Hitting the Jackpot
Hwi-yeom needed coal and coke—caking coal. A great deal of both.
Sooner or later the world is going to learn that coal exists. If history follows the same path it did in my original world, Hebei Province will end up using it as a basic raw material. Right now, while no one still understands its value, is the last chance to stake a claim on every coal mine I can reach.
The structure of a natural-draft porcelain kiln was not particularly complicated. A crucible furnace was simply a refinement of the old method—instead of trying to melt a solid mass of iron ore all at once, you divided it into smaller portions, packed each into its own crucible, and left spaces between them so the heat could travel efficiently.
Imitation is going to start popping up everywhere before long. This is the continent of copycats, after all. And with the Elders’ Council already looking so green with envy…
No matter how tightly you sealed the gates, you could never hide everything that happened inside the family. The fact that vast quantities of coal were going into the blast furnaces would reach the elders’ ears soon enough.
And after that? Using it inside the Tang Family only elevates my own standing and the Gaju’s. So they’ll try to dilute the advantage by smuggling the method outside. Once Flawless Steel is common on the open market, the Tang Family’s margins will shrink to nothing—and my achievements will lose their luster.
If you cannot shine yourself, drag others down. It was the same tired scheme he had both suffered and employed a thousand times while growing a small-to-medium enterprise into a major corporation.
Even restaurants file hygiene complaints with the health office the moment the place across the street starts doing well.
But what if, no matter how carefully they copied the crucible furnace and scrambled for coal, Hwi-yeom already owned every coal deposit in the Sichuan region?
Then the dogs that chased the chicken would be left staring up at the roof, wouldn’t they?
After every ceremony had ended and the guests dispersed, Hwi-yeom visited Dang Un-sang’s quarters under the pretext of drafting contracts and laid the entire scheme bare. Un-sang and Eun Seol-ran both looked thoroughly impressed.
“You had already thought that far ahead… You are my son, yet I am still proud of you.”
“Mother’s boy turned out rather well, didn’t he?”
“Mm. Still, if that is the case, would it not be better simply to purchase them in the Tang Family’s name? Ah—of course. Those damned old fossils on the Elders’ Council.”
“Exactly.”
If the Gaju exercised his authority to allocate the budget, the Elders’ Council would notice at once. But how Hwi-yeom spent his personal pocket money was something they had no way of knowing.
“Then what was all that talk about contracts?”
“I propose we create a system of Patent Rights that guarantees the inventor a fixed share of the profits generated by his invention. The contracts I mentioned were simply the revenue-sharing agreements for that.”
“Explain it properly.”
“Yes. In short…”
After hearing Hwi-yeom’s explanation of patents, Dang Un-sang thought for a moment; then his face brightened.
“Indeed. Until now, even if a craftsman devised something brilliant, no one acknowledged it and he received no reward—so there was little incentive for anyone to invent new techniques.”
“Right. What truly moves people is money, the whip, and the eyes of those around them. If we give sufficient incentives—no, rewards—for technical development and then record the achievement so everyone knows of it, the craftsmen will have all the motivation they need. And there is no reason to limit it to craftsmen’s techniques alone. When someone develops a new poison or hidden weapon that does not generate commercial revenue, we still award prize money or a pension and enter the name into the record.”
“Enter the name into the record?”
“Yes. A sort of Hall of Fame, if you like. Merely having one’s name listed there should be considered a glory. What do you think of calling it the Tang Family Heroes’ Roster?”
“Hmm. An excellent idea. We could bestow the Dang surname and accept them as blood kin of the main house, or grant them exclusive robes, or ivory tableware…”
“That’s Father for you!”
“In that case, would you become the first name inscribed on the Tang Family Heroes’ Roster?”
Dang Un-sang asked playfully. Hwi-yeom laughed and shook his head.
“If we try to introduce both at once, the Elders’ Council will resist fiercely. Let’s push the patent system through first.”
“True. To win their approval we must feed them a carrot as well. Suppose thirty percent of the revenue from a patented technique goes to the inventor, ten percent to the Gaju, ten percent to the Elders’ Council, and the remaining fifty percent to the family itself. From the Council’s point of view free money is free money—they will have little reason to refuse.”
Hwi-yeom had offered only a rough outline; Dang Un-sang instantly produced a concrete plan. Hwi-yeom nodded in satisfaction.
“Yes. With thirty percent of the profits from Tangga Manneung-go, the three cosmetics, and Hogol-go, plus thirty percent of the profits from Flawless Steel production, I will quietly buy up every coal mine in Sichuan Province.”
“The cosmetics and Hogol-go have already been released as inexpensive goods for about a month, have they not? Have you calculated the returns?”
“I intend to submit the quarterly business performance report at the end of this month, but sales generated in Seongdo alone already amount to two hundred gwan of silver per quarter.”
“Two hundred gwan of silver? Not nyang?”
“Yes.”
“Good heavens—that easily surpasses the yearly income of two or three large estates!”
One silver gwan—a single silver ingot—was worth fifty silver nyang. At present prices one nyang bought two sacks of rice (94.4 kg each), or roughly 200 kg. Thus one silver ingot could purchase ten tons of rice. Two hundred such ingots equaled two thousand tons of rice. Converted at twenty-first-century prices of fifty to one hundred thousand won per twenty-kilogram bag, the sum came to five to ten billion won—a fortune by any measure. Of course, in a world without fixed prices the conversion was only approximate, yet the scale remained staggering.
“How did the profits grow so large?”
“The high-end versions sold to the upper classes have become popular gifts. Great-grandfather even ordered special batches as tribute for His Majesty and the eunuchs, did he not?”
“He did.”
“Beyond that, the demand for Hogol-go among the military officers of the Provincial Military Command is enormous, and even poor lepers pool their money to buy the economy version. On top of everything, every pleasure house in Sichuan is desperate for the cosmetics—they literally name their own price. Among the ladies of any household with a little money, it has already become embarrassing to go out without Tang Family cosmetics. In fact, the cosmetics alone have easily doubled the revenue of Hogol-go.”
“…A woman’s obsession with beauty is truly terrifying.”
Eun Seol-ran merely smiled at her husband’s words. Looking at his beautiful wife, Dang Un-sang cleared his throat and turned back to Hwi-yeom with a grin.
“I will give you the ten percent that would have been mine as well, and I shall throw in some of the Gaju’s private funds. Since the world still regards those coal mountains as worthless land that only produces rubble, the prices are low. With a little effort we should be able to buy nearly all of them.”
“Thank you, Father.”
“Once we monopolize the coal, Sichuan’s steel will rest in our hands. From that day forward no one will ever again dare call our family the ‘Tang Clan of Poison’ with contempt.”
“Yes!”
The next day Dang Un-sang convened a full assembly to discuss the passage of the patent system. The Elders’ Council, which had at first been lukewarm, changed its attitude the moment revenue sharing was mentioned and entered negotiations with genuine enthusiasm.
Until now they had only been able to suck their thumbs while Hwi-yeom succeeded; now a perfectly legal way to dip their own spoons into the pot had opened. As for Hwi-yeom handling large sums of money, opinions inside the Council were divided, yet the voices in favor ultimately prevailed.
No matter how much of a genius he is, he is still young. Once he tastes money he will never crawl out of it.
He might be clever now while still a boy, but once he grew a little older and discovered the pleasures of luxury and dissipation, that keen mind would vanish and only a fat, contented pig would remain. With that comforting thought the elders approved Hwi-yeom’s accumulation of wealth.
What they failed to grasp was that Hwi-yeom had already stood among the ranks of the world’s greatest corporate magnates by twenty-first-century standards. Luxury and pleasure had long since become trivial to someone who had climbed so high. The only amusement left to him was one:
The joy of growing a business.
The satisfaction of watching the money he controlled swell, of seeing his company’s name spread farther through the community, of feeling his influence expand. The pure delight of watching city councilors, provincial assemblymen, and even national legislators—who had once groveled at his feet—later come fawning and pleading. Compared with that, luxury was dull and women were merely bothersome.
The elders had not exactly been wrong, yet as so often happens in the world, they never imagined that the insult they threw would return to them as an even greater one.
But how could that be called their fault?
In any case, with the Elders’ Council’s support secured, the patent proposal passed the full assembly and became family law. Hwi-yeom became the first recipient of registered patent rights—covering Tangga Manneung-go, Hogol-go, Micheopmuk, Bulgeon-yeon, and Samil-seol, as well as the crucible furnace and Flawless Steel itself.
After submitting the quarterly business performance report and receiving his thirty-percent settlement, then adding the extra ten percent Dang Un-sang had quietly slipped him behind the Council’s back plus the Gaju’s private funds, Hwi-yeom possessed a sum large enough to purchase several mines outright.
That night he quietly met with Elder Bak Chang-eon.
“I intend to buy up every coal mine. Elder Bak, get on the same boat with me. I will give you a thirty-percent stake.”
Hwi-yeom was far too busy to roam the countryside himself searching for mines and negotiating with landowners. He needed someone to handle the work, and a man with Bak Chang-eon’s experience as chief steward was far more efficient. Moreover, to keep a tight rein on Bak Chang-eon, Hwi-yeom felt it necessary to toss him a substantial piece of meat and bring him inside the circle.
Loyalty is bought with money. Think carefully, Bak Chang-eon. Now that you have fallen out of favor with the Elders’ Council, to whom will loyalty truly profit you?
There was nothing to think about. Even a three-year-old child would have seen the answer at a glance. Still, Bak Chang-eon found it hard to understand why so much profit was being shared and asked:
“Once the Young Master becomes Gaju and shatters the power of the Elders’ Council, this Bak will enjoy authority at your side, will he not?”
“Of course. You will be the foremost meritorious retainer.”
“Yet you still hand me additional profit like this… I am grateful, but is there a reason to go so far?”
“Elder Bak, this is how I see it. To trust each other we need both a just cause and a plausible reason, but for that trust to last, the relationship must continue to benefit both sides. Sharing this profit with you is also something I need in order to trust you. So long as the Elders’ Council does not offer you a greater share than this, you will remain my man, will you not?”
The words were far too cold and devoid of human faith for a child to speak. Bak Chang-eon flinched for a moment, then bowed his head deeply.
“Someday I shall strive so that you may trust me even without such devices.”
“I appreciate the sentiment, at least.”
Bak Chang-eon was both astonished that Hwi-yeom had simply handed him a thirty-percent interest in the coal venture and, realizing the measure had been taken because trust had not yet been earned, resolved to work even harder to win that trust.
Hwi-yeom, watching the elder’s determined face, smiled faintly.
Business will expand in many directions from now on. Thirty percent of the coal venture will mean nothing later.
In growing a business, the earliest stage mattered most of all. If buying the loyalty of a capable talent required yielding thirty percent of the founding profits, the price was well worth paying.
Thus, with Bak Chang-eon’s cooperation secured, Hwi-yeom began quietly purchasing every coal mountain across Sichuan Province—mountains the world still believed produced only worthless rubble.
Half a year passed. Snow began to fall. Winter arrived.
Bak Chang-eon appeared before Hwi-yeom with a grave expression.
“We have a problem.”