Chapter 181
Chapter 181
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 181
Chapter Title: Maps and Trade (2)
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In the original history, the Sejong Annals Gazetteer was created for the purpose of strengthening central authority and making control over the provinces easier.
This meant that the Sejong Annals Gazetteer was primarily for the benefit of court officials.
However, after King Sejong witnessed commerce flourishing and the people's lives improving directly as a result, and came to understand the principles of supply and demand, it seems he developed a different perspective.
By identifying the local specialties of each of the eight provinces and encouraging their cultivation and production, while also noting in the gazetteer what each district lacked, merchants would naturally buy up surplus goods from abundant areas and sell to those in shortage...
Through this repeated process, the kingdom would grow even more prosperous.
"Your Highness commanded the Hall of Worthies to compile the gazetteer for two main purposes. The first is to clearly document the population, geography, fortresses, garrisons, tribute goods (local specialties), dikes, temples, and so on in each county and district, making it easier for the court to control the provinces."
Joseon could be called a nation with exceptionally advanced centralization, even by global standards.
Taking the early 15th century—King Sejong's reign as the benchmark—it would be nearly impossible to find another country where central authority was realized to such a degree.
Yet even in such a Joseon, local powerhouses still held significant influence, so perfect control over the provinces remained elusive.
One could see this from the incident where Pyo Un-pyeong's son—the victim of the Seo Dal affair, Huang Hui's greatest blunder in life—led forty cavalrymen to utterly crush Seo Dal.
Despite the grand principle in Joseon that no one could maintain private armies, even a lowly clerk ignored it.
This is why Heo Jo proposed and implemented the Prohibition on Private Citizens' Lawsuits law.
"To levy corvée labor or military service, one must have a good grasp of local conditions. In truth, thanks to the implementation of the Bangwon Law, the issue of districts having to provide non-local tribute goods via cash payments has long been resolved... but the magistrates still have to buy those non-local tribute items at inflated prices with the collected rice taxes and offer them up, which forces them to levy even higher taxes from the people. That vicious cycle persists."
One of the reasons the tribute system completely rotted away was the introduction of the cash payment system for tribute, stemming from the non-local tribute problem.
For example, Anseong in Gyeonggi Province produced plenty of apples but no tiger hides...
If, due to some administrative error or other reason, 'tiger hides' were listed as Anseong's specialty?
The people of that district had no choice but to offer tiger hides to the state.
In early Joseon, where division of labor and commerce hadn't developed much, it was never easy for an ordinary farmer even to see his district's specialty goods...
Acquiring something like a tiger hide, only available through other districts, and offering it directly to the state was utterly impossible.
Thus began the cash payment system, where magistrates and clerks bought tiger hides from someone else at exorbitant fees and submitted them.
'To be more precise, entrusting part of the tribute to monks in exchange for rice is what truly turned the cash payment system into a torment for the people.'
"And it seems Your Highness also intends to eliminate the problematic non-local tribute goods entirely. Moreover, in my view, after the great subjugation of the Jurchens this time, His Highness may also have designs on absorbing the lands they fled and abandoned as Joseon's own."
"What does compiling a gazetteer have to do with subjugating the Jurchens?"
"Doesn't compiling the gazetteer involve conducting a population census as well?"
The Sejong Annals Gazetteer—or until King Sejong's passing, the Newly Compiled Gazetteer of the Eight Provinces—included census results for each district.
In the original history, the gazetteer compilation began in earnest some time before the Battle of Pajiang, so it proceeded separately from the Jurchen subjugation and the occupation of the Four Garrisons and Six Commands.
But now, with Joseon's finances and economy far stronger, it appears His Highness plans to push all the way to the Yalu River, solidifying supply lines as he advances...
Though he hasn't said it outright, it's obvious as day that settling private citizens there is on his mind.
"A census would naturally reveal the numbers of landowners, independent farmers (those with their own land), tenant farmers, merchants, artisans, slaves, and the like."
"True enough. But slaves aside, would people with established professions really volunteer for settlement?"
In the original history, King Sejong offered tremendous incentives to those who volunteered or were conscripted for settlement.
For commoners, he exempted all labor and taxes, granting them local official positions; for slaves, they were immediately freed from slave status upon volunteering.
He even provided some food, farming tools, and oxen.
Yet even tenant farmers and slaves living as serfs didn't step forward voluntarily.
No one would abandon their livelihood for a slim chance at advancement in a place with abysmal odds of success and grueling hardship.
But if one shifted perspective just a bit...
'Dangle the right bait to those without livelihoods, and it's not impossible at all.'
"Naturally, those with livelihoods—even slaves—won't volunteer for settlement. It means leaving behind family, relatives, neighbors, and the very foundation they've built."
"Indeed."
"Those with land to tenant farm will absolutely refuse settlement. They'd rather live modestly tilling rented fields than brave uncultivated wilderness and the risk of death by Jurchen hands."
The decisive reason Sejong's Four Garrisons and Six Commands failed was the Jurchens.
The settlers managed, through sheer grit, to farm the near-wastelands and establish a basis for survival.
But the gravest issue was never knowing when Jurchens would raid, slaughtering or abducting villagers.
In fact, constant Jurchen kidnappings and killings led to the Four Garrisons being abolished after Sejong's death, renamed the Abandoned Four Garrisons.
"While conducting the census, it would be wise to also tally those without land to tenant. And estimate how many might volunteer for settlement."
Byeong Gye-ryang's face was gradually turning ashen.
"That sounds good."
"Furthermore, the second major purpose of this gazetteer compilation is to harness the merchants' desire for profit."
Humans don't shy away from life-risking ventures if there's money to be made.
Even in the Age of Exploration, over half the sailors in trading fleets died from scurvy or other diseases, regardless of successful voyages.
Voyages to open new routes often ended in shipwreck...
It was no different from betting one's life on a lottery ticket.
Yet Europeans, driven by greed for a fortune in pepper trade, rounded the Cape of Good Hope and reached India.
Their desires weren't wholesome, but they greatly advanced navigation nonetheless.
King Sejong may not know of the Age of Exploration, but he surely grasps the immense greed of merchants for money...
That's why he ordered the gazetteer while speaking of supply and demand.
'Repeatedly choosing to buy surpluses from certain districts and sell shortages for profit.'
Byeong Gye-ryang nodded in agreement with my words.
"You're right, Inspector Kim. His Highness said that while merchants' desires are great, they can benefit the kingdom if properly utilized. And he said this too."
"What did he say?"
"The reason wheat flour is precious isn't because growing and harvesting wheat is difficult, but because so few grow it."
That's correct.
In fact, in Joseon's Hamgyeong and Pyeongan Provinces, people only grew barley, millet, and sorghum—almost no one grew wheat.
There were hardly any wheat-based foods in Joseon, but the bigger reason was the lack of a market to sell it.
But if one could sell wheat flour to buy rice...?
Or if wheat's scarcity was recognized, trading 1kg of flour for 2kg of rice—what then?
Wheat cultivation would begin in northern Joseon regions unsuitable for rice.
As expected of King Sejong—he understands supply and demand and applies it immediately.
"That's right. So he ordered the gazetteer to survey specialties and publicize them nationwide. And since he also commanded a census... referencing the Qin dynasty's Fifteen Taxes would be ideal."
Beyond that, I suggested several other useful additions to include in the gazetteer while compiling it, sharing them with Byeong Gye-ryang.
Each time I mentioned an idea, his face seemed to harden more...
But that must be my imagination.