Our Joseon itinerary ended with a visit to Taeseok’s in-laws.
When Taeseok presented the Calico, western scissors, western needles, sugar, and western snacks as gifts, and even handed over some silver given to him by Cheonjin-daek, the in-laws’ eyes practically popped out of their heads.
In this era, these kinds of goods were items that commoners could only see if they were quite wealthy.
They served as proof of how well Taeseok and Cheonjin-daek were living now, and thanks to that, the in-laws were all satisfied with Taeseok’s story about living in Russia.
Leaving Taeseok’s in-laws, we headed to the shore where we had agreed to meet Fridolf Gek.
Once night fell, I signaled by waving a torch left and right as prearranged, and a flickering lamp signal appeared from the distant sea.
It meant they had seen my signal.
After waiting for a while, the Schooner piloted by Fridolf Gek finally reached an unnamed coast between Myeongcheon and Cheongjin in Hamgyeong-do.
Taeseok and I, who had been waiting, approached the ship on horseback.
A long plank ladder was lowered from the ship to allow us to board.
Even though it was a ladder nearly three meters long, it didn’t quite reach the shore, so we couldn’t help getting our feet a little wet in the seawater.
Still, since it was June, the water wasn’t cold enough to be unbearable.
It took some time to load more than ten horses onto the Schooner, but fortunately, the horses listened to me well, so there were no major issues.
Despite it being the middle of the night, there was bright full moonlight, so the ship could approach the coast and we could board without much trouble.
Once we had loaded all the horses and Taeseok and I had boarded, Fridolf Gek set the Schooner in motion.
When the ship had moved a good distance away from the Joseon coast, Mikhail Yankovsky, who was helping Fridolf Gek navigate the Schooner, came over and asked.
“The land is being reclaimed and the horses are growing well at the ranch, so why did you go through all this trouble to enter Joseon again at such risk?”
Since we had gone to Joseon while Mikhail Yankovsky was away from Sidimi, he said he was very worried when he returned to Sidimi and heard that we had left for Joseon.
“Yuli was complaining that there’s nothing to sell in Shanghai, so I had to prepare something to sell.”
“Even so, did you really need to enter Joseon yourself? There was no need to do something so dangerous, was there?”
“I went in because I was confident there would be no danger. What’s so dangerous about a Joseon person moving around in Joseon?”
Mikhail Yankovsky grabbed my short hair and shook it as he spoke.
“It’s this hair. All the Joseon people grow their hair long, but you’re the only one with short hair.Wouldn’t anyone find that strange?”
“Well, it’s not like there are absolutely no people with short hair in Joseon. I could have had my hair cut in an accident, or I could be a novice monk who ran away from a temple. I could even say my hair all fell out due to illness and is growing back. Besides, it’s not like I’m walking around bareheaded; I’m wearing a hat like this, so who would say anything?”
In fact, while I was in Joseon, I always wore a Paeraengi made of bamboo.
“Even if it’s not that, you could have run into robbers. If you’re carrying a significant amount of wealth, a greedy group is bound to appear. Surely you’re not going to say there are no robbers in Joseon?”
I smiled and pulled a revolver from my coat.
“I have this, so what’s there to worry about? You don’t doubt my marksmanship, do you?”
Mikhail Yankovsky sighed as he watched me spin the Frontier Bulldog with my finger in the trigger guard.
After that, Mikhail was very fascinated by the Paeraengi I wore and the Gat Taeseok wore.
When we took off the hats for him, he touched them several times.
“This one you wore is just okay since it’s made of bamboo, but this Gat is truly amazing. I’ve never seen such a light hat in my life.”
When morning came and we arrived at Sidimi, we unpacked what we had brought from Joseon in front of the others, and Yuli Briner was impressed.
“With this much kelp, we won’t have to be ashamed.”
“I tried to get agar-agar too, but I couldn’t get it because it’s produced in the southern regions.”
Besides kelp, another seaweed that sells well in China is agar-agar.
You can take agar-agar in refined powder form instead of its raw seaweed state, but I couldn’t obtain it.
Unlike kelp, agar-agar is a seaweed from the southern coast, and since it wasn’t the right season, I was told it would take time to get, so I gave up and only brought kelp.
Fridolf Gek spoke up, seemingly curious.
“That Ginseng stuff, could I take a look at it too?”
Westerners coming to China or Japan for the first time are often surprised by the local people’s love for Ginseng.
They can’t help but be shocked that a single small plant root can be worth its weight in gold in expensive places.
Thus, the mystery of the land of Goryeo, where this mysterious herb comes from, grows alongside it.
Unfortunately, Joseon has not yet opened its ports to any country except Japan, so it is not a place where foreigners can enter.
I spread out 120 geun of Ginseng in front of the curious Russians and the Joseon people who had never seen Ginseng properly because they were country bumpkins.
Mikhail Yankovsky’s wife, Olga, picked up a root of Ginseng and examined it.
“They said it looks like a person, and it really does look like a person.”
“That’s why it’s called Ginseng, because it looks like a person.The more it looks like a person, the more expensive it is.”
Fridolf Gek asked.
“How much did you pay for all this?”
“I traded it for 2,000 nyang of silver, so that’s a bit less than 3,000 Mexican Silver Coins, and about 4,000 Rubles.”
Everyone was visibly shocked by the enormous price.
Mikhail Yankovsky asked.
“Is there any way to get the seeds for this?”
Mikhail saw how highly the people in this region valued velvet antlers and was currently setting up a sika Deer farm for them.
Seeing the Ginseng made him want to try growing that as well.
I shook my head.
“It won’t be easy.This is mainly grown in Gaesong, and because it’s their livelihood, the management is incredibly strict. The merchants of that region are called Songsang, the most well-connected and toughest merchants in Joseon. There’s no way they would just hand over their livelihood to others.”
Indeed, who would neglect the management of their own livelihood?
Everyone nodded at my words.
“Besides, growing this is no ordinary feat.”
I held up a root of Hongsam and said.
“It usually takes six years to grow it to this size, and I’ve heard it’s extremely picky about the soil. On top of that, they say you can’t grow Ginseng in the same spot for ten years after harvesting it. Anyway, if it were easy to grow, would it sell for such a high price?”
Indeed, a medicinal herb that sells for so much could not be easy to grow.
While everyone was nodding, Yuli Briner spoke.
“At any rate, if we go to Shanghai with this much Ginseng, even the Jardine Matheson or Sassoon families won’t be able to look down on us.”
“You mean those opium dealers?”
“Yeah, those opium sellers. Unfortunately, those opium sellers are the biggest merchants in both Hong Kong and Shanghai, so no one can mess with them.”
“Yuli, have you never sold opium? I heard that since it’s the most profitable item, everyone and their mother sells opium.”
“Dammit, I may be a merchant who went completely broke because of excessive greed, but I still couldn’t bring myself to deal opium.”
I asked with a laugh.
“There was a temptation to sell it, wasn’t there?”
“There was, but it’s not a market for someone like me to jump into. My capital is small, and I don’t have the guts for it either, so it’s hard to get into such a big market.”
“No matter what anyone says, opium is a poison that ruins people, so it’s best not to even look at that business. Now that we have this much capital, you can rise again, Yuli. If we just take this to China and sell it, we’ll be able to make at least several times our investment.”
One-fourth of the Ginseng and kelp I purchased belongs to Yuli Briner.
Though it’s not a huge sum of money, it should be enough for him to restart as a merchant.
Another fourth goes to the other investors, including Taeseok.
You might wonder why my share is only half when I did all the hard work, but my goal isn’t to make money from this anyway.
My goal is to extract the gold from my Subspace without people noticing.
That is also the reason why I specifically want to go to Shanghai or Hong Kong.
I want to pull gold out of my Subspace and spend it freely too.
***
We took a passenger ship that regularly runs between Vladivostok and Shanghai.
At first, I mistakenly thought Shanghai was a city located right on the beach, but the foreign settlement of Shanghai only appeared after the ship entered the river from the sea and traveled upstream for a while.
Even though it was a river, it was so large that there were no problems for big ships to dock.
Before unpacking our other luggage, we took only the carefully wrapped Ginseng and headed to our destination, Jardine Matheson, by rickshaw.
It was my first time riding a rickshaw here, and even Yuli Briner, who had been to Shanghai many times, was fascinated by the sight of it.
“There really was no such thing when I was in Shanghai.”
At that time, rickshaws had just been imported from Japan and were being distributed in Shanghai.
Yuli Briner had left Shanghai just before that, so he hadn’t seen them.
In China, even before rickshaws were introduced from Japan, there was already a one-wheeled rickshaw called the Dokryungeo, but the rickshaws brought from Japan were much more comfortable than the Dokryungeo.
They didn’t have pneumatic rubber tires yet, but they were equipped with leaf spring suspension, and the seats were incomparable to the Dokryungeo.
Also, the person pulling it found the ergonomically designed rickshaw much easier to handle than pulling a traditional Dokryungeo.
Yuli Briner, who knew how to speak Chinese, called over a rickshaw puller and asked.
“How much to go to Yihe Yanghang?”
The rickshaw puller looked at me and said.
“Even if this young master is young, he has luggage, so if the two of you want to go, you’ll need two rickshaws.”
“Then call one more.”
Hearing the price he quoted, it felt like taking a taxi in the 21st century.
The difference was that while several people can ride in a taxi, only one person can ride in a rickshaw.
The rickshaws took us in front of Yihe Yanghang faster than expected.
In front of Yihe Yanghang—that is, the Jardine Matheson company—Yuli asked the Chinese guard at the gate.
“Is Archie still here?”
“He is still here, but who are you?”
“Tell him it’s Yuli Briner from the Swiss Confederation, and he’ll know.”
The Chinese guard gave us a suspicious look but sent someone inside.
After a while, word came back that we could enter.
We were guided to an office in a corner of the large store building, and a Chinese man who looked to be about fifty years old was sitting behind a large desk.
The old man named Archie said bluntly.
“What did you come here for?”
“Is this a place I’m not allowed to visit?”
“I could stop a guy who went totally broke after ignoring my advice from entering.”
“Back then, I went broke because my greed was excessive and I didn’t listen to Archie’s advice, but I’m going to make a comeback now.That’s why I’ve come back like this.”
“Last time, did you say you were going to Haishenwai?”
Haishenwai is the Chinese name for Vladivostok.
“Yes, I’ve been in Haishenwai.”
“Did you bring sea cucumbers from Haishenwai then?”
“I didn’t bring sea cucumbers, but I brought some kelp instead.”
“The quantity?”
“About twenty loads in 80-pound bundles.”
“Bring it first. I’ll decide after seeing the goods.”
“It’s still on the ship, so please send a cart.”
“You know that if I send a cart, you must go through us, right?”
“Then who else besides Archie would I sell my goods through here? In exchange, you have to treat me right.”
“I’ll see the goods and handle it. I’m busy, so if that’s your only business, you may leave.”
He received a dismissal, but Yuli Briner smiled and said.
“I have something good besides kelp. Would you like to take a look?”
Archie said with a non-committal expression.
“I don’t know what it is, but take it out quickly. I’m a busy man.”
“Who doesn’t know that the Chief Comprador of Yihe Yanghang is a busy man? But once you see this item, you’ll feel a bit of greed.”
Yuli Briner winked at me, and I took a small bundle out of the bag that held the Ginseng and unwrapped it in front of him.
Even the Chief Comprador of Jardine Matheson, which could be called the largest Western company in Shanghai, could not maintain his composure and jumped up at the sight of the Ginseng spread out before his eyes.
Archie pointed to the bags I and Yuli Briner were each holding and asked.
“Surely everything inside those isn’t Ginseng?”
Yuli Briner placed both bags on his desk and opened them.
“What else could it possibly be if not Ginseng?”
***
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