Joseon Ironworks (4)

As I thought carefully about building an ironworks, I realized something.

Although we need an ironworks and are building one for that reason, constructing only a single ironworks would be terribly inefficient.

In the twenty-first century, with transportation so advanced, even if one built only a single ironworks, employees who wanted to commute in their own cars could do so, while buses could be operated for those who did not; thus, even people living fairly far away could commute, making it possible to run the ironworks.

Joseon, however, has neither cars nor buses.

Since people cannot commute from far away, the artisans at the ironworks will have no choice but to live near it.

As a result, all sorts of consumption will occur there, including the various raw materials needed by the ironworks and the goods required for the artisans to make a living...

All kinds of consumption will inevitably arise.

If we build only the ironworks without considering this, operating it will become extremely difficult.

“Ironworks Director, what is this?”

“Assistant Administrator Jeong (Jeong Bun), before coming here, I thought things over carefully. I realized there are many things we need to operate an ironworks."

To operate the ironworks properly, at least one hundred—no, two hundred—artisans will need to be stationed there at any given time.

That many will be needed not only to keep the blast furnace and reverberatory furnace running twenty-four hours a day without rest, but also to deal with emergencies somehow should they arise.

But people grow tired after working eight hours a day and need to rest before their next shift, while an ironworks, by its very nature, must run without rest twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year...

The calculation shows that running three shifts will require at least six hundred artisans.

Once we add the people who bring in the wood, iron ore, and other materials used at the ironworks, as well as those who transport the finished iron outside, more than 1,300 adult men alone will be working at the Jeryeong Ironworks.

If we assume that all of them have families, that means nearly 6,500 people will gather and live around the ironworks.

By Joseon-era standards, a population of this size would be classified as a fairly large city.

And once we include the dockworkers, the miners who extract the iron ore, and their families...

I suspect nearly 20,000 people will eventually live in this area.

"We’ll need to build a port and operate an iron mine to secure the iron ore. We’ll also need lumberjacks to cut and bring in wood."

"Yes, that is correct."

"Then merchants to supply the goods needed by everyone living here will be absolutely essential as well. Taverns will appear, and a very large market will be established too."

Until now, the Joseon court had not paid the ironworks workers or ironmaking technicians any wages whatsoever...

Now that there is some room in the budget, however, they will receive fairly generous wages from here on.

Naturally, businesses serving them will thrive.

"Taking all this into consideration, I decided it would be best to begin by thinking of this as the creation of an entirely new large town. So, while traveling here by boat, I used my spare time to draw up plans for how this area should be developed and compile them into a book."

"...... You did all this in less than two days?"

"If one sets one’s mind to something, what is there that one cannot do? Lord Jang Hogun drew up the plans for the reverberatory furnace and blast furnace in ten days, and then produced actual steel just fifteen days later, did he not?"

Although it was called a blast furnace, it had been built on a small scale as a prototype, which was why steel could be produced just fifteen days after the plans were completed.

At present, we lack not only the ability to build a massive blast furnace dozens of meters high, but also the technology to operate one that large.

Thus, what Jang Yeong-sil built ended up being something closer to a clay blast furnace about three or four meters high.

Even this represented an enormous technological advance, but a single furnace would produce far less than I expected, so we would have to solve that problem through sheer numbers.

"Before we came here, we secured the cooperation of the Magistrate of Jeryeong and had the laborers and materials prepared. Thus, we should be able to begin construction immediately according to these plans."

“Yes, Ironworks Director. But while building the port, ironworks, and market, why are you not building houses at the same time? Haven’t you already secured the area where they will be built? At this scale, it seems you could easily build several thousand houses. If you publicized the project and allowed those who purchased houses in this area to lease them out... countless wealthy people from throughout the country would line up to invest.”

“Ah, there is a reason for that.”

My goal was to turn the area where we were currently located, Jeryeong in Hwanghae Province, into a single city.

To put it somewhat grandly, it would become Jeryeong New Town.

But if we accepted private investment in advance, as with the development of a modern new town, and allowed investors to collect rent from the houses where people lived...

“Like during the last campaign against the Jurchens, we could take money from merchants and yangban in exchange for building the ironworks and various other facilities here. Then, if we gave houses to those who invested, construction would be extremely convenient. We could proceed using the invested funds without worrying about the court’s budget.”

Joseon people—or, more precisely, the yangban literati—certainly knew less about economics than modern people in the twenty-first century... but they were not stupid.

When it came to spotting an area where land prices would obviously soar and generous rents could be collected, they were in no way inferior to twenty-first-century speculators.

Even during King Yeongjo’s reign in the late Joseon period, the real-estate boom was so severe that house prices in Hanyang differed by several times between the beginning and the end of his reign...

Would Joseon be any different now?

“But the problem comes after giving the investors all the houses around here in exchange for their investment. They will know that the workers here receive high wages, and then they will try to charge high rents to recover their investment and make a profit as well. The investors would collude with one another, you see.”

When the licensed merchants colluded to raise prices in Hanyang, they were engaging in monopolistic practices to obtain unfair profits.

Since the licensed merchants had neither helped found the country nor rendered any meritorious service, the court could punish them on the grounds that such collusion was harmful.

However, the court would have no grounds to punish people merely for charging somewhat higher rents on houses they had purchased with their own money.

They would be people who had spent enormous sums from their own pockets when the state announced that it was building the ironworks, and who had contributed to the development of Jeryeong New Town.

“Sase—monthly rent—certainly is a serious problem.”

“That is one reason. In fact, I also intend to have the state build houses for the people who come here to work, using government funds. In return, I plan to collect part of their wages over ten years so that they can repay the cost of their houses.”

The work at the ironworks would be dangerous and difficult, while also requiring a fairly high degree of expertise.

Therefore, we would have no choice but to pay the people working there high wages.

Quite a few of the laborers working here would receive those wages and think to themselves:

‘I’ll work hard here for just two or three years, then return to my hometown. I’ll buy some land there, get married, and support my parents while living that way.’

It was similar to how foreign workers from Southeast Asia came to Korea, worked hard for several years to earn money, returned to their home countries, built two- or three-story houses in their hometowns, and lived as wealthy people for the rest of their lives.

That might benefit individuals, but from the country’s perspective, it would be a major loss.

We would go to all the trouble of teaching them technical skills, only for them all to return to their hometowns just when they became useful.

“A great many people will flock here at the thought that after working hard for several years, they can earn high wages, obtain a house, and live respectably. And those who acquire houses will refuse to move elsewhere no matter what, if only because they will remember all the hardships they endured to obtain them.”

“Exactly. In that sense, the government should help the young men who come to Jeryeong find wives among the local young women. We should also encourage married men to bring their families here.”

The method used by the ancient Roman army while developing France and other parts of Europe, which were little more than uncharted lands at the time, was rather unusual.

The Roman army established military camps in the territories it conquered, and had its soldiers marry local women and start families.

Thus, they lived in the camps on weekdays, then returned to the homes near the camps to live with their wives on weekends.

When they reached the age of retirement, they were given two choices.

They could either return to their hometowns or remain here and continue living in the area.

However, most Roman soldiers had married and put down roots here, so they refused to return home and chose to continue living in the region.

French wine became famous because retired soldiers grew grapes, made wine, and supplied it to the Roman army as part of this tradition.

Joseon could not simply copy this system in its entirety...

But what caught my attention was that if a person had a house of his own and a family here, he would have no choice but to ‘settle down.’

“So that’s why you are deliberately leaving out the houses for now.”

“Since it is still difficult to predict how many people will work at the ironworks, we can build the houses after the ironworks is completed. For now, have them build communal quarters where several people can at least stay out of the rain, like the barracks where soldiers live.”

“Yes, my lord.”

“I’m counting on you.”

Jeong Bun took the plans I had given him, unfolded them, and let out a sigh.

He seemed troubled by how difficult the work would be, so I would have to keep reminding him whenever I had the chance of how important it was and make certain to motivate him.

Then I went to find Jang Yeong-sil.

When I arrived, Jang Yeong-sil happened to be berating the artisans building the blast furnace.

“How many times have I told you that wall needs to be at least two cheok (60 cm) thick? I believe I even told you that no one becomes rich by saving bricks.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Joseon’s future rests on this! Do you still not understand why I am paying you so much to build it? Let me explain the reason once more. It is so you do not make mistakes!”

Nearby, Yi Sun-ji, Joseon’s mathematical prodigy who had passed the civil service examination that year, was diligently calculating the estimated consumption of construction materials.

“The estimated consumption of the materials currently on hand is about this much, but after calculating it based on how much has been used so far, it seems we may be able to use about one-tenth (10%) less material than predicted...”

Seeing everything at the construction site operating perfectly, it seemed that this ironworks too would be completed without much difficulty.

Three months later, a large-scale ironworks—one that could be called the culmination of Joseon-era technology—was completed in Jeryeong.