Chapter 98
For a lowly Junior Fourth Rank Jegeom like me, the Pyeonjeon is terribly burdensome.
The moment I stepped into the Pyeonjeon, it felt as if gravity had suddenly increased nearly tenfold.
That must be because of the aura radiating from His Majesty King Sejong, the three chief ministers, the ministers of the Six Ministries, and the other exalted figures.
Inside, the ministers and His Majesty King Sejong were talking back and forth about what was right, what was not, and what was excessive...
None of that matters; I just want to go home quickly and watch winter.
And tomorrow, I'll have to feign being sick and take sick leave to rest.
In the midst of this, Yu Jo looked at me with sharp eyes like a hawk snatching at prey and asked me,
"Joseon, unlike the Ming, doesn't issue a maritime ban, forcibly relocate everyone living in coastal villages inland, or ban shipbuilding. We have no reason or need to do that. Besides, to widely implement the Bang-won Law, we need ships to carry tribute grain, so I agree with expanding the Shipbuilding Office. Even so, I think the expansion plan you proposed is too much. What do you think, Kim Jegeom?"
"This humble one thinks even this is insufficient."
In truth, even if we churned out 100 ships a year, it would still not be enough.
If Joseon's merchant ships were like 21st-century merchant vessels, able to carry tens of thousands of tons at once, making only a few a year would be enough.
But the bokseon built in Joseon now are small boats with a displacement of only around 400 tons...
To meet the nation's ship demand, even operating shipyards twice the size of the one I proposed would not be enough.
"I know well that you are not someone who speaks empty words, Kim Jegeom. But too much is as bad as too little; excess can be worse than doing nothing."
I was about to explain why, but before I could, Lee Cheon, the Minister of Public Works, stepped forward.
"Your Excellency's words make sense, but Joseon before the Bang-won Law and Joseon after it are completely different. It is not just the scale of taxes that has increased; the scale of commerce has grown absurdly large as well."
"Knowing that, I'm acknowledging the intent behind Kim Jegeom's proposal to greatly expand the shipyard. Isn't this something utterly unimaginable in the Joseon of old?"
In Pyeongan-do and Hamgyeong-do, tiger pelts and leather are extremely common, while rice is terribly scarce. So there, one tiger pelt trades for about two seom and five mal of white rice. This is because the northern cold makes rice farming impossible. In Hanyang, on the other hand, one tiger pelt trades for about ten seom of white rice, and in Jeolla-do for about thirteen seom, because tiger pelts are scarce and rice is plentiful. Looking at it that way, if we can make lots of ships and make it easy to exchange white rice and tiger pelts, then each region can make up for what it lacks with what the other has, which would benefit all the people.
"That's true, but..."
At this, Jo Mal-saeng, the Minister of War, who wanted to become one of the three chief ministers as soon as possible, stepped in.
"Kim Jegeom's memorial may seem a bit excessive, but no one knows the Bang-won Law better than Kim Jegeom. Moreover, he has helped with the overall work of all Six Ministries, and if we are talking about practical affairs of the court, isn't he someone who knows them better than anyone? And among all the things Kim Jegeom has argued for so far, when has he ever proposed anything that did not help Joseon's development?"
Jo Mal-saeng signaled to me with a glance.
He didn't say anything, but the meaning was clear.
'Come on, let's go to the State Council with me; I'll shove aside every last bastard who opposes me and get you appointed as a Senior Fourth Rank Sain.'
"Your Majesty, I think we should first proceed according to the memorial submitted by Kim Daebung, the Jegeom of the Shipbuilding Office."
"Proceed for now... so later you mean the scale should be expanded even further?"
"Yes, that's right. It is also what the Minister of Public Works said, and it is absolutely necessary for the true completion of the Bang-won Law, which carries the gracious intent of His Majesty the Grand Retired King."
Come to think of it, Vice State Councilor Lee Won, who had very little presence, had his corruption exposed and was ousted earlier than in the original history...
He'd definitely be elevated at the next round of appointments.
Please, let him be promoted before the Kim Doryeon incident breaks out.
If he can't get promoted now, he'll never make it to the Council of State for the rest of his life.
"I have a question for Kim Daebung, the Jegeom of the Shipbuilding Office."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"I do not doubt your loyal devotion to the king and country. So I trust that when you submitted this memorial, you did so with no selfish motives whatsoever, writing only for Joseon's sake. However, as the Minister of Rites said, I do wonder whether you are trying to move things too hastily."
Until I was appointed, the Shipbuilding Office built fewer than ten ships a year.
Even those ten were not just Joseon's largest daeseon, but also its smallest soseon and mid-sized jungseon.
Yet I was proposing we build about 50 bokseon in half a year, or 100 a year—vessels at least as large as a panokseon—so yes, it is a very abrupt expansion.
But this is something we must do because it is necessary.
"I understand what Your Majesty is worried about, but I believe that in the Joseon of the future, even making 100 ships a year will not be enough."
"What is the reason for that?"
"Right now, because the Bang-won Law has only just begun to take effect, even if production of specialty goods rises sharply, we are not yet at the point where those goods are rotting away in the local town itself... But according to my brother-in-law, who runs a trading company in Jinhae, the price of dried persimmons at the Jinhae market has fallen by about 20 percent from before. That happened because, although a lot of dried persimmons were produced, they couldn't send enough to other counties, so they were left over within Jinhae itself."
After the Bang-won Law was implemented, the people's lives became extremely prosperous.
And if new farming tools are also distributed, yields will increase greatly, but taxes won't rise. The income the people can actually use will increase even more.
Merchants, who are highly sensitive to the market and economic conditions, caught on to this change and increased specialty-goods production even more.
But the problem is that if dried persimmons, Jinhae County's specialty, are consumed only within Jinhae County and production keeps rising like crazy...
They'll become so common that locals will be treated like fools if they pay money to buy them, just like Jeju tangerines, which are so plentiful that people are looked down on for buying them, and the price of dried persimmons will crash to dirt-cheap levels.
"By the way, I hear the merchants in Jinhae County planted about 2,000 more persimmon trees this year. Dried persimmons are already piling up and prices are falling; if even more is produced going forward, what will become of all of it?"
"It will rot away like rice in a rich man's granary."
Sejong's brow furrowed.
In a modern society where food rots and some of it is naturally thrown away, one might consider such a phenomenon somewhat ordinary, but in Joseon, food going bad is unacceptable.
It is heartbreaking enough that children in Africa are starving, but when our own people are starving, how could we accept food rotting away somewhere else?
"However, if the dried persimmons left over in Jinhae are shipped by boat and sold in other regions, the people of all eight provinces will be able to eat dried persimmons."
In economics, there is a concept called absolute advantage.
Suppose City A can produce 150 bottles of wine and 60 sacks of wheat a year, while City B can produce 60 bottles of wine and 150 sacks of wheat.
If the two then exchange wheat and wine through commercial activity, so that City A focuses only on wine production and City B only on wheat production?
City A would then be able to produce 300 bottles of wine, and City B would be able to produce 300 sacks of wheat.
If you split that in half, both Cities A and B could end up with 150 bottles of wine and 150 sacks of wheat.
If this phenomenon spreads across Joseon as a whole, productivity will rise dramatically, and all the people will be able to enjoy the benefits.
"In the past, after paying taxes, the people had nothing left, so they rarely ate expensive foods like dried persimmons. But now that they have more leeway, they will seek out tasty foods like dried persimmons too. Then commerce will flourish greatly, and the court will be able to levy enormous taxes on merchants engaged in trade."
Even if absolute advantage exists, it's useless if the people's income, which makes up most consumption as Sejong said, does not increase.
To put it bluntly, if one person were to eat dried persimmons to his heart's content, how many could he possibly eat?
Even if people in the Joseon era were gluttons, they'd only manage about twenty at most.
But if the people's income rises and thousands upon thousands of people start looking for dried persimmons, then even if each person eats only one, thousands upon thousands will be needed.
Then people will emerge who make a living growing nothing but dried persimmons, and in the end everyone will be able to eat them at low prices.
"Yes. That is why this humble one plans to sell off everything except what is needed to get by day to day and a house, then place a shipbuilding order with the Shipbuilding Office."
At my words, all the ministers tilted their heads in confusion.
There was still one more to go.
"My father-in-law will also use all his disposable assets to build ships. This is because it is an undertaking for the sake of the country, while also one that can bring great profit."
I am, by Joseon standards, living as an incorruptible official.
But that doesn't mean I have any intention of refusing to make money using information I learned while serving in office.
If you're going to survive in Joseon, that's about the minimum you have to do.
I plan to build ships with the intention of taking a share of the specialty-goods cargo shipped to Hanyang.
Once people see me making a huge fortune from it, it's obvious they'll all rush to build ships too.
If a boom in sea transport takes hold, Joseon's economy will develop even further, so this is selfishness that truly benefits the country.
"Are you that certain?"
"I am convinced that before long, even in Hanyang people will easily be able to eat fish caught at sea while still fresh."
Come to think of it, they say the ice business is incredibly profitable.
If I can load preserved ice onto fishing boats in bulk, pack the caught fish with it, keep them cold during transport, and sell them, I could make a fortune.
Once they see me try it on a large scale and strike it rich, everyone else will copy it.
A 21st-century civil servant can't make money using information learned while performing official duties, but in Joseon, unless you're directly taking bribes and doing something wicked, it's actually encouraged...
'Self-interest that leads to national development.'
"For now, I understand."
Sejong brought the discussion to a close.
"As Kim Daebung said, build a shipyard in Incheon that can construct fifty ships in half a year. Then, after observing how it goes, if it is judged desirable, have similar shipyards built at the naval commands around the country."
And two months later, the first bokseon built by the Shipbuilding Office finally went into service.