Abstract

The overall environment that determined the direction and details of King Gongmin-wang’s governmental trade policy was quite different from those of earlier periods. Foreign merchants’ visit to the Korean peninsula was again increasing, so that was a good thing. The authorities from both the Chinese Jiangnan and Liaodung regions were trying to establish a relationship with Gingmin-wang, and in order to open communicative channels, they were showering the Goryeo government with all kinds of commercial goods and valuable commodities. Yet oddly enough, king Gongmin-wang was not that forthcoming in responding to such approaches of foreign entities. He was rather passive, and instead of returning the favor, he virtually remained inactive. There seem to have been a couple of reasons for such behavior, and among those reasons there was the increase in Dowager Queen Gi’s exploitation of Goryeo goods, as well as the collapse of the Yuan empire's main paper currency. While the former prevented king Gongmin-wang from securing enough material to invest in Goryeo-Yuan trades, the latter rendered Gongmin-wang unable to open trade relationships with various factions as the Yuan paper currency he stocked was no longer usable in trades with the Chinese. So, king Gongmin-wang needed another option to keep his trade policy alive, and that was to tap into the activities of the Goryeo community which was thriving at the heart of the Yuan empire, Beijing. In order to do that, he had to modify his prior hostile relationship with Dowager Queen Gi, and for that he opened a dialogue with Kokotemur, who was a victorious military figure and a staunch supporter of Queen Gi and his son, the crown prince and next leader of the empire. Later, when his plan failed once again due to the abrupt fall of the Yuan empire, he sought for a similar relationship with the newcomer Ming dynasty. Yet Ming was even more daunting than Yuan in its blatantly aggressive interest in Goryeo commodities. As a result king Gongmin-wang’s trade policy was never fully realized, and the Goryeo civilians and power figures continued their trade activities and transactions with their Chinese counterparts.