264 



COREA. 



and her pupils in civilization, transmitted to 

 Japan emigrants, Buddhist missionaries, arts, 

 and sciences. After many wars with either 



Area and Population. The peninsula, which is 

 600 miles long, varies from 400 to 120 miles in 

 breadth, and has an area of nearly 80,000 



country, and among the three' states them- square miles, or twice the size of Ohio, with a 

 selves, political unity was given to the penin- coast-line of 1,740 miles. The official enurner- 

 sula by King Wu, who united the San-han into 

 one state, named Korai. He divided the coun- 



ation of houses, made thirty-three years ago, 

 as noted by Dallet, gave the number at 1,700,- 



try into eight provinces, fixing his capital at 000, and that of the people at 7,000,000 ; and a 

 Sunto a few miles northeast of Seoul. During Japanese writer in Seoul says that according 



to a census made in 1881 

 the population is 6,840,000. 

 Beyond the Tumen, in Rus- 

 sia," there are at least 10,000 

 Coreans, 2,000 of whom live 

 at or near Vladivostok. 



Industry and Finance. The 

 revenue of the King or Gov- 

 ernment is derived entire- 

 ly from the land-tax, and 

 there are comparatively few 

 traces of trade or industry 

 such as are seen in Japan or 

 China. Cereals are largely 

 used as money. The unit of 

 cultivable land for revenue 

 purposes is the kyel, the 

 equivalent of which in our 

 superficial measure can not 

 be stated, because it is the 

 amount of land capable of 

 producing one hundred 

 sheaves of rice. This crop 

 varies in value according to 

 the fertility of the season, 

 but averages a half-bushel 

 of clean white grain. A 

 Icy el or welc of land is worth 

 100,000 aapeJe or "cash," 

 which is equivalent to about 

 twenty dollars. The esti- 

 mated total yield of the 

 country is 468,360 tyel of 

 rice-land and 309,807 Icy el 

 of other cereals, or an av- 

 erage annual crop worth 

 $15,562,260. The land-tax, 

 payable at option in money 

 or in kind, is 750 Corean 

 taels, or nyang (worth twen- 

 ty cents), or $150 per 100 

 Icy el for rice-land, and about 

 500 nyang, or $100 per Icy el, 

 of other cereals. The an- 

 nual governmental revenue 

 of Corea is thus seen to be 

 the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the Mon- only about $950,000, or less than a million 

 gols occupied Corea. On their fall, and the dollars a sure proof of the great poverty of 



the country, acknowledged by all visitors to 

 the peninsula. A more equitable system of 

 taxation, better government, and the develop- 

 ment of the undoubted natural resources, will, 



rise of the Ming dynasty in China, the Coreans 

 threw off the Mongol yoke, restored their old 

 name, Cho-sen, and the modern order of things, 

 and established their seoul, or capital, on Han 

 river. The Japanese invasion of 1592-1597, 

 and that of the Mantchoos in 1627, greatly im- 



as in the case of Japan, change all this. 

 Physical Geography. The peninsula consist 



poverished the nation. From the effects of of a great chain of mountains, running from 



these wars Corea has not yet recovered, and 

 Cho-sen is one of the poorest of countries. 



north to south, which makes eastern Corea a 

 ridge and western Corea a slope. Fronting 



