlers. For example, Choe Dongi was a poor twenty-two year old merchant, who travelled throughout the region. Originally from Gaecheon, he came to a village in Unsan and worked for someone selling earthenware. During an average market day, he would sell four jeon, five pun worth of goods, netting him about one jeon. Lacking a household register or identification tag, he wandered around begging for food; he once went to Pyongyang and sold herring. One day, he took five jeon and went to a wealthy family’s home to buy some grain, but the owner refused to sell to him. Out of spite, he robbed the house with his brothers and comrades after the outbreak of the Hong Gyeongnae Rebellion. He then reported the father and sons of the household to the government army, claiming that they were on the side of the rebels.



Choe Intaek was forty-three years old and lived in Jindu, making his living ferrying people across the Daeryeong River. Gim Durisan was fifty years old and supported himself by carrying people’s goods around the marketplace. Forty-three year old Yun Ibok was a poor commoner renting a room in someone else’s house, while fifty-eight year old Sin Bongdeok was so poor that he volunteered to go mining. These people lacked the specialized skills and tools needed for mining; the only thing they possessed was the sheer labor of their bodies.



The people were paid one nyang in advance as wages. The people hiring laborers at the time convinced people that this amount would be enough for a family to survive for a month while the head of the family was away working in the mines. There were some like Yun Ibok who received as much as three nyang in advance. Yun later stated that in a time of famine, he could not pass up the opportunity to receive such a large sum. These laborers did not actually end up working in the mines. The ringleaders of the Hong Gyeongnae rebellion had spread false rumors that gold mines were opening in Unsan in an attempt to recruit troops for the insurrection. The people were taken to their base in Dabokdong and were used to support the troops undertaking a siege of Gasan and Bakcheon. Despite this deception, the fact that people flocked to the mines clearly shows how the poor people of Pyeongan province, unable to make a living on their farms, sold their labor in order to survive in the early nineteenth century.



The Lure of Mining

Gold collectors were in slightly better circumstances, as Bak Jiwon described in *Jehol Diary*. In 1780, when he went to China as part of an official mission, he traveled to Bakcheon in Pyeongan province. Along the road, he met many men and women carrying goods and bundles who were heading to the Seongcheon gold mine with their families. They carried the implements needed to harvest gold – chisels to dig through the ground, sacks to hold the dirt and stones mixed with gold, and baskets to sift out the dirt and pebbles. Even though the tools were rudimentary, they allowed families to work on their own and reap the rewards for themselves. Those who were unlucky would find only three or four grain-sized pieces of gold, but a lucky person could find more than ten. It was not very hard work to go through one sack of earth a day, but it could provide enough to eat; if one were extremely fortunate, a person could become rich instantly.



This kind of mining was more profitable than farming. Each day, a person could find at least six or seven pun worth of gold, which could be exchanged for two or three nyang of money. This amount could purchase a half seok of rice. By comparison, Choe Dongi, mentioned above, made one jeon selling goods all day at the marketplace (with one nyang equal to ten jeon). The prospect of such earnings drew not only large numbers of peasants who abandoned their farms but also all kinds of ‘undesirables.’ Another example is the gold mine in Seongcheon in Pyeongan province. It was said, with some exaggeration, that the mountain area was overflowing with rice and various goods and was crowded with more than 100,000 people as well as vendors selling everything from liquor to food, rice cakes to toffee. According to a 1780 report by Yu Uiyang, even at the time he was just a magistrate (*busa*), the Seongcheon mine produced about 20,000 nyang of gold in weight. This was equivalent to about 800,000 nyang in money.



The sudden growth of mining became a major concern for the government. In the second half of the eighteenth century, gold panning emerged in the Daedong and Cheongcheon river basins, drawing large numbers of peasants. Both silver and copper mining also underwent rapid development. Peasants were not only abandoning farming but also damaging the land, leading to a decline in agricultural production. Even a relatively progressive king such as Jeongjo implemented strict measures to force people to return to their villages. He was worried that the people at the mines were abandoning farming to seek an easier life and that mines were becoming hotbeds of crime. Another concern was that gold was flowing out to China. For the peasantry, however, the lure of mining went beyond the prospect of a high income; it was a type of economic activity where a person’s earnings would be commensurate with one’s effort and technical skill. At the end of the eighteenth century, King Jeongjo promulgated a series of measures to forbid gold mining but all ended in failure. The mining industry continued to grow, and the number of mining workers increased once again. In the first half of the nineteenth century, a government official noted, “People following profit is like water flowing downward. As long as such enormous profits exist, we cannot control the situation even if we forbid \[mining] and beat them every day.”



The Emergence of Private Mine Operators

Poor farmers and peddlers were not the only people at the mines. The types of people varied according to the time period. In the sixteenth century, the people who managed silver mines were officials sent by the central government. They commandeered peasants to work in the silver mines or worked through wealthy merchants to recruit laborers. In the seventeenth century, there were many mines that were operated by army bases; officials appointed by the government continued to manage the mines, but they were very different in nature. Familiar with the geological conditions of their regions, they were generally appointed to their posts in return for finding a deposit of ore, living in the mines that they operated. Though some had passed the military service examination or were officials in sinecure posts, most of them were ordinary commoners. Their goal was to rise in social status rather than simply to seek financial gain.



From the end of the seventeenth century, the Ministry of Taxation was put in charge of lead and silver mines, acquiring the authority to appoint the mine operators. The nature of these managers began to change significantly. Wealthy merchants, seeking large profits, started to become involved in lead and silver mining. Using their connections with high-ranking officials, they got themselves appointed as officials by the Ministry of Taxation and became mine operators. In return for building a mine and collecting taxes, they received as much as two-thirds of its total production. Because of this potential for wealth, there was fierce competition to gain control over mines. Conflicts between officials sent by the Ministry of Taxation and the managers who lived in mining areas sometimes even led to murder.



In the second half of the eighteenth century, there were mine operators who accumulated tremendous amounts of capital. It was no longer possible to maintain the existing practice of appointing operators as officials of the Ministry of Taxation. A new system was officially established in which the local magistrate was put in charge of supervising the development of mines and of collecting taxes. One consequence was that it gave more freedom to those with capital. There was an increase in illegal mining without a government permit, a practice known as *jamchae*. It was the result of the fact that increasing numbers of landed elites and large merchants served as financial backers for silver mines. They had the capital necessary to hire workers, had both status and ability, and had connections with officials higher in rank than the local magistrate. Merchants and moneylenders gradually became the leading figures in gold mining rather than mining specialists. Sometimes, they were even directly involved in finding workers for their mines. Some of them became organizers of the Hong Gyeongnae rebellion; they were the ones who advertised the opening of mines in order to bring workers to the region. For example, Gang Deukhwang operated a sizable business with his father in Jindu, also serving as a local military officer; he brought many people to the rebel base with the promise of an advance for working in a mine. Gim Yeojeong, who also recruited many people to the cause, had a large business in Jindu with his father, and their boats brought their goods to customers as far away as Jeolla province. Although they lied about their involvement in mining, their backgrounds do reveal some aspects of gold mining at the time.



At the end of the eighteenth century and first half of the nineteenth century, a new kind of mine operator emerged called *hyeolju* or *deokdae*.



As gold mining rose in importance, people were needed to locate new veins and take charge of operations once the ore extractable by panning was exhausted. The main qualifications for a mine operator were experience in mining extraction, familiarity with the region, and close ties with government officials or merchants. Funds for facilities and operating expenses came from financial backers who directly operated the mines themselves. Some *hyeolju* and *deokdae* did become mine owners, but some were involved in scandals resulting from mismanagement. One example is a murder that occurred in 1799. After failing at silver mining, Bak Jongjeong and Bak Changbaek, both from Hamgyeong province, made plans to develop a gold mine in secret during a stay at an inn. Fearing that they would be reported to the authorities, they went to see the *pungheon*, an officer of the *yuhyangso*, to ask the village not to report them to the authorities. They found out that the head of the village was indeed going to report them, and after the head refused their requests, they waited by the road and murdered him.




[\SPOILER]

 

[EasterEgg3323]

Some information on the evolution of Korean gold and silver mining from Everyday Life in Joseon-Era Korea: Economy and Society

https://www.amazon.ca/Everyday-Life-Joseon-Era-Korea-Economy/dp/9004261125

“The Korean peninsula has been known for its mines since at least the Three Kingdoms period, but the exact origins of mining are unclear. As a very mountainous region, minerals can be found all over the country, but the best mines are concentrated in the north. Geography and climate dictated that the southern regions would be the center of agriculture with its fertile land and plentiful rainfall. The mountainous northern regions did not have much arable land, and rainfall was not sufficient to enable proper irrigation of paddy fields. However, the north was active in commerce and mining with mountains rich in copper, gold, and iron.

In the late nineteenth century, foreign powers sought to extract mining concessions from the government. The Unsan mine in North Pyeongan province was granted to an American concern in 1895, later developing into one of the world’s leading producers of gold. Mining continues to be a major industry in North Korea today, producing important minerals such as magnesite, tungsten, and zinc.

This chapter provides a brief overview of the development of mining in the Joseon period and also examines the lives of the various people who worked in the mines. Initially tightly regulated by the government, the mining industry gradually became dominated by investors who provided capital and hired workers who received wages for their labor. During the end of the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth century, it transformed into an industry based on capitalist principles.

**A Brief History of Mining**

In the early Joseon period, the government’s policy was to discourage gold and silver mining. The peasantry was also opposed to mining since they would be forced to do difficult labor without receiving any benefits. They bribed government officials and technical experts to submit false reports that their regions had no gold. Magistrates and local officials were also reluctant to develop mines because of the added obligations they would entail and the stiff resistance of the peasantry.

The Great Code of 1469 (Gyeongguk daejeon) prohibited digging for gold and established regulations for its mining. In the fifteenth century, mining focused on iron ore rather than gold and silver; iron was used to produce daily necessities, weapons, and other metal goods. Mine workers did not work there by choice; the peasants residing near the mine were conscripted for compulsory labor. They had to extract ore, transport it, prepare firewood, and smelt the iron. Private mining production did exist, but it was strictly controlled and taxed.

Mining underwent gradual development over the succeeding centuries as the government loosened restrictions on it. When trade with China expanded in the sixteenth century, silver was needed to pay for the increased imports of silk. In addition to the official government mines, people engaged in illegal private mining of silver. In silver mining regions such as Dancheon in Hamgyeong province and nearby areas, independent miners emerged, having learned techniques when they worked as forced or paid labor in government mines.

However, silver mining was still not a lucrative profession. Even in the reign of Jungjong in the sixteenth century, the residents of Dancheon did not have any fixed assets and were much poorer than other people in the province. In the seventeenth century, the government stopped direct management of mining operations, shifting to a system of indirect regulation through the collection of taxes.

After the Manchu invasions in the seventeenth century, King Hyojong advocated an invasion of Qing China, and the production of iron, sulfur, and wrought iron—all used to make military goods—increased. The most sought-after mineral in this period was still silver. In the middle of the century, the government opened silver mines in places such as Paju, Gyoha, Goksan, Chuncheon, and Gongju and levied taxes on them. By 1687, about seventy silver mines had been built across the country, and the largest one was the mine in Dancheon. Government authorities forced peasants in the surrounding area to work in the mines, and they did most of the work except for tasks such as digging or refining which, at the time, required specialists known as *jangin*.

The next stage of development came at the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth centuries, when the Ministry of Taxation took control of mining; particularly, lead and silver mines. The ministry had the authority to appoint merchants in Seoul as officials called *byeolj jang*, allowing them to open mines and collect taxes on them. The people in charge of the actual mining were called *jeomjang*, whose skills were more advanced than those of earlier mine workers. If they discovered a deposit of silver ore, they would notify the office in the capital. After a *byeolj jang* was appointed to open the mine officially, workers called *yeongun* (lead miners) or *eungun* (silver miners) would gather in the area.

Forced off their land, they were so unable to make a living that their names were not even recorded in household registers. They were more like wage laborers, receiving fixed wages either once a month or once a year. In the first half of the eighteenth century, it was said that hundreds or even thousands of workers gathered at the mines, depending on the size of the deposit.

At the end of the eighteenth century and the early nineteenth century, private mining began to emerge. Under the government’s inefficient system of regulation, silver mining actually declined, but the development of gold mining, which was highly profitable, was very active. It became increasingly common for miners to be paid wages and to work together with their families.”

*Continued*

Spoiler

Selling One’s Labor to Survive

Who were the people who came to work in the mines? A good amount of information can be found in the texts produced in the aftermath of the Hong Gyeongnae rebellion of 1811–1812. Mine workers were generally poor peasants who had lost their farmland or were overwhelmed by famine and worked as day laborers or peddlers. For example, Choe Dongi was a poor twenty-two year old merchant, who travelled throughout the region. Originally from Gaecheon, he came to a village in Unsan and worked for someone selling earthenware. During an average market day, he would sell four jeon, five pun worth of goods, netting him about one jeon. Lacking a household register or identification tag, he wandered around begging for food; he once went to Pyongyang and sold herring. One day, he took five jeon and went to a wealthy family’s home to buy some grain, but the owner refused to sell to him. Out of spite, he robbed the house with his brothers and comrades after the outbreak of the Hong Gyeongnae Rebellion. He then reported the father and sons of the household to the government army, claiming that they were on the side of the rebels.



Choe Intaek was forty-three years old and lived in Jindu, making his living ferrying people across the Daeryeong River. Gim Durisan was fifty years old and supported himself by carrying people’s goods around the marketplace. Forty-three year old Yun Ibok was a poor commoner renting a room in someone else’s house, while fifty-eight year old Sin Bongdeok was so poor that he volunteered to go mining. These people lacked the specialized skills and tools needed for mining; the only thing they possessed was the sheer labor of their bodies.



The people were paid one nyang in advance as wages. The people hiring laborers at the time convinced people that this amount would be enough for a family to survive for a month while the head of the family was away working in the mines. There were some like Yun Ibok who received as much as three nyang in advance. Yun later stated that in a time of famine, he could not pass up the opportunity to receive such a large sum. These laborers did not actually end up working in the mines. The ringleaders of the Hong Gyeongnae rebellion had spread false rumors that gold mines were opening in Unsan in an attempt to recruit troops for the insurrection. The people were taken to their base in Dabokdong and were used to support the troops undertaking a siege of Gasan and Bakcheon. Despite this deception, the fact that people flocked to the mines clearly shows how the poor people of Pyeongan province, unable to make a living on their farms, sold their labor in order to survive in the early nineteenth century.



The Lure of Mining

Gold collectors were in slightly better circumstances, as Bak Jiwon described in *Jehol Diary*. In 1780, when he went to China as part of an official mission, he traveled to Bakcheon in Pyeongan province. Along the road, he met many men and women carrying goods and bundles who were heading to the Seongcheon gold mine with their families. They carried the implements needed to harvest gold – chisels to dig through the ground, sacks to hold the dirt and stones mixed with gold, and baskets to sift out the dirt and pebbles. Even though the tools were rudimentary, they allowed families to work on their own and reap the rewards for themselves. Those who were unlucky would find only three or four grain-sized pieces of gold, but a lucky person could find more than ten. It was not very hard work to go through one sack of earth a day, but it could provide enough to eat; if one were extremely fortunate, a person could become rich instantly.



This kind of mining was more profitable than farming. Each day, a person could find at least six or seven pun worth of gold, which could be exchanged for two or three nyang of money. This amount could purchase a half seok of rice. By comparison, Choe Dongi, mentioned above, made one jeon selling goods all day at the marketplace (with one nyang equal to ten jeon). The prospect of such earnings drew not only large numbers of peasants who abandoned their farms but also all kinds of ‘undesirables.’ Another example is the gold mine in Seongcheon in Pyeongan province. It was said, with some exaggeration, that the mountain area was overflowing with rice and various goods and was crowded with more than 100,000 people as well as vendors selling everything from liquor to food, rice cakes to toffee. According to a 1780 report by Yu Uiyang, even at the time he was just a magistrate (*busa*), the Seongcheon mine produced about 20,000 nyang of gold in weight. This was equivalent to about 800,000 nyang in money.



The sudden growth of mining became a major concern for the government. In the second half of the eighteenth century, gold panning emerged in the Daedong and Cheongcheon river basins, drawing large numbers of peasants. Both silver and copper mining also underwent rapid development. Peasants were not only abandoning farming but also damaging the land, leading to a decline in agricultural production. Even a relatively progressive king such as Jeongjo implemented strict measures to force people to return to their villages. He was worried that the people at the mines were abandoning farming to seek an easier life and that mines were becoming hotbeds of crime. Another concern was that gold was flowing out to China. For the peasantry, however, the lure of mining went beyond the prospect of a high income; it was a type of economic activity where a person’s earnings would be commensurate with one’s effort and technical skill. At the end of the eighteenth century, King Jeongjo promulgated a series of measures to forbid gold mining but all ended in failure. The mining industry continued to grow, and the number of mining workers increased once again. In the first half of the nineteenth century, a government official noted, “People following profit is like water flowing downward. As long as such enormous profits exist, we cannot control the situation even if we forbid \[mining] and beat them every day.”



The Emergence of Private Mine Operators

Poor farmers and peddlers were not the only people at the mines. The types of people varied according to the time period. In the sixteenth century, the people who managed silver mines were officials sent by the central government. They commandeered peasants to work in the silver mines or worked through wealthy merchants to recruit laborers. In the seventeenth century, there were many mines that were operated by army bases; officials appointed by the government continued to manage the mines, but they were very different in nature. Familiar with the geological conditions of their regions, they were generally appointed to their posts in return for finding a deposit of ore, living in the mines that they operated. Though some had passed the military service examination or were officials in sinecure posts, most of them were ordinary commoners. Their goal was to rise in social status rather than simply to seek financial gain.



From the end of the seventeenth century, the Ministry of Taxation was put in charge of lead and silver mines, acquiring the authority to appoint the mine operators. The nature of these managers began to change significantly. Wealthy merchants, seeking large profits, started to become involved in lead and silver mining. Using their connections with high-ranking officials, they got themselves appointed as officials by the Ministry of Taxation and became mine operators. In return for building a mine and collecting taxes, they received as much as two-thirds of its total production. Because of this potential for wealth, there was fierce competition to gain control over mines. Conflicts between officials sent by the Ministry of Taxation and the managers who lived in mining areas sometimes even led to murder.



In the second half of the eighteenth century, there were mine operators who accumulated tremendous amounts of capital. It was no longer possible to maintain the existing practice of appointing operators as officials of the Ministry of Taxation. A new system was officially established in which the local magistrate was put in charge of supervising the development of mines and of collecting taxes. One consequence was that it gave more freedom to those with capital. There was an increase in illegal mining without a government permit, a practice known as *jamchae*. It was the result of the fact that increasing numbers of landed elites and large merchants served as financial backers for silver mines. They had the capital necessary to hire workers, had both status and ability, and had connections with officials higher in rank than the local magistrate. Merchants and moneylenders gradually became the leading figures in gold mining rather than mining specialists. Sometimes, they were even directly involved in finding workers for their mines. Some of them became organizers of the Hong Gyeongnae rebellion; they were the ones who advertised the opening of mines in order to bring workers to the region. For example, Gang Deukhwang operated a sizable business with his father in Jindu, also serving as a local military officer; he brought many people to the rebel base with the promise of an advance for working in a mine. Gim Yeojeong, who also recruited many people to the cause, had a large business in Jindu with his father, and their boats brought their goods to customers as far away as Jeolla province. Although they lied about their involvement in mining, their backgrounds do reveal some aspects of gold mining at the time.



At the end of the eighteenth century and first half of the nineteenth century, a new kind of mine operator emerged called *hyeolju* or *deokdae*.



As gold mining rose in importance, people were needed to locate new veins and take charge of operations once the ore extractable by panning was exhausted. The main qualifications for a mine operator were experience in mining extraction, familiarity with the region, and close ties with government officials or merchants. Funds for facilities and operating expenses came from financial backers who directly operated the mines themselves. Some *hyeolju* and *deokdae* did become mine owners, but some were involved in scandals resulting from mismanagement. One example is a murder that occurred in 1799. After failing at silver mining, Bak Jongjeong and Bak Changbaek, both from Hamgyeong province, made plans to develop a gold mine in secret during a stay at an inn. Fearing that they would be reported to the authorities, they went to see the *pungheon*, an officer of the *yuhyangso*, to ask the village not to report them to the authorities. They found out that the head of the village was indeed going to report them, and after the head refused their requests, they waited by the road and murdered him.




[\SPOILER]

Since the neighboring country (Ming) was like a black hole for precious metals, there was also concern that gold and silver mining would only serve to increase the number of items to be offered as tribute, which would only cause hardship for the comnon people - even though they would undoubtedly be exchanged for something of greater value. Needless to say, Qing was no exception.

 

[Freshplayer]

Some information on the evolution of Korean gold and silver mining from Everyday Life in Joseon-Era Korea: Economy and Society

https://www.amazon.ca/Everyday-Life-Joseon-Era-Korea-Economy/dp/9004261125

“The Korean peninsula has been known for its mines since at least the Three Kingdoms period, but the exact origins of mining are unclear. As a very mountainous region, minerals can be found all over the country, but the best mines are concentrated in the north. Geography and climate dictated that the southern regions would be the center of agriculture with its fertile land and plentiful rainfall. The mountainous northern regions did not have much arable land, and rainfall was not sufficient to enable proper irrigation of paddy fields. However, the north was active in commerce and mining with mountains rich in copper, gold, and iron.

In the late nineteenth century, foreign powers sought to extract mining concessions from the government. The Unsan mine in North Pyeongan province was granted to an American concern in 1895, later developing into one of the world’s leading producers of gold. Mining continues to be a major industry in North Korea today, producing important minerals such as magnesite, tungsten, and zinc.

This chapter provides a brief overview of the development of mining in the Joseon period and also examines the lives of the various people who worked in the mines. Initially tightly regulated by the government, the mining industry gradually became dominated by investors who provided capital and hired workers who received wages for their labor. During the end of the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth century, it transformed into an industry based on capitalist principles.

**A Brief History of Mining**

In the early Joseon period, the government’s policy was to discourage gold and silver mining. The peasantry was also opposed to mining since they would be forced to do difficult labor without receiving any benefits. They bribed government officials and technical experts to submit false reports that their regions had no gold. Magistrates and local officials were also reluctant to develop mines because of the added obligations they would entail and the stiff resistance of the peasantry.

The Great Code of 1469 (Gyeongguk daejeon) prohibited digging for gold and established regulations for its mining. In the fifteenth century, mining focused on iron ore rather than gold and silver; iron was used to produce daily necessities, weapons, and other metal goods. Mine workers did not work there by choice; the peasants residing near the mine were conscripted for compulsory labor. They had to extract ore, transport it, prepare firewood, and smelt the iron. Private mining production did exist, but it was strictly controlled and taxed.

Mining underwent gradual development over the succeeding centuries as the government loosened restrictions on it. When trade with China expanded in the sixteenth century, silver was needed to pay for the increased imports of silk. In addition to the official government mines, people engaged in illegal private mining of silver. In silver mining regions such as Dancheon in Hamgyeong province and nearby areas, independent miners emerged, having learned techniques when they worked as forced or paid labor in government mines.

However, silver mining was still not a lucrative profession. Even in the reign of Jungjong in the sixteenth century, the residents of Dancheon did not have any fixed assets and were much poorer than other people in the province. In the seventeenth century, the government stopped direct management of mining operations, shifting to a system of indirect regulation through the collection of taxes.

After the Manchu invasions in the seventeenth century, King Hyojong advocated an invasion of Qing China, and the production of iron, sulfur, and wrought iron—all used to make military goods—increased. The most sought-after mineral in this period was still silver. In the middle of the century, the government opened silver mines in places such as Paju, Gyoha, Goksan, Chuncheon, and Gongju and levied taxes on them. By 1687, about seventy silver mines had been built across the country, and the largest one was the mine in Dancheon. Government authorities forced peasants in the surrounding area to work in the mines, and they did most of the work except for tasks such as digging or refining which, at the time, required specialists known as *jangin*.

The next stage of development came at the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth centuries, when the Ministry of Taxation took control of mining; particularly, lead and silver mines. The ministry had the authority to appoint merchants in Seoul as officials called *byeolj jang*, allowing them to open mines and collect taxes on them. The people in charge of the actual mining were called *jeomjang*, whose skills were more advanced than those of earlier mine workers. If they discovered a deposit of silver ore, they would notify the office in the capital. After a *byeolj jang* was appointed to open the mine officially, workers called *yeongun* (lead miners) or *eungun* (silver miners) would gather in the area.

Forced off their land, they were so unable to make a living that their names were not even recorded in household registers. They were more like wage laborers, receiving fixed wages either once a month or once a year. In the first half of the eighteenth century, it was said that hundreds or even thousands of workers gathered at the mines, depending on the size of the deposit.

At the end of the eighteenth century and the early nineteenth century, private mining began to emerge. Under the government’s inefficient system of regulation, silver mining actually declined, but the development of gold mining, which was highly profitable, was very active. It became increasingly common for miners to be paid wages and to work together with their families.”

*Continued*

Spoiler

Selling One’s Labor to Survive

Who were the people who came to work in the mines? A good amount of information can be found in the texts produced in the aftermath of the Hong Gyeongnae rebellion of 1811–1812. Mine workers were generally poor peasants who had lost their farmland or were overwhelmed by famine and worked as day laborers or peddlers. For example, Choe Dongi was a poor twenty-two year old merchant, who travelled throughout the region. Originally from Gaecheon, he came to a village in Unsan and worked for someone selling earthenware. During an average market day, he would sell four jeon, five pun worth of goods, netting him about one jeon. Lacking a household register or identification tag, he wandered around begging for food; he once went to Pyongyang and sold herring. One day, he took five jeon and went to a wealthy family’s home to buy some grain, but the owner refused to sell to him. Out of spite, he robbed the house with his brothers and comrades after the outbreak of the Hong Gyeongnae Rebellion. He then reported the father and sons of the household to the government army, claiming that they were on the side of the rebels.



Choe Intaek was forty-three years old and lived in Jindu, making his living ferrying people across the Daeryeong River. Gim Durisan was fifty years old and supported himself by carrying people’s goods around the marketplace. Forty-three year old Yun Ibok was a poor commoner renting a room in someone else’s house, while fifty-eight year old Sin Bongdeok was so poor that he volunteered to go mining. These people lacked the specialized skills and tools needed for mining; the only thing they possessed was the sheer labor of their bodies.



The people were paid one nyang in advance as wages. The people hiring laborers at the time convinced people that this amount would be enough for a family to survive for a month while the head of the family was away working in the mines. There were some like Yun Ibok who received as much as three nyang in advance. Yun later stated that in a time of famine, he could not pass up the opportunity to receive such a large sum. These laborers did not actually end up working in the mines. The ringleaders of the Hong Gyeongnae rebellion had spread false rumors that gold mines were opening in Unsan in an attempt to recruit troops for the insurrection. The people were taken to their base in Dabokdong and were used to support the troops undertaking a siege of Gasan and Bakcheon. Despite this deception, the fact that people flocked to the mines clearly shows how the poor people of Pyeongan province, unable to make a living on their farms, sold their labor in order to survive in the early nineteenth century.



The Lure of Mining

Gold collectors were in slightly better circumstances, as Bak Jiwon described in *Jehol Diary*. In 1780, when he went to China as part of an official mission, he traveled to Bakcheon in Pyeongan province. Along the road, he met many men and women carrying goods and bundles who were heading to the Seongcheon gold mine with their families. They carried the implements needed to harvest gold – chisels to dig through the ground, sacks to hold the dirt and stones mixed with gold, and baskets to sift out the dirt and pebbles. Even though the tools were rudimentary, they allowed families to work on their own and reap the rewards for themselves. Those who were unlucky would find only three or four grain-sized pieces of gold, but a lucky person could find more than ten. It was not very hard work to go through one sack of earth a day, but it could provide enough to eat; if one were extremely fortunate, a person could become rich instantly.



This kind of mining was more profitable than farming. Each day, a person could find at least six or seven pun worth of gold, which could be exchanged for two or three nyang of money. This amount could purchase a half seok of rice. By comparison, Choe Dongi, mentioned above, made one jeon selling goods all day at the marketplace (with one nyang equal to ten jeon). The prospect of such earnings drew not only large numbers of peasants who abandoned their farms but also all kinds of ‘undesirables.’ Another example is the gold mine in Seongcheon in Pyeongan province. It was said, with some exaggeration, that the mountain area was overflowing with rice and various goods and was crowded with more than 100,000 people as well as vendors selling everything from liquor to food, rice cakes to toffee. According to a 1780 report by Yu Uiyang, even at the time he was just a magistrate (*busa*), the Seongcheon mine produced about 20,000 nyang of gold in weight. This was equivalent to about 800,000 nyang in money.



The sudden growth of mining became a major concern for the government. In the second half of the eighteenth century, gold panning emerged in the Daedong and Cheongcheon river basins, drawing large numbers of peasants. Both silver and copper mining also underwent rapid development. Peasants were not only abandoning farming but also damaging the land, leading to a decline in agricultural production. Even a relatively progressive king such as Jeongjo implemented strict measures to force people to return to their villages. He was worried that the people at the mines were abandoning farming to seek an easier life and that mines were becoming hotbeds of crime. Another concern was that gold was flowing out to China. For the peasantry, however, the lure of mining went beyond the prospect of a high income; it was a type of economic activity where a person’s earnings would be commensurate with one’s effort and technical skill. At the end of the eighteenth century, King Jeongjo promulgated a series of measures to forbid gold mining but all ended in failure. The mining industry continued to grow, and the number of mining workers increased once again. In the first half of the nineteenth century, a government official noted, “People following profit is like water flowing downward. As long as such enormous profits exist, we cannot control the situation even if we forbid \[mining] and beat them every day.”



The Emergence of Private Mine Operators

Poor farmers and peddlers were not the only people at the mines. The types of people varied according to the time period. In the sixteenth century, the people who managed silver mines were officials sent by the central government. They commandeered peasants to work in the silver mines or worked through wealthy merchants to recruit laborers. In the seventeenth century, there were many mines that were operated by army bases; officials appointed by the government continued to manage the mines, but they were very different in nature. Familiar with the geological conditions of their regions, they were generally appointed to their posts in return for finding a deposit of ore, living in the mines that they operated. Though some had passed the military service examination or were officials in sinecure posts, most of them were ordinary commoners. Their goal was to rise in social status rather than simply to seek financial gain.



From the end of the seventeenth century, the Ministry of Taxation was put in charge of lead and silver mines, acquiring the authority to appoint the mine operators. The nature of these managers began to change significantly. Wealthy merchants, seeking large profits, started to become involved in lead and silver mining. Using their connections with high-ranking officials, they got themselves appointed as officials by the Ministry of Taxation and became mine operators. In return for building a mine and collecting taxes, they received as much as two-thirds of its total production. Because of this potential for wealth, there was fierce competition to gain control over mines. Conflicts between officials sent by the Ministry of Taxation and the managers who lived in mining areas sometimes even led to murder.



In the second half of the eighteenth century, there were mine operators who accumulated tremendous amounts of capital. It was no longer possible to maintain the existing practice of appointing operators as officials of the Ministry of Taxation. A new system was officially established in which the local magistrate was put in charge of supervising the development of mines and of collecting taxes. One consequence was that it gave more freedom to those with capital. There was an increase in illegal mining without a government permit, a practice known as *jamchae*. It was the result of the fact that increasing numbers of landed elites and large merchants served as financial backers for silver mines. They had the capital necessary to hire workers, had both status and ability, and had connections with officials higher in rank than the local magistrate. Merchants and moneylenders gradually became the leading figures in gold mining rather than mining specialists. Sometimes, they were even directly involved in finding workers for their mines. Some of them became organizers of the Hong Gyeongnae rebellion; they were the ones who advertised the opening of mines in order to bring workers to the region. For example, Gang Deukhwang operated a sizable business with his father in Jindu, also serving as a local military officer; he brought many people to the rebel base with the promise of an advance for working in a mine. Gim Yeojeong, who also recruited many people to the cause, had a large business in Jindu with his father, and their boats brought their goods to customers as far away as Jeolla province. Although they lied about their involvement in mining, their backgrounds do reveal some aspects of gold mining at the time.



At the end of the eighteenth century and first half of the nineteenth century, a new kind of mine operator emerged called *hyeolju* or *deokdae*.



As gold mining rose in importance, people were needed to locate new veins and take charge of operations once the ore extractable by panning was exhausted. The main qualifications for a mine operator were experience in mining extraction, familiarity with the region, and close ties with government officials or merchants. Funds for facilities and operating expenses came from financial backers who directly operated the mines themselves. Some *hyeolju* and *deokdae* did become mine owners, but some were involved in scandals resulting from mismanagement. One example is a murder that occurred in 1799. After failing at silver mining, Bak Jongjeong and Bak Changbaek, both from Hamgyeong province, made plans to develop a gold mine in secret during a stay at an inn. Fearing that they would be reported to the authorities, they went to see the *pungheon*, an officer of the *yuhyangso*, to ask the village not to report them to the authorities. They found out that the head of the village was indeed going to report them, and after the head refused their requests, they waited by the road and murdered him.




[\SPOILER]

Thank you for your data, which strengthens my idea that the gold mine in Manchuria was significantly underestimated. Consider the case of annual production in Seongcheon, which was 20,000 Korean taels of gold in weight. Jiapigou in Huifa Valley, Jilin province, produced only a tenth of that amount in the 1870s. Although the mining records appear to be too recent, the earliest production at this gold mine may date back to the Bohai/Balhae State Period (7th-10th century), which made the nearby Suzhou (sokjeo; 속주; 涑州) one of the three cities under central control.

Historically, Manchuria was prestigious for its gold production, notably the Jurchen Jin (Gold) Dynasty. After the founding of the Qing Dynasty, the Manchu rulers worried that mining would jeopardize the Feng Shui for the empire; thus, they banned all mining activities in this area until the 19th century. As it is shallow-seated and even explicit on the surface, Jiapigou soon drew nationwide interest, with the flocking of miners, foreigners, and outlaws. After two centuries of industrialized mining, it remains one of the largest gold mines in China.

The case also works for Mohe and Humar, known for the gold rush and Zheltuga Republic. The gold mine is also shallow, exposed on the surface, and not extracted until the coming of the Russians. The production used to make up 60% of the Qing's gold production. Besides the mining ban in Manchuria, the ancestors of the native Evenks rejected the gold and silver given by the Manchu emperors because, according to their traditions, they considered those materials useless.

Spoiler: References

还有历史与今天那些关于黄金的真实记载和传说故事:1870年前后，这一带日产黄金500余两，月产黄金15000余两，年产黄金近20万两。行走山间，不经意间会一脚踢出大块“狗头金”;河水金光闪闪，随意就可捞取满手的金砂。1875年的一天，一位淘金者曾在这儿的一条河流中采得重300两的大金块;时隔百多年后的1981年，一位叫耿占阳的淘金人又在这儿采得重7两多的金块。一位农民的儿子考上了大学，全家正为学费着急，忽然就在门前的小河里发现了一块亮闪闪的“狗头金”……

Around the 1870s, this region was famous for its abundant gold resources. Historical accounts report a daily gold yield of over 500 taels, totaling more than 15,000 taels per month and close to 200,000 taels annually. It was said that while walking in the mountains, one might accidentally kick a large gold nugget—commonly referred to as "dog-head gold". The river waters shimmered with golden glints, and one could easily scoop up handfuls of gold sand.

In 1875, a gold prospector reportedly found a massive gold nugget weighing 300 taels in a local river. Over a century later, in 1981, a man named Geng Zhanyang unearthed another large nugget weighing more than 7 taels in the same area. In another tale, a farmer’s son was admitted to university, and the family was struggling to afford tuition—until one day, a glittering nugget of dog-head gold was found right in the stream in front of their home.

source: https://culture.cnjiwang.com/gxt/202409/3885821.html

据《魏书·高句丽传》记载，正始年间（504—508），高句丽使者芮悉弗曾向北魏世宗进言道：“高丽系诚天极，累叶纯诚，地产土毛，无愆王贡。但黄金出自夫余，珂则涉罗所产。今夫余为勿吉所逐，涉罗为百济所并，国王臣云惟继绝之义，悉迁于境内。二品所以不登王府，实两贼是为。”桦甸夹皮沟镇依偎粟末河，又是渤海境内唯一生产黄金的地方，有可能因盛产黄金而成为渤海国直辖的独奏州之一的涑州。

According to the Book of Wei, in the section "Biography of Goguryeo," during the Zhengshi era (504–508), a Goguryeo envoy named Yei Siful addressed Emperor Shizong of Northern Wei, saying:“Goguryeo is truly devoted to the utmost sincerity, loyal and faithful through successive generations. The land yields native products without fail in tribute to the court. However, gold originates from Buyeo, and mother-of-pearl comes from Silla. Now, Buyeo has been driven out by the Mohe, and Silla has been annexed by Baekje. The king, as a subject, upholds the duty of restoring what has been broken and has relocated all those things within his borders. That these two tribute items no longer reach the imperial court is truly due to the actions of these two hostile states.” Huadian’s Jiapigou Town lies nestled along the Sumuo River and was the only place in Bohai territory known for gold production. It is therefore likely that, due to its rich gold resources, it became one of Bohai’s directly governed solo-prefectures, known as Suzhou.

sources: http://hrczh.cass.cn/sxqy/kgx/202303/t20230317_5634485.shtml

 

[Goblin Slave]

There doesn’t seem to have been much discussion about the flaws of using the Gokishichidō (the five provinces and seven circuits) as the blueprint for Japan’s regional layout, so I decided to make some modifications to the current set up with MS Paint. The circuits were built around roads rather than the geography of the region, which could result in very unnatural borders—such as in the case of Tōsandō, which stretches from Lake Biwa in Ōmi Province, across the Japanese Alps, all the way into the Kantō and Tohoku regions. (Which Tinto themselves have already changed, breaking off Tohoku from Tosando) Likewise, the tiny size of the Kinai area excludes regions that were highly interconnected with the capital, such as Ōmi Province, which has always been closely tied to Kyoto via Lake Biwa and the Yodo River. In fact, the main reason Oda Nobunaga built Azuchi Castle was to establish a stronghold from which he could watch over Kyoto. I’ve done my best to draw the areas along their natural borders—for example, the Tōkaidō, which follows the flat coastline south of the Japanese Alps and stops at the mountain ranges that separate it from the Kantō and Kinai/Kansai regions, while also staying within traditional Japanese region classifications. (Tosan, Tokai) Let me know what you all think of my changes, overall I’m pretty happy with how it looks, though there’s definitely a lot of leeway in deciding where each province belongs area wise. (Ise Tokai VS Kinai, Awaji Nankai VS Kinai, etc...)

My Modified Map​

Historical Gokishichido Map​

Spoiler

Current Area Map​

Spoiler

Topographic Map​

Spoiler

東山地方 - Wikipedia

ja.wikipedia.org

(Tosan Region)

東海地方 - Wikipedia

ja.wikipedia.org

(Tokai Region)

Kantō kubō - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

(Kanto Region)

 

[Sizvahstar]

But that's true everywhere in the world, it doesn't represent Japan's meatless diet which is pretty special.

Given the present mechanics, how would you model it? You could imagine that Livestock is traded away, for example.
No matter what the majority might do, if there are animals they will either get eaten or die out as they are of no use, I would think - so the situation makes me think of the ban on alcohol import in Muslim countries - people still drank, it was just not socially acceptable.