Paper short abstract:

Studies of Japanese silver exports in the sixteenth century have focused on its effects in China, but large amounts of Japanese money have also been spilled on Korea before and after Hideyoshi's invasions. This paper will examine the effects of Japanese silver smuggling in Korea and Liaodong.

Paper long abstract:

From the discovery of the Iwami silver deposit in the 1530s, large quantities of Japanese precious metal entered Korea via official trade or smuggling. It has been established that this Japanese silver was mainly used for clandestine trade with China, in Beijing, through Korean embassies, but also in Liaodong. In this border region of the Chinese empire, trade with the Jürchens developed during the second half of the sixteenth century, which formed the background of the rise of the Manchu empire of Nurhaci. The floods of Japanese money that poured into China and Korea, before and after the Imjin War, played a crucial role in destabilizing the balances that maintained relative peace in the northern boundaries of the Chinese empire and the Korean kingdom.