The survey of Ulleungdo was conducted eight times between June 1899 and December 1905 in Korean Empire period. Investigators were government officials, including customs officials, Japanese Foreign Ministry officials and police, and Korean government ...
The survey of Ulleungdo was conducted eight times between June 1899 and December 1905 in Korean Empire period. Investigators were government officials, including customs officials, Japanese Foreign Ministry officials and police, and Korean government officials. The custom’s commissioner Laporte surveyed in June 1899 found that the Japanese exported timber and grain to Japan but did not pay tariffs other than the commission paid to intermediary merchants. The current status of the smuggling of the Japanese was also revealed in the September 1899 survey.
In June 1900, the Korean Empire and the Japanese government conducted a joint investigation, and the Korean Empire government asked the Japanese government to withdraw the Japanese on Ulleungdo, but the Japanese did not withdraw. The Korean Empire elevated Ulleungdo to Uldo county, placed an county magistrate, and recognized the right of tax administration. In the 1901 survey, it was revealed that the Japanese were not exporting tariffs but were extracting resources. In 1902, the Korean Empire government enacted the “Uldogun Jeolmok(鬱島郡節目, Administrative Guidelines governing Uldo County)”, and imposed 1% tariff on Japanese export cargo. The Japanese exploitation of the resources was the addition of fish from timber and grain, and in 1904 sea lions were added to the export. The sea lion at this time refers to sea lion of Liangko Island(sea lion of Dokdo). In 1905, sea lion scraps and canned abalone were added.
In 1905, there were about 3,500 Koreans living in Ulleungdo, and about 300-350 Japanese. In 1905, the number of exports was soybeans, wood, dried abalone, squid and sea lion, all of which were exported directly from Ulleungdo to Japan. Since the Japanese normally exported the cargo without paying the customs duties, the more the trade volume between Ulleungdo and Japan increased, the more the exploitation of resources became worse. Ulleungdo was surveyed every year from 1899 to 1905, especially in 1904 and 1905. This means the situation that the Japanese government tried to cope with the resources to invade in Ulleungdo as the resources of Ulleungdo were depleted.