Cleanup (5)

There’s something the investment-crazed bastards always say.

That if you just leave your money sitting in a bank account, it’ll only rot away.

And when you think about it, that isn’t entirely wrong.

In the 1980s, with 100 million won you could buy a 51-pyeong apartment in Apgujeong, but now you couldn’t even buy a one-room studio there with that money.

That doesn’t mean you should go around spending money recklessly.

If you save too frugally and do nothing but hoard it, money loses value as time passes and you end up taking a loss, so you should spend it appropriately.

In that context, even the taxes paid in rice that the yangban voluntarily offered out of patriotic devotion would just rot away if left stacked in the government granary.

“Gongbang (the civil works officer), is there anywhere in our county suitable for building a reservoir?”

“As far as I know, there are about six places, including Dongcheon, Seosacheon, and Dudong. If we look harder, we may find more.”

“I see.”

If it were up to me, I’d want to build reservoirs in all six places.

Just building reservoirs can reduce drought damage, and opening up the waterways even a little can greatly increase the amount of land that can be reclaimed.

The county people’s livelihoods would improve far more than they do now.

Rice stored for a year turns into stale old rice, and once you go past three years, it’s likely to rot completely.

So investing where it’s needed is also worthwhile for increasing the county’s revenue.

“Then if we’re looking for the place with the most easy-to-reclaim land nearby, and the best place for watering fields, where would that be?”

“Dongcheon and Seosacheon. Dongcheon in particular has a fairly deep river, and because it’s long as well, there’s plenty of water.”

“Then we’ll build a reservoir in Dongcheon and carve out new waterways.”

“After you started collecting taxes from the merchants, the taxes taken from the commoners decreased, and they’ve become able to get by. Even so, building a bo (reservoir) takes an extraordinary amount of labor.”

Civil engineering work, especially building a reservoir, is practically as labor-intensive as building a fortress.

Besides, in Joseon—especially early Joseon—building reservoirs and fortifications was funded through yeok, meaning free slave labor. That was a wicked practice that drastically reduced the people’s quality of life.

During the Imjin War, when King Seonjo thought the Japanese bastards were about to invade and ordered more fortifications built, his ministers stepped in and said that even if war looked likely, the people were suffering, so they should rest for now. There was a reason for that.

The reason the people find yeok so agonizing is that it forces them into free slave labor.

So if they were paid fair compensation for the labor, I figured there wouldn’t be many who disliked it.

“If we pay them wages, the work won’t just be hard and miserable. On the contrary, wouldn’t they welcome it?”

“How exactly would you pay wages?”

“I’m thinking of reducing the grain loans they borrowed in proportion to the number of days they work during the slack season. Furthermore, for those who are truly poor and can’t even keep food in their mouths, we could consider forgiving the grain loans altogether if they complete a set number of workdays regardless of whether it’s the slack season or the busy farming season. If we’re going to go further, paying wages would be worth considering too.”

The hwan-gok system—loaning grain to the poor in spring or summer and getting it back at harvest in the fall—still doesn’t have any major problems yet.

It only went rotten once the “adding interest” tricks called I-bun Mohoe-rok, Sam-bun Mohoe-rok, and Jakseo-mo showed up.

Because it still isn’t the kind of case where hwan-gok turns into a forced loan without my even asking, with interest tacked onto the principal—the rice being in poor condition and mixed with stones and sand.

But for poor commoners, even a loan where they only have to repay the principal in the fall would be very burdensome.

So if I gather poor people who have no work during the slack season and have them do public works, then reduce their hwan-gok in return by the amount they worked... there won’t be anyone who dislikes it.

“If you do that, Magistrate, the county granary will end up empty.”

“Gongbang, if our town’s scholars voluntarily paid a little more in taxes for the county’s sake, that would solve the problem.”

Even in the 21st century, they say the top 1 percent monopolize half the world’s wealth.

Our Jinhae County scholars aren’t quite that extreme, but it is true that they possess immense wealth.

But Joseon’s tax system is absurdly strange.

Even though the yangban have far more wealth, most of the taxes collected still come from the poor.

If the poor shoulder 40 percent of the tax burden, the yangban pay less than 10 percent.

That’s why I threatened those scholar bastards into coughing up more money for everyone to use.

“And if you also factor in the taxes collected from merchants and the taxes taken at the market, there’s no way building one or two reservoirs would put us in the red, is there?”

“Your words are correct, Magistrate.”

“I’m not saying you two have to bear the burden.”

At my words, Gongbang’s face suddenly brightened.

If I were the kind of guy who got a kick out of using the power of a county magistrate—a post where promotion was basically off the table—to squeeze the clerks and yangban dry, I’d tell them to hand it over if they didn’t want their heads smashed in.

I’m not the type who enjoys watching people suffer. More than that, if I made even them bear the burden, who knows what bad fallout might come of it.

“Make sure to provide a meal to those who take part in the corvée. I’ll give you a generous budget, so handle it properly.”

“Yes, Magistrate.”

Honestly, someday I really need to completely overhaul Joseon’s tax system and introduce a proper Yangryeom-eun system.

And officials should be paid absurdly high salaries commensurate with their social responsibility and status...

Then corruption would decrease, and the government budget would be spent more efficiently.

Right after Gongbang left, another clerk came in and delivered a message.

“Magistrate, the merchant Kim Mandeok has come to see you. Shall I turn him away?”

“No. Show him in. I had something I wanted to ask that fellow, and this is perfect.”

At my words, the clerk’s expression turned suspicious.

He was probably wondering how to handle a merchant whom I said I wanted to personally consult.

With this, his social standing will rise far beyond what it had been before.

Now even the yangban won’t be able to push Kim Mandeok around for no reason.

“...... Yes, Magistrate.”

As soon as the clerk withdrew, Kim Mandeok came in at once.

The moment he saw me, he held out several thick ledgers.

“This is a token of my sincerity, Magistrate.”

“What exactly is this?”

“It’s a ledger listing my assets without hiding a single grain of rice. I especially thoroughly checked and recorded things important for taxation, like the number of fishing boats and persimmon trees.”

In Joseon, a gift usually meant some outrageously expensive specialty product, delicacies from land and sea, or precious metals, rice, silk, and the like.

But Kim Mandeok had never once given me anything like that.

When I told him to pay taxes, he paid taxes; when I asked for something, he simply responded with sincerity.

Honestly, even the issue of collecting taxes from merchants in proportion to their sales at the market would have been tremendously difficult if he hadn’t taken the lead and cooperated.

So I wanted to show that I trusted him by assigning him the job of spreading the word to build a merit stele.

“In all my years living in this world, you’re the first merchant I’ve seen who voluntarily and honestly wants to pay taxes. Thanks to you, I’ve received a lot of help in building the market.”

“I’m following you with the resolve to even pretend to die if you order me to die, Magistrate.”

“However, I do have one concern.”

“What is it?”

“If you follow me this eagerly, will the other merchants in Jinhae County leave you alone?”

This was said out of genuine concern for the man.

Even among young elementary school kids, the one who rats out friends for getting something wrong gets ostracized.

Once you grow up, you realize that ostracism may not be such a big deal, but for children that age, it is a tremendous form of violence.

When children are in elementary, middle, and high school, the people they value even more than their “parents” when they need help with identity formation, career planning, or someone to talk to are their same-age friends. If that relationship goes wrong, it can even become difficult to expect normal growth.

The same kind of thing happens in companies and in society. That’s why, when someone reports a major public-interest corruption case, they may be given a reward of tens of billions of won.

Kim Mandeok’s cooperation with paying taxes at the market and his active help in taxing the merchants’ assets were all things he was doing with his life on the line.

He grinned after hearing me.

“A merchant will even put his own life on the scale if need be when making a deal. I’m certain you’re someone who will someday rise all the way to the three highest ministerial posts, Magistrate.”

“I’m not that great a man.”

“In less than half a year since taking office, you’ve changed the lives of the common people this dramatically; nowhere in all of history can I find a precedent. Moreover, there’s no one but you, Magistrate, who took on the risk of your office and opened a market so merchants could do business. So I’m certain that, in time, you’ll harbor a great ambition and spread your wings high like a soaring roc, a great roc.”

“In other words, you think it’ll pay to follow me?”

“Even a mere suno (head slave) has a different standing depending on whom he serves. A suno serving the Chief State Councilor is only listed as a slave on the slave register; in reality, he receives gifts from the many officials who visit the Chief State Councilor... even officials with rank can’t treat him carelessly. If they handled him badly, who knows what sort of scolding the Chief State Councilor might give.”

That was true. Not every slave in a great lord’s household ends up doing as well as a big-company employee, but if you become the head among slaves, you do gain your own kind of power.

To put it bluntly, a eunuch is nothing more than a “slave who serves the king up close.” Even someone like Chief Eunuch Sangseon can sometimes make the Chief State Councilor tremble before him.

“If I follow you, won’t I become a major merchant too? Later on, just having your protection might be enough to keep the new magistrate sent to Jinhae County from treating me lightly.”

“...... The others bring bribes like rice, silk, gold, or silver. You, on the other hand, have been bribing me with your life all along.”

“Do you dislike it?”

Not at all. Thanks to that guy staking his life on me, I was able to move the county reforms along quickly.

And from here on out, Kim Mandeok’s strength and wisdom would be an enormous help in carrying out my plans.

Why would I refuse his devotion? I just need to repay him in kind.

“...... My schedule happens to be free today. And I also happen to have a special favor I’d like to ask of you. So I’d like to be treated to a drink at your house.”

“It’s my honor, Magistrate.”

**

As soon as we arrived at Kim Mandeok’s house, he ordered refreshments to be brought out.

I figured that was only natural, since it’s human nature to offer refreshments when someone comes over.

But my eyes were drawn to the woman who brought them in.

“It is an honor to meet a Magistrate of such high virtue and learning. I am Kim Gyeoul.”