He Became King Sejong’s Lifelong Prime Minister - Chapter 6

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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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Normalization of Public Tribute (3)

Trade makes everyone wealthy.

Let’s say there’s a county good for rice farming, and another county where iron is abundant everywhere.

Even if there are many plains good for rice farming, without farming tools to cultivate the fields, they might make farming tools out of stone… but it would be difficult to expect a proper harvest with those.

Conversely, even if there’s plenty of iron to make good farming tools, people can’t eat iron, so they’d inevitably end up starving to death.

But what if the county abundant in iron makes farming tools, and the county good for rice farming uses those farming tools to farm and gives rice in return?

The rice harvest in the county good for farming would increase several times over, allowing people in both counties to live abundantly.

The same goes for specialty products offered as public tribute. If you force people who farm rice to obtain specialty products, it becomes a living hell, but if you give specialty products in exchange for a reasonable amount of rice…?

Everyone gets to eat rice, dried persimmons, and anchovies.

What if this is expanded not just to the county level, but to the scale of the Eight Provinces of Joseon?

Our county would certainly become wealthy.

“For now, you should increase the anchovy fishing boats and expand the land for planting persimmons.”

“Other magistrates say we should minimize commerce, reduce fishing boats, and warn against growing too much fruit unnecessarily, saying it would lead people to indulge in the luxury of eating fruit…”

“Rice is more expensive than barley because it’s somewhat harder to harvest. Fruit is expensive, and anchovies are expensive ultimately because the annual yield is small.”

At a mart, you can buy 1kg of shiitake mushrooms for around 10,000 won.

In contrast, in Joseon, to buy 1kg of shiitake mushrooms, it would be difficult to obtain even if you gave five or six sacks of rice.

Could it be that Joseon’s shiitake mushrooms taste better than Korea’s shiitake mushrooms and have ridiculously superior effects?

Of course not. It’s because Joseon lacks the technology for artificial cultivation of shiitake mushrooms, resulting in low yields.

Why are persimmons expensive? Because they pressure people not to indulge in the luxury of planting fruit trees and to focus only on rice and barley farming. Anchovies are roughly similar.

Joseon is a country with a strong tendency to force everyone to live frugally, and because of that, instead of thinking about how to make expensive goods cheaper…

It’s a country that says just don’t make them if you don’t need to use them.

“His Majesty wants the people to eat many delicious things. Eat persimmons, eat anchovies, and if possible, eat meat regularly every few days. To do that, people like you need to expand your business so that people can buy dried persimmons and anchovies at cheaper prices, don’t you think?”

This is natural in Korea, but in Joseon, this very concept is abnormal.

Forget everything else—until before the 16th century, whenever government officials in Joseon saw a ‘naturally formed market,’ they were busy suppressing and cracking down on it unconditionally.

So when the Magistrate, who should have been a Neo-Confucian traditionalist, thought of them merchants in this way, they wore expressions of complete bewilderment.

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“Therefore, as long as This Magistrate serves as the Magistrate of Jinhae County, if you don’t break the national laws by cheating on the taxes you must pay, there will be no reason for you to face persecution. The bigger your business grows, and the easier it becomes to obtain dried persimmons, anchovies, and paulownia wood crafts, the lighter the people’s tribute burden will become.”

“We are deeply grateful.”

Other magistrates would have ignored and intimidated these merchant fellows, and if they dared to talk back, would have scolded them for being arrogant despite being mere traders.

But I had directly told them I would support their business growth.

They would try to offer me ‘a certain amount of gifts’ even without me giving them any hints.

Just like how chairmen of large corporations and small-to-medium enterprises give plenty of holiday gifts to National Assembly members.

Someone might look at me like this and say it’s contradictory.

If I purely considered only the people’s position and tried to lower taxes… could I guarantee those guys their previous supply prices?

I really have no intention of staying in government service for long, but while I live as an official, I too must fill my back pocket to survive.

Otherwise, I can’t survive in Joseon’s damned holiday gift culture.

Just next year alone, people from all around will pressure me to give out holiday gifts as the newly appointed Magistrate of Jinhae.

Even aside from that, can’t I become rich?

“And I will also change the standards for imposing taxes from before. Previously, the clerks arbitrarily estimated how much money you might have and imposed taxes accordingly, collecting things like stall fees. But now I will assess the number of persimmon trees and the number of fishing boats catching anchovies, and impose taxes proportional to those numbers.”

Even with this decision, these fellows would try any trick they could to reduce their taxes.

Since the number of ships is obvious and they can’t reduce that, they might lie about their ‘catch volume.’

Or if there are 10,000 persimmon trees in the orchard, they might secretly hide about 1,000 trees within a range where we wouldn’t notice.

Even chaebol chairmen don’t want to pay taxes, so they gift buildings to their 3-year-old children and such.

Those fellows are also the wealthy elite of this county who need envy no one in terms of riches, so of course they’d do the same.

“Magistrate, if you suddenly change the tax system like that, it will be difficult for us to manage.”

“I will ensure that corrupt clerks don’t visit you to oppress you or collect money and goods under pretenses like stall fees. Then in the long run, it will benefit you, not harm you.”

The clerks don’t know how much money those guys make.

However, Joseon has created a strange tax system where there are ‘taxes paid to the central government,’ but they don’t calculate taxes for operating local government offices at all.

The clerks also need to make a living from their work, maintain their dignity, and even prepare holiday gifts for the Magistrate’s salary, so who are they going to squeeze? They squeeze the merchants and farmers.

This isn’t the period of the Three Administrations’ corruption yet, but merchants have probably been extorted of 30% to 50% of their annual income by those wicked clerks. All while enduring oppression and contempt.

“And the reason This Magistrate forgives you and doesn’t investigate your crimes isn’t because you’re good, law-abiding citizens. Didn’t you also inflate the prices a bit when handing over tribute goods to those monks over there?”

“Yes…”

“If you don’t like it, you can die. What will you do?”

“We will pay our taxes properly.”

“Good. Also, expand the persimmon orchards and gather sailors for the anchovy fishing boats, focusing on those who have no work in this county. And don’t set their wages ridiculously low. Otherwise, I’ll have no choice but to practice my ‘spirit of loving the people’ as a local administrator.”

I’m warning them that if they want to expand their business and get rich, they should listen to me well and treat the people well.

Otherwise, they’ll become subjects of my loving-the-people spirit experiment.

No wait, since Lee Bang-won of the Iron Mace is still alive, those bastards might get their heads cracked open and die in Hanyang.

“We will do as the Magistrate says.”

After finishing the conversation with them, I had an appropriate discussion with the clerks and decided to return only half of the 4,700 seom of white rice we recovered from the monks to the people.

One clerk who hadn’t come to his senses suggested that we divide the remaining 2,350 seom of white rice among ourselves.

Even though I live in a world where you die if you don’t collect taxes and line your own pockets, I had no intention of touching that, so I gave him a minor warning.

The guy who received the minor warning came to work the next day with both eyes turned purple, courtesy of the other clerks.

“The people will get 2,350 seom back, so they’ll be incredibly happy.”

So what am I going to do with the white rice I kept? I’m going to use it for something really good.

**

Someone once compared Joseon’s magistrates like this.

They said a magistrate is like being a city’s police chief, court judge, and mayor all at once.

Even one of these positions would wear you out, but handling three of them leaves no energy left.

But just because the weight on my shoulders is heavy, should I half-heartedly handle the work King Sejong entrusted to me?

Would Heo Jo and Hwang Hee, who are eagerly waiting to instill the proper mindset that officials should have through hazing rituals (welcoming ceremonies for newcomers, festivals of all kinds of absurdities), just leave me alone?

I’ll face absurdities that would make two years of military service look like heaven.

“Magistrate, everything is ready.”

Today is that day. The day to give harsh training to those corrupt monks who embezzled through tax farming.

Those bastards gave me a headache, so they’ll have to pay the price with the beating stick.

“I am the newly appointed magistrate of this county. I will govern this county fairly and ensure His Majesty’s teachings reach you all. Therefore, today I will punish the criminals who have been tormenting you.”

The county people gasped in shock when they saw the face of the criminal who appeared.

“Wait, isn’t that the Seongheungsa Head Monk?”

“Why on earth have the monks become criminals?”

Regardless of early, middle, or late Joseon period, monks held a fairly decent position.

Since they were people who guaranteed the afterlife after death, even minister families secretly provided money and requested them to recite Buddhist scriptures.

It’s understandable they’d be dissatisfied seeing the respected monks in such a state.

“These corrupt monks here, including the head monk of Seongheungsa Temple, claimed they would pay your taxes to the nation on your behalf, and embezzled a whopping 4,700 seom worth of white rice. Because of this, your lives became difficult, so how could I not punish them?”

One seom of white rice, with a bit of exaggeration, could feed one adult man for about a year.

4,700 seom would be enough rice to feed 4,700 people for a year. Naturally, it’s an enormous amount.

“Therefore, This Magistrate will sentence these corrupt monks to 20 strokes of the beating stick, then send them to Hanyang to receive proper punishment.”

Once they go up to Hanyang, these bastards will definitely lose their heads.

Since these so-called monks should have known their limits, Heo Jo will make a fuss saying those bastards must be killed.

Lee Bang-won will get angry, saying he’ll deliver an iron mace shot to the heads of those who disrupted the people’s livelihood.

“Beat those bastards severely!”

The government office constables beat the criminals harshly.

Several of the corrupt monks lost consciousness after receiving all 20 strokes.

The people’s expressions were somewhat ambiguous. They deserved the beating, but they were still monks the people had respected.

This is exactly why I suggested we first decide how much white rice to give to the people.

If I return the rice to them here and now? I’ll become the hero who saved them from exploitation.

“People, go to the main gate in front of the Government Office. There, you will each be given half a sack of rice.”

“Half a sack of rice, you say?”

“This is returning what those bald monks sucked from your lifeblood. And from now on, the Government Office will purchase tribute goods directly from merchants. The taxes you must pay will also be reduced.”

When I finished speaking, cheers and shouts of joy erupted from everywhere.

“Long live! Long live His Majesty!”

“Long live the new Magistrate!”

“Thank you, Lord Magistrate!”

… Seeing this scene, I think I really did well to take the civil service examination.

Though I’ll pass on being worked to death by King Sejong.

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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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