Chinese Lottery Business and Korea, 1898–1909: The Cantonese Company Tongshuntai, and East Asian Trade Networks

Abstract

This paper investigates Chinese-managed lottery businesses and their circulation from China into Korea. It focuses on the case of the business practices and marketing of the Cantonese company Tongshuntai, a foremost representative of Chinese capital in Korea. Through the case study of the lottery, East Asian trade networks can be understood as a kind of network circulating culture and information across the region. In 1899, the first modern Chinese lottery was issued in Shanghai. Cantonese merchants imported the Chinese lottery and broadly advertised lotteries in the newspaper in Seoul. Korea and China showed the same pattern in lottery business from the time of its rise to its demise. In 1909, there were strong regulations against lottery business both in China and Korea simultaneously. The force leading to the termination of lotteries in China was the reformative power that aimed to modernize China. In Korea, however, impetus to stop lotteries came from Korean nationalism as well as Japanese imperialist authority.本文以廣幫華商同順泰號的營業活動爲例，探討 20 世紀初中國彩票在韓國的流 通和華商的作用，進而討論 20 世紀初東亞貿易網絡的文化性功能。在 1899 年廣 濟公司得到官方批准，在上海創辦了江南義賑彩票，此後中國近代性彩票業眞 正開始。在韓華商在江南彩票開始的當年已進口了江南票。中國與韓國，同時 彩票大大流行，兩地域社會經驗了同樣的社會變化，供給者接踵而起，過熱競 爭，惹起了彩票市場進一步擴大，終於引起了反對彩票的社會公論。中國創辦 國産彩票，代替洋票，杜塞了資本的外流，反而韓國消費洋票之中國彩票， 爲 了新政期地方財政提供了資金。 1909 年韓中兩國同時開始了取締彩票，但在中 國取締彩票之動力是中國入憲派與改革勢力，在韓國取締彩票的是韓國民族主 義情緖以及日本帝國主義