Chapter 128
Chapter 128
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 128
Chapter Title: Sejong's Enlightenment (2)
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"What is the reason you say we must give up on saving all the poor?"
"The emergence of poverty in the nation is like a famine during a bad harvest—it is something that cannot be predicted or prevented by human effort."
In this world, there are all sorts of reasons why people fall into poverty.
A person who starts a business with big dreams, only for it to fail and lose their entire fortune in an instant.
A person who overspends beyond their income and eventually goes bankrupt.
A person who squanders everything on gambling or entertainment...
Beyond personal failings, there are those who sink into poverty due to family illnesses or similar misfortunes.
No matter how diligently officials or the government keep their eyes open to help in such sudden crises, it's impossible to aid them all.
Especially in Joseon, where there's no difference in budget or manpower scale, and not even a computer network—it's utterly impossible.
"It's equally impossible to save everyone impoverished for the same reasons."
Even if the nation overflows with money, rescuing gambling addicts or compulsive spenders would be sheer madness.
People like that, even given chances to rebound through bankruptcy or debt relief, are highly likely to repeat their mistakes.
Back when I lived in Korea, there was a guy who barely caught his breath through personal bankruptcy, but rumors spread that he'd gone back to gambling.
Not long after, I heard he'd killed himself because he couldn't repay his new debts.
"However, those with the will to escape poverty can be saved if Your Highness takes them under your wing."
"Those with the will to escape can be saved..."
"When I served as magistrate of Jinhae County, there was a widow named Soon-deok. Having lost her husband young, she supported her family alone, constantly worrying that she might starve her child to death. Yet, when the market opened in Jinhae, she worked the fields she sharecropped from dawn until lunch, then dug wild greens in the afternoon until dusk and sold them at market. Little by little, she escaped the poverty that once forced her to skip meals."
I still vividly remember eating the delicious bibimbap she mixed for me at the market just before my term as magistrate ended.
She said that once she saved a little money from her work, she wanted to buy a patch of land and farm her own fields.
I don't know if she achieved that dream...
"Even near Hanyang, there are people who rise at dawn, finish their sharecropping work, and then come to ports like Yongsan Garrison in the afternoon to do odd jobs for whatever pennies they can earn. It must be grueling on the body, but they rejoice greatly because their hard work prevents their families from starving—compared to before, they've escaped poverty."
"Your words ring true."
"As merchants increase across Joseon's eight provinces, workshops multiply, and inns proliferate, each establishment will have no choice but to hire workers. This will provide jobs to those who wanted to work but had none, allowing them to escape hunger."
Truthfully, I want to add a few words here.
Even if jobs multiply exponentially, the population of Joseon's people grows far more gradually.
Landlords and merchants will then compete for the labor they need to run their businesses, driving up workers' value in the process.
Landlords will have no choice but to lower sharecropping rents to keep their fields tended, and merchants will raise wages even higher.
This will elevate the people's income levels, gradually reducing the number of poor.
But I have no intention of voicing this here.
If I did, and the yangban officials learned of it, the consequences would be irreversible and disastrous.
"Moreover, as commerce expands, the rice and grains hoarded by the wealthy will no longer rot in warehouses."
At the word "rice," Sejong's eyes lit up.
One reason King Sejong the Great and King Taejong showed such keen interest in introducing currency was surely their deep concern over rice rotting in storehouses.
'After all, no matter how carefully stored, rice rots completely within three years of harvest.'
Yangban and merchants aren't philanthropists; they'd let three-year-old rice rot in storage rather than distribute it.
They pity the waste but won't release it to the people.
They'll just hold grand ancestral rites and banquets a few times a year to avoid peasant uprisings.
"What connection is there between expanding commerce and grains rotting?"
"My artisan and I greatly increased our wealth through commerce. Has that harmed the nation, or benefited it, Your Highness?"
At my words, everyone present perked up their ears.
This moment would decide whether investing in commerce to grow wealth was legal or forbidden.
"The way you grew your wealth aided the national interest. But why do you ask?"
"Then, rather than hoarding all their assets in rice, silk, or luxuries, the wealthy will invest in commerce to multiply their fortunes. Being human, they harbor desires to become even richer than now... They won't be content merely storing wealth; they'll want to grow it."
We often say things like, "If only I had ten million won in my account, I'd have no more wishes," or "Just one hundred million, and I'd be set."
But once someone saves ten million, they set their sights on a hundred million.
Those who say a hundred million would satisfy them start chasing a billion once they reach it—it's human nature.
Curiously, this tendency is even stronger among the rich than the poor.
Among the truly extreme rich, there are those with assets over ten or a hundred billion who never dine out, even for a simple bowl of soup.
They tremble at the thought of spending on a bowl of gukbap, refusing to buy it.
'With the price of one bowl of gukbap, I could eat three meals at home!'
Would Joseon's rich be any different?
'The rich are all the same, in the end.'
"The rice invested in commerce will circulate endlessly, returning to the poor as wages and jobs. In that process, new opportunities will arise for those striving to escape poverty."
Someone once said it.
Across all human history, capitalism has only been stirring for a few hundred years, yet the glory and progress it brought surpass the previous hundreds of thousands of years combined.
The most dramatic proof is how the European powers, which could barely match Joseon one-on-one now, utterly crushed the Qing dynasty in the Opium War.
The Qing stifled commerce and rejected full capitalism, stagnating their development, while Europe embraced it and surged ahead.
History is the footprint of the victors, so as a Joseon official, I will steer Joseon toward the path of 'capitalism' to make it the greatest nation.
King Sejong the Great nodded at my words, then suddenly grew serious.
How could my words not please him?
"Your assurance that the starving will diminish truly warms my heart. Yet I wish to know and understand my people's lives even better. Reflecting on it, the Hanseong Great Fire and such tragedies occurred because I failed to truly know the butchers. So, wouldn't it help if I personally visited them to meet the people?"
The most common mistake politicians and high-ranking officers make is asking public servants directly what troubles them.
Regardless of the visitors' intentions, officials will always say, "No problems."
For example, suppose a National Assembly member visits a police station in their district and asks what makes police work hardest.
If a clueless rookie officer honestly lists issues?
The assemblyman will relay those to the station chief, who will then view that precinct unfavorably for drawing criticism.
Once the visitor leaves, a top-down reprimand from the station chief downward will unfold.
That's why sensible people always answer "No issues."
In such situations, only the obtuse or those with ironclad resolve speak their minds.
How much more in Joseon era, with the king personally inquiring of commoners?
The outcome is plain to see.
"Even if Your Highness visits them personally, no one will truthfully share their joys and sorrows. To truly know their lives, you must conceal your identity completely."
Even today in the military, some officers fall for a senior private acting like a private first class.
In Joseon, with few precedents of kings fully disguised for covert inspections, everyone would be fooled.
"You are right. Someday, I shall venture far in disguise to see and hear their lives with my own eyes and ears."
"Your benevolence overwhelms us."
Though he said that, King Sejong the Great is Joseon's king.
How could such a man go slumming incognito like a secret royal inspector?
Probably not me, but he'll dispatch someone else to properly survey the people's livelihood.
"Lastly, I ask: Among the people, some neither respect their elders nor show filial piety, even without hunger. What do you think causes this?"
"It is because they have not been educated. How many across Joseon's eight provinces have read even the Elementary Learning, which covers basic human duties? All told, not even five pun (5%). Uneducated, they don't know propriety and fail to live as proper humans."
Humans become truly human through education.
Many goose dads reportedly receive no fatherly respect from their children.
It's not rotten natures in the kids, but that while separated, they weren't taught it by their mothers.
Conversely, a son who mistreats his mother grew up watching his father belittle her.
It's only natural for the untaught to lack propriety.
"Zilu was a thug who loved brawling until he met the Sage, but learning rites, duty, loyalty, and righteousness from Confucius turned him into a loyal minister. Had he not met and learned from Confucius, how could he have lived properly?"
Education makes people truly human.
I too endured a desperately poor and harsh childhood in Korea, but...
Thanks to one person's guidance, I reached my current position.
That's why I believe education is paramount for humanity.
And the core of that education is one thing.
A script easy for anyone, not just scholars, to learn and write.
'Hangul.'
"If all learn the Sages' ways, even among the navy (Chilban Navy, legally commoners but treated as lowborn), a top scorer will emerge. Even among those called lowly, exam passers will abound."
In fact, in the second year of King Munjong's reign, a man whose grandfather was a navy soldier placed second overall.
His score was first, but Munjong demoted him to second due to status.
In my view, that was a grave error by Munjong.
"I humbly believe Your Highness can achieve this great task."
The debate continued afterward.
But it didn't last long, as Sejong kept murmuring about "a world where all learn the Sages' ways."
Thus, the session ended sooner than expected, and as everyone rose to leave,
Sejong grabbed me, flashing a suspicious smile full of intent.
What is it? Why the heck?