Cholera
The Daehan Economic Persons Federation, abbreviated as Dae Gyeong Ryeon, had been launched amid great expectations and blessings. Yet it had not brought about rapid growth in Joseon's industrial power or dramatic changes in the people's lives.
“Danmuk, this bundle of paper scraps has restored mutual trust among so many people. This is the point.”
“Hah, how cautious you are.”
“I must sincerely thank your father. If you had wandered the streets instead of the school, it would have been a great calamity for the nation.”
“Just think it a good thing that happened. Don’t be so suspicious.”
“In fact, what I am pushing forward now are the seed companies that will become the first joint-stock enterprises in Joseon.”
“The ledgers I hold now, arranged in the form of bonds and promissory notes, were the sponsorship funds from the Han River inns and Kyung River merchants who had begun to be pressured by Qing merchants who had advanced inland due to the ripples from the Three Southern Provinces’ literati and landlords, as well as the support of local influential figures. They simply wanted to sponsor and cheer me on; they never imagined I would propose to do business together.”
“On the first day, they were just supposed to accept the sponsorship funds as adults told them to, but the reason I insisted on sealing the ledgers was…”
“The condition I set for them was a thirty-year interest-free capital investment. In return, I added the condition that their interests would be attractive: quarterly profit dividends, an innovative investment model never before seen in Joseon, where profits were regularly divided.”
“And as time passed, the members of Dae Gyeong Ryeon would likely transform into Joseon’s largest corporate group. Of course, that was only if I had personally canvassed them and groveled.”
“Hoo hoo hoo.”
“After tucking away the bond bundles and promissory notes neatly into the locked chest, Choe Ik-hyeon, who had been scanning the business plans I had submitted earlier with half-lidded eyes, opened his mouth.”
“I understand your proposal to establish large-scale facilities and distribution centers across the South Sea for the mass production of kelp and miyeok. But why transport the mineral waters from Cheongsong and Cheongju all the way to Jeonju? I heard that the carbonated water brought from Cheongju this time was half water.”
“So we plan to open a factory in Gongju and produce the bottles there, then manufacture the carbonated water locally.”
“Locally.”
“We still lack the technology to fill bottle necks tightly in our Joseon. The strongest method is sealing with wax, though we cannot afford to let even a little of the product spoil.”
“Hmm, hmm.”
“The apple-based *jezaju* from Andong and Cheongsong is famous in Chungcheong Province, so it would be a good idea to set up a factory there and ship it as a product. I will relay this to the members of the Alliance Association in that region. They have their own ingenuity, so they will likely secure a decent plot of land.”
“Then I will contact them to procure artisans and labor.”
“Following Yu In-seok’s explanation, I negotiated with the merchants regarding the carbonated water produced in Cheongsong, in cooperation with the orchards in Cheongsong, to produce apple juice.”
“It will take time until the factory begins operating, but once it runs properly, Cheongsong, which was only a small town, will suddenly become famous as a village that oscillates between booms and busts on the fame of ‘carbonated water’ alone.”
“However, while quietly rummaging through the business plan in the corner, Lee Ha-young asked,”p>
“But in our Joseon seas, the kelp that appears is bought up by Japanese eyes everywhere. Is there really a need to process it once more? With that much labor and effort, wouldn’t it be better to establish more factories for processing danmuk or miyeok?”
“A valid point.”
“But we have not yet developed the technology to increase production volume simply by adding more labor and people.”
“Technology?”
“Lee Ha-young’s eyes widened in surprise, and Yi Yong-ik struck his elbow with a tap.”
“Think about the price of kelp.”
“Ah, you are right. As you know, miyeok requires a large quantity of kelp. If we import large amounts of sugar cane and wheat from Japan, it could somewhat substitute, but the amount of miyeok we obtain is still very minimal compared to the effort invested.”
“In fact, the primitive glutamic acid obtained by boiling an entire pot of expensive kelp is less than one dou.”
“And if we try to produce and export miyeok worldwide with all that nonsense, we will go bankrupt first. It will also disrupt our ambitious plot to capture the world’s palates and make the world’s people our slaves.”
“Until we build a modern factory capable of mass production through hydrolysis, we will have no choice but to do it the old-fashioned way.”
“With that regretful feeling in my heart, I opened my mouth.”
“We will maintain current production levels, but for mass production, we will research better methods by mixing foreign technology with our own secrets. This will take some time. Danmuk, as one of the main ingredients, agar-agar can only be harvested in specific places during specific seasons. Isn’t that so?”
“I turned to Yi Yong-ik, who would be in charge of Joseon’s first jelly factory, and he answered with understanding.”
“The agar-agar most valued in Joseon is from the West Sea side of Jeolla Province. It is harvested from late winter to early spring and early summer, and other days must wait while cultivating more, managing it steadily.”
“Yet danmuk does not spoil and is easy to store, right?”
“That is why we maintain production levels. No matter how much people say danmuk tastes good, they will not eat only danmuk.”
“Tsk, you are right.”
“Lee Ha-young’s rebuke made Lee sigh with regret. ‘If it were danmuk, the Chinese and Japanese would go crazy for it.’ I understood his regret to some extent.”
“Looking at the jelly coils imported from the West these days, the answer does not come out.”
“In fact, most of the jelly imported from Asia to the West at this time had a unified appearance due to technical issues, roughly resembling a worm-like ‘entomologist’ in a horrifying shape.”
“That is why people in Joseon during the opening period despised Western confections and jelly.”
“How can one eat something as a worm?”
“But our danmuk is shaped like grapes if it tastes like grapes, apples if it tastes like apples, and even fish and teddy bears if necessary.”
“Just like the famous German jelly company, Ha○bo.”
“Tsk tsk, it is a pity. It would be nice if agar-agar grew wildly like seaweed.”
“Hmph.”
“While Lee Ha-young continued to sigh, Choe Ik-hyeon, having organized the documents, opened his mouth with a calm expression.”
“With this, the Alliance Association’s projects will be three major ones. You mentioned flour milling and cotton spinning, but are there not enough people?”
“As Choe Ik-hyeon pointed out, even just the sugar refining part had already three businesses, and people were already lacking.”
“What can we do? Even if there are no talents, the time left for us after the opening and the unequal treaties that began economic plunder by the Qing dynasty is even more nonexistent.”
“As for people, I am currently using the two above as chief executives, and the supervisor and advisor will be taken care of by Chancellor Chae-gyeom. It would be better for someone who will uphold principles with integrity to take charge of this public great cause for the prosperous life of all the people, not a private business for personal gain.”
“I will take it with a humble heart.”
“With that conversation over, we began to move busily again, organizing the fields each of us would be responsible for.”
“Before we knew it, half a year had passed, and one day a major disaster struck the Joseon food industry.”
“And it was also the time when the Alliance Association and I, who had been crouching for the great cause, would step onto the main stage.”
*****
Revolutions require legitimacy.
The more blood a revolution demands and the stronger the reactionary forces, the more so.
“Hmph, hoo hoo.”
“That day was no different from usual.”
“I sat at my desk, rolling my writing utensils without rest, humming a satisfied tune over my profits. Yu In-seok, who now followed me like a personal secretary, was organizing bundles of papers in the drawer.”
“Yes. It was a perfectly ordinary late summer, or rather the beginning of autumn, when people were busy with harvest preparations.”
“Kung, kung, kung!”
“Hey!”
“I was cross-checking modern-style business reports from the Alliance Association branches in the Three Southern Provinces and corporate offices when the door burst open with a crash and Seo Gong-sun, the magistrate of Namwon, strode in, causing me to nearly fall off my chair.”
“Bang!”
“W-what is it?!”
“Have you heard?!”
“W-what happened? Without any warning.”
“It’s a real disaster! A huge disaster! Right now in Busan. So…”
“Seo Gong-sun had a troubled expression, unable to decide what to say first despite having much to explain.”
“Yu In-seok in the same room as me widened his rabbit eyes in shock and stared at the frozen magistrate at the threshold. ‘If this good man cannot speak of a serious matter lightly, it must be no ordinary disaster!’”
“After a moment, Seo Gong-sun received a bowl of cold water from a Vanguard member sweeping the courtyard outside and gulped it down, then began his story with a deep sigh.”
“It was indeed a tremendous disaster.”
“The epidemic has spread from Busan. Daegu, Gyeongju, Sangju, and Mungyeong are all burned to the ground. Incheon’s foreign settlement also had cholera patients, and soon Hanseong will have carriers.”
“An epidemic? Hah, that is really bad.”
“Oh, epidemic? What is an epidemic… Cholera?!”
“Of all people, I was the most terrified by Seo Gong-sun’s words.”
“Cholera! In an era when public sanitation was thrown into the cesspool, cholera?! Oh no!”
“Hah!”
“In that short time, I scanned the carbonated water bottles and plates scattered in the room with eyes filled with horror, along with the chopsticks I had eaten for breakfast that morning, and shook my fingers while tearing at my hair. Had I eaten it with my hands? No, probably not!”
“…No, I am not going to die, am I?”
“Imagining the future scene of endless diarrhea and crawling on the floor, I involuntarily got goosebumps and rubbed my palms vigorously on my clothes.”
“Epidemic, also known as cholera.”
“The most influential and far-reaching disease among the terrifying epidemics brought by Western ships since the opening of Joseon after the Treaty of Ganghwa.”
“The same fellow who made even Joseon’s conservative Confucian scholars believe in Buddha and mountain gods and drink exorcism water.”
“Idiots! If you had fallen in the Joseon era, you should have thought about epidemics!”
“From 1881 to 1889, approximately 80,000 people died of cholera in Joseon, which was not a small number, but Japan, which had only roughly outlined public health and sanitation after the Meiji Restoration, lost about 150,000, twice as many. Why did they skip the Qing dynasty? They just fill the dead quickly, so it is fine.”
“Cholera, cholera, cholera.”
“I recalled the Joseon government’s cholera regulations I had read sometime in the memory waves, written by Hwang Hyeon.”
“When people began dying of cholera in Hanyang, the price of quarantine officials skyrocketed…”
“In fact, at this time, the Joseon court had not yet established any measures, agencies, or departments regarding various epidemics including cholera.”
“The rapid dispatch that installed quarantine stations across the country was in 1886. We still had time.”
“As time passed, the foreign settlements gradually increased, and when the number of Joseon residents exceeded 10,000 nationwide, cholera had reached its prime. As a result, when the people died of cholera, Gojong and the court hurriedly installed the first quarantine station in Busan for quarantine, but by then nearly three thousand had already died of cholera in Hanyang.”
“While I was lost in thought, Seo Gong-sun and Yu In-seok debated whether they should relay the news to the Alliance Association branches.”
“It may already be too late. I heard the pine board prices have skyrocketed in Gyeongju and Daegu.”
“Hah! If the quarantine officials’ prices are already rising, how many people are actually dying?”
“I do not know the details yet. There may already be infected people in our Jeolla Province too—”
“Namwon was no longer safe.”