Chapter 120
Chapter 120
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 120
Chapter Title: Breaking the Cartel (4)
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A single rumor was making the rounds in Hanyang's market district.
The gist of it was that the wealthy market traders were trying to swallow up everything in sight.
The source of this rumor was undoubtedly those who'd received donations from Kim Man-deok, but that detail held no interest for the market traders, so no one gave it a second thought.
And like some communist specter, the rumor ignited a "burning rage" among the mid- and small-scale market traders.
Those consumed by anger, jealousy, and resentment had gathered here today in one place.
One of the market traders broke the silence at the gathering.
"This can't be right, Teacher Bong-sang. Sure, the ways of the world are bound to be unfair and unjust... but this sort of thing absolutely shouldn't be allowed to happen."
The oldest man among them, addressed as Teacher Bong-sang, let out a sigh.
He fully empathized with the man's fury— a hundred times over, a thousand times over—but what could he do?
These were tycoons with far more money and far closer ties to power, dictating a collusive order that he dared not challenge.
Defying the market's collusive order was like charging headlong into raging rapids, and the result would be him, his family, his employees, and even their households all ending up on the streets.
Merchant Yi Bong-sang knew full well that the current situation was unjust, but beyond blaming his own powerlessness in the face of money and authority, he couldn't think of any other recourse.
That's just how the world worked.
Once you became an adult, you faced all sorts of grievances and frustrations.
There were times when you had to pretend injustices didn't faze you and brush them off, times when you had to swallow your anger until it rotted you from the inside, all while chuckling emptily and carrying on like nothing was wrong. That was the life of a grown man.
Those who couldn't contain their blazing fury and fought back usually met tragic ends.
"Rather than standing up to injustice, it's often wiser to endure and bow one's head."
"Manager Jeong-man, calm your anger and settle your heart."
"But Teacher, how can we just—"
"Even if we vent the hot-blooded rage of youth, it won't carve us a path forward, will it? What we need right now is a way to survive this situation—and to spot any opportunities ahead where we might gain even a little ground..."
Yi Bong-sang smacked the low wooden desk in front of him with the fan in his hand.
The sharp crack of the fan striking the desk drew all eyes toward it.
Confirming their attention, Yi Bong-sang sternly rebuked Jeong-man.
"We didn't gather here to drown our inner rage in drink! Get a grip. We're humble merchants, sure, but I've got twenty employees under me alone, and you've got more than five. Everyone here is in the same boat. On our shoulders rests not just ourselves and our families, but the lives of our employees and their households too. We can't forget that for even a moment!"
Yi Bong-sang wasn't rich enough to be called a tycoon in Hanyang's market district.
If he were a tycoon-level magnate, he wouldn't even be here.
To borrow Kim Dae-bung's expression, this was a meeting of mid- and small-business leaders plotting countermeasures against the rampage of "chaebol"-grade tycoons.
That said, Yi Bong-sang personally held assets exceeding two thousand seom of white rice, and the others gathered here were also wealthy individuals with hundreds of seom in personal wealth, each representing their own merchant house.
"You think my gut doesn't twist in knots too? Those bastards calling themselves tycoons, wielding influence that even most yangban elites can't touch... They're not content with dominating Hanyang's commerce—they're going after trade across the entire country now. How could my insides not boil at the sight?"
"Teacher..."
"From the rumors, it's a real spectacle. The court is building a new road called the Shinjak-ro linking the various ferry landings to the Jongno market district, and centering on the southern districts of Hanseong Prefecture, they're setting up open markets for workshops and all sorts of goods trades, aiming to route every commodity in Joseon through Hanyang with a full-fledged system. If that happens, Joseon will obviously grow several times richer than it is now."
Merchants who couldn't read the currents of this era had long since been weeded out of the market district.
Those fools had failed spectacularly in business because they couldn't keep up with Kim Dae-bung's commercial revitalization policies.
"Even those so-called tycoons know it, which is why they're laying the groundwork—bribing high ministers with massive sums. And they're going further, investing every bit of their capital, mobilizing relatives right down to their eighth cousins by marriage, opening shops and workshops left and right... For the likes of us, they're planning to toss whatever scraps they deign to leave behind."
This was much the same even on the opposite side of the world in Europe.
They formed guilds that blocked newcomers from opening workshops or doing business, no matter how much money they brought.
Out of that came the apprenticeship system, forcing up to a decade of unpaid labor (with occasional pocket money and minimal room and board).
Even after completing training and scraping together ample funds, without connections, you'd never get permission to open a workshop and would spend your life as a wage-earning craftsman or merchant.
Only if you were exceptionally skilled and extraordinarily lucky could you start from nothing and claim your own "workshop."
"So what should we do?"
"Just go along with it and survive as best we can..."
Truth be told, if submission meant scraping by as they were now, Yi Bong-sang wouldn't have called this meeting or badmouthed the tycoons here.
As the saying went, daytime words were heard by birds, nighttime words by rats—and there were bound to be underlings of the tycoons lurking here, unknown to him.
The tycoons crushed anyone who opposed them even slightly, fabricating whatever excuses they needed.
"Of course there are those eager to leech off them for a crumb or two."
If Yi Bong-sang, with his reputation for integrity, moved against the tycoons' order, it could shake their ironclad interests.
Those lackeys would nitpick every detail to bring him down—it was obvious.
Knowing all this, if the status quo held, there was no reason to act.
But when someone with 9,999 seom of white rice draws a sword to claim the 10,000th, they won't stop at just one seom.
One becomes two, two becomes a hundred thousand in the blink of an eye.
In the end, you'd get devoured too.
Now, failing to act meant death anyway.
"We need to go see Kim Man-deok, father-in-law of Junior Merchant Petitioner Lord Kim Dae-bung."
"He's firmly one of the tycoons himself—do you really think he'll help the likes of us? Besides, despite being a merchant, he's risen faster than most civil service exam passers. Word is, he'll soon claim a seat among the high ministers."
"Wasn't it that very Junior Merchant Petitioner who begged the Supreme King before—demanding he smash my head with an iron mace or revoke the currency if it meant saving wretches like us? Kim Man-deok became a tycoon, and rose so swiftly, all because Kim Dae-bung had his back. A man like that won't cast us aside just to make a quick coin."
Behind Kim Man-deok's rapid promotions was his son-in-law's love and support—squeezing out every ounce of ability like wringing a dry rag to make him a high minister...
But no one cared about the woes of Kim Man-deok, now a figure above the clouds.
Worrying for him was as pointless as fretting over celebrities, chaebol heirs, or politicians.
And evaluations of Kim Dae-bung went without saying.
He'd been the Junior Merchant Petitioner, but during the recent Hanyang great fire, he'd thrown himself into the flames to save even one more life.
Would a man like that abandon innocent commoners for no reason?
Seriously speaking, it was more realistic to imagine people flying across the sea.
"Besides, letting those so-called tycoons monopolize all of Joseon's commerce would rot the nation from within. Wasn't that exactly what happened in the previous dynasty, Goryeo? The tycoons cornered trade, selling luxuries for the nobility at absurd markups. The nobles kept indulging to sustain their extravagance, exploiting the people until it all came crashing down."
"Then why not petition through someone close to us..."
Yi Bong-sang burst into hearty laughter at that.
"Haha, listen—this is like the days of 'previous dynasty Goryeo.' If a petition like that goes up, the court officials will spot the parallels to Goryeo without me spelling it out. Think we'll get off scot-free then, us market traders?"
The ones here inciting the petition might dodge the iron mace somehow.
But preserving their wealth alone wouldn't save their commercial networks and business rights—they'd likely face the hammer there.
"......"
"Coldly speaking, the only court figure who might look after humble merchants like us is Junior Merchant Petitioner Kim Dae-bung. Rumor has it, this whole Hanyang development policy was his brainchild too."
Yi Bong-sang steeled his resolve.
"I'll personally beg Lord Kim Man-deok to disband the Hanyang market district guild."
"Disband it?"
"To survive, we have to give that much ground."
And two days later, word reached Kim Dae-bung.
Yi Bong-sang, the silk guild teacher of the market district, had come in person requesting the dissolution of the Hanyang market district guild.
Kim Dae-bung chuckled at the news.
The patient was ready for surgery to remove the malignant tumor.