Black Corporation: Joseon

Thus, Joseon entered a period of stagnation, rolling busily along in its own tranquility.

Many merchant ships were diligently traveling between Shandong in Ming and Jemulpo. In Dongnae, merchant ships were busily traveling to and from the Joseon trading posts in Tsushima Island and mainland Japan.

And from Mokpo, merchant ships were traveling to and from the territories of Ouchi and Gendojin (Shibukawa Mitsuyori). The ships coming from Ouchi were loaded with silver ore, while those from Gendojin’s territory were full of cotton.

Gendojin, who had attacked the Shoni clan in alliance with Ouchi, was able to recover his lost territory.

After recovering his territory, Gendojin began cultivating cotton, accepting Joseon’s proposal to cover the war expenses he had incurred and to secure funds to rebuild his territory.

And from this year, cotton in commercially significant quantities began to enter Joseon.

This cotton from Japan was transformed into plain cotton cloth through the hands of merchant groups in Joseon and was being sold not only to Ming, Jurchen, and Japan, but also as far as Arabia and Europe.

This became the occasion for the phrase “Florence’s wool, Joseon’s cotton” to be born in Europe.

***

In this process, Mokpo Naval Base began to develop from a simple naval port into a trading port.

Challenger-class warships regularly traveled between Alexandria and Mokpo, and merchant ships belonging to the Mansur merchant group also frequented busily.

Moreover, merchant ships from Ryukyu and Siam (Thailand), having heard the rumors, also visited Mokpo Naval Base.

In this process, the merchant ships from Siam, or more precisely, the Siamese Kingdom of Ayutthaya, stood out.

It was a country that had visited once during King Taejo’s era, but had not maintained diplomatic relations as it was thought there would be no particular benefit.

Thailand’s main products were raw logs and resin of sappanwood and agarwood.

Sappanwood was used as a raw material for red or purple dye, agarwood logs were used to make incense, and its resin was a material used in fragrances and medicines.

Until now, these were mainly obtained through intermediary trade via Ming merchants, but direct trade was established as Siam sent merchant ships directly.

These foreign merchant ships visiting Joseon were good prey for pirates. However, there were no pirates who dared to approach within two days’ distance from Joseon and Kyushu.

That inner area was the domain of the Haeung-class high-speed warships.

Therefore, pirates waited for opportunities on the outskirts of this domain. However, the captains operating the merchant ships were not to be underestimated.

They moved in sync with the departure times of Joseon’s Challenger-class ships.

As long as the Challenger-class warships were holding the line, pirates could not recklessly touch the merchant ships.

***

While Joseon’s West Sea and South Sea were bustling with activity, the East Sea region of Joseon was relatively quiet.

At Dongbinghang – the place that would have been called Vladivostok before Hyang’s intervention – Challenger-class warships and Haeung-class warships were being built using timber harvested from nearby coniferous forests.

The nearby conifers had hard and dense wood, making them optimal materials for shipbuilding.

Moreover, as most of them grew straight, they were also excellent as building materials.

Soon, the newly built Challenger-class and Haeung-class warships’ first mission became heading to Wonsan, fully loaded with timber.

In this process, Joseon recorded another ‘world first’.

-The first country in the world to start a ‘systematic’ afforestation project.

“Although the scale of those coniferous forests is enormous, if we log indiscriminately, we will soon see their end. Therefore, we must raise healthy saplings to fill the places where trees have been cut down. This is for our future generations, so it must never be done carelessly.”

Following King Sejong’s order – of course, with Hyang laying the groundwork – a systematic afforestation project was initiated.

It wasn’t that there were no afforestation projects before Sejong.

Efforts had been made to preserve forestry resources since the Three Kingdoms period. These were artificial afforestation areas called Imsu.

However, Sejong’s policy received the title of ‘world’s first’ because it was the first to publicly declare that its purpose was the preservation of resources.

***

Apart from the active movement between Dongbinghang and Wonsan, the East Sea had become quite quiet.

Other than Haeung-class warships patrolling up to the vicinity of Mureungdo (Ulleungdo) and Usando (Dokdo) to prevent the entry of Japanese fishermen or pirates, there was only the regular ship traveling to and from Daeseoldo (Hokkaido in the history before Hyang’s intervention).

Exploration of the north and east beyond that had been temporarily suspended due to manpower shortage.

“For now, let’s focus on fully incorporating Daeseoldo into Joseon’s territory.”

King Sejong concluded with a face full of regret, and there were no ministers opposing this.

***

There was considerable difficulty in naming Daeseoldo.

The first candidate name was ‘Apwaedo’ (Island Suppressing the Japanese), proposed by Heo Jo.

It was a name given with the meaning of ‘pressing down on the heads of the Japanese’, but soon other ministers expressed their disapproval.

“It’s a name that feels satisfying, but it’s problematic diplomatically. Let’s choose another name.”

“Do we have to consider the feelings of those Japanese bastards?”

“It’s because those bastards won’t just sit quietly!”

“Huh~. Now we even have to consider the feelings of those Japanese bastards!”

“We should teach them a lesson when the time comes, but let’s not give them an excuse!”

After such a heated debate, King Sejong made the decision.

“I don’t like the Japanese either, but there are many Japanese who maintain good relations with our Joseon, so I think it’s better to avoid too aggressive a name.”

Following Sejong’s decision, the island was named ‘Daeseoldo’ (Great Snow Island) as a kind of conciliatory measure.

***

To fully incorporate Daeseoldo into Joseon’s territory, what Joseon chose was the ‘government monopoly store’.

The Ainu people, the native inhabitants of Daeseoldo, were in a situation where everything was lacking.

Hunting, gathering, and primitive agriculture alone could not meet all their needs.

Therefore, the government monopoly store located in the Joseon residential area was a dream place for the Ainu people.

An official dispatched from Joseon told an Ainu who could communicate through writing about the conditions for using the government monopoly store.

-You can use it if you become a subject of Joseon.

-What does it mean to become a subject of Joseon?

-You need to obey the orders of His Majesty and follow Joseon’s laws.

-Are there any other conditions besides that?

-Customs that violate etiquette are prohibited.

-I will discuss this with my clan.

Through this process, a small number of Ainu gradually pledged allegiance to Joseon.

Ainu who pledged allegiance to Joseon were issued identity tags, and in this process, many laughable incidents occurred.

It was in the process of recording the names of the Ainu.

It was not an easy task to transcribe names created in the native Ainu language into Chinese characters phonetically.

***

In any case, the absorption of the Ainu through the medium of the government monopoly store proceeded smoothly.

This was because not only did the Ainu who had pledged allegiance suffer no particular harm, but other Ainu also began to pledge allegiance to Joseon after seeing them freely use the government monopoly store.

Hyang, who had been listening to the report beside Sejong, muttered with an evil smile in his own room.

“Rule by virtue is good, but rule by money is even better… It’s no wonder the Chinese called it ‘the capitalism of all evils’.”

***

What the Ainu bought at the government monopoly store were not luxury items, but necessities such as cloth, grains, salt, and sugar.

In the process of obtaining these necessities, the Ainu experienced a powerful culture shock, and the item that caused this shock was salt.

“I’d like to buy some of that salt…”

When an Ainu visiting the government monopoly store stated his business in halting Korean, the store official asked a question.

“You want salt? What kind of salt?”

At the official’s question, the Ainu asked back with a puzzled expression.

“What kind of salt?”

Seeing the Ainu’s expression, the official guided him to one side.

Moving to a counter on one side, the official stretched out his arm and asked again.

“What kind of salt do you want?”

“Eh?”

The Ainu blinked his wide-open eyes and looked again at the scene before him.

There were at least 10 different types of salt of various colors displayed. Looking at the Ainu, the official continued speaking.

“If you’re simply looking for a salty taste, you can buy the cheapest sun-dried salt over there, and if you want a more sophisticated taste, you can buy this boiled salt here. We have everything from the most basic clear roasted salt to medicinal salt used in porridge for patients with stomach aches or colds. Which one do you want?”

The Ainu could only open and close his mouth at the official’s explanation and the spectacle before his eyes.

****

The diversification of Joseon’s boiled salt was, of course, due to Hyang’s obsession.

In the early days of his reign, Sejong had decided to convert all private salt production to government salt production and was strongly pushing for this.

This was because the profits that salt makers were making from selling salt, one of the necessities for human life, were enormous.

Therefore, it was to secure finances while converting private salt to government salt.

Naturally, the resistance from salt makers was fierce.

Many salt makers fled from their designated workplaces and frequently made and sold salt secretly.

However, Sejong consistently pushed for government salt production.

Watching this scene from the side, Hyang had to ponder with a troubled face.

“It’s a cliché, but you know… I’m reluctant about sun-dried salt too.”

When living as Jinho in the 21st century, Jinho’s family used refined salt and rock salt.

They used refined salt for making kimchi and rock salt for other cooking.

When Jinho asked the reason, his mother had said with an embarrassed smile:

“Well? These days, I just don’t feel attached to sun-dried salt. There was a lot of talk about salt farm slaves and such for a while, wasn’t there?”

Perhaps because of that, Hyang felt considerable aversion to sun-dried salt, both when living as Jinho and now as Hyang.

“But boiled salt has many problems too…”

According to Hyang’s research, boiled salt was being made all along the coast of Joseon.

In the West Sea and South Sea, they made it by trapping seawater in tidal flats, then evaporating it, and then mixing the mudflat soil with seawater again to increase the salt concentration before boiling the brine. In the East Sea, they simply mixed seawater fetched from the sea with soil or sand, went through a similar process, and then boiled it.

The problem was that the method using mudflat soil was difficult to escape from the issue of impurities.

Especially in the case of the West Sea, with the influx of water from the Yellow River, there were many impurities and the salt concentration was low, making it a product that required a lot of work.

However, the East Sea was more free from the impurity problem.

If you went out on a boat for just 15 minutes, you could fill it with as much clear seawater as you wanted.

Even without going out on a boat, if you went out just a little, you could obtain clear, high-salinity seawater in abundance.

The biggest problem with boiled salt from the East Sea was that to be sold in large markets, it had to cross the Baekdudaegan mountain range.

Naturally, it could only be expensive with added transportation costs, and in other regions, only those with means could obtain and use boiled salt from the East Sea.

“There are many problems here and there, but still, boiled salt suits my taste better. If we use coal, the fuel problem can be solved too. Of course, if we consider cost-effectiveness, sun-dried salt would be the clear winner, but…”

Hyang trailed off, seemingly unsatisfied with something.

“This cost-effectiveness is bothering me… Should we go for a two-track approach with this too? Oh! We could entrust sun-dried salt production to suitable people, make it an ultra-low-price product for really struggling people, and sell it abroad to Japan or other places to make money. Then we could use that money for boiled salt… as a mid-to-high-end product. Yes… This would be good.”

Hyang smiled contentedly, having planned to sell sun-dried salt abroad and focus on boiled salt with the money earned.

The truth was that Hyang preferred boiled salt because there were more things to obsess over compared to sun-dried salt.

***

Note 1) Historical study on the exchange with Thailand around the founding of the Joseon Dynasty. Jo Heung-guk. Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of International Studies, Pusan National University.

Note 2) Encyclopedia of Korean Culture. Forestry entry.

http://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Contents/Index?contents_id=E0047546

Note 3) The basis for referring to Usando as Dokdo is referenced from this material.

The Truth about Dokdo. Sejong University Dokdo Research Institute.

http://www.dokdoandeastasia.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/독도의-진실-1_우산국과-우산도.pdf