Chapter 64
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 064
Chapter Title: Reverse Unyo-ho (4)
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Ever since ancient times, the Great Kingdom of Joseon and the Great Empire of Japan have maintained deep bonds of friendship for many years. However, seeing that the amity between our two nations has lately grown insufficient, we hereby seek to restore our former friendly relations and solidify our mutual goodwill.
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Article 1.
The Empire of Japan, as a sovereign state, possesses equal rights with the Kingdom of Joseon.
All restrictive regulations that might hinder the friendship between our two nations shall be entirely abolished. We shall endeavor to open and broaden generous and flexible laws, pledging eternal peace between us.
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Article 4.
All previous customs duties and trade practices shall be abolished, and a new commercial ordinance shall be established to handle trade affairs between the two nations.
Henceforth, the subjects of both nations may freely trade and reside in each other's open ports. They shall have the right to lease, purchase, build, and operate land, houses, warehouses, factories, etc., in these open ports.
Article 5.
The Empire of Japan shall open five ports: Nagasaki, Shimoda, Yokohama, Niigata, and Kobe.
The Kingdom of Joseon shall open five ports: Jemulpo, Nampo, Busan, Wonsan, and Yongampo.
Article 6.
If ships of either nation encounter storms or run short of fuel or provisions and cannot reach an open port, they may temporarily enter other ports to avoid danger. Ship owners must pay for any repairs or supplies received.
In cases of shipwreck or drifting where sailors wash ashore, officials and local people of both nations shall provide relief, deliver them to their nation's authorities, or assist in their return home.
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Article 9.
The two nations may separately negotiate tariffs on traded goods.
Additionally, merchants of both nations may sell cold weapons, gunpowder arms, shells, bullets, and all other weaponry exclusively to the authorities of the other nation.
Article 10.
If a subject of Joseon commits a crime in Japan, they shall be extradited to Joseon for trial. If a subject of Japan commits a crime in Joseon, they shall be extradited to Japan for trial. Officials of both nations must handle such matters fairly and without favoritism, in strict accordance with the law.
Article 11.
The sale and transportation of opium is strictly prohibited.
Notwithstanding Article 10, crimes related to opium may be punished by the authorities of the nation where the offense occurred. If necessary, officials from the offender's nation may attend the investigation and trial.
Article 12.
If a Joseon subject dies in a Japanese open port, Joseon officials or family may purchase surrounding land to bury the body. The same applies if a Japanese subject dies in a Joseon open port. However, if death is due to epidemic disease, separate procedures shall be followed.
Article 13.
Japanese subjects in Joseon open ports may pay fees to request postal or parcel services from the Joseon postal service. The Joseon postal service shall handle Japanese without discrimination, just as with Joseon subjects.
As Japan is not yet familiar with postal services, Joseon shall, out of friendship, advise and assist Japan in establishing its own.
Article 14.
Subjects of Joseon and Japan may freely hire each other's nationals. With permission from both nations' authorities, they may also work abroad without hindrance.
Article 15.
The new currency issued and handled by the Central Bank of Joseon is of superior quality and widely accepted around the world. Thus, subjects of both nations may use this currency for transactions. The old Sangpyeong Tongbo shall no longer be used, and Japanese subjects may not possess or export it.
As Japanese subjects are not yet accustomed to foreign currency, all transactions in Japanese open ports for two years after ratification shall be conducted solely in Japanese currency. Joseon subjects may possess Japanese currency when leaving Japan but may not export coins.
Subjects of either nation who privately mint currency shall be punished according to their own nation's laws.
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The following are secret articles. If leaked, both nations shall deny their existence, and the leaking nation shall pay severe reparations to the other.
1. If the Kingdom of Joseon faces or anticipates invasion by Qing China, it may request aid from Japan. Japan must declare war on Qing within 30 days of the invasion's start and dispatch reinforcements within 90 days.
2. If Joseon intends to declare war on Qing, it must notify Japan in advance and obtain consent. Without Japan's consent, Japan has no obligation to join.
Likewise, if Japan intends to declare war on Qing, it must notify Joseon in advance and obtain consent. Without Joseon's consent, Joseon has no obligation to join.
3. If Joseon or Japan faces invasion by any nation other than Qing, the other nation shall endeavor to dissuade the fight and mediate peace.
4. If a major upheaval occurs threatening to overthrow the national system of Joseon or Japan, either may request aid from the other, which must then dispatch reinforcements.
5. Joseon acknowledges Japan's special rights to guide the Ryukyu Kingdom.
Japan shall respect Ryukyu's legitimate rights and national system, aid its enlightenment, and ensure Joseon subjects enjoy equal rights with Japanese in Ryukyu.
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- What the hell is this vicious treaty? Am I reading the Japan-Joseon Treaty of Amity and Trade, or the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact?
Hmph. Enough with the foul language!
At least use the fancy term "modern treaty."
- Aren't you all a bunch of idiots who can't even modernize properly? And you're already carving up Ryukyu?
No, not quite.
Ryukyu may be called an independent sovereign state, but those vicious Satsuma bastards have forcibly occupied it and eaten away at its brain for centuries already.
Joseon doesn't have some amazing navy to snatch it back, either.
But in exchange for acknowledging Japan's "special rights," Joseon folks can now boldly head to Ryukyu and get their share of the spooning. Not a bad deal.
Tears are blurring my vision.
Is it because my teacher is so brilliant?
Teach one thing, and they grasp ten. Seeing how quickly the Joseon people are advancing and awakening to modernity fills this teacher with emotion, my throat tightening and eyes misting over.
In that famous Japan Strategy, Japan slathered the Joseon rice barrel with all sorts of toxic clauses to gorge itself.
But Joseon, schooled in Neo-Confucianism, is different. Doesn't it show a genuine intent to aid Japan's enlightenment rather than devour it?
- I-is that so?
Of course.
Joseon's top priority is maintaining friendly ties with Japan to avoid a two-front war nightmare. Next is ensuring no anti-shogunate, anti-Joseon faction seizes a new Japanese regime and screws us over.
Love it or hate it, this splendid treaty proposed by Joseon is undeniably moderate and just!
- Really? Truly? Without a shred of shame?
There are a few playful clauses...
Take Article 9, the weapons sales ban.
- Huh? That's playful?
This is why you always read contracts meticulously. Even the Dragon King got bamboozled.
It says sell weapons only to "the other nation's authorities," right?
So, are the daimyo sitting in their domains "authorities" or not?
- You madman.
Whether we sell or not is another matter, but selling to provincial domains instead of the shogunate isn't a treaty violation. There's a world of difference between "can but don't" and "can't at all."
Article 13 is about Joseon's pride and joy, the postal service.
This postal service doubles as intelligence and counter-espionage. While advising on advanced mail services, if a few black-hat agents slip in, who am I to know? They've circled domestically enough; time to wander Japan and elevate national prestige.
Article 14 was added for us sea-hating Joseon folks.
Relations with China are bound to tangle soon, and Chinese sailors are too scary to rely on heavily. This lets us easily hire Japanese crew.
Article 15 ensures smooth, peaceful trade with Japan.
Joseon borrowed tons of loans to somehow introduce the silver standard. Who knows about the future, but for now, it's solid. Using international-standard Mexican silver dollars means no trade issues—pure truth.
- So what do you get out of it?
What do I get?
Obviously, the prestige of being the miraculous negotiator who forged Joseon-Japan cooperation, earning a reputation as the finest gentleman among Westerners. Kewl. I'm such a good guy.
- Cut the crap, you bastard. Spill your evil scheme quick.
Sigh. Sad. After all these years together, and you still don't trust me?
- Because I'm dead certain you're plotting something nefarious!
Harsh words. I'm just expecting massive export profits for Leigh & Gladstone Company.
Oh, and... minor exchange gains?
The international gold-silver ratio is about 1:15 right now.
But in isolationist Japan, it's around 1:4 inside. Silver's massively overvalued.
- Just hearing it feels shady...
Good boy Arthur enters with 100 Mexican silver dollars, exchanges them in a Japanese open port for 300 Japanese monme silver coins.
Then swaps those 300 silver coins for 75 Japanese koban gold coins. If you don't know, it's that gold coin on the Team Rocket cat monster's forehead.
Take those to Hong Kong, melt and sell?
Ta-da!
75 gold coins become 300 Mexican silver dollars!
- Huh? Wha—??
One breath, and your money triples. Amazing, right?
- This is arbitrage!
Hmph. Applying fixed exchange rates blindly is a recipe for disaster—IMF veterans know that basic fact.
This isn't even a secret of mine.
Im Sang-ok, the Peking duck master chef hyper-sensitive to China prices, figured it out days after wandering Edo streets. We even kindly warned the shogunate: "Keep this up, and you're screwed."
But they clutched their stomachs and refused foreign currency circulation.
So we pry it open. What else can we do? This is a self-inflicted catastrophe, nothing more or less.
Now just sit back and watch ferocious Joseon merchants wreak havoc abroad on their own people.
The stock prices of Leigh & Gladstone Company and the Far East Colonization Company were jingling like hallucinations.
Arthur's flyers, scattered far and wide to sway public opinion, Japan Strategy.
With the treaty signed, the book's goal was achieved. Ruthless Anglo-Saxon Arthur Leigh promptly forgot about Japan Strategy.
But Japan was different.
Japan Strategy spread explosively, and every literate person pored over it, their brains exploding from the massive shock.
[All nations must embrace Western learning. Japan is no exception.]
[Joseon grows richer and stronger by the day, and its traditional order will completely change through war with Qing.]
[Why does Japan slumber? A nation of thirty million could shake the world if it awoke—why do you not strive for self-strengthening but submit to foreign aggression?]
[Japan's future lies at sea! The vast Pacific shall be your stage!]
"See? We were right all along."
Around this time, Shimazu Nariakira, the daimyo of Satsuma who had come to Edo, was convinced.
He had ousted his father—who wanted to pass the seat to a concubine's son—through sheer ability to claim the daimyo position. With a particular interest in Western culture, he dove headfirst into Western shipbuilding, textile technology, blast furnaces, and factories right after taking control of Satsuma.
A powerful army armed with Western cannons and rifles, and a navy with Western warships!
For Satsuma, at the westernmost tip of Kyushu, foreign affairs were far more pressing than distant Edo. Seeing Qing and Joseon beaten bloody by a handful of Western troops filled him with dread.
Deeply interested in shogunal politics, he paid close attention to the hot topic of the Joseon envoy.
So encountering the bizarre rumor was no coincidence.
"Joseon hates us?"
"It's beyond hate—practically loathing."
"What...? Why? What did we even do? We've barely interacted with Joseon."
"They hate us for killing Yi Sun-sin, apparently. Not sure if it's true."
"That's ancient history! 250 years ago!!"
Had he heard something direct like "Compared to that, Chungmugong's death—257 years of suffering our Joseon people endured...!", he might have fainted. But the eminently rational Nariakira dismissed it with a "surely not."
Joseon couldn't be like that.
One read of the treaty makes it clear.
A nation so sincere about enlightenment and mutual prosperity—if Japan strengthens ties with Joseon and advances together, wouldn't the realm find true peace?
"I want to visit Hanyang. Could I sneak into the envoy's return procession?"
"Absolutely not!"
"Then, not as domain lord but disguised as a merchant—"
"Even worse!!"
Nariakira pouted, but no meant no.
"How about sending some smart friends to Joseon instead?"
"That might work..."
Satsuma retainers, having talked their willful lord out of going personally, were hugely relieved and lacked the heart to object further.
"Anyone specific in mind?"
"Young, brilliant fellows. Even better if their duties aren't heavy enough for a few years abroad to matter."
"Perhaps those sharp lads you always keep close?"
"Busted."
He desperately wanted to go, but couldn't. With the shogunate in turmoil, leaving his post now risked who-knows-what.
Moments later.
"To Joseon, my lord?"
"Don't want to? I'll give it to someone else."
"I'll stake my life to spy on Joseon!"
"Not spy—go learn! Don't talk crazy!"
Saigō Takamori, who would later lead the Meiji Restoration.
He was suddenly ordered to Joseon.
(Reference)
Saigō Takamori has not yet taken the name "Takamori," but for readers' convenience, this work uses the most famous forms of proper nouns uniformly (*´∪`)