Chapter 22
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 022
Chapter Title: Same Bed, Different Dreams
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“You idiot. So that's why you ran away?”
“He casually spouted things that made my hair stand on end just hearing them!”
Kim Ja-geun, the head of the Andong Kim Clan, clicked his tongue midway through his adopted son Kim Byeong-gi's report.
“Shouldn't we create some room to backtrack even now?”
“How?”
“Bolster the navy, reinforce the defenses at Ganghwa Island, and since Arthur's here, build friendly ties with England—”
“With what?”
In the end, Kim Ja-geun furrowed his brow deeply and grumbled curtly.
“How much would we need to expand the navy—how many ships—to stop those massive Qing destroyers that Admiral Yang crushed thirty of with just two vessels?”
Kim Byeong-gi knew nothing about naval affairs, but no matter how he thought about it, no ship Joseon could build, no matter what cannons they loaded on it, seemed capable of taking on Arthur's warships.
Building up the navy wasn't a viable answer.
That left only meeting the enemy on land.
“Ah.”
“Good, you've got it.”
They said position makes the man.
Even Kim Ja-geun, who had been endlessly mocked as incompetent and greedy, had started to develop that seasoned vibe that came from years in high office, bearing the weight of national responsibility.
In his eyes, he could vaguely perceive not just the domestic power struggles but the international situation as well.
“Besides, the English are far away, while the Qing are right next door. Could the English truly conquer the Central Plains like the old barbarians?”
Those people lusted after gold and silver, profits from trade and commerce.
And armies, by their very existence, devoured money—especially expeditionary forces abroad, which melted away fortunes like wax under a flame.
People as profit-sensitive as the English would sail in for plunder at most, not occupy Beijing, dethrone the barbarian emperor, climb Mount Tai, and proclaim themselves Sons of Heaven.
But what about the opposite?
The Qing just needed to fend off the swarming Western barbarians like kicking away flies—or if that failed, hand over the gold and silver they demanded.
The Qing army might not conquer those distant Western lands and eradicate them root and stem, but they certainly had enough strength left to burn this frail kingdom of Joseon to the ground.
The war that England and France talked about?
It was no different from the plundering raids of the Malgal or Khitan in the old histories—just coming by ship instead of horse.
Their cannons and ships were surely powerful. That's why they'd won their wars.
But the power to utterly destroy the nation of Joseon lay not with the English, but with the Qing.
Wasn't it clear as day what the right judgment was for protecting this nation's ancestral shrines and altars?
“Then—”
“But that doesn't mean we have to scream 'repel the barbarians' from the rooftops.”
That was for the Pungyang Jo Clan, who had to fawn over the scholars out of desperation. The Andong Kim Clan, bearing the heavy duty of governing this land, needed to secure real benefits.
Just as they'd adopted the Japanese matchlocks when the Imjin Waegu invaded, they could stay wary of English incursions while importing only their superior weapons.
“Son.”
“Yes, Father.”
“Placate Arthur appropriately. For all his talk of gratitude, he's clearly harboring ulterior motives—he came to Joseon chasing commercial profits, obviously. Tell him we'll pay handsomely for English weapons.”
“Y-Yes... I suppose so. Understood.”
A kid not even twenty couldn't possibly have the power to start a war. He was probably just throwing around scary threats to wring some trade concessions.
At least he hadn't brought that horrific opium; that alone meant Joseon's Neo-Confucians had dragged the English one step closer to human decency.
Public and private were separate from the start.
If Arthur harbored wicked intentions alongside his goodwill, there was no need to treat him especially well.
Joseon's power brokers were at ease.
The Far East had only a faint notion of 'trade'.
Not quite 'Ah, this is trade. You monkey savages wouldn't understand,' but more like it was extremely underdeveloped?
There had been booms like Cheonghaejin or Huludao or the Silk Road, but conversely, excluding those specific periods, inter-state trade—especially maritime trade—was undeniably dismal.
Just look at how Korea rocketed into the top ten advanced economies. A resource-poor nation relying solely on human capital grew by importing raw materials, processing them into products, and selling them—pure processing trade. As someone who'd fought on the front lines of that trade war, it was a history that left me wistful.
But that's why I'm even more grateful now.
Plenty of room for me to feast.
“You brought all these goods on a single ship?”
“Yes, sir.”
In my memorial to the Joseon court, I'd avoided any words like 'trade' or 'commerce'—nothing that could even imply it.
Just 'gifts in gratitude for the heartfelt care shown to a lonely orphan cast into poverty and desperation'.
This was legitimacy.
The ignorant foreigners kept dragging their ships in, yelling to do business on first meeting, so the Joseon government naturally refused. But when someone like me, with a familiar face, brought 'gifts', they couldn't very well say 'thanks, now get lost'—not with Joseon's temperament. Hell, no modern 21st-century nation short of North Korea-level pariah state would pull that off.
And the Joseon high officials got a shock just seeing my ship, the Henry.
“We always read of 'great ships' (daepa) when describing English vessels and wondered how big they could be. But when I went to Ganghwa myself to inspect Arthur's cargo, that ship was truly the size of a house, and its sails far larger and more varied than any on Joseon ships.”
“They really use no oars at all?”
“Indeed. There were a few cannons aboard, which Arthur said were nominally for pirate defense. Yet even those on a mere merchantman looked far larger and more powerful than ours.”
“Any guarantee that's really a merchant ship?”
The anti-foreign hardliners, desperate for any pretext to nitpick, argued that bringing such a ship was a show of force in itself.
The Henry was an East Indiaman, the most common trade vessel of the era.
Their claim wasn't entirely wrong—East Indiamen could double as warships if needed. Right now, they'd painted over the gun ports to save money, but saw those off, install the ports, load them with cannons, and boom: warship ready.
In any case, Joseon hurriedly transported my 'tribute' goods to Hanyang and agonized over payment.
“This much coffee and chocolate!”
“Look at this sugar! Incredible!”
“Enough for the whole nation for years, all at once.”
“This cotton! The luster is astonishing!”
“Truly astonishing. Arthur's English cloth is uncannily uniform and exquisitely made.”
Joseon's merchants mobbed the Andong Kim Clan, desperate for even a scrap of that massive haul.
But the bureaucrats' main focus wasn't sugar right now.
“The buffalo horns Arthur brought are in enormous quantity.”
“Horsehair too—some lower quality mixed in, but the volume is immense.”
“This much gunpowder?”
“Gunpowder is the foundation of military strength, and Arthur's is a staggering amount.”
“How could a mere merchant like Arthur, not even fifty, handle so much? Did the English court pull strings for his voyages?”
An amount that made Joseon perk up instantly.
People naturally judge others by their own standards, so it was only natural they'd think 'Did England send this ship with intent?'
But their guesses were spectacularly off.
It was just a sad example of how much Joseon had been stuck in its well.
Endless limestone gushing from India.
Slav—er, Indian 'contract laborers' sweating blood in plantations for massive sugar and other produce.
And overwhelming factory output from grinding their own workers endlessly.
Joseon could never win on economies of scale.
Even India, once ruler of global textiles, crumbled before Britain's Industrial Revolution buff and sank to raw material supplier. The only nation that could challenge mechanized factory industry was population hog China. And even calling that a match was ridiculous.
“Arthur says England has gunpowder to spare—anyone with money can buy it easily.”
“He also offered a few English muskets, which outperform ours in several ways.”
I'd originally planned to sell some muskets and cannons too, but changed my mind.
No need to arm Joseon.
They couldn't afford to pay for this massive shipment anyway. No obligation to throw in weapons.
I stuck by Heungseon Daewongun Yi Ha-eung, gauging his mood.
“What do you think?”
“Of what?”
“I'm just a merchant. My ship is a common trader—England alone has thousands, excluding other nations.”
“......”
“These great ships roam the world, packed to the gunwales with goods and treasures. That's the source of England's wealth and power.”
Even hearing the magic words 'northern expedition', Yi Ha-eung didn't waver easily.
“No matter how I look, I see no future where Joseon accepts English goods and grows strong—only one where we're devoured.”
“That might be true.”
Yi Ha-eung glared at me with eyes that could snap my neck on the spot.
He's seriously gonna kill me, isn't he?
He can't.
The moment he kills me, Joseon loses its channel to the West.
They were already cowed just by this tiny glimpse of Western might.
France was already strong-arming them over murdered missionaries; Yi Ha-eung wasn't brain-dead enough to kill me and drag England into that mess too.
“Carelessly, voices might rise to kill you and seal the doors tighter.”
Ah. So he was worried about others killing me, not him personally.
“Thick-headed scholar frogs in their wells might think that, but I trust the court ministers won't endorse such folly.”
“And my concern that this nation might be devoured?”
“To prevent that, I—versed in both Eastern and Western learning—will act as your broker.”
The court was reportedly racking their brains over payment. Rice or Sangpyeong Tongbo coins? What value were those to me?
I'd pretended reluctance and suggested, 'How about red ginseng?' They had nothing else of real cash value, so they were agonizing over it.
Option 1: Just give some ginseng.
Option 2: No. It was a 'gift', so accept the sincerity and call it even.
Honestly, I'd prefer Option 2.
That instant, the British Empire would declare war to defend free trade and the Union Jack.
But Joseon would probably pay up.
Not out of fear of British invasion post-nonpayment, but because one guy's arrival had flooded them with goods they'd lacked and suffered for years. Too tempting to write off as a one-off.
“Western merchant Arthur, hear this!”
And my prediction was spot on.
I secured a hefty load of prime red ginseng—'just this once' conditional—and loaded it onto the Henry.
And sure enough.
“Our nation has no intent to engage the Western barbarians, but we deem someone like you, versed in Neo-Confucianism, trustworthy. Therefore—”
The Joseon court informally inquired if I could supply more Western books, gunpowder, buffalo horns, sulfur, copper, and other strategic goods.
First phase cleared.
I'd let the Joseon people taste the joy and necessity of trade.
Doesn't this basically open Joseon? You actually pulled it off?!
Not yet.
Joseon lacks the capacity to pay for the next trade round.
Sure, red ginseng fetches high prices in Qing, but it's still ginseng. Can't mass-produce it like plantations.
My original plan: monopolize the bridge between Joseon and global markets, amass vast wealth, roll it into China/India trade for a mega-empire... But Joseon was such a beggar nation, the snowball wouldn't roll.
Fucked.
No, wait. We made decent profit from Joseon already. Just pivot to Far East trade without them, easy.
Jar ghost must think people are livestock. 19th-century business requires groundwork first.
I can't monopolize the China market.
The only barrier I can erect is Joseon.
Joseon needs to get rich for my pie to grow—but it's all tangled from the start.
To boost Joseon's purchasing power: join the Industrial Revolution, or at least crack open gold/silver mines and dig like mad.
A near-20-million population this poor? There's a problem.
What Joseon needs now is a way to boost national economic power and achieve growth.
In other words, me.
Something about this chills my spine...
For this consulting gig, who better than the British Empire—champion of free trade and democracy—with the world's top track record?
And as Arthur Leigh, citizen of Korea, which aced the IMF's harsh bailout terms? Who else could selflessly deliver strict consulting to Joseon?
Tch, no choice.
Here, I must follow the sages: wage one more war with Qing.
Eh? Huh??
Then guide Joseon.
Joseon people!
I'll save you from seodo politics and the chaos of the three taxes!!
You mad... bastard...
Wait for me!!