Goryeo Settlement, Geography, Industry, Trade & Diplomacy

[tokimitsu]

About Goryeo Settlements, Geography, Industry, Trade & Diplomacy

Goryeo was territorially small Kingdom, but had been a mostly densely populated area in the world from earlier time.

Because Korean Peninsula is located in the Nodal point where the continental powers and the maritime powers intersect or conflict each other.

Korean Peninsula has worked as a bridgehead geopolitically in North-East Asia.

Especially, this uneasy geopolitical position had become more serious since Korean People lost there hometown - Manchuria in 926 AD when Kitanic Liao(遼) ruined Korean Kingdom of Balhae(渤海 698~926) which had ruled Manchuria.

How to conserve national land or How to expand power to the continent had been the fateful task to Goryeo People.

[tokimitsu]

Geology (Mountain ranges) & Settlements of Goryeo

More than 70% of Korean Peninsula is covered by Mountains.

Korean Peninsula has West-low, East-high geographical feature.

The main mountains are biased to North-east.

So Almost all the rivers rise from east mountains and run toward southern-western sea.
And most of the settlements concentrate in South-West plain regions.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Red curved lines are the chains of mountains.

The colored spots indicate the Settlements of Goryeo.



Green colored small spots indicate the Outports of each settlemets. Each outport has one Red numeral.

• 1 belongs to Anbuk
• 2 belongs to Seogyeong
• 3 belongs to Kaegyeong, the capital city
• 4 belongs to Jeonju
• 5 belongs to Naju
• 6 belongs to Jinju
• 7 belongs to Donggyeong
• 8 belongs to Anbyeon
• 9 belongs to Namgyeong

In addition, city of Haeju and Tamra are the port cities themselves.

So, the cities which have their own outport are 11 settlements.

3 settlements-Cheongju, Chungju, Sangju don't have outport. they are inland cities.

Brief map of The chains of mountains.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

In the map below:
The thick black curved lines are the Chains of mountains.
The most slender black curved lines are the Rivers.

[tokimitsu]

Provinces & Settlements

Provincial System of Goryeo

3 capitals, 5 provinces-2 frontiers, 4 Dohobus + 8 Moks

Goryeo Settlements

• The Capital
  
  • Kaegyeong 開京
• The 3 Minor Capitals
  
  • Seogyeong 西京
  • Donggyeong 東京(deleted from minor capitals in 12thC AD)
  • Namgyeong 南京(alert Donggyeong as a minor capital)
• 4 Dohobus 都護府 (the Protective city of frontier)
  
  • Anbuk 安北 (taking charge of northern frontier)
  • Anbyeon 安邊 (taking charge of eastern frontier)
  • Haeju 海州 (taking charge of western frontier)
  • Donggyeong 東京 (taking charge of southern frontier)
• 8 Moks 牧 (Provincial Capital city)
  
  • Hwangju 黃州
  • Kwangju 廣州
  • Chungju 忠州
  • Cheongju 淸州
  • Sangju 尙州
  • Jeonju 全州
  • Naju 羅州
  • Jinju 晉州
• The Largest intermediational Trade city
  
  • Tamra 耽羅

4 Dohobus and 8 Moks are equal level of cities each other.
They worked as the capital cities in Provincial regions.

I think 5 province-2 frontiers system is meaningless to select the Goryeo settlements in AUH

Because there are more than 2 moks or Dohobus in one Province.
Let's look at the map.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

In the map, the pink-colored province(Kyoju-do) has no Moks nor Dohobus in it.

These fact means that it's not proper to select settlements depending on '5 provincials-2 frontiers' map.





This map below is more proper provincial division map of Goryeo.

Each Province has one settlement in it.

The Red Dotted Line I edited indicates the facts Kwanseo-do(Pink province) was devided to left &right
provinces in Emperor Hyeonjong's regime.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Population

In Goryeo, there are about 8,000,000 population in 12th century.

The Gross Area of Goryeo was 160,000km²

(The rate of increase in population : 0.2~0.5%)

• Keagyeong-the capital city had about 700,000 populations(1 million houses) in it in 12thC.
• Each minor capital had about 200,000~400,000 populations.
• Each Mok & Dohobu had about 50,000~140,000 populations.

<Quoted from "Min Byeongdeok, 『Was there Sunday in the past time?』, 1st Ed., Seoul, 책이 있는 마을 press, 2003">

These populations in each settlement are due to vast economic power of each settlement, because of active oceanic trading, with many nations, especially with Chinese Song-the most progressive nation in the world at that time.

These populations in each Goryeo settlement are more bigger than that of contemporary Medival cities in Europe.

(13th~14th century)

• Constantinople : more than 300,000 (before Crusade's invasion in 1204)
• Milan : 200,000
• Venice : 100,000
• Genoa : 100,000
• Florence : 100,000
• Paris : 80,000
• Ghent(East Flandre) : 50,000
• London : 35,000~40,000
• Koln : 35,000

<Quoted from "Rondo Cameron / Larry Neal, 『A Concise Economic History of the World, From Paleolithic Times to the Present』, 4th Ed., Oxford Univ press, 2002">

Even in Japan(Gross Area: 300,000km²), the capital of Heiankyo(Kyoto) has 150,000 population at that time.

These demographical figures shows how big these Goryeo cities were and how crowded Korean Peninsula were.

Although smaller than that of Chinese Song's settlement, the populations & its density in these Goryeo Settlements cannot be ignored.

[tokimitsu]

@Yalu
Ok, I am working on it.
I think it's somewhat pain to modify, but I & we Korean users cannot assent to these names.

Goryeo

Kaegyong (Capital)
Sogyong
Namgyong
Dongyong
Kyoju
Cholla
Tonggye
Sohae

Sorry to say that these names(Kyoju Cholla Sohae) are not settlements' name.

How did you selected settlements from each provinces?
Especially, Kyoju-do province has no own provincial capital city in it.
How the settlements are located in Campaign map?
I'm very curious about that.

[Yelü Dashi]

There is no way we could accomodate that many settlements (14) on such a small bit of the map.

We currently have 8 :

Goryeo

Kaegyong (Capital)
Sogyong
Namgyong
Dongyong
Kyoju
Cholla
Tonggye
Sohae

Please let us know if something should be there and isn't or if any of these are incorrect. They can still be changed, even though it's a pain to do so. We could possibly add another one (bringing the total to 9)

[Yelü Dashi]

Still confused, this is really useful research but what do you think of our existing setup with settlements ? Do you think we should have 14 settlements ?

[tokimitsu]

Still confused, this is really useful research but what do you think of our existing setup with settlements ? Do you think we should have 14 settlements ?

Yes, 14 would be proper. I already deleted 2 cities(Hwangju and Kwangju) from the list.
Is it so difficult to modify settlement setup?

[Yelü Dashi]

Have you downloaded the alpha ? You can see for yourself. I think there is picture on another thread showing there placement. I will have a look.

[tokimitsu]

Industry map 1

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[tokimitsu]

The map of Kaegyeong-the capital city

All of this city is surrounded by stone walls(height 4~5m)
The walls were constructed in Doubled or Tripled defense structure.

There were 25 Gates in Kaegyeong - 8 great gates / 4 middle gates / 13 small gates.

The inner castle wall of the city is 8.5km's long.

The outer castle wall of the city was constructed to 23 km's long in 1029 AD
to accomodate 700 thousands of citizens.

[tokimitsu]

Trade with Song





Oversea trade of Goryeo consist of 3 types of trade.

• Governmental trade
• Unofficail trade by trade missions
• Smuggling

All the trade with Song were formed as mixed system of these 3 types.

Trading with Song was the most important industry in Goryeo because that made enormous profits to Goryeo.
Song was one of the largest trade centers and the most commercialized, civilized country in the world.
Trade with Song was great avenue to import Song's newest advanced cultures and stuffs to Goryeo.
Goryeo ended up with trade surplus with Song. This means Song's trade deficit toward Goryeo.
Why Song endured trade deficit with Goryeo?
Because Song needed Goryeo military force which could perform diversionary tatics against Liao, Jin.
At the rear of Jin, Goryeo actually did retrain Jin's military operations toward Song.
The fact that Goryeo repelled off Kitanic Liao's invasions 3 times of 10th century made Song cooperate with Goryeo in military terms.
The trade surplus to Goryeo was cultural, financial compensation for cooperation.
International political diplomacy did deeply intervene in the trade between Goryeo and Song.

Goryeo had to take utilitarianism and neutrality as diplomatic policy to survive as a small country in uneasy situation of East Asia.

Even the Chinese great scholar, Su Dongpo 蘇東坡 did insist the breaking off trade with Goryeo,
because he thought trade with Goryeo did make little economic profits to Song, on the other hand Goryeo Merchants and Scholars swept away almost of splendid stuffs of Song.
Su Dongpo furiously critisized the Song Court's indulgent deplomatic policy toward Goryeo.

In Mu-shin era of Goryeo(after 1170 AD), the the main subject of oversea trade was alerted from Civil Nobles to Mu-shins. So from Mu-shin Era, Unofficial trade by trade missions became to dominate large percentages of Goryeo oversea trade.



1. Main Trade Stuffs





1) Export to Song

• Lacquer wares
• Goryeo Ginseng
• Figured Mat
• Paper
• Ink Stick
• Bronze Utensils
• Goldwares, Silverwares
• Ramie Clothes
• Golden Decorated Buddist sutras
  Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

  

2) Import from Song

• Chinese Celadons
• Medicinal stuffs
• Silk
• Jades
• Musical Instruments
• Confucion Books
• Perfume
• Spices

The first import stuff, Chinese Celadon had great vogue among the Goryeo Nobles.
But the supply of high quality celadon was always unsufficient to the demand for this stuff, though Chinese celadons were the highest-priced goods.
So Goryeo ceramists began to imitate Chinese celadon from 10th century to keep up with domestic demands for celadons of Nobles.
In this process Goryeo green celadon was born in 11th century. Subsequently, Goryeo ceramists invented lavish Goryeo Blue Inlaid Celadons independently in 12th century.
Goryeo celadon was the domestic substitute for Chinese Celadon.
But, Goryeo celadon was even exported to Jin, Japan.

And ceramic pottery was used even by commoners of Goryeo!!!

It is certain that Song's aesthetic cultures strongly stimulated Goryeo people to develope more generally civilized life of them.

2. Trade Routes

1) Route of earlier time (When Song's captial was Kaifeng 開封)
http://gusang.nationalculture.kr/swf/rp0702d00003.swf (before 11th C)
http://gusang.nationalculture.kr/swf/rp0702d00011.swf (mainly used southern route to Kaifeng after 11th C)



2) Route of later time (When Song's capital was Lin'an 臨安)

http://gusang.nationalculture.kr/swf/rp0702d00005.swf

The Orange - purple color line is the Route to Song

Keagyeong(開京 Goryeo) --- Tamra(耽羅 Goryeo) --- Ningbo(寧波 Song) --- Lin'an(臨安 Song)

3. Ningbo(寧波 / 明州) - the Gateway to Song

The city of Ningbo was the largest harbor city in Song China and was the terminal of Oceanic route of the whole world trade network at that time.
This city was World Trade Center.

Goryeo Merchants and Envoys also used its port.

As the amount of the trade between Goryeo & Song was increasing, Song Court provided the huge official residence only for Goryeo people. Huizong, the Emperor of Song, who was favorable to Goryeo promoted this work actively. This Official Residence was the most biggest mansion among the residences for foreign envoys.
This Structure shows how enormous the trade amount between Song & Goryeo was.
It was called as "Goryeo Envoy Official Mansion (高麗使館)", built in 1117 AD.
In the record,
57 times from Goryeo to Song, 30 times from Song to Goryeo in 50 years from 1117 AD.
One come-and-go staffs are about 200 people.
Here are images of this building.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

This Mansion was restored as the symbol of long-standing friendship between Korea and China in 2006.






4. Song Qian(宋钱 the Currency Coins of Song) - The Key Currency of East Asia

Goryeo had own currency itself, but Song Qian(宋钱) was more used in oversea trade.

Song Qian was the Key Currency of East Asia, as same as today's US dollars.

Even in Japan which did not have own currency itself, SongQian did work as Japanese domestic currency.

So more SongQians are excavated in other countries - Japan and Korea today than the mainland of China.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[tokimitsu]

Trade with Jin

With Jin, Goryeo did not do governmental trade officially. But unofficial envoy's trade and smuggling seemed to be very prevalent in many historical records.

But, trade with Jin was not so influential as trade with Song. Trade with jin was one of Goryeo's neutral diplomatic policy.

Because of this type of trade, Song occasionally doubted whether Goryeo and Jin made alliance secretly with each other.

Trade with Song meant Cultural, Economical interchage to Goryeo.

In the other hand, trade with Jin is said to have meant diplomatic etiquette and political interchange to Goryeo.



1. Main Trade Stuff





1) Export to Jin

• Rice
• Salt
• Goryeo Ginseng
• Goryeo Celadons
• Buddist Sutras
• Bow
• Linen textiles
• Goldwares, Silverwares
• Silk fabrics
• Paper
• Ink Stick
• Bronze Utensils
• Refreshments(Tea, Liquor, Sweets)

2) Import from Jin

• Silver
• Horse
• Sheep
• Fur, Woolen Clothes
• Leather Clothes
• Belt
• Chain Mail

2. Trade Routes

Route of earlier time (early 12th C)
http://gusang.nationalculture.kr/swf/rp0702d00007.swf

Route of later time (12~13th C)
http://gusang.nationalculture.kr/swf/rp0702d00005.swf

Orange Line Sea route
Keagyeong(開京 Goryeo) --- Haeju(海州 Goryeo) --- Dengzhou(登州 Jin) --- Zhongdou(中都 Jin)

Green - Blue Line Land route
Keagyeong(開京 Goryeo) --- Uiju(義州 Goryeo) --- Liaoyang(遼陽 Jin) --- Shanhaiguan(山海關 Jin) --- Zhongdou(中都 Jin)

[STELLover]

Currency, I think is unified? As gold- but I like this better

Nice pics +rep

Regards

[tokimitsu]

Currency, I think is unified? As gold- but I like this better

Nice pics +rep

Regards

Yeah, thanks
As you know,
Gold was occasionally used as a oversea trade good of Goryeo just like international currency.
And, Silver was most important as a unified means of big deal payment.
Some historians say, this Hwal-gu is the evidence of transference to the silver standard currency system which had begun to bud in medieval world trade system.

It's small(6cm), isn't it?
It was truly a more convenient means of payment than bundles of coins or sacks of rice.

[tokimitsu]

To Yalu

Well, I have to revise my opinion about the number of Goryeo Settlements.

14 is too many to accomodate on small Korean Pennisular of campaign map. I had made you confused, sorry.

But May I offer 9 settlements? In other words, plus one to the existing settlements?

And May I offer to modify a little bit the orthography of existing names of some settlements?


Like this:

• Kaegyong (Capital) -------> Kaegyeong
• Sogyong --------> Seogyeong
• Namgyong -------> Namgyeong
• Dongyong -------> Donggyeong
• Kyoju
• Cholla -------> Jeolla
• Tonggye -------> Donggye
• Sohae -------> Seohae

+ Tamra(plus one)

totally 9 settlements.

Tamra is the biggest southern island of Goryeo and was the marine intermediary trade city, in addition the most producer of military horses.
so you would not have trouble with establishing a new settlement, Tamra, I think.

How about my offer?
Sorry to late.