Chapter 117
About 51% of South Korea's population lives in the Seoul metropolitan area, including Seoul itself.
That's why people half-jokingly and half-seriously say that we may not be living in the Republic of Korea, but in the Republic of Seoul.
The policies I'm planning to implement will be judged this way by later generations too.
'Kim Daebung turned Joseon into the Republic of Hanyang!'
"Chief State Councillor."
Hwang Hui swallowed hard after hearing me.
It was true that I was holding a huge stack of proposals for the Hanyang Development Project.
Even so, I honestly felt a little aggrieved by Hwang Hui's reaction, which seemed to say, ‘Oh no, what major undertaking is he launching this time?’
No, it seemed people often thought of me as some kind of demon who churned out work.
I was only a lowly junior fourth-rank official—how could I become the Demon of Overwork?
To do that, wouldn't I have to be one of the Three State Councillors? Besides, thanks to the advice I gave Yi Bang-won, every official had been guaranteed to leave work on time...
'Haven't I, at least, made a major contribution to improving the quality of officials' lives?'
"What on earth are you planning to do that made you write so many memorials?"
"I intend to develop Hanyang in earnest and create the foundation for more people to live here."
Hwang Hui tilted his head as if dumbfounded by my words, then asked in return.
"As you know, Chief State Councillor, 95 percent of Hanyang's population is concentrated inside the Four Great Gates, with only about the remaining 5 percent living within Seongjeosimni. You know that, don't you?"
"Yes, I know that well."
When I looked at statistics compiled about three years ago, Hanyang's population was around 103,000, and only about 6,000 of them lived outside the Four Great Gates.
That was the figure despite Seongjeosimni covering an area three or four times the size of the area within Hanyang Fortress.
But that was three years ago; the implementation of the Bang-won Act and the expansion of commerce had completely changed everything.
"But that was three years ago. Things are completely different now."
There is a saying that ten years is enough to change even the shape of mountains and rivers.
During the period of rapid growth that began in the 1960s, tunnels were bored and expressways built, and the actual landscape really did change dramatically every ten years or so.
But, to be realistic, Joseon's capabilities made it impossible to change even the shape of the land in ten years. However...
Joseon society was changing year by year, with only a slight exaggeration.
Until the year before last, even in autumn it had been extremely difficult to eat apples grown in provinces such as Chungju in Hanyang.
That was because the effort required to distribute them was truly extraordinary.
But now, thanks to the active use of transport boats, one could easily buy and eat Chungju apples during their autumn season.
According to what I saw, two years ago an apple cost one hop of rice at Hanyang's sijeon, but now the price had changed to about three apples for one hop of rice.
"As you know, Chief State Councillor, Joseon is currently growing so rapidly that it has reached a level that would have been utterly unimaginable in the past."
"That's right. An old man like me can't keep up with how fast things are moving now. These days, I often feel that I've become obsolete. I sometimes even wonder whether I should submit my resignation memorial for the sake of the court."
As far as I knew, Hwang Hui would begin submitting resignation memorials three years later.
And at first, since he had held the post of Chief State Councillor for so long, they took the form of, 'Ah, I want to quit office, but His Majesty won't let me resign, so I suppose I'll just keep serving as Chief State Councillor a while longer.'
But judging by his expression and tone now, he seemed to be genuinely considering resigning.
My intervention had affected history so greatly.
Even if that was what he wanted, I couldn't imagine Hwang Hui actually being able to resign.
'Because King Sejong would reject his resignation.'
"For a man as outstanding as you, Chief State Councillor, to resign? Please don't even think about it. You must stay in office for a long time and guide officials like me, who are foolish, young, and lacking in experience."
"Lord Sain, you only need to keep doing exactly what you're doing now."
"I will work hard so as not to lose sight of my original intention, just like Zhuge Wuhou when he submitted his famous Chu Shi Biao."
"...... Do that."
"I will continue our discussion. The Hansungbu says that nearly 120,000 people now live in Hanyang, does it not?"
"That's right. Seongjeosimni is fairly spacious, so there's no difficulty accommodating the newcomers."
What Hwang Hui was saying was exactly the same as this:
'If housing is too expensive, people can just go live in the provinces.'
But the reason not only young people but even the elderly cannot escape the major cities, with their murderous housing prices and cost of living, is...
Young people find it extremely difficult to find places to work in the provinces, while the elderly, as their bodies grow weaker with age, need to visit ‘hospitals’ frequently...
In the countryside, there are hardly even any small hospitals, and going to a large hospital takes practically an entire day, even with a little exaggeration.
For these reasons, so many people stream into the ‘cities.’
"As you said, Chief State Councillor, there should be no major problem building homes for people to live in. But the issue of jobs is different. Those flocking to Hanyang will need to find work to make a living, and that will never be easy. If they cannot find jobs, they will have no stable means of livelihood. Then they will be unable to maintain a steady mind, and eventually, like the men who set Hanyang on fire, they will not hesitate to commit crimes. Haven't you heard the saying that even a gentleman who can maintain his moral integrity without a stable livelihood will climb over another man's wall if his wife and children go hungry for three days?"
In poor countries, the concept of human rights itself is tenuous, and people do not hesitate to kill someone to earn the single coin they need to survive.
That's why, as a joke, people say that if you have a boss at work you genuinely want to kill, you should take that boss on a business trip to the Philippines.
The reason, they say, is that in such poor countries it is easy to find someone willing to kill another person for money.
'And it really is possible.'
Since it is a country where gun ownership is legal, they say you can have someone killed for roughly ten million won.
The people who came to Seoul from their hometowns without any plan would also be tempted to do such bad things once driven into poverty.
"Therefore, you must not assume that having plenty of space to build homes means there will be no major problem. But Hanyang is also where all kinds of supplies gather, and where many people gather as well, is it not? We need to build workshops here that can produce various implements essential to the people's lives, such as farm tools; establish markets selling all kinds of local specialties; and create plenty of places like restaurants and textile shops that make and sell cloth, so that the people who rush into Hanyang without a plan will have somewhere to work. Only then will the many people who gather in Hanyang be able to find jobs."
"Listening to you, Lord Sain, it sounds as though you are saying we should give the people options besides farming... Is that right?"
"Yes, that's right. But no matter how many more people take up commerce, and even if the number of artisans working in the cities increases severalfold... it will not interfere with farming."
Unless farm machinery is properly invented and the Industrial Revolution begins, creating a situation in which supply exceeds demand...
80 percent of Joseon's people will spend their entire lives as farmers.
Simply taking up another occupation does not guarantee a better life, and it is human nature to continue doing the work one already knows if possible.
It is true that the number of factory workers surged when the Industrial Revolution took place, but the majority of the population still lived as farmers.
Ah, but there is one thing.
Since the people will have options besides farming, farmers will be reluctant to deal with landlords who offer ‘terrible tenant-farming terms.’
In the past, even when landlords forced farmers to hand over half their harvest under sharecropping, pay the taxes due under the Bang-won Act, and pay a land tax as well, farmers with no other options had to pay it all through their tears.
Once Hanyang was developed first and other cities followed, leading to the growth of commerce and industry, jobs would naturally increase...
'Rather than pay that tenant rent, I'd rather go work in a factory.'
People who thought this way would emerge and quit tenant farming.
Then tenant-farming terms would shift in the farmers' favor, and their actual incomes would increase.
But I would keep this fact completely to myself.
Hwang Hui was a major landowner, Jo Mal-saeng was a major landowner, and all the yangban officials were major landowners too. If they heard this, would they like the policy I was proposing?
"As long as it does not interfere with farming, there is no harm in it. If the many people gathered in Seongjeosimni can use their hands to produce all sorts of farm tools and other fine goods, commerce will develop further, and the country will be able to collect more taxes."
"Yes, Chief State Councillor."
I selected one of the stacks of memorials and unfolded it before him.
"And among the Han River ferry crossings, Yongsan lies almost directly in line with Hanyang's sijeon. So if we build a broad new road from Yongsan to Hanyang's sijeon and make it easy for boats to come and go, enormous quantities of goods will circulate through Hanyang more easily. Likewise, if we develop several other ports in a similar manner—Noryangjin, Yanghwajin, Gwangjin, and so on..."
Hwang Hui cut me off.
"Goods brought up from all over the country will spread widely throughout Hanyang and Gyeonggi Province. And goods produced in the workshops, along with various local specialties, will quickly spread throughout the country through Hanyang. How much more tax would be collected in the process? It feels wonderful just thinking about it."
"Taxes equivalent to at least 100,000 to 200,000 seom of white rice will be added."
As the word ‘at least’ suggests, that was merely the minimum.
All kinds of goods would circulate back and forth, and if even minimal customs duties were added, they could collect 500,000 seom in taxes as well.
"And as I wrote in an earlier memorial, if we build icehouses in places such as Incheon and use boats loaded with ice for fishing, people in Hanyang will be able to eat fresh fish too."
"...... Fresh fish is almost like medicine."
"Isn't it treated as medicine simply because it is rare, rather than because it has medicinal effects?"
"That is true too. Good. Do everything you want to do. But will the sijeon merchants welcome this plan?"
Of course they would hate it.
They would effectively be losing Hanyang and Gyeonggi's commercial sphere, which they could not get enough of even when they monopolized it all.
But I had alternatives for everything.
"Why else would I have begged His Majesty to bring my father-in-law to Uijeongbu, even though I knew I would be caught by the sangpi rule?"
"I see."
Sijeon merchants were a kind of economic cartel.
Cartels, except in special cases, are almost always forces that corrode society.
In other words, they were the sort of people one could deal with using the wisdom of that despicable nation: 'divide and rule.'