Page:The passing of Korea.djvu/298

 From time immemorial barter has been the principal method of trade, and to a very large extent the same may be said to-day. In many parts of Korea money is a sort of luxury that, while pleasant to have, is by no means essential to comfort. In the capital, the open ports and some of the more important inland towns everything is secured by purchase, but this includes only a small fraction of the whole population. In the country districts, for the most part, commodities are secured at periodical " markets," called chang by the Koreans. As you travel through the country and come to populous villages, you wonder where people get their various wares. Do they make them all themselves? There are very few country shops, and even these are of the most trivial kind. It is when you happen to strike a town on market day that the riddle is solved. For five days the place seems almost deserted, but on the sixth it is simply swarming with humanity. Every farmer and artisan for miles around has foregathered at this point to exchange his wares for those of someone else. All day long it is one scramble to see who can get his business done first, so that an early start can be made for home, or so that there may be leisure to do a little gambling or gossiping. The wine shops are running at full blast, for almost every important bargain is consummated over steaming bowls of rice wine. Every tongue is loosed, and to the uninitiated stranger who approaches one of these commercial orgies for the first time, and when it is at its height, it seems sure that a riot is going on or that a free fight is in hilarious progress. It is like five hundred exciting auction sales going on all at once, or like a busy day on 'change. Of course much money changes hands on these occasions, but comparatively little of it leaves the town. Every man has exchanged his wares for those of another, and everyone wends his way home, happy in the belief that he has made a good bargain. He may have cause to change his mind when the good lady of his house finds what he has bought.

Koreans learn but very slowly to change the style of their