Chapter 36
Joseon needs the Daedong Law. If it can be introduced even one second sooner, that would be ideal.
That is because today’s Joseon is in a state where the people are dying in misery because of a flawed tribute system.
Of course, since there is such a broad consensus that the tribute system is only natural, even the people being exploited can only cry, ‘Just cut the tribute,’ and never once think of toppling the system...
In a country whose goal is yemin-dongrak—the ruler and the people sharing joy and prosperity—it would be one thing if it were being carried out without realizing it would kill the people. But to carry it out while knowing that is nonsense.
“Collect all tribute in rice. Then won’t the government offices’ finances and the specialty goods needed by the palace fall short?”
“On the contrary, they will become more plentiful. And the people’s burden will be reduced.”
“The people’s burden decreases, yet the state’s finances become more plentiful. That makes no sense, does it?”
What I was saying was, of course, nonsense. How could the state’s finances grow richer if the total amount of money the people paid decreased?
I have no intention of arguing for such an unrealistic fiscal policy and having it codified under Yi Bang-won.
If you look for the reasons Joseon, which during the Age of Discovery—and even until the seventeenth century—had national strength greater than most of Europe’s great powers, ended up as a punching bag by the late nineteenth century, there are several...
One of them is the garbage Confucian-style economic practice of keeping official taxes as low as possible and leaving the rest for the officials to procure however they can. There’s no way I’d push a policy like that.
The man who filed a memorial to the throne to save the people can’t very well turn around and advocate a policy that kills them.
“I am not saying we should reduce the amount collected. Rather, we should collect taxes fairly.”
“Collect taxes fairly... Daebung, do you think the current system of collecting taxes by each ho (household) is unfair?”
“Yes, that is correct. The current system is extremely unfair.”
My words must have been quite a shock, because Yi Bang-won slumped down onto the floor of the Jeonokseo.
Saying the tax system is unfair could, if you twist it a little, be taken as denying the foundation of the state. But there was no angry look on his face. From that, I could tell he was receiving my words positively.
Judging by the sparkling look in His Majesty's eyes as he watched me, he must be very interested.
“Speak more specifically.”
“Under the current tax system, property is divided into wealth classes—daeho, jungho, soho, janho, and janjanho—and military service, tribute, and taxes are collected by household. By dividing things this way, the system was designed so that those who have more pay more and those who have less pay less, but... as this humble servant answered in the byeolsi and jeonsi exams, this system imposes an enormous tax burden on poor commoners that they simply cannot bear.”
Yi Bang-won nodded as he listened to me.
“So this humble servant made the yangban of Jinhae County spend a great deal of money on tribute and various public works, and collected that much less from the common people.”
“The burden on the yangban would grow, and there would be complaints...”
“Certainly, everyone was very dissatisfied at first.”
I thought there would be a lot of complaints, so I casually let it slip that I would report to you, Yi Bang-won, how the yangban of Jinhae County had teamed up with previous magistrates to embezzle tax funds. Then a miracle happened: the yangban’s complaints suddenly disappeared.
Even if things went wrong, I would only be dismissed from office or else rewarded for my honesty, so I could denounce them to my heart’s content... But the Jinhae County yangban could suffer the same sad fate as Jeong Hak-so, so they listened to me very well.
“The Jinhae County yangban had previously paid taxes amounting to less than one-hwal (10%) of what they earned each year, but after I took office, they ended up paying 2-hwal 3-pun (23%) in taxes. Meanwhile, the taxes collected from poor commoners were reduced to about half of what they had been before.”
I cannot introduce a progressive tax in Joseon. The reason is simple.
If I introduced a progressive tax and set tax brackets like a comprehensive income tax, the yangban all over the country would rebel and try to burn Joseon down.
To put it bluntly, if Britain had not slapped strange taxes on its colonies in North America and had simply guaranteed them a bit of political participation... the United States’ independence would likely have been delayed by decades, or even by more than a century.
Because then people like Washington would have lost the justification and noble cause to argue for 'independence.'
But Britain created strange taxes and collected them from America, and the enraged Americans dumped 'tea' into the waters off Boston, brewing up a catastrophe... and in the end they gained independence from Britain.
The same thing could happen all over Joseon. If I mobilized state power, it could be suppressed quickly enough, but the price might be my own head. Or maybe I’d be subjected to neungjihyeong (execution by dismemberment into five pieces).
So, to stay within realistic bounds, I put forward the Daedong Law. A method by which the wealthy pay a little more.
“In this way, life became easier for the people, and the taxes collected in Jinhae County increased by as much as four-hwal (40%) compared to before.”
“Truly astonishing. I was surprised when I read the memorial you submitted, but hearing it again like this is still most astonishing.”
Yi Bang-won’s gaze toward me seemed to have become a little sticky. How should I put it? It was like a professor looking at a graduate student.
No, that can’t be. The ability to turn every retainer into a graduate student belongs only to His Majesty King Sejong. Since I’m stuck in prison, I must be physically weak and misreading it.
“The current tribute is apportioned not according to the property they possess, but by ho, and there isn’t even a set procedure for how much should be collected or by what method. Land tax and the various other taxes all have proper procedures, yet tribute does not. As a result, all sorts of bizarre things are happening.”
“Bizarre things...”
“The former magistrate of Jinhae County, when this humble servant was serving as magistrate there, collected 35 du of white rice per ho in order to buy the tribute goods.”
Thirty-five du of white rice is roughly three and a half seom of rice. It’s enough rice that even three adult men eating nothing but rice for a whole year would still have some left over.
“...... If this is a case of deceiving the king and misleading your sovereign, I will not let you off.”
“Why would this humble servant lie to Your Majesty, the Retired King? I did muster the courage to submit a memorial to the throne in defense of my convictions, but in truth I am so timid... I do not wish to die after committing the crime of deceiving the king and misleading my sovereign by speaking falsely.”
Ah, to be honest, that part was indeed a bit of a lie. Since the average was 35 du per ho, there were circumstances in which only 10 to 15 du were collected from the yangban, while the easier targets were charged 50 du each.
But if I told him that too, it was obvious that the Jinhae County yangban and clerks who had listened to me so well would die by the dozens, so I was hiding that part.
Joseon is, after all, a country where a little lying and a little embezzlement, then taking festival gifts up to your superiors, is the basic 'Marine-style order' and 'gimbai' that prevail here... I have to go along with it to some extent.
Fish can’t live in water that is too clean, and reform is not something where you can do everything you want from the very beginning.
If you want to get a top score on the CSAT but don’t even know the four basic operations, then just as you wouldn’t start with the workbooks top students use and would have to go back to elementary school math... you can improve slowly, one step at a time.
Because even that alone can save countless people.
“...... Why do the other magistrates... Well, of course. There isn’t another honest, incorruptible official like you anywhere in Joseon.”
Yi Bang-won’s gaze toward me grew even stickier. It definitely wasn’t rational love, but for some reason I felt like if I got caught up in that look, I’d turn into Hwang Hui.
I’ll watch the Daedong Law being implemented, then look for my chance to submit a resignation memorial.
Yes, submitting a resignation memorial and returning to my hometown to live with Gyeoul doesn’t sound bad either.
What meaning is there in making it big? You can’t spend your precious time in Joseon living only for work. As long as you have some money, living happily with a pretty wife is the real way to live. And since I have both wealth and Gyeoul, all I need to do is submit my resignation memorial on time.
“For commoners who are already struggling to make ends meet, 35 du per ho... 35 du... 35 du, you say... My God, how could this be...”
“The circumstances in other counties will not be different. It may not be collected this way every year, but... there will be plenty of such cases.”
“It is my fault for being lacking.”
“You can put it right.”
If you stick a knife into someone’s throat, that person dies. But if you repent even right before driving it in and pull the knife back, it does not lead to the result of killing someone.
Likewise, if you now realize it was wrong to place excessive burdens on countless commoners because you didn’t know any better and repent... even if you can’t save those already oppressed and sacrificed, you can save the countless commoners who would otherwise be trampled in the future.
“I lack virtue, wisdom, and diligence. What use is merely loving the people if I cannot do anything for them?”
“You only need to change the system.”
“Change the system. Right, you said to collect tribute in rice. Are you saying to combine the land tax and the value of tribute and collect them together?”
As expected of Yi Bang-won! That’s the sort of brilliant idea you’d expect from the father of King Sejong and a man who passed Goryeo’s civil service exam fair and square.
When I said to receive tribute in rice, he came up with the idea of combining the land tax and tribute into a single levy.
“Yes, that is correct. Keep the land tax as it is now, at 30 du per gyeol, and collect about 18 du per gyeol for tribute.”
“That would make it 48 du per gyeol, wouldn’t that be too much?”
Even if you add both together, the tax per gyeol of land comes to only about 16 percent in an average harvest year.
If it were up to me, I’d like to reduce the taxes levied on low-income people and tax the yangban at around 30 percent... but that isn’t realistically possible.
We need to fill the treasury by pushing for a single tax rate of about 48 du per gyeol, which is what we’re already collecting now.
“This humble servant can be certain of it.”
“Of what?”
“If you do only this, songs of Taepyeongga will naturally spill from the people’s lips, and everyone will be able to live with hope. The court’s finances will also become abundant, so there will be no shortage in defending Joseon against the barbarians.”
“Ah, as a side effect, commerce will also develop like crazy.”
Joseon’s fiscal circulation will work smoothly, and the scale of the economy will grow as well.
“I will trust you.”
After saying that, Yi Bang-won grinned at me.
“You called this law the Daedong Law. But since this law is truly beautiful, there is another name that suits it better than Daedong Law.”
“What name do you wish to give it?”
“How about Bangwon Law, after my name?”
Yi Bang-won’s name carries a very good meaning. It was hard to believe it was a name given by Yi Seong-gye, who was so far removed from scholarship.
“When His Majesty King Taejo named me, he put into my name the meaning that I should become someone who can bestow virtue broadly, like a fragrant scent spreading far away.”
...... All kings’ names are subject to pihwi (the rule that those characters must never be written). But Yi Bang-won said the hanja in his name were used so often that I could write them freely.
Of course, from a Confucian common-sense standpoint, freely using a king’s name would be insane, so people only use the characters separately—Bang, meaning fragrant, and Won, meaning far. No one ever writes the two characters together.
Even if the king has allowed it, pihwi is a principle that should be observed. To break that and attach the name 'Bangwon' to a law I created...
“Whoever opposes the Bangwon Law, regardless of who they are, is no different from a ghost of Goryeo.”