Chapter 153
Chapter 153
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 153
Chapter Title: Joseon Steel Mill (4)
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I'd given a lot of thought to building this steel mill.
While it was certainly needed, putting up just the mill itself would be way too inefficient.
In the 21st century with its advanced transportation, you could build a single mill and let employees who wanted to drive commute that way, while running shuttle buses for those who didn't. Even people living pretty far out could make it work, keeping the operation smooth.
But Joseon had no cars or buses.
With long-distance commutes impossible, the mill's artisans had no choice but to live nearby.
That meant all sorts of consumption: raw materials for the mill, daily necessities for the artisans and their families...
Overlooking that and building the mill in isolation would make operations incredibly tough.
"Director of the Ironworks, my lord, what is this?"
"Vice Minister Jeong (Jeong Bun), I mulled it over carefully before coming here. To run a steel mill properly, we'll need a lot more than you might think."
To operate it right, we'd need at least a hundred—no, two hundred artisans on site at any given time.
That many would let us run not just the blast furnaces but the refining furnaces around the clock without a hitch, and handle emergencies too.
But people tire after eight hours of work and need rest for the next shift. Steel mills, by their nature, have to run 24/7, 365 days a year...
So for three-shift rotations, we'd need a minimum of six hundred artisans.
Factor in haulers for timber, iron ore, and other materials coming in, and folks shipping finished iron out, and we're looking at over thirteen hundred able-bodied men just for the Jaeryeong Steel Mill.
Assuming each has a family, that's sixty-five hundred people crowding into the area around the mill.
By Joseon standards, that kind of population makes for a decent-sized city.
Add in port laborers, iron mine workers digging ore, and their families...
This place could easily end up with twenty thousand souls before long.
"We'll need to build a port too, and run iron mines for the ore. Plus woodcutters to haul in the timber."
"Yes, indeed."
"Then we'll need merchants to supply all the goods for the people settling here. Inns will pop up, and a massive market too."
Up to now, the Joseon court hadn't paid the ironmasters or steel artisans a dime...
But with some budget wiggle room these days, they'll be getting decent wages going forward.
Businesses catering to them will boom.
"Considering all that, it makes sense to just plan this as building a whole new large town from scratch. So on the boat ride here, I used the spare time to sketch out plans for the whole district and compile them into this book."
"......You did all this in less than two days?"
"Where there's a will, there's a way. Jang Hogun drew up plans for the refining furnace and blast furnace in just ten days, and had steel production running a fortnight later, didn't he?"
It was called a blast furnace, but since it was a small prototype, they managed to produce steel in a mere fortnight after finalizing the plans.
We don't have the capability to build massive dozens-of-meters-tall furnaces yet, nor the tech to run them.
What Jang Yeong-sil made was closer to an earth-and-stone furnace, about three or four meters high.
That's a huge technological leap on its own, but the output would fall short of what I envision, so we'll make up for it with numbers.
"Laborers and materials were already arranged with the Jaeryeong County Magistrate before we arrived. We can break ground right away following these plans."
"Yes, my lord Director. But while you're building the port, mill, market, and all that—why not the houses too? You've already secured the land, haven't you? At this scale, you could put up thousands of homes. Publicize it, let people buy them up and rent them out... Wealthy folks from across the country would line up to invest."
"Ah, there's a reason for that."
My goal is to turn this area—Jaeryeong in Hwanghae Province—into a full-fledged city.
Grandly put, a Jaeryeong New City.
But if we go the modern new-city route, courting private investment upfront and letting investors collect rent from occupied homes...
"Like with the Jurchen campaign, we take money from merchants and yangban, build the mill and facilities here in exchange, then hand out houses to the investors. Makes construction a breeze—no court budget worries, just use their funds."
Joseon folk—or more precisely, the yangban scholars—may know less about economics than 21st-century folks, but they're no fools.
When it comes to spotting land that's obviously about to skyrocket in value, with fat rents to boot, they could give modern speculators a run for their money.
Just look at the late Joseon under King Yeongjo: house prices in Hanyang multiplied several times from early to late in his reign, a real estate boom...
Why would it be different now?
"The problem comes after handing over all the surrounding houses to those investors. They'll know the workers here pull high wages, so to recoup their investment plus profit, they'll jack up the rents. Collude on it, even."
The Hanseong market guilds colluding to hike prices is monopolistic profiteering.
They're not nation-founders or heroes, so the court can crack down on 'collusion' as harmful.
But cracking down on landlords charging high rent for their own property? No grounds for that.
These are people who shelled out massive personal funds when the court called for steel mill money, contributors to Jaeryeong New City's development.
"Rents, huh. That's a real issue."
"That, and... I plan to use national funds to house the workers coming here to labor. In exchange, deduct part of their wages over ten years to pay it off."
The work at the steel mill is dangerous, grueling, and demands real expertise.
So we'll have to pay them well.
Plenty of these laborers, getting that pay, will think:
'Grind it out here two or three years, pocket the cash, head home. Buy land, marry, care for my parents—live right.'
Like Southeast Asian migrants in modern Korea: bust their humps a few years, return home rich, build two- or three-story houses, live large forever.
Fine for the individual, but a huge loss for the nation.
We train them up the hard way, they finally get useful, and poof—they all scatter back home.
"Word spreads you work hard a few years, rake in wages, score a house, live proper—folks'll flock here. And once they've got homes, no way they'll move after all that toil."
"Exactly. So the county office should step in, pair young men coming to Jaeryeong with local maidens. Married ones? Lure their families here."
The ancient Roman legions had a unique way of settling what was then untamed wilderness like France and other parts of Europe.
They built camps in conquered lands, had soldiers marry local women and start families.
Weekdays in camp, weekends at home nearby with wife.
Retirement age hits: go home or stay?
Most, having wed and rooted here, chose to stay.
France's wine fame traces back to those ex-soldiers growing grapes, brewing for the legions.
Joseon can't copy it wholesale...
But the key insight: own a home and family here, you're settled for good.
"So that's why you're skipping the houses for now."
"We don't know yet how many'll work at the mill, so build 'em after it's done. For now, put up barracks like for soldiers—just shelter from rain for groups."
"Yes, my lord."
"Count on you."
Jeong Bun took the plans, unrolled them, and sighed.
Probably daunted by the workload. I'd keep reminding him how vital this was, to stay motivated.
Then I headed to Jang Yeong-sil.
He was yelling at the furnace builders.
"Hey, how many times have I said the walls need to be two cheok thick (60cm)? I even told you skimping on bricks won't make you rich!"
"Sorry, sir."
"Joseon's future rides on this! You think we're paying you top wages for nothing? Let me spell it out again: no room for screw-ups!"
Off to the side, Yi Sun-ji—Joseon's math prodigy who'd passed this year's civil service exam—was crunching projected material usage.
"Current estimates say this much, but factoring in actual spend so far, we might get by with ten percent less..."
Everything running like clockwork. The mill would finish without a hitch.
Three months later, Jaeryeong boasted a massive steel mill, pinnacle of Joseon tech.