• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.568-582
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• 2011

This study aims to discover the characteristics of Sino-South Korean cross-border small-scale trade, which involves various players. Through this characteristics, this study ultimately intends to identify an operational mechanism of Sino-South Korean cross-border small-scale trade by investigating social capital as mobilized by small-scale traders. The results of this study can be expected to help understand how small-scale merchants address the uncertainty or risks surrounding their trade. Although it is an informal economic activity, the cross-border small-scale trade between South Korea and China is related to issues of the formal economy, such as job creation, benefits for local economies, and profit-seeking. Owing to this characteristics, small-scale trade is being conducted with the connivance of, or even with the tacit support from formal organizations, including municipal governments, customs, corporations, and shipping companies. Like trade in other countries, Sino-South Korean cross-border small-scale trade also requires different types of social capital, such as family networks, ethnic networks, social networks, and trust.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.628-646
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• 2010

The subject of this research is the small-scale trade between South Korea and China (this trade is a so-called shuttle trade.) This research attempts to find the background to the emergence of the Sino-South Korean (cross-border) small-scale trade and the role of travel routes between the two countries. This research also aims to identify the development process of the bilateral small-scale trade by studying the scale of the small-scale trade and the organization of small-scale traders. Moreover, this research tries to discover the spatial characteristics of the interregional small-scale trade by reviewing the characteristics of traded goods; process of export and import and nodes of small-scale trade. To accomplish aforementioned purposes, the author discussed the relations between small-scale traders and maritime companies. The author also studied the internal change in the small-scale trade by focusing on the reinforcement of the regulation against the small-scale trade. Lastly, the author cited the case of the Soviet Union and middle-eastern Europe, which tremendously expanded the small-scale trades in the 1980s, in order to explain the growth of the Sino-South Korean small-scale trade.