“Indeed, fitting for a people who are corpses without drinking, singing, and dancing.”

Just as Hyang had muttered to himself, the people of the Empire enjoyed drinking, singing, and dancing.

No, it was human nature.

As the Empire’s economy continued to grow, the citizens’ livelihoods became increasingly prosperous. As the economy flourished, the spending of those who enjoyed drinking, singing, and dancing increased.

Of course, the gap between rich and poor still existed, and there were still quite a few who worried about surviving day to day.

For the Empire’s emperors—no, even for Joseon’s kings before them—this problem was a challenge that absolutely had to be solved.

This was a deep-rooted challenge that any Eastern monarch had to resolve.

In Western political history symbolized by Europe, the roles traditionally undertaken by states and monarchs were diplomacy, defense, and public order.

However, in the East, ‘economy’ was added to these.

The most important aspect of the ‘Age of Yao and Shun’ and the ‘Song of Hitting the Ground,’ mentioned as symbols of a peaceful and prosperous era, was that ‘there were no hungry people.’

Therefore, not only Sejong but also Hyang, who practically opened the door to the Empire, devoted the most effort to solving this issue.

***

“There’s a saying that ‘even the king cannot cure poverty.'”

At Hyang’s words, all the ministers nodded their heads. Seeing the ministers’ response, Hyang continued.

“But the problem is that sitting idle and just watching isn’t what a monarch should do either. It’s truly a difficult challenge.”

At Hyang’s lament, the ministers all bowed their heads in unison and answered.

“We are incompetent and unable to ease Your Majesty’s concerns. We are truly ashamed!”

“We are truly ashamed!”

At the ministers’ words, Hyang smiled slightly and replied.

“If you say you’re incompetent, there are quite a few who would be discouraged, so don’t say such things. Even if it’s a difficult challenge, if we work hard, won’t good days come eventually?”

“We will do our utmost!”

Recording the somewhat warm atmosphere between Hyang and the ministers, the historian added the following:

• …When His Majesty expressed concern for the people and the ministers pleaded guilty, His Majesty encouraged them instead of punishing them. As exchanges continued between His Majesty and the ministers, it was pleasant to see.

The historian says:

Since His Majesty speaks of working hard, it’s overtime again today.

***

In any case, Hyang and the Imperial court did their best to reduce the number of poor people.

After introducing various experimental policies, meticulous verification processes followed. After such verification, many policies were supplemented or abolished, and through this, the Empire’s economy became increasingly robust.

In this process, the busiest officials were those from the National Tax Service and the Imperial Exchange.

• Tax administration that all citizens can accept

This was the National Tax Service’s motto. However, whenever the National Tax Service officials saw the frame with those words, they would quietly grumble regardless of rank.

“It should be ‘tax administration that no citizen can accept.'”

“Greed is…”

The reaction citizens showed when paying taxes was largely the same regardless of wealth.

• I pay this much, so why do those bastards only pay that much? It’s unfair!

While grumbling like this, citizens faithfully paid their taxes. This was because tax rates and items were all publicly disclosed, and if there were objections, they could file complaints for verification.

Hyang and the court’s efforts didn’t stop there.

• If illegal methods are not used, the Empire will not block the path for citizens to become wealthy. We do not discriminate based on level of education, age, or gender.
• If you have a sufficiently viable plan and will but lack in other areas, come to the court! The court will help!
• However, this is limited to those who comply with the Empire’s laws and pay prescribed taxes.

In this way, the Emperor and court stimulated the Empire’s people.

Thanks to such active support, many challenged themselves to start businesses.

To help such people, the Empire actively utilized the Imperial Exchange and investment vaults. As a result, the Empire’s capital market also grew increasingly large.

Of course, as there is darkness where there is light, some used illegal methods in this process. However, the National Tax Service officials trained by Hyang were not easy targets, and such people ended up in ruin.

“This isn’t the 21st century.”

Having already seen all sorts of things in the 21st century, Hyang treated economic crimes on par with treason.

This was the same for National Tax Service officials.

Hyang’s words were firmly embedded in the National Tax Service officials’ minds:

• Reward or the Records Office?

Using carrots and sticks like this, Hyang guided the citizens’ ambition in the healthiest direction possible.

“I read a book recording old European fables, and there was this story. There was a poor widow. Every harvest season, the widow went with her son to pay rent to the landlord. Whenever she saw the landlord’s large house, the widow would tell her son: ‘Don’t just envy it, and don’t just hate it. Think about how to become such a wealthy person and work hard.’ Later, that son followed the widow’s teachings, worked hard, and became very wealthy. I think that I and the court should play a role like that widow. Shouldn’t we prevent people from stealing out of blind desire to become rich?”

At Hyang’s words, the ministers all bowed their heads in unison and answered.

“We will engrave this in our hearts and follow!”

When European professors and monks heard this anecdote later, they all tilted their heads in puzzlement.

“There was such a fable?”

***

With the Emperor and court’s efforts combined with the citizens’ aspirations, the people’s lives became increasingly prosperous.

As life became more affluent, citizens began spending increasingly more money on drinking, singing, and dancing.

As citizens’ spending increased, just as singing and dancing symbolized by ‘new miscellaneous songs’ greatly developed, ‘drinking’ also gradually evolved.

Even makgeolli, which common people had enjoyed since ancient times, began appearing in increasingly diverse varieties.

“It’s because that damned spring famine has disappeared.”

“Has only the spring famine disappeared? When was the last time you heard ‘a bad harvest has struck’?”

“That’s right, that’s right.”

As the citizens said, the words ‘spring famine’ and ‘bad harvest’ were no longer heard.

Through water management projects now fully on track, grain production in the Empire’s mainland had greatly increased, and grain was steadily coming in from Ming’s Jiangnan, Daeyue, and Siam.

“We cannot depend on Ming’s Jiangnan forever.”

“Indeed!”

Following Hyang and the court’s decision, large-scale development projects proceeded in the northern and new territories.

Particularly, as Hyang said, “A cheat-key map, Earth’s cheat key,” grain production in the New Frontier was rapidly increasing.

As grain production increased and surplus quantities grew, citizens’ eyes began turning to ‘brewing.’

“Alcohol in moderation becomes medicine, but in excess becomes poison.”

“That’s right. Although it’s been quite a while since the spring famine disappeared, we don’t know what the future holds. If we turn all surplus grain into alcohol, serious problems could arise.”

“And if used well, we can secure a decent tax source.”

After such discussions, Hyang and the court established a system requiring those who wished to brew alcohol to obtain permits. And to protect those who received permits, they strictly cracked down on illegal brewing.

The permitted breweries soon encountered tremendous prosperity.

Citizens with full pockets began enjoying alcohol in earnest.

Particularly, as enjoying performances at comprehensive entertainment venues while having a drink became routine, alcohol consumption gradually increased.

Here, the iron horses began asserting their presence.

Through iron horses, it became possible to sell alcohol to other regions. As this happened, competition arose among breweries, and alcohols with their own unique characteristics began appearing.

However, the alcohol that benefited most from iron horses was soju.

Fermented alcohols like makgeolli and cheongju had the fatal problem of turning sour immediately if care wasn’t taken in storage and transport.

Due to these limitations, makgeolli was limited to about a hundred li (approximately 40km) around the towns or villages where breweries were located, and cheongju couldn’t cross provincial boundaries.

However, distilled soju had no such limitations. Riding railways and ships, soju spread throughout the Empire—from the northern territories to the New Frontier.

“The winner of the soju market is the real winner!”

Confirming soju’s marketability and future potential, breweries focused on developing soju.

It wasn’t just breweries.

When it came to soju, scholarly official families couldn’t be left out. Particularly, families possessing renowned soju brewing methods immediately jumped into the brewing market.

And at some point, pride battles began erupting among scholarly official families in the soju market.

“What! Our family’s soju with its long history is being pushed out by soju from such a family with short history? Does that make sense!”

Amusingly, it had only been a little over 200 years since soju entered the Korean peninsula. Nevertheless, battles erupted among scholarly official families claiming their soju had deeper history.

Receiving the report, Hyang unconsciously let out a chuckle.

“Hehehe… When I think of whiskey companies boasting about being founded in 1820-something or 1860-something, this becomes amusing. These were founded in the 1400s…”

As time passed, an unexpected powerhouse appeared in the soju market where a Spring and Autumn Warring States period had erupted centered on scholarly families’ home-brewed liquors.

Though it had nicknames like ‘Northern Liquor’ and ‘Liaodong Liquor,’ it was the soju where the nickname ‘Brown Liquor’ became its proper name.

This too was a case heavily seasoned with Hyang’s MSG. However, it wasn’t something Hyang had anticipated.

***

The beginning of brown liquor, which emerged as a dark horse in the soju market, was the soju made by Park Gyu-seop’s friend.

It was an original liquor created by adding methods learned from European merchants staying in trading ports to the soju recipe learned from his mother, who had been a slave of a noble family exterminated in the Giyu Rebellion before being freed.

Receiving the report and becoming curious, Hyang immediately issued a secret order to obtain the liquor.

“This could be considered whiskey… Hmm…”

After pondering briefly, Hyang made a decision and created a thick order complete with drawings, which he delivered to the Secret Guard.

Since Hyang’s orders were absolute, the Secret Guard agents immediately executed them as commanded.

They began full-scale brewing using only barley in copper stills and even making oak barrels.

“The taste is fine, but it’s quite spicy?”

“The spiciness is the problem…”

“Since it said ‘age for at least 3 years,’ let’s wait 3 years.”

And after 3 years passed, when they reopened and tasted it, they all exclaimed simultaneously.

“This is it!”

“How can it have such an aroma!”

“Now we can sell it!”

“Didn’t he say ‘Not only soy sauce improves with age’? This must be what he meant! Let’s select some good liquors and try aging them continuously!”

Thus they began releasing liquors aged 3 years, and as time passed, soju aged even longer was released.

The soju, which took on a light brown color from aging in charred oak barrels, soon established the nickname ‘brown liquor’ as the mainstream.

And not long after entering the market, it emerged as a new powerhouse in the soju market.