This study set out to analyze the Census Register of Sageundo Stations, which is newly discovered material that was written in 1747 (the 23rd year of King Yeongjo`s reign) in the mid-18th century, and examine the composition and reality of station wor...
This study set out to analyze the Census Register of Sageundo Stations, which is newly discovered material that was written in 1747 (the 23rd year of King Yeongjo`s reign) in the mid-18th century, and examine the composition and reality of station workers. The Census Register of Sageundo Stations holds its significance as one of the four remaining census registers of stations and even greater importance as the only census register with all of its contents kept intact. It also has a huge advantage of being a good object of comparison as it addresses a similar period to the census registers of Kimcheondo and Songrado and covers a similar area to the census register of Jayeodo.
The Census Register of Sageundo Stations contains the data of 15 stations within the jurisdiction. Of the stations, Sageun Station was the biggest and had over 800 station workers, followed by Angan Station with about 500 stations workers, Yurin Station with about 400 station workers, and Jeongsu Station with about 300 station workers in that order. There were five stations with approximately 100 station workers and six stations with fewer than 100 station workers. The total number of station workers at the 15 stations was 3,468. Their workforce reached 3,928 when 460 carriers were added to them. Sageundo was a similar size to Jayeodo when the carriers were not included.
The stations` workers at each station were surveyed in terms of household. There were 165 households within the jurisdiction of Sageun Station, and the head was dead or escaped in 40 of them. There were even three people that were 100 years old or older among the escapees. Accounting to the majority of station workers, the official clerks had Yeokneyo, which refers to women charged with no direct duty of Yeok, excluded from their census registers. These findings indicate that there are fundamental limitations figuring out various situations involving families based on households.
The major concern of the census register was to examine the actual conditions of station workers charged with the duty of station Yeok accurately. Taking that into consideration, the present study focused on shedding light on the characteristics of station workers and identified the composition and size of official clerks by the stations and the characteristics of analysis by age groups. A more diverse analysis of station servants was more possible than official clerks at the station since the material contained the data of both male and female station servants. They include analysis by gender, birth condition, and marital status. Furthermore, the analysis results of Sageundo was compared and analyzed with those of Gimcheondo, Songrado, and Jayeodo to make its characteristics more prominent. The importance of errand boys and carriers gradually decreased at the station, whose binding force over them weakened. These situations were explained in comparison to the reality of the times.