Black Corporation: Joseon

Two days later, Henry’s party visited Gyeongbokgung Palace.

“Oh~”

Passing through Gwanghwamun Gate, Henry let out a light exclamation as he saw the scene before him.

With Mount Bukak as its backdrop, Gyeongbokgung Palace exuded a very impressive atmosphere.

“It’s beautiful…”

Admiring Gyeongbokgung Palace’s beautiful harmony with nature, Henry entered Geunjeongjeon Hall.

Receiving a salute from the guards lined up on both sides from Gwanghwamun Gate, through the courtyard of Geunjeongjeon, to the entrance of Geunjeongjeon’s stairs, Henry’s eyes fell upon Sejong as he entered the hall.

At the end of the path between the rows of officials on both sides was a high platform, and on a chair on that platform sat a middle-aged man.

And below the platform on the right side, a young man dressed similarly to the king was looking at Henry’s party with eyes full of curiosity.

As Henry was guessing Hyang’s identity, Pedro, Henry’s closest aide, stepped forward to introduce Henry.

“Prince of Portugal, Duke of Viseu, Grand Master of the Order of Christ, and uncle to His Majesty the King, Henry of Avis, Duke of Viseu (Infante Dom Henrique de Avis, Duque de Viseu, Regina Castelle et Legionis, Dux quoque milites Christi, Regis avunculi sui).”

After pondering for a moment at Pedro’s introduction with its long list of titles, the interpreter reported to Sejong.

“He says he is Henry of Avis, Prince of Portugal and uncle to the King.”

“Is that so?”

Making a subtle expression at the interpreter’s considerably shortened version, Sejong expressed doubt again.

“But a prince? Is he a grand prince?”

At Sejong’s words, Hyang immediately answered.

“Grand prince seems most appropriate.”

Nodding lightly at Hyang’s words, Sejong introduced himself.

“Tell them I am the King of Joseon.”

“Yes.”

At Sejong’s instruction, the interpreter immediately translated into Latin.

“He is the Great King of the Great Kingdom of Joseon (Ipse est magnus, rex magnus Joseon regnum).”

This introduction was Hyang’s work.

When the interpreter first encountered this phrase, he looked at Hyang with a troubled face.

“Your Highness, adding ‘Great’ and using the term ‘His Majesty’ could potentially cause issues with our suzerain state.”

“Will Ming people be present when meeting the Portuguese?”

“No.”

“Then how would Ming know?”

At Hyang’s words, the interpreter immediately nodded.

“Ah! That’s right! Then there’s no problem! Rather, this is how it should be! We don’t need to appear foolish to those Westerners!”

“Exactly!”

***

Henry’s face stiffened slightly at the introduction that didn’t reveal the name and only said “King,” but he soon composed his expression.

‘I heard there are countries that consider the king’s name sacred and don’t reveal it carelessly. This country seems to be like that.’

After that, greetings for the first meeting continued according to the etiquette of both sides.

As the somewhat tedious greeting procedure ended, Sejong immediately got to the point.

“What is the reason someone in such a high position as a grand prince has come all the way to our Joseon?”

At Sejong’s question, Henry smiled and answered.

“We have acquired many of Joseon’s products through Alexandria. We were greatly impressed by their excellent technology, quality, and beauty. So, I’ve always dreamed of visiting Joseon, and this time I had the opportunity to come.”

“How do you find it now that you’re here?”

“It was truly a beautiful country. The nature is beautiful, and especially, the people of Joseon, men and women, young and old, all have smiles that never leave their faces, which was truly beautiful. Isn’t the sight of people always walking around smiling the world that rulers dream of?”

The last words were Henry’s true feelings.

Sejong, sympathizing with Henry’s words, nodded.

“That’s right. Isn’t it the monarch’s essential duty to make the people live peacefully?”

“It is.”

The atmosphere was consistently cordial.

Henry, holding the coffee cup brought by a court eunuch, savored the coffee aroma with a pleased expression.

“I didn’t think I would encounter café here.”

“It’s been here for quite some time, and more and more people are enjoying it.”

***

As Sejong said, more and more people were enjoying coffee, centered around Hanseong. At first, officials working overtime were the main consumers, but it was now becoming a familiar drink even to ordinary people beyond the upper class.

“Well, it’s been over 10 years since we brought it in…”

Hyang scratched his head as he confirmed the report.

“But they like it too much? As someone said, is liking coffee imprinted at the DNA level?”

Muttering to himself like that, Hyang looked at another part of the report.

“Soon, there might be tea houses that only sell black bean tea? Then Sudabaksu? Hmm… How should I write it in Chinese characters…”

Hyang was once again drifting off into fantasy.

****

Henry, who was holding the cup with delight at the coffee, suddenly looked at the coffee cup with surprised eyes.

“This cup?”

The coffee cup, shining with a clear milky white luster that gave a warm color, was surprisingly thin.

Seeing Henry unable to take his eyes off the coffee cup, Sejong smiled slightly and asked.

“Do you like the teacup?”

“It’s truly beautiful. And it’s the first time I’ve seen such a thin porcelain cup.”

“We only started making them recently.”

“Is that so?”

At Sejong’s question, Henry fixed his gaze on the teacup again.

‘This can make money!’

And the eyes of Kim Jeom and Hyang, who were watching the meeting from the side, began to shine fiercely.

‘It was worth spending money on the kiln!’

‘That’s right! If you can’t recognize that, your eyes aren’t eyes, they’re knotholes!’

***

‘Since we’ve got a high-temperature kiln anyway!’

Having completed a kiln that could produce much higher temperatures than the existing ones, Hyang couldn’t be satisfied with just carbide.

“What would be good… There was definitely something…”

Hyang seriously pondered the applications for the newly developed kiln.

“Metal smelting is basic, so there’s no need to mention it… There was something, I definitely saw it somewhere…”

As he was pondering like that, Hyang picked up a teacup to clear his head. The moment he put the teacup to his mouth, Hyang jumped up from his seat.

“This is it!”

Thinking of ‘bone china’ or ‘bone ash porcelain’, Hyang soon called together the potters and began experimenting.

“You say to mix in powder from burned cow bones?”

At first skeptical, the potters began to work more enthusiastically than Hyang as slightly better results started to emerge.

In a way, the potters were close to artists. Learning that they could create materials that could get closer to the best pottery they had dreamed of, the potters threw themselves into the experiments enthusiastically.

As a result of the enthusiastic work of the top experts in pottery – regardless of manufacturing methods and materials – satisfactory results emerged one year before Prince Henry arrived in Joseon.

“Then, let’s mass-produce!”

“Mass production, you say?”

When Hyang mentioned mass production, the potters’ expressions became slightly taken aback. They didn’t like the idea of making mass-produced vessels with such good materials.

“Shouldn’t we widely promote these good products?”

Thus, bone ash porcelain came to be made in three grades:

Something that even ordinary people could buy if they thought a little and paid more money,

Something that ordinary people would have to think a lot about to buy,

Something that only really rich people could buy.

The number of flowers was determined accordingly.

And when Kim Jeom heard about these results and pricing policy, he immediately called the Minister of Finance and officials and ordered:

“Open the treasury!”

As an aside, just before deciding on mass production, Hyang had to ponder.

It was because of the supply problem of bone powder that goes into bone ash porcelain.

“Can we get enough cow bones?”

Hyang, becoming full of worry, soon ordered officials to investigate how many cows and pigs were slaughtered in Joseon.

And upon receiving the results, Hyang shook his head.

“These meat addicts!”

More cows and pigs than imagined were being slaughtered and ending up on people’s tables.

“Such consumption in an era without refrigerators!”

***

“Will you sell this too?”

At Henry’s question, Sejong immediately answered.

“It has excellent value as a product, and its beauty can further spread the name of our Joseon, so shouldn’t we sell it?”

At Sejong’s answer, Henry immediately made a proposal.

“We, Portugal, want a monopoly.”

However, Sejong shook his head at Henry’s proposal.

“That’s not possible. We’ve already promised to supply to Mansur’s merchant group from Arabia. Therefore, we can sell it divided, but a monopoly is not possible. Because I, the king, have promised in my name.”

“That’s a bit disappointing.”

Henry couldn’t hide his disappointment, but soon composed his expression.

“Then, if we pay a price, will you sell?”

“Isn’t that obvious? Within the quantity that our Joseon can sell, we will sell at equal prices to both Mansur’s merchant group and Portugal.”

“I’m truly grateful!”

Henry expressed sincere gratitude.

“And it’s not fitting to discuss business in this place, so let’s have the working-level officials talk about that part later.”

“I understand.”

Henry immediately accepted Sejong’s decision. This was an accidental occurrence because of that teacup. It wasn’t appropriate for himself, a prince, and Sejong, a king, to directly discuss and decide such matters.

Hearing Henry’s decision, his close aides’ eyes shone.

‘This is an opportunity!’

‘If this deal goes well, we can gain even more wealth and power!’

Thus burning with their ambitions, the close aides didn’t see.

That Kim Jeom and the Minister of Finance were smiling slyly.

‘Come on in! Let’s have a pleasant consultation time!’

***

As a postscript, the bone ash porcelain that entered Europe and the Middle East through Mansur and Portugal recorded unprecedented hits.

After Joseon’s pottery entered Alexandria through Mansur, the perception that Joseon was absolutely the best for pottery had spread.

In this situation, with the entry of bone ash porcelain, the term for pottery became ‘Joseon’. And bone ash porcelain was called ‘Bone Joseon’.

In the history before Hyang’s intervention, where the term for pottery was ‘China’ and bone china was called ‘Bone China’, it changed to Joseon.

And later, a fierce war of words broke out between China and Korea over this notation.

“We are the origin of pottery!”

“Are there only one or two countries that made earthenware? These guys insist everything originated from them!”

“Earthenware and pottery are different! You learned pottery techniques from us!”

“So what? Who was it that went crazy buying Goryeo porcelain when their eyes rolled back?”

“Anyway, it’s wrong to call pottery Joseon! It should be changed!”

“The Europeans want to call it that, so why are you throwing a fit at us? That’s why you should have made it properly if you were going to make it!”

And Japan couldn’t even join in this war of words.

***

As the meeting was nearing its end, Hyang joined the conversation.

“Father, may I have a brief conversation with them?”

“I allow it.”

“Thank you.”

Having received Sejong’s permission, Hyang asked Henry.

“I heard there are Western monks among your party. Where are they now?”