Chapter 9
When you hear the name Kim Man-deok, you’d think of Jeju’s famous female merchant Kim Man-deok.
But the person who appeared before me was a bearded man in his forties.
I’m not the sort of person to be disappointed by that, though...
It is a little awkward to hear that the merchant with that name is a man. The Kim Man-deok I know is a woman, after all.
"Now that the newly appointed magistrate is governing wisely, it seems even a humble merchant like me is blessed by His Majesty’s grace."
"I am nothing more than a magistrate who has just passed the civil service exam and been appointed county magistrate. Praise like that is a bit much for someone as inexperienced and green as I am."
"To think you’ve even allowed merchants like us to trade freely and have even had a market built for us—never in my dreams did I imagine such a magistrate would come to our county."
In Joseon, when you meet someone important, it’s best to start your very first sentence with flattery.
Even the memorials submitted by ministers and scholar-officials always begin with this.
'After bowing twice in deep respect, I take up my brush in gratitude for Your Majesty’s grace.'
And below that, they write at length about how wonderful the current king is and how much the people’s lives have improved, making up facts if they have to.
So I can’t simply dismiss that as flattery just because he said nice things to praise me.
Because in Joseon, that’s just how things are.
And one thing I particularly like about this man is... in Joseon, when you ask a yangban for something, you have to bring a valuable gift.
Instead of offering me a gift, he’s trying to make his plea in good faith. To anyone else, it would look brazen enough to get his head smashed in on the spot.
In our world, it would be even ruder than going to a future father-in-law’s house to ask for his daughter’s hand and showing up empty-handed.
He must be so confident that he can persuade me with nothing but the logic and evidence he’s brought that he can be this brazen. Or else he’s just insane.
"For someone as inexperienced as me to govern more than tens of thousands of people, the only way is to work hard. If the people’s lives improve in the process, that will be entirely thanks to His Majesty’s virtue."
In Korea, people sometimes ambush a game player with worship. If you suddenly see that person’s photo, you have to worship him and shout, 'Long live the god of gaming!'
In Joseon, the king is exactly that kind of target. Any yangban, no matter what else he’s talking about, has to suddenly start worshipping the king out of nowhere.
Otherwise, he could be branded a reactionary lacking in loyalty and patriotism.
That’s why he said it like that.
In fact, reducing the burden of tribute and making the people’s lives easier was possible purely because I was that capable.
"I have quite a few legal documents to deal with right now. So say what you came for, quickly."
"Magistrate, you have now opened a large market where not only merchants but commoners can trade as well. And you intend to charge only a very small stall fee. So this market you have created will, in no more than a few months, become a huge market where merchants from Jinhae County, neighboring Dongnae County, and the surrounding districts will all gather."
Right now in Joseon, any proper market held anywhere outside Hanyang is illegal. And the reason is absurd.
Because for nearly five hundred years they had believed the insane doctrine of mubon-eokmal—that the people should devote themselves only to farming, their proper calling, and that commerce, a necessary evil, should be allowed only in the bare minimum.
So what if there’s a market that isn’t just a tiny village market, but one big enough for everyone in the county to come to?
The patrolmen from the government office would rush in at once, wreck the place, turn it upside down, and then 'relocate' the goods that were for sale straight into their own pockets.
But if the government office itself authorizes a market? Everyone nearby who wants to do business will flock there.
"I am deeply grateful to you for allowing us to trade freely, Magistrate... but the problem is that there are far too many people who look at this unfavorably."
Confucian old fogeys see merchants like this: people who don’t do any real work and just set up a stall and sit there fleecing hardworking farmers.
Strictly speaking, merchants in this era really are the kind of people who’ve lost all sense of decency...
Even if you look at it all that way, does it make any sense to oppress people to the point that they can’t do business at all? That’s why those temple bastards were able to run wild.
Most of the high officials above me at court, and the scholars tucked away in rural backwaters—those country scholars who would later be called the sarim and who had a harder time getting ahead because they hadn’t taken part in Joseon’s founding—genuinely think that commerce itself is something only a lazy bum with nothing better to do would engage in.
What Kim Man-deok is worried about is people like that tearing the market down with all kinds of sabotage and submitting memorials to make it impossible to do 'business.' That’s what he’s concerned about, I suppose.
"Jinhae County is not suffering a famine right now, but if we show His Majesty that the people are making even a slight improvement in their lives by bringing and selling things like wild greens, firewood, and straw sandals, he will gladly permit the market. And if anyone submits a memorial saying that this magistrate is wrong, I will speak plainly to His Majesty that this is the path for the people, even if I have to stake my life on it. What more is there after all but death?"
They wouldn’t kill a magistrate who had taken first place in the civil service exams just for opening a market as he pleased. Instead, they’d strip him of office as punishment and reinstate him after a year or two.
Others would come running back in their socks, delighted as could be, if told to return...
I’d come up with every excuse under the sun and absolutely never return to office. If I was dismissed after doing what I could for the people, wouldn’t that mean I’d already done everything I needed to do?
And then I’d marry a pretty wife. Using the family fortune to take in a concubine would be nice too.
Since I’d even served as magistrate, I’d spend the rest of my life in the county as a respected elder. Now that’s what you’d call true slow-life healing, isn’t it?
After hearing me, Kim Man-deok knelt down. Then, out of nowhere, he slammed his forehead to the floor.
"As expected, Magistrate, you truly are a distinguished magistrate with the talent to assist a king."
Then, without even giving me time to modestly say that wasn’t the case, he held out a neatly folded sheet of paper.
"This is a document listing the goods I will sell when the market opens, along with the quantities. Once I begin trading in the market, I will submit a ledger organizing the items I have put up for sale. And I will pay one-tenth (10%) of the proceeds as tax to the government office."
A person like Kim Man-deok is incredibly rich. He’s not trillion-won rich like our country’s conglomerates, but even at the low end he’d have personal assets worth tens of billions of won.
The assets of the trading house he controls must also be enormous. He’ll have plenty of goods to put out at the market, too.
And he’s paying 10 percent of what sells as tax to the government office? That would be a huge help to the county coffers.
The problem is what this guy’s up to...
"What is it you want?"
"Isn’t it because merchants like this humble one are looked down on and despised because it doesn’t help the country? Even when we trade, we only pay a little stall fee. We don’t pay any tax on the rest of our profits. Unlike farmers, we bear no burden for the country at all, so we are no better than vermin."
In that loathsome country called the British Empire, until taxes like 'income tax' and 'consumption tax' were introduced, merchants paid absurdly little tax compared to their income.
The reason was simple. With even a little document tampering, it was very easy to reduce reported sales.
Even merchants in the Edo shogunate, whose domestic commerce alone was larger than that of the Western great powers, paid taxes that were tiny compared to what they earned.
The daimyō supposedly squeezed money out of them like taxes by forcing 'interest-free, no-repayment' loans on them.
Joseon’s ability to manage merchants is worse than the Edo shogunate’s, so I never expected merchants to pay proper taxes out of the money they made from trade.
"If you’re making your living in Joseon, it’s only right that you pay taxes. If we trade freely without paying them, who would think well of merchants like us?"
...... What is this guy? Is he a loyal subject? Since the king is Sejong the Great, maybe this gentleman could one day become like Jang Yeong-sil.
Jang Yeong-sil swings the hammer, and this gentleman bangs away on an abacus beside him.
"So in order to expand business in the future, I want to show that merchants also benefit the country by paying taxes."
"What made you think that way?"
"At first, when I came to the dongheon (the office where the magistrate works), I intended to ask for help so that, in exchange for paying taxes, this Jinhae market would not be shut down even if another magistrate came. But since you harbor such a grand vision, I too wish to serve your lofty purpose, just as Mi Zhu of Xuzhou aided Emperor Zhaolie (Liu Bei)..."
...... What I meant was, ‘If this doesn’t work, I’ll retire to the countryside. In fact, I’d prefer that.’ But this man is so earnest and upright that he seems to have misunderstood me...
"Even if I put my ideals into practice, that won’t necessarily make you any richer."
"I am convinced, Magistrate, that you will one day become a great pillar of the nation. Then, following you, would I not be able to become a great merchant as well?"
A grin appeared on Kim Man-deok’s face. Not quite sinister, but the capitalist grin of a man steeped in greed.
"...... If you only give your permission, Magistrate, I will make sure the merchants of Jinhae County are kept in line and don’t pull any nonsense."
A merchant who even volunteered to pay taxes and live like a proper human being, no less.
Of course I can trust him. If I couldn’t, that would be the strange thing.
"So be it."