Chapter 101
Chapter 101
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 101
Chapter Title: Transportation Reform (7)
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A first-class merchant leads the trends, while a second-class merchant chases after them at top speed.
A third-class merchant, on the other hand, always ends up saddled with the leftovers after the second-raters have gorged themselves and offloaded them for a premium—doomed to crash and burn.
And right now, second-class merchants were lining up at the Warship Division.
"Aigoo, Lord Inspector! Please, sell me a fast ship. With just one fast ship, I know I could turn this rotten luck of mine around completely. Can't you make an exception?"
"Kim Tenth Seat, don't you know even cold water has its hierarchy? I, the Fifth Seat, buy first—then you can have yours!"
"Fifth Seat, sir, merchants do have their pecking order... but doesn't this have nothing to do with rank?"
The moment I stepped into the office, I was confronted by a swarm of suckers—no, esteemed customers.
We'd only built the ships at the shipyard, but money was multiplying like rabbits.
It was such a delightful sight that a smile crept across my face all on its own.
"I can't even begin to guess how much cash I can squeeze out of these clowns."
I stood back a bit from the amateur second-raters, practically stinking of sleaze—no, the scent of money wafting off them in waves. That's when I heard Jang Yeong-sil greeting me from behind.
"Lord Inspector, good day to you."
"Oh, hey. Did you get some good rest yesterday, Jang Deputy?"
"Yes, sir. Even in the middle of all this madness, you ensured we could leave on time, so I got plenty of rest."
"I'm not the one guaranteeing on-time departures. That's all His Highness's benevolence. He said that unless some national disaster strikes, everyone leaves on time—and if you don't, the ministers get a severe dressing-down."
Rumor had it that King Sejong the Great had a ridiculous reason for hating to see his officials pulling all-nighters.
Whenever court adjourned, he got dragged off by the Grand Huntmaster, the Supreme King Emeritus, who showed up laughing heartily, forcing him into hated exercises like hiking, archery, and horseback riding...
So he couldn't stand watching his retainers stay at the offices doing their beloved overtime and paperwork. He banned it under the guise of filial piety.
Thanks to that, officials were granted lives with evenings free...
The motivation was laughable, but in the end, the king got healthier, and his retainers escaped the hell of overwork. Good things all around.
Still, out of respect for His Majesty's honor, I had no intention of sharing this rumor with Jang Yeong-sil.
"And thanks to you, sir, our poor household's fortunes have improved dramatically. Unlike other officials, I had no gifts coming in—just scraping by on my salary. But you shared some of the Division's white rice stock with me, so yesterday I could finally let my wife and kids eat their fill of chicken for the first time in ages."
"Didn't I tell you to eat beef?"
"We don't know how long I'll be posted here at the Division. Money's something you save when you can, to buy even a little land and improve our lot, right?"
"You're the core of this grand fast-ship project, along with Magistrate Jeong. I overlooked giving you more support. Next month, I'll set aside about a hundred seom of rice—use it wisely, and make sure the family has beef at least once."
In 21st-century Korea, this would land you in jail for embezzlement.
But in the Joseon bureaucracy, "every man for himself" was the rule.
Excluding the central offices, military garrisons equivalent to the army and navy water camps all raised their own funds through various means as a matter of course.
Which meant that in the Warship Division, any extra money we made legally—beyond the central allocation—could be freely used by me without issue.
So half the revenue from fast-ship sales went to bonuses and various budgets, with the rest shipped off to the Ministry of Finance.
I wasn't pocketing any personally, since I'd already made a fortune selling fast ships.
My father-in-law invested 15,000 seom of rice and raked in 40,000 from sales and trade.
I'd put in my entire fortune and netted 10,000 seom.
If I grabbed more from this pie, the Office of Inspectors and Censors wouldn't stay quiet.
Minister Heo Jo would show up with fire in his eyes, railing endlessly about how Kim Dae-bung had gone too far, filing memorials until he shipped me off to exile.
His Majesty would then send me off to some corner of Gyeonggi Province with tears in his eyes, grant a special pardon after a month, summon me back, and whisper in my ear:
"You're Hwang Hui now. Live like Hwang Hui."
"If you don't buy beef for your family next month, I'll personally show up at your house loaded with it. If you don't want your boss grilling it for you, buy it yourself."
"I'll keep that in mind, sir."
"Now go get to work, Jang Deputy. And tell Magistrate Jeong that even if he wants to expand the shipyard, hold off for now."
Jeong Bin, who had an obsessive passion for civil engineering, often clamored to expand the Division's shipyard.
"Sir, demand for fast ships is booming nationwide. We should seize this chance to build facilities for sixty ships at once!"
"Lord Inspector, with the skills we've built up, I can make it perfect!"
But pushing further would bring the Minister of Works straight to my door to chew me out.
Jang Yeong-sil left for the artisans' area.
Time for me, the head of the Warship Division, to do my job: handing over the ships.
"Bring the merchants in one by one. In order of importance."
My role was to call in the merchants and sign contracts to hand over ships at a price slightly above market rate.
It might seem trivial for a Rank 4 official like me...
But there was good reason I handled it personally.
"I'm Kim Jeon-sang, steward of Chief State Councillor Hwang's household."
"Right. What brings you here?"
"I came to reserve about five ships. We'll pay generously, so please deliver them as soon as possible."
"The quickest we can do is one ship in a month. For five, it'd be at least two months even rushed. That's expedited service, so normally it'd be 3,500 seom of rice—but between your lord and me, how could I? Special rate: 2,800 seom."
Top brass like the Three Councillors, the Six Ministers led by Jo Mal-saeng, even royals came shopping for ships.
They weren't running them themselves to make bank.
They wanted to flip them at a premium to their connected merchant cronies.
That's why I quoted 3,500 normally but dropped to 2,800.
Leaving room for them to skim 700 seom.
"Thank you, Lord Inspector. I'll bring the payment to the Division the day after tomorrow."
Hwang Hui's steward handed me a small silk pouch heavy with silver and withdrew.
Only someone of Chief State Councillor rank could casually offer silver—a currency barely used even in private trade—as a bribe.
"Gotta trade at this level to become a lifelong slave."
I couldn't end up taking bribes like Hwang Hui.
As the top man in the Warship Division, I'd dealt with every kind of ship buyer.
Agents from high officials, staff from merchant houses, and more...
Dealing with them had netted massive sums.
Which I'd distributed properly by rank to everyone working at the Division, under my authority.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ The boom in commerce inevitably led to a flood of work at the Ministry of Finance.
Minister of Finance Jo Gye-saeng thus faced an avalanche of tasks.
Yet his face bore not irritation or anger, but a smile.
"I'm going mad—I must be, smiling uncontrollably even as the work pours in like crazy."
Unlike Jo Mal-saeng, Jo Gye-saeng was an impeccably honest official who'd never faced bribery scandals in his career.
In Joseon, being impeccably honest meant only taking what was appropriate for the national good, even in situations where one could gorge...
And wielding such restraint required true patriotism.
Your love of country had to outweigh greed to remain an incorruptible official.
If they balanced evenly, you'd end up like Jo Mal-saeng or Hwang Hui.
Jo Gye-saeng, whose patriotism surpassed his self-interest, thought amid the towering piles of work from all the good national developments:
"This is all for the best."
"Uiju's governor reports rice prices down thirty percent from last year. Most districts in Pyeongan and Hamgyeong Provinces say they won't need central relief grain this year. So the stockpiles we prepared for relief have gone unused."
The Ministry had budgeted nearly 30,000 to 40,000 seom of grain for relief in those provinces again this year.
They were perennial food-short regions, always needing central support.
But not this year.
Thus, the Ministry suddenly had 30,000 to 40,000 seom of rice to spare.
"And according to the market reports from local magistrates, commerce is booming nationwide, so merchant taxes should quadruple..."
Joseon's main taxes were of course land tax and tribute rice under the Field-and-Head Tax system.
But merchant taxes weren't trivial either.
Even collecting roughly ten percent of their earnings yielded nearly 30,000 to 40,000 seom annually.
Four times that? At least 120,000 to 160,000 seom.
"That rascal Kim Dae-bung pulled it off."
And this was just the prelude.
"We need to set up shipyards with similar setups to the Warship Division in the Left and Right Jeolla Naval Commands."
The construction would naturally fall to Jeong Bin, the Division's Rank 5 civil engineering specialist magistrate.
"The Finance Ministry I knew was always scrambling to fill budget shortfalls or cut spending... Those days are gone."
He chuckled, jotting detailed instructions on each report.
Then, grabbing his unfinished tasks, he headed straight to Kim Man-deok.
He handled commerce matters better than anyone at the Ministry.
Unlike Kim Dae-bung, Rank 8 Kim Man-deok froze stiff at the Minister of Finance's visit.
Jo Gye-saeng looked at him with a pleased smile.
"Clerk Kim, please don't leave the Ministry like your son-in-law did. Let's keep working together here. Follow my lead, and you'll be a full magistrate soon enough."
"Thank you, Minister."
Jo Gye-saeng grinned and dumped the pile of work on him.
"The more I favor you, the more important tasks I bring. Finish it all before quitting time today."