Stock Lecture
Emperor Sungui, after consulting the officials of the Ministry of Revenue and seeking the counsel of Hui-yeom, promulgated the Joint-Stock Company Operation Law, the Financial Investment Law, and the Investment Supervision Law that had been compiled over the preceding period.
Most people responded with little more than a shrug of “What’s that supposed to be?”
And why wouldn’t they? For anyone who had no intention of investing in stocks, the statutes were utterly irrelevant.
The wealthy nobles and merchants who actually possessed capital, however, all scrambled to obtain copies of the new legal texts that had become the talk of the capital, gathering in small groups to study them.
The Sama clan was no different.
If the Sama clan held one overwhelming advantage over the other families, it was that the very author of the legislation—and the one person in the world who understood it best—was sitting among them.
Hui-yeom looked out over the people who packed the small lecture hall that served as a schoolroom in Sama Seung’s residence and smiled.
“Have you all familiarized yourselves with the content of the new laws? There’s no need to memorize every article by rote. What matters is the ability to feel the pulse of the thing.”
In a clear, pure voice, Hui-yeom began to speak to them about the new statutes.
“These laws are extremely intuitive and easy to grasp. The Joint-Stock Company Operation Law is, quite literally, the body of regulations required to establish and run a joint-stock company. The Financial Investment Law covers everything that private individuals and investment institutions must know when they invest in those companies. And the Investment Supervision Law is what the state organs charged with monitoring and inspecting all of this need to understand.
“Of course, the companies themselves will need to know it as well.
“Now then—a question. We have never gone to the trouble of writing detailed laws to regulate the making and selling of ordinary goods in the markets. Why, then, all this fuss over something called ‘stocks’?”
Hui-yeom continued his explanation in a ringing voice, and before long the scholars of the Sama clan found themselves completely absorbed in his teaching.
And while he delivered that series of lectures on stocks at the Sama residence, Hui-yeom also began construction work for the Beijing Railway Joint-Stock Company.
What was needed at once was the laying of the railway line itself, and the manufacture of the trains that would run upon it.
Hui-yeom simply handed the entire train-building side of the project over to Lee Jin-myeong.
The new steam engine core (the locomotive engine) I previously ordered from Section Chief Han Cheol of the Metallurgy Department should be nearing completion. Prepare and submit a planning review that includes mounting it on the newly developed train as well.
The deadline is whenever the tracks reach Beijing, so you have some breathing room. I’m giving you a generous amount of time; I expect quality to match.
With a single letter, Hui-yeom proved he could drive two men straight into qi deviation.
Lee Jin-myeong, who was already running the Sacheon Haenggeo and shuttling back and forth to Chagatai managing the grain trade on top of everything else, received the letter and fainted on the spot. Han Cheol, already hounded by deadlines, simply took to his bed.
When Second Secretary Hwang Ji-su reported the news, she began to tremble with the dread that Lee Jin-myeong’s fate might one day be her own.
She herself had recently come to understand that getting to bed before midnight required three generations of accumulated virtue, and she was deep in contemplation of the question “money or life?”
“Secretary Hwang, have you finished compiling the materials on the railway right-of-way sites?”
“Ah, y-yes! I-I left the report right th-there!”
Startled into full attention, Secretary Hwang practically shouted her reply. Hui-yeom smiled and opened the report.
And then…
“Hm.”
His brow twitched. He tipped pre-ground red ink from the inkpot onto the inkstone.
Watching him, Hwang Ji-su squeezed her eyes shut without thinking.
Again!
“Secretary Hwang, what is the purpose of this project of ours?”
“Yes! To establish a mass-transit system spanning the whole of Beijing, seize control of the transportation hub and the commercial districts that spring from it, and thereby maximize the profits of the Dang Family and the Imperial House!”
“Good. Then why did you fail to investigate land prices near the proposed routes and stations, the population of the surrounding residential areas, projected changes in foot traffic, and so on?”
“What?”
Hwang Ji-su’s mind went blank for a moment.
This was a report for building a railway. Why on earth…
Hui-yeom looked up at her with a gentle smile and, in the softest of tones, proceeded to carve out her chest without mercy.
“A station is going in, right? When a station goes in, the volume of people coming and going will increase, and those people will need all sorts of tangible and intangible goods and services. Teahouses and restaurants where they can wait for the train or meet someone, for example. We need to analyze the parcels that could host those shops, and if they look commercially promising we have to lock them down before development even begins. Do I have to spell everything out from one to ten?”
“Ah… I-I’m terribly sorry. I simply didn’t think that f-far…”
“I’m not scolding you. Second Secretary Lee recommended you so strongly that my expectations for Secretary Hwang are high.
“A secretary’s post is not a place where you quietly do only what you’re told. It’s a post where you figure out what the person you serve needs, what he hasn’t yet thought of, and what he’s overlooked—and then you supply it.
“This isn’t like your junior-secretary days, when all you had to do was fetch whatever materials the seniors asked for and hand them over. If you want to work with me as one heart and one mind, start thinking ahead about what I’m going to need.”
“…Yes!”
Hwang Ji-su looked a little crestfallen, but Hui-yeom was already mercilessly striking through typos and errors in her proposal with the red brush.
“Here—is the land area really 154 pyeong? Are you certain?”
Within Hui-yeom’s circle they used several systems of measurement he had introduced, one of which was the “pyeong” unit.
Hwang Ji-su checked the report and nodded.
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“I don’t think so.”
Hui-yeom set the report down, rummaged through the binders beside him, and pulled out another document, spreading it open.
“Look. The cadastral map provided by the Imperial Palace lists it as 145 pyeong.”
“Uh…”
“Secretary Hwang, where did this number 154 come from?”
“I-I compiled the materials I received from the s-secretariat…”
“Bring me those materials. The secretariat would have requested them from the palace as well; the numbers shouldn’t differ.”
“….”
Secretary Hwang went to her room, returned with the original materials she had compiled, discovered the number 145 written there as well, and hung her head.
“…I’m sorry.”
“Secretary Hwaaang~.”
Hui-yeom spoke in his trademark gentle smile and soft voice.
“All of a sudden the workload’s exploded, you’re scrambling to do things you’ve never done before, and on top of that the Young Master keeps telling you not just to do what you’re told but to think—pretty chaotic, isn’t it?”
“No, sir. I-I’m terribly sorry.”
“Secretary Hwang, I only want to say one thing.”
Hui-yeom gave a short laugh.
“Mistakes happen. But you have to try to reduce them, and the most important thing is not to beat yourself up. People are funny that way—once you start tormenting yourself with ‘Why did I make a mistake like that?’ the mistakes start multiplying like ghosts.”
“…Yes…”
“Here. Correct what I’ve marked and resubmit it by this afternoon. I’m heading out to the site.”
“Ah, I’ll accompany—”
“No need. Finish that first. I can go alone.”
“…Yes…”
Hui-yeom rose, dusted himself off, and headed out, muttering under his breath, “Maybe I should pick up some of those snacks U-ju likes on the way back today~?”
Hwang Ji-su flipped through the report he had left behind and found her mouth falling open of its own accord.
“How in the world… does he remember every single one of these figures…?”
“Secretary Hwang.”
“Yeeeeeees?!!”
Concentrating hard on the report, Hwang Ji-su nearly leapt out of her seat when Hui-yeom’s voice suddenly sounded right behind her.
The Young Master she had thought gone had come back and was grinning at her.
“I should collect a fee for catching your mistakes, don’t you think? While you’re analyzing the land around the railway sites, go ahead and purchase one building close to the tracks. I’m putting a printing house in it, so keep that in mind and find something suitable.”
“A printing house?”
“Yes. It’s about time Beijing needed a press of its own.”
Hwang Ji-su’s face crumpled into an indescribable expression.
Leaving her looking for all the world like a woman whose country had just fallen, Hui-yeom walked out chuckling to himself.
Her reactions are so good I keep wanting to tease her. It’s a different flavor from Lee Jin-myeong’s.
Of course, it wasn’t pure teasing.
Handing someone a simple task, letting them solve it, and thereby building both confidence and experience was not even a particularly advanced secret of personnel management.
Naturally, Hui-yeom’s definition of a “simple task” might differ somewhat from the ordinary one.
Hoping it would prove a healthy stimulus for Hwang Ji-su, he already put the matter out of his mind and turned his thoughts back to the Beijing Railway Joint-Stock Company.
We’ve finished buying most of the land where the tracks will go.
A few parcels were still under negotiation, but those would be sorted out soon enough.
The moment the Second State-run Ironworks starts turning out large quantities of wrought iron, we have to move straight into rail production. Factoring in transport time to Beijing… at the earliest, a month and a half from now…
Which meant the public opening of the stock exchange and the start of over-the-counter trading in Beijing Railway Joint-Stock Company shares would also fall around then.
We’ll be holding investor briefings while touring the construction sites, after all.
Hui-yeom gave a short laugh.
“Having to invent a company that doesn’t even exist yet and sell its shares… brings back old times~.”
The nostalgia of the days when, after winding up his domestic businesses and crossing to America to start over, he had been turned away at every bank and had wandered Wall Street with nothing but a business-plan file under his arm, hunting down every over-the-counter investor he could find—those memories made him smile.
It had been wretchedly hungry and humiliating, yet no other period had ever felt so dazzling and sharp.
Recalling those days, Hui-yeom kept chuckling to himself.
“Well then—how shall I fleece the fat pigs this time?”
A few days later came the celebratory opening of the Beijing Stock Exchange.
People thronged into Caffe the One like clouds.
At the Beijing flagship of Caffe the One, every guest who visited the Beijing Stock Exchange that day received a free cup of Caffa.
Each of them accepted a thick bundle of papers and a cup of Caffa at the shop, then drifted in small groups into the seating prepared inside the exchange hall and sat down.
“So this is the famous Beijing Stock Exchange?”
“Doesn’t look like much…”
However much it might be called a stock exchange, it could not possibly resemble a modern one with banks of ceiling monitors streaming real-time global markets and a giant electronic board flashing price movements for hundreds of tickers.
The exchange, its secret veil finally lifted after being kept tightly under wraps, looked like nothing more than an empty lecture hall, leaving officials and sightseers alike thoroughly confused.
“Is this all there is?”
“What’s written on the papers they handed out?”
Ministry of Revenue official Na Gyeong-su set his Caffa cup into the cup-holder built into the chair arm (they had installed something very like a theater cup-holder) and opened the thick sheaf of papers he had absently accepted at the entrance.
Beijing Railway Company Business Investment Briefing
“A business investment briefing?”
An “opening of the stock exchange” was neither the unveiling of some monumental building nor a spectacle full of curiosities, so in truth there really was nothing much to see.
That was why Hui-yeom had decided to give a brief explanation of the venue itself and then immediately push through the investment briefing for the Beijing Railway Joint-Stock Company in one swift stroke.
As more people filed in, greetings and conversations began to rise here and there.
Most of the talk concerned what people thought of this thing called “stocks.”
“Hmph. A merchant house belongs to its master. Who gives anyone the right to slice that ownership into pieces and sell them? You think holding some scrap of paper lets the likes of them start telling the house how to run its affairs? That’s a sure road to ruin.”
“I’ve been trying to understand it as something like a merchant house’s promissory note… but what house lets you stick your nose into the business just because you cut a few notes?”
“It’s closer to a debt instrument, isn’t it? They say it even pays interest.”
“Not interest—dividends. And how much you get is entirely up to the giver; they can even decide not to give any at all.”
“What kind of nonsense is that!”
Most of the talk was negative. The introduction of a brand-new system naturally produced resistance first.
Yet if resistance had been all they felt, they would never have appeared here in the first place.
They wanted to know.
“Who knows? They say Imperial Lecturer Dang Hui-yeom is a genius among geniuses—maybe he’ll explain a value I simply don’t understand yet.”
“If I close my eyes and ears just because I don’t get it, I’m the one who’ll be left behind.”
“In any case, listening to the words of the man who holds power never costs you anything.”
Thus, amid critical forecasts laced with a thread of hope and curiosity, they waited.
Once the seats had filled to a reasonable degree, Hui-yeom walked out from within and offered the assembled company a formal clasped-fist salute.
“Today I offer my sincere thanks to every honored guest who has graced the opening of this Beijing Stock Exchange with your presence.”
Hui-yeom’s eyes shone as he looked at each visitor in turn.
“Today is a day that will remain in history. It is the day the stock market is first created and revealed to the world.”
“….”
“Among those of you seated here, some will be curious about what stocks actually are and what purpose there is in building a stock market at all. Others will think it nothing but empty noise meant to dazzle people for no good reason.”
“….”
“To all of you I will state this clearly, here and now.
“At this moment it does not matter how much money any of you possess.
“The only question is whether you can understand and accept what I am about to say.”
Hui-yeom wiped the smile from his face and spoke with the flat, cold gravity of a man pronouncing an absolute axiom of heaven.
“On that single fact alone, the circumstances of every person in this hall ten years from now will be completely different.”