Ginseng and Borderland: Territorial Boundaries and Political Relations Between Qing China and Choson Korea, 1636-1912 by Seonmin Kim

A discussion of various issues about the borderlands of China and Korea. And it was a borderland, theoretically unsettled. (Dealings with the rest of the world helped push toward a border, which other nations had, but it doesn't get deep in those dealings.)

Ginseng, its licensed gathering and poaching, was an enormous issue in that. It was greatly valued, as long as it was wild. Cultivated ginseng was treated as if poached, which complicated issues.

Also such thing as the value for peasants of being on the road where Korean tribute traveled, how the Qing dynasty didn't regard ginseng as distinctively Korean, and more.