Chapter 129
Chapter 129
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 129
Chapter Title: Sejong's Enlightenment (3)
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King Sejong the Great smiled at me.
It looked exactly like the smile a professor makes when they have naughty thoughts about one of their students.
Filled with dread, I wanted to cry out, "No! I hate that! Please don't!" but...
I held back, since I couldn't say something like that to the king.
"What you said, Scribe Kim, was excellent, but there are a few points that concern me, so I wanted to ask about them separately."
"Yes, Your Highness."
"You said that as commerce expands, workshops will multiply, increasing the number of artisans, and merchant guilds will grow, creating more jobs for laborers. As commerce develops, jobs will abound, so anyone among the people with the will to work should be able to find employment. Those who gain jobs will earn steady income, freeing them from hunger and poverty... But no matter how much I think about it, there's one thing that doesn't make sense."
"What is it, Your Highness?"
"Among yangban landlords, some demand 60%, even 70% of the harvest as rent from tenant farmers. They treat tenants like household slaves, forcing them into all sorts of odd jobs, and don't hesitate to beat them if displeased. There are brutal ones who ignore the resentment filling the villages. On the other hand, other yangban landlords take only 50% rent and neither burden tenants with odd jobs nor beat them. I hear the main reason they act this way is fear of damaging their reputation in the village."
Listening to Sejong, chills ran down my spine.
I was astonished by his insight.
In reality, after the Industrial Revolution began, workers' lives plummeted to the depths of hell, and wages kept falling endlessly.
The reason was extremely simple.
In eras when most lived as serfs or tenant farmers, lords and landlords were ultimately locals too. If their reputation got too bad, they could get skewered on a spear at any moment, so a modicum of self-restraint was essential.
But factory owners could hire and replace workers from various regions like machine parts, ignoring reputation and exploiting them mercilessly.
120 hours a week, sleeping tied to ropes, fingers severed or jaws rotted away from work-related illnesses—no hospital bills paid, even a penny.
They fired the sick ruthlessly without mercy.
Unlike nobles, factory owners and capitalists weren't affected at all by "the people's judgment," and since everyone did it, they felt no qualms.
"Merchants, driven by profit, will focus solely on making and selling goods cheaply and in volume, so they'll have no qualms exploiting and abusing their workers."
"Yes, they certainly will."
"...In that case, from the people's perspective, wouldn't commercial development be worse than not having it at all?"
"That is why the court must strictly monitor those engaged in commerce to prevent such atrocities. Moreover, it must set a minimum wage sufficient for a person to eat and live without starving, ensuring all employers pay at least that amount. And if anyone abuses workers, punish them severely to prevent repetition."
Merchants will do anything for money.
Blinded by the desire for profit, thousands or tens of thousands volunteered for the Indian voyage project—something miraculous just to return alive.
And if they lacked trade goods, they'd send marines as dog meat—or rather, pirate curry—as substitutes.
"In the end, you're saying the court must step in to reform the merchants."
Sejong looked at me with an intensely sticky gaze.
"His Retired Majesty told me he heard this from you: 'Precious goods are expensive because they're scarce, but if commerce flourishes, profit-seeking merchants will produce and sell more of them, making them common and affordable in time.' Do you remember saying that?"
"I did indeed say that, Your Highness."
"Keeping those words in mind, I pondered deeply what you said in the scholarly contest. It struck me like this: Yangban landlords can set high rents because there are more people wanting to farm as tenants than they can handle. With abundant would-be tenants but limited land, they demand high rents."
That's exactly why skilled labor costs so much.
Mastering advanced skills is incredibly hard, so there are few true experts, but demand is filthy high, forcing employers to pay top dollar to attract them.
That's why Americans, surprisingly obsessed with sushi despite few proper sushi chefs there, hire Japanese ones who can't speak a lick of English at premium wages.
A sushi chef earning under 30 million won a year in Japan magically pulls 100 million in the US.
"In the past, when agriculture was the only way to survive, all landless commoners had to tenant farm. But as commerce develops and more engage in trade, they'll need many artisans and laborers. Then, commoners with options beyond tenancy will flock to merchant caravans and workshops, scattering everywhere."
"Yes, exactly. Commercial development will give the people freedom to choose occupations."
"With occupational freedom, but yangban and wealthy landowners' lands unchanged, landlords will have to lower rents to find farmers. Leaving land fallow means pure loss for them. Merchants, robbed of workers, won't run caravans without raising wages to retain them. If such competition truly happens, the people's lives will prosper greatly."
I recall from my studies that Henry Ford, the American auto king, pioneered the five-day workweek.
Not out of pity for poor laborers, of course.
Back then, US factory work was typically short-term like convenience store part-time gigs, making labor supply unstable and skilled workers hard to secure.
So he paid five times the going rate daily and introduced 40-hour weeks to root skilled artisans in his factories.
'Thanks to that, US worker pay skyrocketed.'
And US industrial productivity soared too.
But there's one thing King Sejong is missing.
"It will surely happen that way. But I have an even greater goal: lowering the price of farmland."
"Lowering land prices? What on earth do you mean?"
"Your Highness, the value of any good is determined by the demand from those who want it and the supply produced. Simply put, rice prices can jump fivefold in a bad harvest because the number of rice buyers stays the same, but the harvested amount plummets, slashing market supply. Buyers willingly pay more for needed rice."
That's how I made a fortune by stockpiling rice ahead and releasing it—supply and demand.
Uiju has tons of tigers, so tiger pelts are dirt cheap.
But harsh cold makes rice farming tough, so rice is precious.
In Uiju, rice is scarce, tiger hides abundant.
"What does that have to do with land pri—"
Sejong started speaking but froze mid-sentence, as if struck by a shocking realization.
He's finally opened his eyes!
Now, let's charge toward the path where all Joseon people, like me, become landowners.
"The biggest reason landlords want fields and paddies is the rent they collect. But if rents fall, income drops even on the same land, so yangban have less reason to own it."
"With less income, no need to cling to land like gold or jade... Some will struggle to find tenants, rents lower than before, so they'll put it up for relatively cheap sale. As more do, land prices will gradually drop overall."
Like apartments in real estate.
Once one in a certain complex sells 300-400 million lower than others, prices rarely rebound.
Buyers won't pay premium when a cheaper one sold already.
"This is just the beginning, Your Highness."
I've heard Joseon merchants are thriving in illegal trade in the Gangnam area.
Further on, they'll hit Taiwan, Philippines, other Southeast Asia.
Once sea routes open and trade flows, I'll layer 'stocks' on top.
Then countless yangban and rich merchants, tired of hunting tenants and sinking rents, will think, 'What's the point of holding land?'
Sell it, buy stocks.
Some will flop, others hit jackpots fulfilling overnight riches dreams.
In that investment frenzy, sold land goes cheap to people needing it for farming.
"Mencius said without steady income, even human conscience is hard to maintain. Conversely, if all have steady income, they'll uphold human duties. To do so, they must learn them first. Thus, everyone has a 'duty to learn'."
"You're right. Truly right."
Sejong gripped my hand tightly.
His fitness from recent training was no joke—my hand screamed in agony.
If not the king, I'd have yanked away; his grip strength was insane.
A close military official joked Sejong's martial prowess growing daily—he could handle one or two assassins alone...
'He'd really nab assassin riffraff.'
"Your Highness need only seek easy ways for the people to learn. I will humbly aid realizing your great will."
With that, I hurried home.
If enlightened Sejong, lost in awe, grabbed me...
I'd be stuck in Gyeongbok Palace till dawn in heated debate (scholarly discussion).
The contest was overtime too...
Gotta escape quick.