Normalization of the Tribute System (1)

They say numbers don’t lie. But that’s the kind of saying people who know one thing but not two come up with.

If you write false information on paper when you’re writing down numbers, the information there becomes a lie.

But just like a long tail gets stepped on, false entries in a ledger are usually obvious at a glance.

"Kim Ibang."

"Yes, magistrate."

"According to what's written here, this county collected 4,859 seom of rice in land tax. And for tribute, 300 geun of dried persimmons, 200 geun of anchovies, and 400 sets of paulownia-wood bowls, spoons, and chopsticks are listed. Is that right?"

"Yes, that's what's written in the ledger."

At this point, Joseon's total population is probably a little under 7.7 million.

In the Jinhae County where I was assigned, maybe 20,000 to 30,000 people live.

Those living in the county seat, which can actually be called a town, would be around 1,000 to 1,500.

So collecting tribute goods and land tax like that is probably right... but here's the problem.

Did those bastards really collect the land tax properly?

Well, setting aside whether they can figure out the land tax right now, what about the tribute?

Most of the people living in Joseon spend their whole lives growing nothing but rice, barley, and beans, so they probably can't make dried persimmons or catch anchovies.

Would the guys in charge of paying that on their behalf really not pull any tricks?

If they didn't, that would be admirable and I'd even want to give them an award, but I have a feeling I will never have any reason to reward those guys.

In this era, temple monks used the money they skimmed from handling tribute to carry out excessive temple repairs and even live in luxury. In Joseon, a country that suppressed Buddhism and revered Confucianism, no less.

"The people couldn't possibly make and offer paulownia-wood bowls, dried persimmons, and anchovies themselves. So weren't you procuring them through a temple like other counties do?"

"Yes, magistrate. In our county, we've been procuring goods through the temples for the past ten years."

"The people don't resent it?"

"At first, some people disapproved of the county office collecting rice, handing it over to the temple, and gathering local specialties, but... now everyone likes it."

That statement is probably half right and half wrong.

For example, let's say I made a paper clip from start to finish.

What if I had to go to an iron mine, dig out ore, build a furnace that could smelt it, smelt the ore, pour it into a mold, let it cool, draw wire from it, and then bend it?

To make a 1,000-won paper clip sold in a box of dozens at a stationery store, I'd probably have to spend at least 10 million won. That's how hard self-sufficiency is.

For farmers who only grow grains, being told to pay tribute would have been an enormous burden.

For such farmers, being told they only had to pay tribute in grain instead of goods must have been a good thing in that respect.

Either way, they didn't have to spend 10 million won every time.

Instead, the temple bastards probably used economies of scale to buy tribute goods cheaply and then charged an enormous fee.

The burden would naturally be passed on to the people, and some of the money they received in the process would have moved into the pockets of the clerks, local gentry, and all sorts of higher-ups.

In the end, the farmers were being pushed into a situation where, to offer 1,000 won worth of tribute, they had to pay 20,000 won all told.

Of course that's better than spending 10 million won, so I guess it is a peaceful age after all. Joseon sure is one fine mess.

"So how much rice did it take in total to buy all the tribute goods?"

"We collected 8,234 seom of rice from the people."

"The tribute is more expensive than the land tax. I've never seen such a complete mess."

For the record, I had declared that I would not take bribes from those guys.

Thinking about it another way, those guys were pocketing specialty goods they could have slipped me as bribes.

"But this is only natural, magistrate. As you know, if the people are told to make and offer the goods for tribute themselves, that is nothing but opening the door to hardship for them. The goods offered to the court must be carefully selected and of good quality, and specialty goods are extremely expensive."

When people lie, they hide it among facts.

Just like the safest place to hide a tree is in a forest.

"If a system is wrong, shouldn't it be fixed? And Joseon is a country of Neo-Confucianism, so how could a monk meddle in state affairs?"

I want to sweep away everyone involved, starting with the clerks here and even the yangban tied to this matter.

But if I do something like that, it wouldn't just end with me resigning; the yangban would try to pin the charge of disrespect on me and cut off my head.

A barrage of memorials to Sejong would follow, and then at the very least I'd be sent into exile. Exile.

I said I wanted to resign and live in peace. I don't want to be sent into exile and live like a beggar.

So I'll take down only the people who need taking down.

Honestly, Joseon is a Neo-Confucian country, so if there's a proper pretext, monks are treated as fair game.

If I say I'm taking them down for skimming off tribute money, nobody will object.

'That fortress built by dragging monks off was Namhansanseong, wasn't it.'

"Which temple is in charge of the tribute?"

"Seongheungsa is handling it."

"Seongheungsa, huh. Seongheungsa."

"Then we’d better go there right now and settle this. To think a temple, of all places, is handling tribute in our stead. That's absolutely unacceptable. Ibang, follow me at once."

I sprang to my feet.

Strike while the iron is hot; if you make up your mind, you have to start that very day. Otherwise you'll never finish even if you die.

**

Seongheungsa was far too magnificent to be called a temple.

All of the temple's wooden pillars had been lacquered, and the main gate was painted red.

Before paints using chemical ingredients existed, painting something red was so expensive even the yangban didn't dare do it carelessly. How could a temple be this lavish?

There was a strong smell of money rotting away.

"Where is the abbot of Seongheungsa?"

As if he had heard me, an elderly monk cautiously walked out.

"Namu Amida Butsu, welcome. Are you perhaps the magistrate newly appointed to the county?"

"That's right. I hear that Seongheungsa has been handling Jinhae County's tribute all this time... and it seems the temple has amassed tremendous wealth by doing so."

"This humble monk merely handled the tribute to help the poor people. Thanks to us, the people avoided great hardship, and Seongheungsa merely earned a little income, which we used to repair the temple."

...... Even so, the amount they're collecting is far too much.

By my calculations, the actual tribute goods the people should have had to offer would only add up to around 500 or 600 seom of rice.

These Seongheungsa bastards skimmed off the top, bribed the clerks and other officials involved, and even had to pay the remittance amount (sujeung) that had to be sent up through the magistrate, so they wound up collecting over 8,000 seom of rice...

Is that really supposed to be right?

No, if I were only collecting around 1,000 seom and then taking my cut, bribes, and remittance payments from inside that, I wouldn't even touch them.

I'd have let it go, thinking, You guys have to make a living too.

But according to the Annals of Sejong, there is even a record that they acted as if they were royal envoys carrying out the king's orders, and even intimidated the magistrate.

"The temple will only accept donations from now on. After all, even if it just accepts the offerings from commoners and the wives of yangban households, that should be enough for you to make a living."

"Namu Amida Butsu, we are only doing this for the people. Before we handled the tribute for them, the people had to bear burdens two or three times heavier than they do now. But when this humble monk put Buddha's compassion in mind and took up this lowly trade to save the people, their burden was clearly reduced. So why do you tell us not to do this?"

I don't want to make a scene from the very first day I take office as magistrate.

If I make a scene from the first day, what will happen to my evaluation and how the county people see me is obvious...

But that guy is really getting on my nerves.

What are you, some kind of cult?

No, early Joseon Buddhism was better than late Goryeo Buddhism, but it did have a bit of a cult-like quality.

That may be why, as Joseon moved into the middle and later periods, the court pushed monks down into the lowest class.

They were the ones brainwashing the people by using religion and the power of the afterlife, so if you recognized them as commoners, who knew what kind of trouble they'd cause.

Well, even the so-called educated yangban can just as easily turn into a corrupt power clique if they're not properly checked, so it's not as if only those guys are bad.

I really was trying to hold back because it was my first day, you know.

But that doesn't seem right. I guess I really do need to give them a proper lesson.

I don't plan to burn the temple down or anything... but I do need to show them what real heat feels like.

A sham monk who's only chasing personal gain is indeed a fake, so...

"Ibang, listen carefully."

"Yes, magistrate."

"Arrest them all and tie them up. And find out how much money the county needs if it buys the tribute goods itself. If those bastards took more than twice the cost of the tribute goods... I will not leave them alone."

Ibang's face soured. No, it didn't just sour; it twisted.

Then he grabbed my hem and started begging.

"Magistrate, you really must not do this. Public sentiment will turn bad. The people are already prone to being swayed by strange powers and superstitions, so if you say you're suppressing eminent monks..."

"His Majesty sent me here to comfort the people and ease their suffering. So how could I just stand by and watch this happen?"

I shoved Ibang away and gave the order.

"Seal this temple's storehouses at once, and search the ledgers thoroughly!"

If I did all this and those guys were really as clean as I thought, then I'd be the only one who ended up dead.

Don't worry about that.

Because there's no way I can lose.