This study has reviewed the formation and development of the Korean cooperative movement under Japanese colonial rule, focusing on the keywords “concepts,” “Participants,” and “solidarity.” It aims at answering the following three questions. First, through what channels was the concept of cooperatives, which had been imported into East Asia around 1868, introduced, understood, and transformed in Korea? Second, how did unions in the financial and manufacturing industries, which were cooperatives established by the Japanese Government-General of Korea, differ from those established as voluntary organizations in the private sector? Third, why did private cooperatives decline sharply in number from the mid-1930s on? By answering these three questions, this study identifies the path of the Korean cooperative movement and the characteristics of the cooperative movement developed under colonial rule.
In Korea, private cooperatives began to be established in the 1920s. Before 1920, cooperatives had been narrowly defined in Korea based on the Japanese Industrial Cooperatives Act, but in the 1920s, various media described cooperatives in more specific detail. Cooperatives were established under Japanese colonial rule as part of consumers' own efforts to address the high prices of daily goods, price gouging by the middlemen, and impoverishment. Various groups, including intellectuals, farmers, and workers, created consumer cooperatives that jointly purchased various daily necessities such as rice, coal briquettes, fabrics, shoes, and salt, and applied and attempted the cooperative principles developed in the process.
In terms of the original meaning of the term, cooperatives value equal ownership and independent operation centered on members and based on the principle of free association. However, under colonial rule, the exercise of independence and autonomy was limited, and it was difficult for most members to receive sufficient information and education about cooperatives in their own Korean language. Accordingly, those who led the cooperative movement criticized the way cooperatives were run under the Joseon Governor-General's guidance, which departed from the original principles of cooperatives, and gradually created a Korean-style model different from the government's guidelines.
From the 1870s on, when the idea of cooperatives was first introduced into East Asia, to 1938, when the number of cooperatives rapidly shrank, the Korean cooperative movement had five characteristics. First, promotion of the Korean cooperative movement did not fall under the colonial government's oversight. The Japanese enacted the Industrial Cooperatives Act in 1900 to promote industry and solve social problems, and encouraged cooperatives as part of a national policy. Japan's state-centered cooperative policy was transplanted into Korea in the form of financial industry and manufacturing industry unions, with important principles such as autonomy, self-reliance, and equality missing in the process.
Cooperatives established in the 1920s could have been organized in the form of corporations under the Joseon Industry Union Ordinance introduced by the Japanese at the time, but members of the cooperatives did not opt for such a corporation because they judged that they could not run cooperatives autonomously. They recognized that unions that did not offer autonomy in terms of union membership, executive election, and union funding would be cooperatives in name only and not play their role properly, and eventually they adopted a strategy of avoiding the ordinance of the Japanese Government-General. Instead, they established cooperatives in the form of voluntary organizations outside the purview of the Japanese-established decree. Their numbers doubled every year from 1926 on, and at least 500 cooperatives were established by the mid-1930s. The Japanese authorities seem to have determined that cooperatives had the advantage of being able to address social problems by themselves, without the involvement of the authorities, because the cooperatives focused on economic activities without involving themselves in politics. Accordingly, in the 1920s, the Japanese authorities did not include cooperatives in the same category as farmers' unions, trade unions, and socialist-leaning organizations that had other political agendas, and thus did not directly intervene. Cooperatives grew steadily as a result.
Second, it is presumed that the discourses of Japanese intellectuals who emphasized the principle of cooperation and how to run the joint purchasing association had a significant impact on the Korean cooperative movement. Korean intellectuals who had studied in Japan in the early 1920s had direct or indirect experience of critical discourses, debates, and private purchasing associations run mainly by members based on the Japanese industrial cooperatives theory focused on boosting national productivity. This experience gave the intellectuals an understanding of the value of cooperatives that was not limited to Japanese-style industrial cooperatives. The Korean intellectuals introduced the cooperative principles nationwide after their return to Korea and criticized the cooperatives established under the guidance of the Japanese Government-General. At the same time, attempts were made to apply European models such as that of the British Rochdale Society and the Danish cooperative model.
Third, the cooperative movement included various participants such as women, housewives, and workers. As in previous studies, if only a small number of organizations with ties to Christianity, Cheondoism (a Korean Pantheistic religion), and the Cooperative Movement Association (a cooperative movement organized in Tokyo in 1926) are examined, the participants of the cooperative movement are likely to be limited to a few male intellectuals. However, not only male intellectuals but also women, housewives, students, and workers participated in the cooperative movement. Outside Korea, consumer cooperatives and ship cooperatives were established with Korean workers playing a central role, even in Japan. In particular, the Korean cooperative movement consisted of more than ten women's consumer cooperatives, centered on women and organized with female union members only.
Fourth, when the concept of cooperatives was first introduced into Korea, it was possible to work side by side with gye (a Korean traditional benevolent and mutual-aid society). One of the reasons for the increase in the number of cooperatives since the mid-1920s was that Koreans did not feel unfamiliar with cooperatives introduced from abroad. During cooperative lectures, cooperative leaders explained the concept of cooperatives in connection with the notion of traditional mutual assistance. A commonality between cooperatives and gye is that people with common purposes gather and work together to achieve it, and mutual aid was a familiar daily lifestyle and culture to Koreans. For this reason, even though cooperative leaders were aware of the difference between cooperatives and gye, they had no choice but to emphasize the commonality between the two. Notably, the influence of gye experienced by people on a daily basis was a significant factor behind the widespread recognition of the unfamiliar concept of cooperatives imported from abroad.
Fifth, the cooperative took on a “subversive” nature only when some of the members of the cooperative were associated with farmers' associations and socialist organizations. Japanese authorities also used the cooperative in both mainland Japan and Korea for rural development purposes. This is because cooperatives were quite useful organizations that could be used to stabilize prices and farmers' livelihoods. For this reason, the Japanese authorities showed a lenient attitude toward accepting cooperatives even if they did not operate under the purview of the Industrial Union Ordinance. Before 1930, the Japanese Government-General of Korea's interventions consisted only of stopping lectures organized by some cooperatives or suspending general meetings. However, from the early 1930s on, the level of oppression increased, such as in the form of indiscriminate arrests of cooperative executives or immediate dissolution of the cooperative itself under the pretext of association with farmers' associations and political organizations. From 1932 on, cooperatives also began to be oppressed to the same extent as political and peasant organizations, and some large-scale cooperatives were immediately dissolved or their number was rapidly reduced. With the promotion of the Rural Development Movement in 1932, some cooperatives were absorbed by the Japanese Government-General of Korea, and as the Sino–Japanese War began in earnest in the mid-1930s, few newly established cooperatives could be found.

본 논문은 개념, 주체, 연대를 중심으로 일제하 한국 협동조합운동의 형성과 전개를 검토한 연구이다. 본 연구는 세 가지 질문의 답을 찾아가는 방식으로 구성되어 있다. 첫째, 1868년 이후 동아시아에 유입된 협동조합 개념은 어떤 경로를 통해 한국에 도입되었고, 이해되고 변용되었는가. 둘째, 민간에서 설립된 협동조합은 조선총독부에 의해 시행된 관제 협동조합인 금융조합과 산업조합과 어떤 차이점이 있는가. 셋째, 1930년대 중반 이후 민간 협동조합이 급격히 감소한 이유는 무엇인가. 세 가지 질문을 통해 한국 협동조합운동의 경로를 파악하고, 식민지배 하에 전개된 협동조합운동의 특징을 파악하였다.
일제하 한국 협동조합운동은 다섯 가지 특징을 보였다. 첫째, 한국 협동조합운동은 협동조합 관련 제령의 외부에서 추진되었다. 일본은 산업 증진과 사회문제를 해결하기 위하여 1900년에 산업조합법을 제정하였고, 국가 정책으로 협동조합을 시행하였다. 일본의 국가 중심적 협동조합 정책은 피식민지인 한국으로 들어오는 과정에서 자치성·자율성·민주성이 배제된 채 금융조합과 산업조합으로 이식되었다. 1920년대부터 조직된 민간 협동조합은 조선산업조합령에 의하여 사단법인 형태로 설립할 수 있었지만, 협동조합 구성원들은 조선총독부의 법역 내에서는 자율적으로 협동조합을 운영할 수 없다고 판단하여 이를 활용하지 않았다. 이들은 조합원 가입과 임원 구성, 조합 자금의 자율성이 배제되는 조합은 협동조합이라는 명칭만 갖고 있을뿐 그 역할을 하지 못한다는 점을 인지했으며, 결국 조선총독부의 제령을 회피하는 전략을 취하였다. 제령의 외부에서 임의조직 형태로 설립된 협동조합은 1926년부터 매년 두 배씩 증가하여 1930년대 중반까지 최소 500개 이상에 달했다.
둘째, 한국 협동조합운동은 협동조합 원칙을 중시한 일본 지식인의 담론과 사례, 그리고 덴마크와 영국의 협동조합 모델에 영향을 받았다. 1920년대 초, 일본 유학 및 유럽을 시찰한 이들은 국가 생산성에 중심을 둔 일본 산업조합론을 둘러싼 비판적 담론과 논쟁, 조합원을 중심으로 운영된 민간 협동조합을 직간접적으로 경험하였다. 이들은 일본식 산업조합을 넘어 협동조합의 역사와 원칙을 이해하였으며, 귀국 후 협동조합 원칙을 전국에 소개하고 이를 중심으로 조선총독부의 관제 협동조합을 비판하였다. 동시에 영국 로치데일 조합과 덴마크 협동조합 모델 등 외국 모델을 한국에 적용하고자 하였다.
셋째, 협동조합운동의 주체는 여성, 주부, 노동자, 농민 등으로 다양했다. 일제하 협동조합의 설립 주체는 지식인 남성에 국한되지 않았다. 지식인, 농민, 노동자뿐 아니라 여성을 중심으로, 여성 조합원만으로 구성된 여자소비조합 및 부인소비조합도 설립되었다. 한반도를 넘어 일본에서 설립된 한국인 노동자를 중심으로 한 소비자협동조합은 협동조합의 주체가 여러 범위에서 다양했음을 보여준다.
넷째, 협동조합 개념 도입 시, 계(契)와 연동성을 가졌지만 협동조합과 차이점이 더욱 강조되었다. 1920년대 중반 이후 협동조합이 증가할 수 있었던 원인 중 하나로 한국인들이 외국에서 형성된 협동조합 개념을 낯설게 여기지 않았던 것을 꼽을 수 있다. 협동조합 지도자들은 강연 진행 시, 협동조합과 계를 연결하여 협동조합 개념을 설명하였다. 협동조합과 계는 공동의 목적을 가진 사람들이 모여 이를 달성하기 위해 힘을 합한다는 공통점을 갖고 있으며, 계는 한국인에게 익숙한 일상이었고 문화였다. 그런 까닭에 협동조합 지도자들은 협동조합과 계의 차이점을 인지하고 있었음에도 불구하고 계와 협동조합의 공통점을 강조할 수 밖에 없었다. 외국에서 생성되었고 용어도 익숙하지 않은 협동조합이라는 개념을 낯선 것으로만 인식하지 않은 배경에는 일상적으로 경험한 계의 영향력을 간과할 수 없다.
다섯째, 1932년부터 협동조합은 급격히 감소하며 축소되었다. 1930년 이후 조선총독부는 농민조합 및 사상단체와 연계된 협동조합을 선별적으로 탄압하였으며, 협동조합 임원 검거와 관련 문서 압수 및 해산을 강제했다. 농촌진흥운동이 진행되며 일부 협동조합은 조선총독부에 흡수되었고, 1930년대 중반 이후 전쟁이 본격화되면서 협동조합운동의 축소는 가속화되었다.