Chapter 189
The final version of the geographical gazetteer and the plan to introduce the myeon-ri system were submitted to Byeon Gye-ryang.
The eyes of all the Jiphyeonjeon officials, myself included, were now fixed entirely on him.
If Byeon Gye-ryang found a flaw, we would not only have to correct it but also check the rest of the gazetteer for any other mistakes...
All the scholars of Jiphyeonjeon waited with one mind and one heart for Byeon Gye-ryang to say that he had found no problems.
After breaking the long silence, Byeon Gye-ryang made his declaration.
“After thoroughly reviewing the newly completed geographical gazetteer, I could not find a single flaw. You have all worked very hard. It is not yet time to leave for the day, but you must all be exhausted after worrying over the compilation of the gazetteer for so long. Go home early today and rest comfortably.”
Upon hearing the declaration that the geographical gazetteer had been completed perfectly, the Jiphyeonjeon officials, who had even been granted early dismissal, shouted cheers of joy.
Then they all hurried to prepare to leave for the day.
I, too, began packing my things so I could naturally slip out with the others.
As a junior official, I would not have any particular work to do right now, so I could simply leave with everyone else.
Ah, of course, now that the geographical gazetteer had been completed, the Grand Scholar and Vice Grand Scholar of Jiphyeonjeon would have to visit the Uijeongbu and various other offices to discuss matters related to their work.
“Grand Scholar, then I shall take my leave now. Thank you for your consideration.”
Lord Byeon Gye-ryang was such a miser that he would rather let food he had received rot than share it with someone else, yet he had granted us all an early departure...
Any sensible official would be wise not to miss this opportunity and hurry home.
Those who wanted to go out for a meal after leaving could gather together and do so, while people like me, who wanted to see the wife and son they had left behind as soon as possible, could simply go home.
However, just as I was about to leave in search of freedom, Byeon Gye-ryang reached out to grab my shoulder.
“Kim Eung-gyo, take this geographical gazetteer to the Ministry of Taxation.”
“What? The Ministry of Taxation?”
“Although the geographical gazetteer has not yet been completed, I hear that, starting from the data-collection stage, merchants and commoners in countless districts besides Dancheon County have been working hard to increase the production of local specialties. Thanks to that, commerce has expanded further, and the markets in those districts have grown far larger than before. This is the situation even before the gazetteer has been completed, so just imagine how great the impact will be once it begins to be distributed...”
The distribution of the geographical gazetteer would not cause the production of local specialties to explode overnight.
The court had already announced that it would organize and publish a list of local specialties from across the country along with the geographical gazetteer, so merchants had already prepared well in advance to meet that schedule.
As a result, production of the items designated as local specialties in each region had already been increased as much as possible.
So it would be impossible to increase production any further in the short term.
But the real problem would come after the geographical gazetteer was distributed.
‘Where can I sell what to make a profit?’
Once everyone learned this information, the newly produced local specialties would begin selling in enormous quantities.
And if the market expanded in response to their movements...
“I would not dare predict just how large commerce will become. However, I do know the directions in which it will expand, so I have thought of several countermeasures in preparation.”
“As expected of Kim Ji-bu—no, Kim Eung-gyo, you had a plan for everything.”
“But I could be wrong, could I not? That is why I think it would be necessary to discuss this with you...”
At that, Byeon Gye-ryang signaled to the nearby Vice Grand Scholar with his eyes.
The Vice Grand Scholar suddenly wore an expression as if he had realized something and inserted himself between the two of us.
“Grand Scholar, you must leave for the Uijeongbu soon. Otherwise, the Chief State Councillor will thunder at you for being so late.”
Hearing this, Byeon Gye-ryang made a helpless expression.
“There has not been a single mistake in anything Kim Eung-gyo has done so far. Therefore, I believe this time will be no different. I will unconditionally support Kim Eung-gyo’s countermeasures. So hurry to the Ministry of Taxation now and help them with their work.”
With that, Byeon Gye-ryang went off to the Uijeongbu.
Perhaps it was just my imagination, but his steps seemed hurried, as though he were fleeing from something.
**
Although Jiphyeonjeon had served as the headquarters for compiling the geographical gazetteer, once commerce expanded after its completion, the Ministry of Taxation would have the most work to do.
That was probably why the officials of the Ministry of Taxation were moving about so frantically.
“Lord Kim, I have brought the memorial containing the necessary information.”
“You finished sooner than expected. Good work. Now take this memorial straight to the Vice Minister of Taxation.”
Officials, clerks, runners, and even the servants sent on errands were all working so frantically that I felt embarrassed to even announce my arrival.
My father-in-law, Kim Mandeok, was also dressed in his official robes and moving documents back and forth at nearly a run before finally sitting down at his place.
The moment he sat down, he buried his nose in the documents and began concentrating seriously on his work.
He must have been so busy that he did not even notice his son-in-law standing there staring blankly at him...
“Jiphyeonjeon has finished compiling the geographical gazetteer, so I came to deliver the original to the Ministry of Taxation. Could you pass it on to the Minister of Taxation?”
Since no one at the Ministry of Taxation had noticed my presence as a newcomer, I loudly announced the purpose of my visit myself.
As soon as I said that, a clerk came running over, accepted the geographical gazetteer as though it were an ancestral tablet, and disappeared into the Dangsang Daecheong (the building where the senior officials of the Six Ministries worked).
Just then, another clerk rose from his seat, set up a place beside my father-in-law’s desk where I could work, and invited me to sit down.
They had even set up a workspace for me in one corner of the Ministry of Taxation, since no one knew when I might have to return to Jiphyeonjeon...
There was only one possible reason for this.
That miser Byeon Gye-ryang must have arranged all this with the Minister of Taxation in advance.
I imagine they had agreed on something along the lines of, “The geographical gazetteer should be completed at Jiphyeonjeon today, so put him to good use at the Ministry of Taxation, which will become even busier from now on, and then send him back to Jiphyeonjeon.”
Otherwise, the Minister of Taxation would never have dared put me to work without even asking me, a Jiphyeonjeon scholar, for my consent.
As if to prove my prediction, my father-in-law rose from his seat and came toward me.
“Son-in-law, help us out.”
“...... My work at Jiphyeonjeon is also extremely busy.”
“Just look at the officials of the Ministry of Taxation working. Don’t you feel sorry for them?”
Looking at my father-in-law’s face as he said this, I could tell from his sunken eyes that he was being worked to the bone.
I had heard that the Ministry of Taxation left for the day at the appointed time every day, but if his face had become that haggard despite that...
It seemed that an endless mountain of work was always piled up before them, and no matter how much they processed, it never grew smaller, leaving him stressed to the point of looking like this.
Kim Mandeok sent me a silent plea with those hollow eyes.
If another official had been looking at me that way, I would have told that official that Byeon Gye-ryang, the Grand Scholar of Jiphyeonjeon, had ordered all the scholars to leave work on time, then immediately run away...
But unfortunately, the person in question was my father-in-law.
Joseon was a country where even killing someone was forgiven, so long as one said it had been done to avenge one’s parents and it was not treason.
Joseon was a country where serving a life sentence in place of one’s parents was normally impossible, but became permissible if one claimed to be doing so out of filial piety.
In the great kingdom of filial piety that was Joseon, no one could ignore the plea of an elder in the family.
I was no exception.
“I’m really only helping you this once, you know?”
“Thank you, son-in-law. I’ll buy you a meal sometime.”
“So what do I have to do?”
When I asked, Kim Mandeok handed me an enormous amount of work as if he had been waiting for me to say those words.
Once the production and distribution of local specialties began in earnest, there would be all sorts of complicated matters, such as deciding how taxes should be levied...
“This is driving me crazy. Seriously.”
Although it was certainly King Sejong who had ordered us to create the geographical gazetteer, the person who had made the work so enormous was me.
If I failed to handle that work properly, countless people could suffer later.
It was a situation in which everyone would be happy if I suffered a little more, so what else could I do?
While all my colleagues at Jiphyeonjeon were enjoying the happiness of an early departure, I alone had come to the Ministry of Taxation, taken the full brunt of a workload bomb, and ended up having to work...
Still, I had to work.
“In Joseon right now, the best option is to impose a single tax rate on everyone, farmers, artisans, and merchants alike.”
If I suggested introducing something like an income tax and imposing taxes according to income brackets, the wealthy merchants and yangban would join hands and raise hell.
Of course, even if those two groups joined forces and resisted, the court would ultimately prevail...
But it could take decades to recover from the fallout.
And Joseon’s priority right now was to expand the scale of commerce rather than increase the tax-collection rate...
So now was not the time to introduce varying tax rates according to income brackets.
No, in truth, we did not even have the power to introduce such a system.
“Then the problem is the accounting ledgers used by merchants... How can we make them transparent?”
While I was pondering this, the answer appeared right before my eyes.
It was the accounting ledger my father-in-law was using.
“Father-in-law, what system does this ledger use?”
“This is the accounting system traditionally used by merchants in Jeolla. It is called yonghagi. In very simple terms, it allows you to check for errors in an accounting ledger by seeing whether the sums on the left and right match.”
Although it differed from the modern double-entry bookkeeping I knew, this accounting system did have debits and credits.
It was a precise system, much like double-entry bookkeeping, so it would certainly be helpful.
“Then we can have merchants record their guilds’ income, expenditures, and flow of expenses each year according to this yonghagi system.”
“...... I suppose so.”
“It would be good to standardize the ledgers used by all government offices according to yonghagi as well, not just those of the merchant guilds.”
Thus, while handling the Ministry of Taxation’s work, I recommended the full adoption of yonghagi as the accounting system and also organized the military-service reform plan I had been preparing.
This was included in a memorial and submitted to King Sejong the following day.