Chapter 10
After a full week of preparation, today a market finally opened in Jinhae County.
In the original history, it would still have taken about fifty more years for a market where commoners exchanged goods among themselves to emerge, after pushing through the county office's oppression.
But thanks to me throwing the full force of the magistrate's authority into it, I was able to bring a proper local market into existence a full fifty years early.
That alone makes my chest swell and my shoulders straighten, but... it's still too early to let my guard down.
Since this is the market's opening day, there was bound to be every kind of incident and accident.
"Magistrate, there are people swarming outside the market like a cloud bank."
"I saw it myself on the way here. I was told forty merchants had set up shops and more than five hundred people had laid out stalls, but seeing it in person was astounding."
If you only count the merchants who came to do business, it already surpasses famous markets like Gyeongdong Market and Hwagae Jangteo.
And if you add in the people coming to buy goods, there will easily be several thousand of them.
Even if the county held a feast and handed out food, it wouldn't attract this many people.
Kim Ibang wore a worried expression after hearing me.
"If word gets out that so many people are flocking to the Jinhae market, even more crowds will come from now on. I'm very worried, Magistrate."
"Wherever large crowds gather, troublemakers are bound to appear as well. We'll have to be especially careful."
When you look at Joseon-era documents about Jangsi markets, there are many memorials warning that allowing trade there would bring out bands of thieves.
And there really were cases where actual bandits disguised themselves and sold goods at market fairs.
Still, among bandits, only a tiny number would have been able to do business in a place where the county office was watching with eyes wide open.
Truthfully, the real scary ones are the Joseon-era nightmare customers.
The kind who storm into restaurants that don't even serve alcohol and demand liquor, or whine for credit because they used to be somebody once—there would be all kinds of lunatics like that.
Pickpockets, assaults, robberies, drunks harassing women, and so on...
"For the time being, everyone except those at the county office handling lawsuits must be mobilized to monitor the market."
"Yes, Magistrate."
In Joseon, it was illegal for a magistrate to open a market at will.
However, Joseon is a country where the 'offense of being contemptible' matters more in punishment than principles or procedure.
In other words, even if I bend the law a little, as long as it helps the people's lives... Sejong and Yi Bang-won will probably overlook it.
Those two were harsh on their ministers, but they cherished the people to a truly obsessive degree. They might even tell me to actively establish markets.
But what if crime runs rampant all over the market after I open it?
Then not only would I have broken the law, but that magistrate bastard would also have committed the additional sin of contemptuously encouraging lowly commerce.
They could send me into exile in Samsu and Gapsan and make me rot there for five years without any trouble.
"...... Ring the gong."
Soon, the sound of the gong rang out.
At the same time, loud cries burst from all over the place, loud enough to reach even the temporary office I was using.
"Wood! Firewood! Straw sandals! All at bargain prices!"
"Twenty herring for four hop of rice! Four hop of rice! Barley or beans will do, and so will cotton cloth!"
"Buy dried persimmons! Dried persimmons! Delicious dried persimmons, one doe for two and a half doe of rice! Two and a half!"
It was so noisy I couldn't even tell whether this was a market or a battlefield.
Maybe because it was the first day, but everyone's voices were full of energy.
If it weren't the first day of the market and I didn't have to manage order, I'd have wanted to go outside and look around myself.
"It seems the people absolutely love the market you created, Magistrate. But with so many people gathered like this, maintaining order will be very difficult."
"Your work has increased, so I'll make sure to take care of you appropriately."
If it were up to me, I'd want to cut off corruption completely.
I'd love to chop up every last bribery-taking bastard and throw them in prison...
But realistically, that's impossible.
It's just like how you can't punish office workers at a company for smoking by docking an hour of work time every day just because they smoke.
So I have to compromise at a realistic level.
Make the people's lives better than before, and even if I can't eliminate corruption completely, I can at least reduce it.
"As you know, Ibang, ten percent of the price of the goods sold in the market will be collected in tax."
"That's what I understand, Magistrate."
"One-tenth of that tax revenue, that is, one percent of sales, will be divided among your clerks, soldiers, and slaves. You're entitled to that much compensation for your trouble."
Right now, it's hard to predict how much merchandise will be sold at the Jinhae market. But there is one thing I can tell just from the sounds coming from outside.
That business is going to go incredibly well. Which means 1 percent of it is absolutely not a small amount.
"...... If none of the clerks or soldiers involved in running the market touch fraud or corruption, I'll double this. In my estimation, that would mean about twenty seom of rice a year just for Ibang. And if the market grows even larger... fifty seom wouldn't be a dream."
High-ranking clerks like the Ibang and Hobang are rich men with annual incomes of around two hundred seom of rice.
Even for people like that, one seom of rice is by no means a small sum. But fifty seom of white rice? That would be an irresistible temptation.
The Ibang was drooling.
"Keep a good watch. I want to look after your circumstances as best I can, but if something unfortunate happens, there will be nothing I can do."
"Of course, Magistrate."
No sooner had I finished speaking than people were dragged one after another into the yard of the temporary office I had set up.
Seeing how the men's faces were covered in bruises, they were definitely the kind who'd been caught committing mischief at the market.
If you look at market-related records in the Annals of King Seongjong, there are memorials saying that bands of thieves were overflowing...
People who cause trouble like this are the real thieves. What else would you call them?
"What is your crime, you scoundrel?"
The criminal I was interrogating shook his head, insisting he was innocent, and then wailed and cried.
"Oh, Magistrate, please spare me just once. This humble one was ignorant and didn't know that if I wanted to set up a stall and trade, I had to register with the county office first."
"Is that really so?"
At my words, the constable who had dragged the man in shook his head.
"When I told him to stop trading, he resisted, saying why should he have to register just to do business, and why should he have to pay taxes on top of that? So I brought him here. Trying not to pay taxes is truly contemptible."
He was told he had to pay taxes and refused? By Joseon standards, no, even by 21st-century Korean standards, that's a nightmare customer.
Besides, this is the crucial opening stage of laying the market's foundation. To show leniency that goes against principle here?
Troublemakers who look down on the county office and try to pull tricks in the market are guaranteed to appear.
So we have to punish them according to the rules, while considering whether to apply the contemptible-offense charge.
"Did you really not know?"
"Yes, Magistrate. I only wanted to sell the firewood and wild greens I brought down from the mountain so I could put food in the mouths of my rabbit-like children. Please, just this once, let me off."
"I see that you weren't trying to insult this magistrate."
The moment the word insult left my mouth, the man's face crumpled. Joseon people may not have been educated, but they were very quick on the uptake.
Especially ordinary commoners; when it comes to reading the moods of the yangban, they were so sharp you could call it 1,000-point rather than 100-point.
So he must have realized that my use of the word 'insult' meant I had no intention of letting him off.
"Normally, I would have to punish you with thirty strokes of the cane for knowingly violating the county office's rules and resisting, and for trying to do business without paying market tax. But since your circumstances are unfortunate, I will specially show leniency and have you receive only ten strokes before releasing you. Take him away."
Though it hurts less than the heavy cudgel, caning still means an adult man putting all his strength into striking your buttocks with a switch. Ten strokes would leave a bad bruise.
Still, what else can I do? Even if his circumstances are unfortunate, he was told the rules and still resisted, so he has to be punished.
Next came a fairly large man, who was dragged in.
"Magistrate, this fellow stole a piece of gaetteok from a stall without permission and threatened the woman who scolded him by raising his fist."
Yes, I knew a man like this would show up. As the market stays open today, there will be plenty more like him.
Whenever business is good and crowds gather, there are always troublemakers.
"Is everything you did actually true?"
"No, Magistrate... I just took one gaetteok because an acquaintance of mine was selling, and I only meant to taste it. But that woman kept nagging at me, so I got angry..."
"If you swing your fist, that woman could die! How is what you're doing any different from the one who farted and then got angry? Take this bastard away and give him ten strokes of the cane right now!"
This is one of the good things about early Joseon, before the Gyeongguk Daejeon was compiled.
I mean, it means the magistrate can immediately cane a criminal, or more precisely, someone who has committed a serious crime.
And just like that, I kept dealing with the shadows that came with the opening of the market.
It wasn't easy to keep punishing people endlessly...
But when I saw the Hobang, who was in charge of collecting the market taxes, running toward me with a bright face, I felt the fatigue that had piled up in an instant melt away.
"Magistrate! On the market you opened, we've collected as much as 150 seom of white rice in tax today!"
A tax of 150 seom alone. That meant the day's sales came to 1,500 seom.
Even if we chalk that up to it being the first day and sales being unusually high.
It means that from now on, we should be able to collect at least several thousand seom of rice a year in tax alone.
And beyond that, the indirect economic effects will be enormous as well.
"Tell me in more detail how the market was run, Hobang."