He Became King Sejong’s Lifelong Prime Minister - Chapter 128

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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King Sejong’s Enlightenment (3)

King Sejong looked at me and smiled.

It looked exactly like the smile Professor would make when he had bad thoughts about his students.

Feeling afraid, I wanted to shout ‘No! I don’t want to! Please don’t!’ but…

I couldn’t do that to the king, so I held back.

“What Scribe Kim said was very good, but there are a few concerning parts I wish to ask about separately.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“You said that when commerce expands, there will be more workshops and the number of craftsmen will increase, and as trading companies multiply, those working as laborers will also increase. As commerce develops, there will be more jobs, so except for those among the common people who have no will to work, everyone will be able to find employment. Therefore, those who obtain jobs will earn a steady income and escape from hunger and poverty… but no matter how much I think about it, there’s one thing I cannot accept.”

“What is it?”

“Among the yangban landlords, there are those who demand 60% or even 70% of the harvest as tenant fees from their tenant farmers. They also mobilize tenant farmers for various menial tasks as if they were their own household servants, and don’t hesitate to beat them when displeased. Even though the county is filled with resentment, they don’t even care – such tyrannical people exist. On the other hand, there are other yangban landlords who take only 50% as tenant fees and neither assign menial tasks to tenant farmers nor beat them. I heard that a major reason they act this way is because they fear their ‘reputation in the county’ might fall.”

Listening to King Sejong’s words, I got goosebumps.

I was amazed by King Sejong’s insight.

In reality, after the Industrial Revolution began, workers’ lives fell to the bottom of hell, and wages plummeted endlessly.

The reason was extremely simple.

In times when it was natural for most people to live as serfs or tenant farmers, lords and landlords were also people from that neighborhood, so if their reputation became too bad, they could be stabbed to death with pitchforks at any time, making some degree of restraint absolutely necessary.

However, factory owners could use workers from various regions like replaceable parts, so they could work laborers to death without caring about reputation.

With 120-hour work weeks, making them sleep hanging from ropes, and whether their fingers were cut off or their jaws melted away or they caught all kinds of diseases from work, they wouldn’t pay a single penny for medical expenses.

They would ruthlessly fire workers just for getting sick.

Factory owners and capitalists, unlike nobles, were people completely unaffected by ‘the common people’s evaluation,’ and since everyone was doing the same thing, they had no sense of problem with it.

“Given merchants’ nature of pursuing profit, they will focus only on making and selling goods cheaply and in large quantities, so they will not hesitate at all to exploit and abuse the workers they employ.”

“Yes, they will certainly do so.”

“… Then from the common people’s perspective, wouldn’t commercial development be worse than not developing at all?”

“That is why the Royal Court must strictly monitor those engaged in commerce to prevent such atrocities. Furthermore, we must establish minimum wages that allow people to live without starving, requiring all employers to pay above that amount, and if anyone abuses workers, we must punish them severely to prevent such incidents from recurring.”

Merchants are people who will do anything to make money.

Because they are blinded by the desire to make money, thousands and tens of thousands could embark on projects like pioneering Indian sea routes where returning alive would be a miracle.

Moreover, if they had no goods to offer for trade, they would resort to making marine infantry, no wait, pirate curry instead.

“In the end, you’re saying the Royal Court must step forward to educate the merchants.”

King Sejong looked at me with an extremely sticky gaze.

“Retired King told me he heard you say this: ‘Precious items are expensive because their quantity is small, but if commerce becomes active, merchants seeking profit will make and sell many precious items, so they will eventually become common and available at cheap prices.’ Do you remember saying such words?”

“I certainly said exactly that.”

“Keeping those words in mind, I listened to your words at the royal lecture and thought deeply. This thought occurred to me. The reason yangban landlords can set high tenant fees is because there are so many people wanting to become tenant farmers that they’re tripping over each other. There are many who want to become tenant farmers, but the land available for tenant farming is insufficient, so they charge high tenant fees.”

This is exactly why skilled labor costs more in wages.

Learning advanced skills is extremely difficult, so there are already few proper technicians, but demand is ridiculously high, so employers have no choice but to pay expensive money to bring in those with advanced skills.

That’s why I heard that Americans are surprisingly crazy about sushi, but since there are almost no proper sushi chefs in America, they bring over Japanese chefs who can’t speak a word of English at high salaries.

A sushi chef who couldn’t even earn around 30 million won annually in Japan goes to America and magically becomes worth 100 million won annually – this often happens.

“In the past when agriculture was the only way to make a living, all Common People who didn’t have their own land had to become tenant farmers. But as commerce develops and more people engage in trade, they will need many craftsmen and workers. Then Common People who have choices other than tenant farming will scatter in all directions, some going to merchant groups and others to workshops seeking jobs.”

“Yes, that’s right. The development of commerce will give Common People freedom in choosing their occupations.”

“While choosing occupations becomes free, the land owned by yangban and the wealthy will remain the same. Then landlords will try to find people to cultivate their land even by lowering tenant fees. Leaving land idle would be a loss that landlords must bear entirely. Merchants, for their part, won’t be able to operate their merchant groups if workers are stolen by landlords, so they’ll try to hold onto workers even by raising wages. If such competition really occurs, the lives of Common People will become very prosperous.”

Something I learned while studying before – the origin of the five-day work week is said to be Henry Ford, America’s automobile king.

This gentleman obviously didn’t introduce the five-day work week out of pity for poor workers.

Factory work in America at that time was usually done on a temporary basis like convenience store part-timers, and due to such circumstances, labor supply was unstable and securing skilled workers was also extremely difficult.

So to secure skilled workers, he paid daily wages five times higher than other factories while introducing a 40-hour work week to encourage skilled technicians to put down roots at the factory.

‘Thanks to that, American workers’ wages shot up significantly.’

Additionally, America’s industrial productivity also improved dramatically.

But there’s one thing King Sejong is missing here.

“It will certainly happen that way. However, I have one bigger goal. That is to lower the price of farmland.”

“Lowering land prices? What on earth do you mean by that?”

“Your Majesty, the value of all goods is determined by the demand from those who want those goods and the supply representing the amount produced. To explain simply, rice prices can jump up to five times during bad harvest years. The reason is that the number of people who must buy rice to eat is the same as in normal years, but the harvest is tremendously reduced, so the amount of rice put on the Market is severely decreased. As a result, those who must buy rice don’t hesitate to pay high prices to buy the rice they need.”

The reason I could make a fortune by building Chinese Treasure Ships and releasing rice can also be explained by supply and demand.

Uiju has so many tigers that Tiger Skin prices are very cheap.

However, due to the cold weather, rice farming is extremely difficult, so Rice is precious.

In Uiju, rice is precious, but tiger hide is common.

“What does that have to do with land prices…”

King Sejong stopped mid-sentence as if he had realized something shocking, then froze in place.

Finally, you’ve opened your eyes!

Now let’s run together toward that path where all the common people of Joseon become landowners.

“The biggest reason landlords want to own rice paddies and fields is because they can collect tenant fees. However, if tenant fees decrease, their income from the same land will drop, so the yangban will have less reason to own land.”

“If income decreases, there will be less need to hold onto land like it’s gold or jade as they do now… Some will find it difficult to find tenant farmers and the tenant fees won’t be what they used to be, so they’ll put their land up for sale at relatively cheap prices. As more such people emerge, land prices overall will gradually decline.”

It’s similar to selling apartments in real estate.

They say that once a certain apartment in a specific neighborhood is traded at a price 300-400 million won lower than other places, it almost never returns to its previous price.

This is because apartment buyers don’t understand why they should pay a high price when apartments have already been sold at lower prices, so they refuse to buy.

“This is only the beginning.”

From what I’ve heard, Joseon merchants are actively engaging in smuggling in the Gangnam region.

Going further from here, Joseon merchants will go to Taiwan, the Philippines, and other Southeast Asian countries as well.

Once these sea routes are pioneered and trade flows are established, I plan to introduce ‘stocks’ into the mix.

Then countless yangban and wealthy merchants will say, “It’s already hard to find tenant farmers and tenant fees keep dropping, so what’s the point of holding onto that land?”

They’ll sell their land and use that money to buy stocks.

Some will lose everything, while others will hit the jackpot and achieve their dreams of instant wealth.

In this process of investment to make big money, the land that gets sold will go to common people who need farming land at cheap prices.

“Mencius said that without a steady income, it’s difficult for people to maintain even the conscience they should uphold as human beings. However, conversely, this also means that if all common people have a steady income, they will uphold their duties as human beings. To uphold one’s duties as a human being, one must fundamentally learn and understand human morality. To understand, I believe all people have a ‘duty to learn.'”

“Those words are right. Those words are truly right.”

King Sejong gripped my hand tightly.

I heard his physical strength had improved tremendously since he started exercising recently, and my trapped hand screamed in pain.

His grip strength was so incredible that I would have shaken his hand off if he weren’t the king.

A Gyeomsabok military officer who was close to him had once jokingly said that with King Sejong’s martial arts skills improving day by day, wouldn’t His Majesty be able to beat down one or two assassins by himself…

‘He really would catch those assassin scoundrels.’

“Your Majesty should only seek methods that the common people can easily learn. Then this subject will add his meager strength to help achieve Your Majesty’s great will.”

After saying that much, I hurried my steps toward home.

If King Sejong, who had fallen into emotion and admiration, gained enlightenment and grabbed hold of me.

I would likely spend passionate time (academic discussions) at Gyeongbok Palace until dawn tomorrow.

Royal lectures, when you think about it, are basically overtime work…

I need to escape as quickly as possible.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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