He Became King Sejong’s Lifelong Prime Minister - Chapter 16

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

Great Cleanup (5)

There’s something that investment-obsessed people always say.

That money will just rot if you keep it sitting in a bank account.

When you think about it, that’s not entirely wrong either.

In the 1980s, you could buy a 51-pyeong apartment in Apgujeong with 100 million won, but now you can’t even buy a studio apartment in Apgujeong with that money.

That doesn’t mean you should spend money recklessly though.

If you’re too extreme about saving and only focus on accumulating money, the value of money declines with the passage of time and you end up losing out, so you need to spend it appropriately.

In this same context, the taxes (rice) that the yangban voluntarily paid out of patriotic loyalty will just rot away if left piled up in the government office warehouse.

“Public works supervisor, are there any suitable places in our county to build a reservoir?”

“As far as I know, there are about 6 places including Dongcheon, Seosacheon, and Dudong. We could probably find more if we look.”

“I see.”

If I had my way, I’d want to build reservoirs at all 6 of those locations.

Just building reservoirs can reduce damage from droughts, and simply opening up water channels can greatly increase the amount of land that can be cultivated.

The livelihoods of the county’s common people would become much better than now.

Rice becomes unpalatable old rice after being stored for a year, and after 3 years it’s likely to all rot away.

So for increasing the county’s revenue as well, it’s beneficial to invest in necessary places.

“Then among those, which place has a lot of land around it that’s easy to cultivate, and where would be good for irrigating fields?”

“Dongcheon and Seosacheon. Especially Dongcheon has a fairly deep river and it’s also long, so there’s plenty of water.”

“We should build a reservoir at Dongcheon and create new waterways.”

“Since the Magistrate began collecting taxes from merchants, the taxes collected from common people have decreased, making their lives more bearable. Even so, building a reservoir requires an extraordinary amount of labor.”

Civil engineering work, especially building reservoirs, requires as much labor as building fortress walls.

Moreover, in Joseon, especially early Joseon, building reservoirs and fortress walls was done through ‘corvée labor’ – that is, procuring labor through unpaid slave work. This was an evil practice that drastically lowered the quality of life for common people.

During the Japanese invasions, when King Seonjo said to build more fortresses because the Japanese seemed likely to invade, the ministers stepped forward and said that even though war seemed likely, the people were suffering so they should rest for now – and they weren’t wrong to say that.

But the reason common people find corvée labor painful is because they’re forced into unpaid slave labor.

So if we provide fair compensation appropriate for the work, I don’t think there would be anyone who would particularly dislike it.

“If we pay them wages, that work won’t just be hard labor. Rather, wouldn’t they be pleased?”

“How do you mean to pay them wages, sir?”

“I’m thinking of reducing the relief grain that the common people borrowed in proportion to the days they work for me during the off-season. Going further, for those who are truly so poor they can’t even put food in their mouths, if they complete a certain number of work days regardless of farming season or busy season, there’s also the method of completely forgiving their relief grain debt. If we want to do even more, it would be good to consider actually paying wages.”

The relief grain system of lending grain to the poor in spring or summer and getting it back when they harvest in autumn still doesn’t have major problems yet.

It rotted away after those ‘interest-charging’ schemes like two-part collection records, three-part collection records, and work document fees came about.

There aren’t yet cases where relief grain becomes forced loans even when I didn’t request them, and they take interest on top of the principal (rice in poor condition, mixed with stones and sand).

However, even loans where poor common people only need to repay the principal in autumn would be very burdensome to them.

So if I gather poor people who have no work during the off-season to do civil engineering projects and in return reduce their relief grain debt proportional to their work… no one would dislike that.

“Magistrate, at this rate the county warehouse will be completely empty.”

“Gongbang, it’s a problem that could be solved if the scholars of our village voluntarily pay a little more tax for the county’s sake.”

Even in the 21st century, they say the top 1% of people monopolize half the world’s wealth.

The scholars of our Jinhae County aren’t quite to that extent, but it’s true they possess enormous wealth.

But Joseon’s tax system is incredibly strange.

Even though the yangban have far more, most of the taxes collected come from the poor.

If the poor bear 40% of the tax burden, the reality is that yangban bear less than 10%.

This is why I threatened those scholar bastards to pay more money for everyone’s benefit.

“Furthermore, considering the taxes collected from merchants and the taxes collected from the market, building one or two reservoirs shouldn’t result in a deficit, right?”

“Your words are correct, Magistrate.”

“I won’t ask you fellows to bear the burden.”

At my words, Gongbang’s face suddenly brightened.

If I were the type of person who gets pleasure from using a county magistrate’s power (completely giving up on promotion) to squeeze the Local Clerks and yangban, I’d tell them to pay up if they don’t want their heads cracked.

I’m not the type of person who enjoys watching people suffer. Furthermore, if I burden even them, there might be some bad repercussions.

“Make sure to provide one meal to those who participate in the labor service. I’ll give you a generous budget, so handle it well.”

“Yes, Magistrate.”

Really, someday I need to completely overhaul Joseon’s tax system and introduce a salary system for clean government.

And officials should be given tremendously high salaries befitting their social responsibilities and status…

With reduced corruption, government budgets would be executed efficiently.

As soon as the craftsman left, another clerk entered and delivered a message.

“Magistrate, the merchant Kim Man-deok has come seeking an audience with you. Shall I send him away?”

“No. Let him in. I had something I wanted to ask him anyway, so this works out well.”

The clerk’s expression became strange upon hearing my words.

He must be wondering how to treat a merchant whom I personally said I would seek advice from.

With this, his social status will rise incomparably compared to before.

Now even the yangban won’t be able to abuse their power against Kim Man-deok without reason.

“… Yes, Magistrate.”

As soon as the clerk withdrew, Kim Man-deok entered immediately.

Upon seeing me, he immediately presented several thick account books.

“This is my sincere offering to you, Magistrate.”

“What exactly is this?”

“These are account books recording all my assets without hiding even a single grain of rice. I thoroughly inspected and recorded especially important items for taxation like the number of fishing boats and persimmon trees.”

In Joseon, gifts usually consisted of extremely expensive specialties, delicacies from land and sea, precious metals, rice, or silk.

However, Kim Man-deok had never once given me such things.

When told to pay taxes, he paid taxes, and when I requested something, he simply responded with sincerity.

Honestly, the matter of collecting taxes from merchants in the market proportional to their sales would have faced tremendous difficulties if he hadn’t taken the lead and cooperated.

That’s why I tried to show my trust in him by assigning him the role of spreading word about creating the merit stele.

“In all my life, you’re the first merchant who voluntarily tries to pay taxes honestly. Thanks to you, I’ve received great help in creating the market.”

“I’m prepared to follow you with the resolve to at least pretend to die if you ordered me to die, Magistrate.”

“But there’s one thing that worries me.”

“What might that be?”

“If you follow me this actively, won’t the other merchants in Jinhae County leave you alone?”

I’m saying this because I’m genuinely worried about this man.

Even among young elementary school students, they ostracize kids who tattle on their friends for doing wrong.

As adults, we come to realize that ‘ostracism’ might not be such a big deal, but for children of that age, ostracism is tremendous violence.

When children are in elementary, middle, and high school, during times when they need identity formation, career planning, or advice counseling in some sense, they value peer friends even more than ‘parents’. If this relationship goes awry, it’s said that expecting normal growth can become difficult.

Companies and society have similar patterns. The reason they give tens of billions of won in reward money for reporting major public interest corruption is because of this.

Kim Man-deok cooperating with paying taxes at the market, actively assisting with taxing merchants’ assets – all of this is work he’s doing by risking his own life.

He grinned after hearing my words.

“A merchant, if necessary, will put even his own life on the scales to make a deal. I am certain that you, Magistrate, are someone who will rise to become one of the three highest ministers.”

“I’m not such a great person.”

“Even though it’s been barely half a year since you took office, it’s hard to find precedent anywhere in history, east or west, for someone who has so dramatically changed the lives of the common people. Moreover, there is no one besides you, Magistrate, who has risked their official position to open a market so that merchants could do business. Therefore, I am certain that you will spread your aspirations high like a great bird, a roc that harbors great ambitions and soars into the sky.”

“You think following me will be profitable, is that it?”

“Even a mere head servant’s status changes depending on whom he serves. A head servant serving the Chief State Councilor is only recorded as a slave in the slave document, but he receives gifts from the countless officials who visit the Chief State Councilor… Even officials with court ranks cannot treat him carelessly. They don’t know what kind of scolding the Chief Councilor might give if they treat him wrongly.”

Those words are correct. Not all slaves of noble houses are successful like employees of large corporations, but when you become the head among slaves, you gain a certain amount of power.

To put it extremely, eunuchs are nothing more than ‘slaves who serve the king closely’. When it comes to senior eunuchs, even the Chief State Councilor sometimes struggles before them.

“If I follow you, Magistrate, couldn’t I also become a great merchant? Later, just having received your protection might make it so that even a new magistrate coming to Jinhae County won’t be able to treat me carelessly.”

“… Other fellows offer bribes of rice, silk, gold, or silver. But you have been continuously offering your life as a bribe to me.”

“Do you dislike it?”

Absolutely not, not at all. Thanks to that fellow offering his life to me, I was able to proceed with county reforms quickly.

And in the future, Kim Man-deok’s strength and wisdom will be tremendously helpful in carrying out my aspirations.

But why would I reject his devotion? I just need to repay him as much as he has devoted himself.

“… This Magistrate’s schedule is free today. And I happen to have something I’d like to ask of you specifically. So I’d like to be treated to a drink at your house.”

“It’s an honor, Magistrate.”

**

As soon as we arrived at Kim Man-deok’s house, he ordered a tea table to be brought out.

Since it’s human nature to offer something to drink when someone comes over, I thought nothing of it.

My eyes naturally went to the woman who had brought it.

“It is an honor to meet the Magistrate of such high virtue and learning. This humble girl is called Kim Gyeoul.”

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