Paper short abstract:

Chosŏn protected its economy and society from excessive Japanese trade in the early fifteenth century by imposing complicated regulations for trade and diplomacy at the border, but this was more than a by-product of its policy on border security;it had significant origins in economic considerations.

Paper long abstract:

The trade between Korea and Japan became excessive shortly after cross-border activity revived in the 1400s, following the piracy that had characterised the 1300s. Overheated trade was a burden on Korea's economy, posing two major challenges. On the one hand, because of limited production capacity, the Koreans could not provide enough grains and cloth to meet the huge demand from the Japanese; on the other hand, since the size of the market was limited on the peninsula, Korea was not able to consume all the overseas products that were being shipped by the Japanese. In order to acquire as much Korean grain and cloth as possible, the Japanese increasingly resorted to violence, intimidation, and smuggling. To respond, the Chosŏn administration had to create more detailed regulations to govern border affairs and conduct economic relations with the Japanese. As more and more specific rules were promulgated, the Koreans developed formal procedures in the Sejong reign (1418-1450) to deal with Japanese visitors and confine the trade to a reasonable scope. Thereafter, these procedures became the general framework governing economic and diplomatic Japan-Korea relations until the late nineteenth century. The paper sets out the general framework and argues that Korean maritime controls were primarily economic in origin and similar to contemporaneous Ming maritime controls.