Yi Bang-won and the Budget (3)

The premodern world could never escape shortages of resources and food.

Poor commoners sometimes bought and wore old clothes discarded by the wealthy, and when those clothes became too worn to wear, they made use of them as dishcloths or rags.

Even the biji-jjigae we commonly eat in restaurants was devised as a way to consume the byproduct left over from making tofu.

In a world like this, allowing rice to rot was no different from committing a grave sin.

“Minister of Hojo, I have brought a solution to the budget problem His Majesty the Grand King mentioned.”

“Was it not only yesterday that His Majesty the Grand King ordered you to find a way to secure more funds for the budget?”

“Yes, that is true. However, His Majesty did not specify a deadline, so is it not a subject’s duty to find a solution as quickly as possible?”

A protagonist in a drama I once watched and found memorable said this.

‘Since I was not told when to have it done, I did it as quickly as possible.’

Of course, if no deadline had been set and the matter was not immediately urgent, I could have pushed it down the priority list a little...

But what Yi Bang-won was preparing now was none other than the proclamation and dissemination of Hunminjeongeum.

If I had not known the context at all, I would have paced myself and prepared a solution at a reasonable speed, but once I understood the context, I could no longer restrain myself.

How could I restrain myself when I had the honor of helping with the historic proclamation of Hunminjeongeum’s twenty-eight letters?

“Well, since it was His Majesty the Grand King who ordered it, rather than anyone else, it is indeed right to act as quickly as possible. So, how do you intend to secure the budget?”

“I intend to cover the budget by selling grain from the grain-loan system.”

“Sell grain from the grain-loan system? His Majesty the Grand King and His Majesty the King are firmly convinced that, whatever else may be the case, grain loans must be stockpiled as much as possible in preparation for emergencies. Therefore, I imagine Their Majesties would find your suggestion to sell them extremely uncomfortable.”

I had no intention of reducing the grain-loan reserves either.

In the twenty-first century, people work to increase production using chemical fertilizer, sprinklers, dams, and groundwater pumps, while also addressing food-supply problems by importing large quantities of food from overseas...

But in Joseon in the early fifteenth century, importing food was difficult, and even if we found a way to import it, other countries also produced less food than their own demand required.

Overcoming a famine by bringing in food from other countries was by no means easy.

In such circumstances, the only thing we could rely on was the grain loans stockpiled during years with decent harvests. How could we reduce those reserves?

If a severe year of poor harvests struck after that, tens of thousands of people could starve to death.

“The grain-loan rice I propose selling is rice that would otherwise rot and be discarded.”

At the mention of grain that would rot and be discarded, Jo Gye-saeng’s stern expression gradually began to relax.

“His Majesty the Grand King ordered that four million seok of grain loans be stockpiled to prevent people from starving to death during the spring lean season when they had nothing to eat. As the Minister of Hojo responsible for managing the nation’s finances, I agree with His Majesty’s concern for the plight of the poor and with his order to stockpile such a large quantity.”

They say that in medieval Europe, which had no system like grain loans, about one percent of a village’s population starved or froze to death every winter.

In Joseon, unless a poor harvest struck, such a catastrophe—in which a village’s population fell by one percent over the winter—did not occur.

That was because the lifeline of grain loans reached people standing at the edge of a precipice, allowing them to somehow escape their desperate circumstances.

“However, it pains me greatly that more than a million seok of grain rots and is discarded every year. But hearing that you have found a way to use that grain is most welcome.”

“Thank you, Minister.”

“So, what method do you intend to use?”

“What if we sold that spoiled grain to merchants so that they could raise chickens?”

“Why chickens in particular? You could give it to pigs or cattle as well.”

“If we assume that cattle, pigs, and chickens are each raised for meat, I say this because chickens are the most efficient animal for producing meat.”

They say that ten kilograms of feed are needed to produce one kilogram of beef.

With the same amount of feed, one can obtain 2.5 kilograms of pork, but as much as five or six kilograms of chicken meat.

Besides, if we raise hens, we can obtain eggs as well.

Therefore, if we want to provide the people with even a little more meat and protein, we absolutely must raise chickens.

‘Improving the people’s nutritional condition is a very important matter.’

“It is none of the court’s concern whether merchants use grain that people cannot eat as cattle feed or pig feed. What matters is that we can sell grain that would otherwise rot and be discarded and use the proceeds to cover a portion of the budget the court needs, is it not?”

“It would of course be far better to sell the million seok of grain rather than let it rot and discard it, even if we could recover only ten thousand seok. If we used the budget secured that way to expand the equipment and workforce of the paper mill... producing two hundred thousand sheets of paper a day would not be merely a dream.”

In the early Joseon court, there was a strong tendency to handle everything entirely at the government level, whatever it might be.

It made sense for things like weapons and armor, since they involved military equipment, but the court also tried to handle the production of farming tools, various implements, and daily necessities itself...

When you think about it, this was incredibly inefficient.

Not only did it cost money to build such facilities, but from the perspective of the people managing them, they were paid a fixed salary regardless of whether they managed the facilities well or poorly, so eventually they would start thinking about embezzling some of the funds.

There are businesses the government can take the lead in and others it should never touch, but failing to distinguish between them resulted in wasteful spending and situations in which the final products were of poor quality.

“Let the state use that money to purchase paper. Then it will not have to go through the trouble of building paper mills itself.”

“That may be true, but if merchants manipulate the prices in between, would the court’s losses not be enormous? Recall that merchants once deceived the court through the proxy-tribute system and pocketed enormous profits.”

The merchants of this era even swindled the court.

They routinely quoted inflated prices, despite knowing that such fraud could cost them their heads.

Therefore, Hojo Minister Jo Gye-saeng’s concern was valid, but...

‘That was then.’

“The court already knows exactly how much it costs to make paper. Therefore, the solution is simply not to buy paper from anyone who quotes an absurd price higher than the court’s own production cost.”

In the past, the costs needed to support the livelihoods of public slaves, clerks, and officials positioned between the merchants and government offices had made up a considerable portion of the proxy-tribute system.

Furthermore, because the tools and various raw materials used in production were also procured through proxy tribute, the clerks and merchants in charge colluded to sell them at outrageous prices, and the government was forced to use those overpriced supplies...

It was common for a hoe sold in the market to cost half as much as—or even less than—a hoe made at a government-run factory.

Now that proxy tribute has disappeared, the price difference is not as large as it once was, but goods produced by the court are still slightly more expensive than those bought in the market.

Since this is government work, the artisans are paid wages at the highest level in the industry, for one thing...

And even the petty corruption committed for the survival of people who could not make a living without embezzling a certain amount was included in the ‘production costs.’

“According to what I heard from my father-in-law, even when making the same hoe, merchants can make about thirteen for the amount of money the court needs to make ten. Paper will probably not be much different.”

“It seems you are right that entrusting paper production to merchants would be more profitable, since it would save us the cost of building additional paper mills. But if that is the case, why did you build such a large paper mill in Yanggu?”

“We needed to learn from the trial and error involved in building a factory and beginning production, and we also needed to experiment with the technology and practicality required to create new machines. In addition, we wanted to guard against the possibility that, if the court became overly dependent on merchants for the paper it needed, someone might appear who would try to corner the paper used by the court, just like that traitor who once cornered the rice brought into Hanyang.”

In Korea, there is virtually no way to buy fried chicken other than getting it from a franchise restaurant.

Taking advantage of this, it sometimes happens that one company raises the price of chicken and all the other companies follow suit at once.

How could merchants in Joseon possibly be unable to do the same thing?

“I understand. Then, what do you think would be a suitable price for the spoiled grain?”

“Since it is completely spoiled to the point that people cannot eat it, I think ten seok of spoiled grain for one seok of grain would be appropriate.”

“Oh, then we could obtain an additional one hundred thousand seok of rice every year. Not bad. Do it at once.”

“Thank you, Minister.”

And if we used this million seok of spoiled grain to operate poultry farms, it would also be a great help in solving the food-shortage problem.

We would earn money and help the country at the same time—in other words, we would kill two birds with one stone.

After reaching an agreement with the Hojo Minister, I submitted the matter to Yi Bang-won in a memorial.

Yi Bang-won read the memorial and let out a hearty laugh.