Chapter 95
I had only gone to the Ministry of Taxation.
It wasn't as if I'd gone there to do anything bad.
I had merely gone to ask the Minister of Taxation for a little more budget.
Jo Gye-saeng, the Minister of Taxation, looked at me and grumbled with a sour expression, as if he found me thoroughly unpleasant.
"His Majesty said to specially allocate a large budget to the Bureau of Warships, so I scraped together nonexistent funds and assigned 5,000 seom of white rice. That's half of the Military Equipment Bureau, half."
"How could I not know of your consideration, my lord? As the head of the Bureau of Warships, I am always grateful to you."
"Your tongue flows as smoothly as water. Still, thanks to you, Joseon's finances have become plentiful. The court's revenue has tripled compared to before. When converted to white rice, that's 600,000 seom. But as revenue increased, didn't the places where the court has to spend money also increase greatly?"
"I know that very well."
Right now in Joseon, even in provincial towns of mok rank or higher, they are collecting feces and urine to make gunpowder.
The residue left after making the gunpowder is mixed with straw and the like to make compost, which is then distributed to the farmers.
In addition, county magistrates personally go around the villages and thoroughly manage filth, even smashing toilets near wells.
On top of that, a fair amount of budget is also going into maintaining and expanding the markets established in each county nationwide.
We're also hiring officials to manage and supervise commerce like crazy.
"His Majesty recently noticed how often the Hojo has been working late into the night and said it was because the number of officials was too small for the amount of work assigned, so he ordered civil-service examinations to be held every year for the next five years. He said to select 100 men each year from the secondary civil-service examination."
"That means 100 more officials are added every year."
"So I asked to have that raised to 150, since even if I assigned them all to the Hojo, it still wouldn't be enough. I got special approval. Their stipends won't be small either."
"Isn't it an investment necessary for Joseon?"
"That's why I don't go out of my way to come find you and chew you out for why you've increased spending so much. Look at the faces of the Hojo officials now—can you see how exhausted they are?"
After hearing the Minister of Taxation's words, I turned my head and studied the Hojo officials' faces.
Everyone's eyes were sunken, with dark circles beneath them.
These days in Joseon, His Majesty King Sejong has issued a ban on overtime, saying, "I can't work overtime myself, so why are you working overtime!" ...
Even if they went home on time whenever possible and got enough sleep, they still ended up looking like that.
Just how brutal must their work be to make them look like that?
"We're working this hard, and you come asking for more budget for the Bureau of Warships because there isn't enough for us—haven't you thought that's a bit much?"
Jo Gye-saeng let out a long sigh.
"...It's not someone else, and Kim Jegeom isn't the type to ask for more budget just to waste money on nonsense, so I'll try to raise the funds somehow. Fine, where and how much do you think you need?"
In dramas, there's sometimes a scene where a section chief throws documents at a subordinate's face after the subordinate makes a reasonable request and yells that they're getting above themselves.
But that's just a scene that works in dramas; in real life, you should never do that.
Even if, objectively, the subordinate really did make a huge mistake, if you got angry like that, they could hold a grudge and report you for workplace bullying.
So the way Jo Gye-saeng just used was better: say the other person is right, but given the current situation it's hard to accept their request, and politely refuse.
And if you add a line that suggests you're listening carefully and will accept their opinion as much as possible.
It'll become nearly impossible to argue back after hearing that much.
At least in ordinary situations.
"There are 47 shipwrights that Hwang Bubongsa brought back from Ming China. To provide them with even the bare minimum of food, clothing, and shelter, we need 800 seom of white rice."
"No matter how valuable their skills are, they're still craftsmen, aren't they? It seems like too much..."
"Other craftsmen are only mobilized for corvée duty for two or three months a year, so for the remaining nine months they can somehow make a living on their own. But the craftsmen at the Bureau of Warships work year-round, so we need to make sure they can live without trouble on their salaries alone."
"If it were up to me, I'd want to give them 800 seom, even 1,000 seom. But the court budget doesn't have that much room right now. So for now, let's give them only 400 seom, and next year I'll somehow raise it to 600 seom."
Money is limited, but there are countless places to spend it.
But if you don't spend money properly when you need to, you'll miss the chance to make big money.
"Minister, Joseon needs a lot of ships right now, anyway."
"'Anyway'? That's unlike you. Why use such a half-hearted word?"
"As markets spring up across the country and commerce develops, the production and trade of local specialties will increase dramatically. Then, rather than keeping those goods limited to their own county, more and more people will want to expand into other regions and sell them—for the sake of getting rich."
As I spoke, a smile appeared on Jo Gye-saeng's face.
As local markets spread nationwide, the taxes paid by the merchants doing business there came to make up a large part of the Joseon court's budget.
But if those merchants expanded their businesses even further and operated nationwide, their income would increase even more, and so would the amount of tax collected.
"Indeed. As you said, the Joseon of the future will need an unimaginable number of ships. But the ships the Bureau of Warships is trying to build are, after all, military vessels, aren't they? And operating and maintaining them will require an enormous amount of money as well. We should build the warships while considering each naval district's circumstances. Then let's see... about 2,000 seom of white rice for shipbuilding..."
2,000 seom of white rice is roughly the cost of building six panokseons.
That is, excluding the cost of the weapons that have to be mounted inside.
A bokseon would cost a little less than that.
Still, 2,000 seom of white rice isn't enough to build all the ships Joseon needs.
"Minister, you need to give me at least 15,000 seom of white rice."
Jo Gye-saeng simply froze in place when he heard my words.
He seemed dumbfounded.
"Although all the ships built by the Bureau of Warships will be used as warships, I have no intention of merely tying them to the naval stations. I intend to use them for tax-grain transport."
"Tax-grain transport? You mean using them to haul tax grain? Yes, that is certainly necessary if the Bang-won Law is to be properly implemented."
"What if we use them both to transport the tax grain collected under the Bang-won Law and to carry goods and people that merchants want moved, charging a fee for it?"
"You want warships to be used by civilians? No matter what you say, I can't exactly take that kindly..."
I had no intention of lending out the warships outright.
Building one ship costs more than 300 seom of white rice.
For that money, you could buy a tiled-roof house in Hanyang bigger than 100 pyeong.
A ship is the kind of thing someone could just sail away with if you lent out the whole vessel, so why would I be crazy enough to make such a suggestion?
"The fee would be charged for transporting goods and people, but of course the navy would operate the ships. This way, each naval district could earn not only the money needed to operate and maintain the warships, but also a huge amount of revenue. It would also help make up for the Joseon navy's lack of sailing experience."
"If warships were used like merchant ships, there would be those advantages."
"This would also greatly reduce the budget that the Hojo has to give each naval district."
In modern 21st-century countries, it is taken for granted that soldiers only do work and training within the military...
But in premodern states, armies were basically the sort of people who did anything and everything to secure the money they needed.
In the case of the Training Bureau, they ran printing and publishing businesses, and they even operated minting businesses to make money.
They also carried out abusive forced sales, such as forcing commoners to buy 1,000-won anchovies for 10,000 won, under something called mupan.
The Joseon military is probably producing salt and cultivating local specialties to secure its own budget as well...
Rather than that, it would be far better to let the ships belonging to the navy be used like merchant vessels so they can earn money and build up sailing experience.
In countries like the United States, they even treat those people as officers serving on merchant ships, and legally designate the places that train merchant marine officers as "academies"...
'Not doing so would be foolish.'
"Long term, it saves on naval expenses and greatly helps Joseon's development. How could that not be good?"
"...Very well. I'll give you 11,000 seom. Truly, I can't give you any more than that."
"Thank you, Minister."
Jo Gye-saeng sighed, pressing a hand to his forehead.
"I can't give you any more this year, so if you need more money, use your family's wealth to make up the difference. If you come asking for money again next time, I'll throw salt at you."
I had a rough grasp of Hojo's financial situation, which was why I asked for this amount.
I figured I could somehow get up to 10,000 seom, which was why I made the request.
If I knew there really wasn't anywhere left to get money from, I wouldn't have come here. Throwing a fit and demanding the impossible is just being a nuisance.
"If more money is needed next time, then I will submit a memorial to His Majesty."
Jo Gye-saeng blinked when he heard my words.
"To widely implement the Bang-won Law and benefit the people, a great many ships are needed. But if they aren't properly produced, it will greatly hinder His Majesty's ability to care for the people. As a subject, how could I simply stand by and watch such a tragic thing?"
If Joseon's logistics improve, the common people's livelihoods will become much easier.
And until now, poor commoners had no choice but to farm as tenant farmers, paying 50 percent of the harvest in rent while forcing themselves to plow the fields...
But what if they were given the option to work at merchant guilds or in workshops?
The number of tenant farmers needed would stay the same as before, but the people's options would increase...
So even the yangban would lower the rent rather than let their land sit idle.
Just like how the treatment of serfs in Western Europe improved dramatically after the Black Death swept through the Middle Ages.
"I will ask for funds from the royal privy treasury."
After saying that, I left the Ministry of Taxation.
Now that I'd secured the money, all that was left was to settle the Ming artisans in Joseon, and then we could begin soon.