Chapter 119
Chapter 119
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 119
Chapter Title: Breaking the Cartel (3)
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These guild merchants were the ones granted permission to exist as a "necessary evil" from the very founding of Joseon.
So Yi Seong-gye bundled them together into a single organization for easier management.
Just like how official brothels had once been designated to regulate the entertainment trade.
In exchange for permission to do business, they had to supply the state's demanded tribute goods for free, shoulder various corvee labors, and even pay a very modest tax.
As long as they didn't openly commit crimes while following these rules, the Joseon court wouldn't interfere in the guild merchants' activities.
"They're dead set on keeping it all to themselves. There's no other explanation. Isn't that right, brother?"
Kim Man-seok—Gyeol's older brother—let out a deep sigh at my words.
"That's how merchants are. Or at least, anyone who's been trading in Hanyang for years. They hoard it all among their own, never letting outsiders steal their customers. If they'd been left alone... do you think they could've held onto those spots for decades like they have?"
"One outsider merchant couldn't topple the fortress they've built... but if dozens, hundreds—no, thousands—of merchants piled on? They couldn't hold out like they have so far."
In the 21st century, massive corporations that seemed utterly invincible could collapse overnight, or explode in growth out of nowhere. Such things happened all the time.
But the guild merchants had formed a full-blown cartel centered in Hanyang, allowing them to pass down their territories generation after generation.
I didn't touch their turf or profits, and in return, they had to respect mine without question.
Violate that, and they'd band together as one to crush the offender.
The most extreme manifestation was the gold ban on street vending granted to the Yukui Market merchants, letting them police small vendors on their own.
Once that authority kicked in, small shops had to shutter immediately.
The thugs under the guild merchants' payroll would beat the vendors half to death and even seize their goods, or so I'd heard.
These days, Yi Bang-won was keeping a sharp eye on them while he lived, and even after his death, King Sejong the Great would personally lop their heads from their shoulders if they got caught.
They wouldn't resort to direct action.
The problem was that they'd exploit the gaps in Joseon's full-of-holes commercial laws to torment small vendors in ways that didn't draw much attention.
"The guild merchants have a strict hierarchy among themselves, and they enforce it rigidly. But it's all based on 'years active as a merchant,' just a pretense of upholding respect for elders. The reality is something else entirely."
I had a friend in business who often said things like that.
Businesspeople were all called by the same title—"president"—so from the outside, it looked like no hierarchy existed.
But in truth, the ones with the biggest companies were the real seniors, the bosses.
Even setting aside subcontractor-main contractor dynamics, that was how it worked.
The guild merchants weren't much different.
Years in the trade mattered, sure—but the real top dogs were the ones running the largest operations.
'Not a bad system, if you think about it.'
"That's one thing, but the real issue is that they pass their positions down hereditarily. That's why even Father had to shell out an enormous sum just to join the guild after coming to Hanyang."
"Sons of existing guild merchants only pay one seam of white rice. But Father was a newbie, so it was thirty seams for him. And to even get in, you need approval from the current members, right? The bribes we had to pay them back then exceeded two hundred seams."
"They're really committed to keeping newcomers out and hogging it all for themselves."
That staggering amount was after my fame as Jinhae County Magistrate had skyrocketed, qualifying for "special discounts" and all sorts of "preferential treatment."
Any other merchant trying to join would've had to pay several times more.
'The membership fee stays the same, but the bribes vary wildly.'
Try trading near Hanyang without paying up? The guild merchants' interest group would come crashing in, beat you half to death, and force your shop to close. No real choice there.
"And brother, you've probably heard already, but the court is planning to develop areas around ferries like Yongsan and Gwangjin."
"No one trading in Hanyang hasn't heard. That's why I'm looking to buy some land myself. Think my brother-in-law could lend a hand?"
"Helping out is no trouble. But there's one thing I'd like you to do."
"When my brother-in-law asks, I'd believe you even if you said you were grinding stones into soybean paste. What can't I do? Just... please don't blow through the family fortune without a word."
"I was too hasty back then, brother."
Even if it was a surefire investment with returns over a hundred percent, I had been a bit reckless.
From his perspective, it'd looked like the entire family fortune vanishing into some worthless scam token in the blink of an eye. What a shock that must've been.
'Though in reality, it wasn't a shitcoin—it was Bitcoin.'
"About a month from now, spread a rumor for me."
"What kind?"
"That the guild merchants are pooling huge sums to snap up land near ferries like Yongsan and Gwangjin, all along the routes to the markets. Then they'll build workshops there and monopolize the trade for massive profits among themselves."
"That alone might not cut it, right? Who in Hanyang doesn't know these guys are greedy pigs trying to corner profits? A rumor like that won't rile up the commoners."
My brother had spent so much time on the boats that he'd awakened to the "power of hate."
Next thing you know, he'd be threatening like the English, Spanish, or Portuguese—hand over your underwear and hardtack, or we'll take your pepper instead.
With that drive and sharp judgment, I wouldn't even need to recommend him—Minister of Finance Min Gye-saeng would probably drag him into service anyway.
"How about this?"
A smile crept across my brother's face, like an East India Company rep hawking pain-relief miracle cures in China.
"What if we spread word that these wicked guild merchants are buying up every scrap of land in Gwangjin, Yongsan, and such? That they'll seize control of the water transport and jack up Hanseong's prices sky-high?"
...Why had my brother turned so devious?
The Man-seok I knew had been so pure-hearted...
"I asked some guild merchants I'm friendly with, and they said even back in late Goryeo—and still today—these guys pull this during late spring famines. Merchant ships from Jeolla, Chungcheong, and Gyeongsang Provinces bring rice, and the guild merchants buy it all up in Incheon. Then they sell it in Hanyang at two or three times what they paid."
"If they did that, the court officials wouldn't stand for it."
"Haha, they sell at normal prices to the court and its officials. A slight markup for interpreters, physicians, and middling functionaries. But to the commoners—who make up most of Hanyang's population—they charge two or three times over, raking in enormous profits. That's how they haul in massive gains every year."
Yangban didn't devour a seam of rice a day, nor did slaves eat a full hop each.
So staple grains like rice were consumed most heavily by the commoners, who formed the bulk of Hanyang's population...
'Just ripping off the commoners nets them insane profits.'
"There's even more you don't know."
I didn't know everything.
In later Joseon, even wealthy yangban officials—or yangban in general—saw handling money as lowly, some living their whole lives without touching a single coin.
I never bought directly from the markets myself, and Gyeol always sent servants, so we never noticed the price gouging.
'Damn it.'
Honestly, these were the sorts of stories Father-in-law ought to know...
But since taking office, he spent his days working and nights cramming the Four Books and Three Classics. How could he know about this?
"Brother-in-law, listen."
"Yes, brother?"
"I hate those guild merchant bastards. Do you have any idea how much they tormented and squeezed us before you shipped off Ryu Jeong-hyeon? You couldn't even imagine."
They must've thrown every dirty trick in the book at them.
Even so, Father-in-law and brother's talents had pulled them through to this point.
"And if we split them apart..."
Ah, truth be told, if I really wanted, I could get Yi Bang-won to swing the iron hammer and smash the cartel flat.
But that hammer's blow was too devastating—it could wipe out the guild merchants entirely.
Hanyang as a city would face a depression-level crisis, at least temporarily.
Better to fracture them from within, make them beg to dismantle their own "guild merchant" interest group.
"We'll make the very word 'dojung' vanish."
Collusion. Cartel.
They were a blight on society.
So die for Joseon.