Activating the Monetary Economy (2)
Hwang Cheol-un’s words were not just the empty bravado of some hopeless Joseon fool.
In fact, they were not even a particularly novel idea.
Joseon’s relentless privatization had reached money as well.
The royal court understood economics at least as well as the average otherworldly hero. True, its motive was a painfully one-dimensional hunger for seigniorage, but the will to stimulate a cash economy was there.
Unfortunately, they lacked copper, lacked the technology, and lacked the administrative machinery to do it properly.
King Sejong, that lord of terror, had once ordered men killed on the spot—down to the last hop—and a half, if they dared barter rice instead of spending money. His descendant, whose posthumous name was only vaguely similar, even tried making coins that doubled as arrowheads, in true state-military fashion. All of it failed.
Joseon’s conclusion, as always, was simple.
Just tolerate private minting. If you wanted a monetary economy, then first you needed money.
The U.S. Federal Reserve was nothing but a provincial backwater compared with Joseon. A few centuries behind, at least.
Joseon’s currency system was, in truth, thoroughly market-driven. No one—not even the state—could control the circulation of money, and the state itself entered the field as just another player, right alongside private citizens.
* * *
Hwang Cheol-un explained the point with great enthusiasm.
“There was already a royal edict in King Hyeonjong’s reign stating that minting coins outside government jurisdiction would no longer be punished. After that, from clerks at the very bottom to provincial governors at the top, from merchants on the outside to yangban women at home, there was not a soul who didn’t make coins.”
As if to prove that even ghosts could be unaware of things, the ghost who had been listening the whole time snorted.
[When was Hyeonjong ever king? By the reign of Sukjong, they were beheading not only the artisan who melted the coins, but everyone who ran errands for him or helped him out.]
Joseon’s “privatize the monetary economy” policy had, more or less, landed where it was meant to.
The main problem in currency crime had originally been the fellow “melting money down and selling it as copper,” but now there were more people “melting copper down and making it into money.”
For some reason or other, the value of blank peony tongbo had risen above the value of copper itself.
So the court promptly tried to ban private minting again and monopolize the seigniorage for itself. If people didn’t like it, well, the private minters could always go join the army.
But no one was going to obey such a wildly inconsistent law.
Laws were written in classical Chinese, so Joseon people didn’t really understand them. It’s not like anyone had set it up with push notifications, after all.
The Joseon government had already once lowered itself to the level of civilians for profit, so it was absurd to think it could now suddenly reclaim authority.
Hwang Cheol-un seemed to regard the court the way one might regard the neighbor’s dog.
“The copper cost a bit of money too, but I asked nearby refiners to prepare it. It only needs to be melted down.”
That was all he said, but the Mountain Spirit, who was always suspiciously well-versed in worldly affairs, immediately guessed the truth.
[You stole it from a cannon foundry, didn’t you?]
That would be easier, come to think of it. It’s more profitable to buy electricity and resell it than to generate it yourself and try to sell that.
Copper was extremely easy to recycle, while mining it was nearly impossible even for the state.
That was right. Joseon did not know copper-smelting well.
If they had copper, they could make bowls or cannons just fine, but the process of actually producing copper from the earth had never been properly established. And yes, I mean Joseon, not Gojoseon.
That remained true almost until the end of the eighteenth century.
The first serious attempts came under King Yeongjo and King Jeongjo, but even then the technology was still too crude to make the venture profitable or produce quality metal.
The reason Joseon had to import all of its copper from Japan throughout the dynasty was not because the peninsula had no copper deposits at all, but because it had no copper that was easy to extract.
Even now, it was better than it had once been, but it was still a business that barely paid for itself. Recycling was the sensible path.
The Joseon army, which had built a sustainable, low-carbon, advanced defense industry system, also wholeheartedly agreed with that environmental spirit. Even Joseon cannon—bad as it was as a weapon—was an excellent commodity when viewed as copper.
Kim Dae-geon’s holy smoke grenade had been smuggled out through a similar channel from the Korean military, so I could understand that process as well.
And I understood Hwang Cheol-un’s aim too.
So if he gets caught, he’s planning to dump the whole thing on me and slip away.
[What? I already told you. In private minting cases, they behead everyone down to the accomplices. If he gets caught, that man won’t get off scot-free either.]
No precedent for a reduced sentence? Say, if the guy is the one who reported the crime?
As if there could be none. The Mountain Spirit’s expression turned into something like “ah” — not that “expression” was quite the right word, but that was the only way I could feel it.
The reason I could guess so easily was, naturally, because there were plenty of people like that even in modern times.
It was the classic scammer’s trick: keep rotating the front man, send him to prison, then keep the operation going.
My gaze drifted to my axe.
The people who came to see me these days were actually disappointed if I wasn’t wearing the axe.
So even in a reception like this, I was naturally carrying my ex-class axe.
* * *
[So are you going to kill him? Like you always do, right here and now?]
The Mountain Spirit’s voice carried a note of anticipation. What was this?
No. If I keep using this thing, all that happens is you take longer to fade away and ascend.
[True enough, but the more people you kill with that axe, the stronger my power seems to become.]
That was the same nonsense he’d gone on about when I interrogated Choi Yang-eop. My body gets worse while my strength gets stronger? What is this, anabolic steroids?
[Once my power has become truly immense, I think it would not be a bad thing to heal slowly and return after taking my time. Then I would command all the mountain and river spirits of the realm.]
I’d never seen a spirit so obsessed with power in my life. Well, I’d never seen a mountain spirit at all, but I was willing to bet there weren’t many like this one.
That’s bad for me, you bastard. And I need to ask you something, so hold on.
[Ask me what?]
Instead of replying to the Mountain Spirit, I said to Hwang Cheol-un, “You said you had blacksmiths.”
“Indeed. We have all the machinery and molds as well. They’ve been waiting for quite some time on Chodo Island beyond the Daedong River, and the boat is now just off here, so we can unload immediately.”
I’d spoken casually on purpose, but Hwang Cheol-un still kept his humble demeanor.
Yeah, definitely a con man.
Now then. What should I do with him?
[If you’re not going to kill him, why not follow my plan?]
No.
This time, I had a plan too.
[Hah. You do? Then let’s see some skill.]
So I did.
* * *
Hwang Cheol-un began negotiations over the division.
“Since Your Honour has provided the land, I shall treat it as if we were tenant farmers and give you one-tenth.”
[What is this, the Yao and Shun era of tenancy?]
I’m from a country where tenant farming was forbidden by the constitution, so I’m not exactly up on the ratio for rent.
But I do know about the encroachment and trespass of a building.
Still, I was in the tenant’s position. So I named a price that, by Korean standards, was very generous.
“Four-tenths.”
“W-well now, I heard you were a peddler who made a name for himself at such a young age, but to jump to four times the amount so suddenly… How about two-tenths?”
“Four.”
“Three-tenths…? That alone is already giving a great deal. That’s an absurd sum.”
“Four.”
Hwang Cheol-un’s face stiffened slightly. Still, he wasn’t the military governor, and he didn’t have a pistol to wave around.
So he laughed as if to show off his nerve.
“This is driving me mad. Fine. Let’s make it four-tenths.”
The Mountain Spirit did not cheer, Okay! Forty percent! It was nowhere near that kind of situation.
[You said you were a merchant, but I don’t think you’ve ever actually done business in your life. What sort of bargaining is this…?]
I stood up from my seat.
“In exchange for taking four-tenths, I’ll also look into the copper myself.”
“Ah, just as I thought! You would do that?”
Hwang Cheol-un’s face was full of delight.
Maybe it was because the supply of materials had increased, or maybe it was because if I took responsibility for part of it, it would be easier to pin the main crime on me later. I didn’t care which.
* * *
After Hwang Cheol-un left, Son Yu-jak came in and flinched when he saw my expression.
“Did the talk not go well?”
Sharp little bastard.
But I didn’t yell at Yu-jak for bringing me some crap like that.
Instead, I gave him another order.
“We may make a lot of money. Keep your mouth shut tight, and you go to Songdo for me. I’ve got a message for Cha Un-hong.”
“Yes, sir. If you give me a letter, I’ll be there and back like lightning.”
“…It’s confidential, so I can’t write it down. I’ll tell you now, and you memorize it. On the way, tell the local saju men that I’d like to see them.”
Fortunately, Joseon people, with their weak storage media, had excellent memories. Just as Koreans in the twentieth century often carried dozens or even hundreds of phone numbers in their heads.
Once Yu-jak dashed off happily, I left the room too.
I didn’t know much about Joseon’s economic history, but I could still build a logical chain.
If private minting had become popular in Joseon, then that meant there were a lot of blacksmiths who could work copper.
And if a blacksmith could stamp out coins from metal, then he could probably stamp out other things from other metals too.
I headed toward my private room behind Taesu Finance.
There, for the first time in a while, were the gold axe and silver axe.
I took out the silver axe.
* * *
The private monetary manufacturing base was established on Georido, a tiny uninhabited island between Seokmodo and Gyodongdo.
It was ideal—far enough from Gyodongdo, where government troops were stationed, and empty of people. Unlike in modern times, there were no power transmission towers to get in the way, so there was plenty of room.
It didn’t take long for Hwang Cheol-un’s gang to finish setting up the huts disguised as temporary shelters for fishermen.
That was because the most troublesome part, the molds, had already been taken care of.
As I’d suspected, this roaming supernote troupe was made up of people who traveled from place to place printing counterfeit money.
Just as modern counterfeit rings disperse their original die-cast molding data across the cloud and gather it when it’s time to print, these men had already each brought their own equipment. Once that was in place, the work itself was not difficult.
Copper was a metal humanity had been handling since the dawn of civilization. Amateur-grade facilities were enough.
The blacksmiths lit the first fire in the furnace.
The monetary economy surged upward like heat and burst into activity.
The business progressed smoothly.
They were veterans, and within a month they had produced as much as ten thousand nyang.
Compared with the official state mint, that was a performance equal to thirty percent of its output over the same period.
The man who had supplied the “experience” that made the business run so smoothly—namely, Park Mun-hong, the convicted money counterfeiter—smiled at Hwang Cheol-un.
“You’ve done well, Hwang. Still, it’s only a young man with a ponytail tied up by a narrow band, no matter how much vigor he has.”
Park Mun-hong, who had printed counterfeit money four years earlier, only to watch all his comrades be executed while he alone fled, had high hopes for this front-man operation.
“Why don’t we stop messing around and ditch that Park Axe already? Even if it’s ten thousand nyang, once you subtract the copper and labor, what’s left is only about half at best. We need to wrap this up before Park Axe comes looking to take his share.”
But Hwang Cheol-un looked a little dissatisfied.
“Something about him doesn’t seem so easy to deal with. He has plenty of followers too, so maybe there’s no need to abandon Park Axe at all. If we can avoid being caught to the end and keep using Park Axe as our backer, that would be best.”
“You mean we should be under that kid? And he still hasn’t brought the copper cannon he said he’d bring, even after a whole month. He’s got a lot of strength, sure, but his skill seems rather lacking.”
“I told you not to rush. That only makes him look more suspicious. Besides, the French barbarians are running wild all over the place, so this area’s in chaos anyway. For now, we’re fine.”
But Park Mun-hong was stubborn.
“The reason our last gang got caught by government troops and suffered a disaster was because we hesitated for no reason. We need to smuggle out what we’ve made now.”
“Smuggle it out?”
“Yes. Park Axe isn’t coming here to inspect it, is he? We can just say that out of the ten thousand nyang, we only managed to make this much and kept three thousand.”
Since they had to avoid unnecessary exposure, Park Axe had not come to visit so far. There was no way they would be caught.
Hwang Cheol-un wavered at Park Mun-hong’s words.
Frankly, four-tenths was too steep. And Park Axe still hadn’t held up the copper supply that was supposed to justify that cut.
“But if the boat disappears for too long, they’ll get suspicious…”
“Not if it’s headed for Pyeongan Province. But if we round Gyodongdo to the northeast and enter Yeseong River, then unload the money at Byeokrando, it can be back here in no time. I’ll convert the money into a bill of exchange in Songdo.”
Come to think of it, in Joseon, when large cash transactions were needed, the actual blank peony tongbo usually didn’t move. It was too heavy.
Typically, as with Kim Dae-geon, the deal was done through bills of exchange. So Park Mun-hong’s words were not absurd at all.
Despite the chilling feeling he had gotten during his meeting with me, Hwang Cheol-un still found himself tempted by the profits.
Fine. As long as that thing isn’t a ghost, if we hurry and get to Yeseong River and back, who’s going to know?
The two men quickly loaded seven thousand nyang onto the boat.
Unfortunately, they had made two mistakes.
One was that any trick they could think of, I could think of too.
The other was that yes, the thing really was a ghost.
* * *
The Mountain Spirit’s power, as I had seen it during the Battle of Chojijin, wasn’t actually all that spectacular a special ability.
In other words, he had invisible friends in mountain and river ranges all across the country.
He couldn’t cause some supernatural disaster or anything, but he could receive small favors. Just as a friend may not kill for you, but can still tell you in the group chat that someone’s been talking crap about you.
And just as a person is closer to childhood friends from home, the Mountain Spirit’s network was strongest here in Ganghwado.
[I suppose it helped that I smashed the spirit of those Dragon King idiots who kept babbling about how the age of the sea had begun.]
They’ll tell you?
[Of course. I just heard from the fellows over by Gyodongdo. As you predicted, they loaded the money and left Georido. They’re heading for Songdo, just as expected. Well, where else would they get rid of that money?]
Good.
Then it was time for my own friend to step in, instead of the Mountain Spirit.
Cha Un-hong’s influence over Kaesong had risen even further than before.
And Byeokrando was one of Kaesong’s key ports. Snatching up a suspicious boat like that would be nothing difficult.
[Wait, then wouldn’t it have been enough to attack while they were all gathered on the island? Why go to such trouble with a pincer move?]
Why should I? Up to that point, they hadn’t deceived me.
[Even so, they were crooks in the private minting business, weren’t they…?]
By that logic, I’m the same. The law is the law, and I am me.
The Mountain Spirit clicked his tongue.
[Hah. So you really are that kind of man.]
As for the people who tried to swindle me, I intended to take everything from them—life included.
If the facilities could melt copper, they could melt silver too. Silver probably had a lower melting point, anyway.
It was a chance to put that troublesome silver axe to use. I could keep the gold axe reserved for later.
Besides, in Joseon, where you couldn’t just buy whatever you needed because the item itself didn’t exist, not because of money, having a production facility would be useful in all sorts of other ways too.
My goal was to seize the Georido manufacturing base.
Author’s Note
1. Hwang Cheol-un and Park Mun-hong were not allies, but both were individual counterfeiters. It is also true that Park Mun-hong was never caught.
2. The problem of Joseon’s underdeveloped copper-smelting technology appears in Mangi Yoram, a practical handbook of state administration from the late Joseon period.