Chapter 216
Chapter 216
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Laying the Groundwork
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The year changed to 1959.
Korea's high growth showed no signs of slowing.
No, it was more than that.
Japan and China, closely tied to Korea, also reaped enormous benefits from Korea's massive economic boom.
Japan and China's growth rates both exceeded 9%.
It was nothing short of explosive growth.
As a result, inquiries from countries wanting to join the EA kept pouring in.
"Your Excellency, Indonesia would like to join the EA as well."
"Thailand prides itself on being a nation faithful to Korean-style democracy, with a political system that fits perfectly in the EA."
Over ten countries had requested membership in the EA.
I politely turned them all down.
'If we let these guys in, we won't be able to handle it.'
Japan and China shared a similar Confucian cultural sphere and had built up a sense of homogeneity through long-term exchanges.
That's why merging our economies could produce synergy.
But South Asia was different.
Excluding Vietnam, their cultures, religions, and social values were all worlds apart.
Even setting all that aside, there was one insurmountable issue.
They were simply too poor to contribute meaningfully to the EA.
Even Japan and China were at a stage where we had to nurture them while accepting deficits.
Taking on even poorer South Asia would be problematic.
'Let them band together among themselves.'
Blindly expanding like the EU, which suffered all sorts of crises like PIGS,[*Note: Southern European economic crisis], was the wrong answer.
The currency depreciation effects could be fully enjoyed with just Japan and China.
If push came to shove, we could just implement aggressive quantitative easing.
From that perspective, I had no greed for expanding the EA.
We already had plenty of capital to compete with America.
Anything more would just be excess fat.
On this point, I agreed with Bismarck.
'Markets over fat!'
The task ahead in the economic sphere was to increase our share in the global market.
For that, we needed to build a super-massive mart that would accept Korean goods without limits.
Like 'Walmart.'
The retail behemoth Walmart would emerge in 1962 from a small variety store.
Walmart wouldn't take on its full warehouse-style hypermarket form until the 1980s.
Even if Walmart appeared earlier than in the original timeline, the discount store kingpin One-Yeok's Walmart didn't exist yet.
That said, modern hypermarkets weren't entirely absent.
America had chains like Kroger, complete with parking lots, dating back to the 1930s.
But models like Kroger focused mainly on groceries, falling short of the comprehensive marts like later Walmarts.
We had plenty of room to target.
After mulling it over, I summoned Chairman Jeong of Modern Enterprises to the Prime Minister's residence.
Strictly speaking, it was overkill for the head of state to handle something like this personally, but to show my interest in the matter, I needed to step in directly.
Only then would the chaebol take it seriously.
"Come in, Chairman Jeong."
"It's an honor to have this private audience, Your Excellency."
After some light chit-chat with the chairman, I broached the topic.
"The government hopes Modern Enterprises will enter the distribution sector. What are your thoughts?"
At the mention of distribution, Chairman Jeong looked puzzled.
"We're already involved in distribution."
Modern Enterprises had Modern Department Stores as a subsidiary, operating several locations.
That's what he meant.
"Chairman Jeong, I'm not talking about department stores. I'm talking about hypermarkets."
"H-Hypermarts?"
Chairman Jeong looked flustered for a moment.
"Take a look at this."
I handed him documents from the intelligence agency on American hypermarkets like Kroger.
They even included ideas for the warehouse-style stores Walmart would adopt later.
Chairman Jeong pored over the materials intently.
"All goods in one place at rock-bottom prices. A business model focused on thin margins and high volume."
"Exactly why only a major corporation can pull it off."
For a small or medium enterprise to build a Walmart-scale giant, it'd require massive trial and error and time.
But a behemoth like Modern Enterprises could shortcut that.
It'd also be easy to provide national-level support.
A single point of contact.
Chairman Jeong set the documents down and looked at me.
"If Your Excellency is bringing this to Modern Enterprises, you must want us to take it on."
"If that weren't the case, I wouldn't have called you here. What do you say? Will Modern take this on?"
Chairman Jeong gave a positive nod without much hemming and hawing.
"We'll do it. If not Modern, who else?"
Sungseong or Eunseong would have crunched the numbers endlessly.
Chairman Jeong was refreshingly decisive in that regard.
"That said, starting this will require some investment."
It was only natural, deciding on an unplanned venture.
"I'll instruct the banks. They'll provide whatever you need."
The Republic's banks were still heavily influenced by the government.
One word from us could greenlight loans that would otherwise be impossible.
Of course, only one person in the Republic wielded that authority.
"Thank you, Your Excellency."
Modern Enterprises announced plans to open 50 hypermarkets nationwide by 1963.
Without the government's committed investment, it would have been a pipe dream.
"Long-term, you'll need to target overseas markets too."
"Of course. Modern has always been a company with eyes on the world market."
That took the first step on hypermarkets.
But it wasn't enough.
We also needed companies like Japan's sogo shosha of the 1980s to bridge Korean goods to overseas markets.
Each chaebol had their own trading or commerce divisions, but they were still focused on offloading their own products.
To discuss this, I called in the economic bureaucrats.
"You're saying we should support turning each chaebol's trading arms into massive comprehensive trading companies?"
"That's right. We can't stay at this patchwork level of just selling their own stuff. They need to handle everything—from toothpicks to satellites, rifle rounds to missiles—to truly lead the Republic's exports."
"Missiles too?"
"What can't they do?"
The strength of comprehensive trading companies, like hypermarkets, was handling everything.
The bureaucrats looked shocked at my words.
A private firm selling missiles? Maybe that was too much.
But that mindset was exactly what Korean trading companies needed to conquer the world.
Amazon dominated because people believed you could get anything online.
"Your Excellency, we'll need to change the laws first."
"Then change them. What's the worry?"
The ruling Grand Justice Party held over two-thirds of the seats.
If we wanted, we could even amend the constitution—what's one law?
"Financial issues for the trading companies are a problem too. Dealing in non-affiliate goods increases risk and complicates cash flow."
"That's what the support is for."
Truth be told, the risks weren't a big deal.
In original Korea, mega-trading firms had single employees handling about 250 billion won in sales without collapsing from the risks.
The issue was scaling up to that size; once there, sheer bulk carried them.
I'd bridge that gap with government financial backing.
"Your Excellency, given the transaction volumes, this isn't a light matter. A misstep could burden our banks heavily."
"The government will shoulder the risks."
The Korean government's finances weren't always in surplus, but our public enterprises were highly profitable.
Especially Korea Petroleum Corporation, with its stakes in massive oil fields like Daching.
Worst case, we could siphon funds from those profitable public firms.
We settled on tweaking the laws and bolstering government financial support for the trading companies.
Hypermarts and comprehensive trading companies.
That alone was a hand strong enough to sweep the world market.
Especially with our existing export support policies already in place.
As I laid these groundwork moves to target the global market, I kept an eye on Washington's actions.
But Washington showed no signs of checking us.
As expected, America was too busy slugging it out with the Soviets to pay us any mind.
Until the post-Cold War thaw, America wouldn't turn its gaze our way.
The problem was this lull wouldn't last forever.
Intelligence projected the Soviets would abandon the arms race with America within five years and pivot to disarmament.
Five years.
Right when our own power surpassed the Soviets, America and the USSR reconcile?
The picture was a bit iffy.
'If we could just buy a little more time, America wouldn't even think of checking us.'
That was a shame.
As I twirled my pen, pondering ways to stall for time, Kim Jeong-gil burst in with an urgent wire.
"Your Excellency, France is demanding gold redemption from America."
The gold redemption crisis was starting already?
So, how should we respond?
I summoned the cabinet ministers to the residence.