Black Corporation: Joseon [EN]: Chapter 1001

1001. Meanwhile, Elsewhere… (6)

When they were ousted from the Parisian court, the conservative nobles weren’t overly concerned. Even though the king’s power had grown, they believed their own influence was still considerable.

“Let’s just think of it as a vacation back in our hometowns.”

That was the sentiment of the nobles who were expelled and returned to their estates. However, this was a misjudgment on their part. They severely underestimated the impact of the ‘Hyang’ [a term referring to the influence or policies emanating from the Empire, likely a foreign power].

* * *

France had been engaging in exchanges with the Empire since the reign of the previous monarch, Louis XI—or more precisely, since the late reign of Charles VII.

-A monarch with absolute power.

The French kings, from Charles VII onward, viewed the emperors of the Empire as the kind of rulers they could only dream of. Even before Hyang’s intervention, French monarchs had been striving to suppress the power of the nobles since the end of the Hundred Years’ War. This effort reached its peak with the ‘Sun King,’ Louis XIV. However, Hyang’s involvement drastically accelerated this process.

The French Royal Army, armed with Imperial firearms, overwhelmed the nobles’ private armies. Trade with the Empire garnered absolute support from the urban citizens, who served as the human resources for the Royal Army. Having secured two of the three essential elements for seizing power—military force and the support of the people (albeit limited to urban citizens)—the French kings were soon able to obtain the last one.

This was securing independent economic power through the Suez Railway. This allowed the French kings to break free from the pressure of the nobles, who were traditionally based on agriculture. Of course, the noble factions were not unaware of this. However, the conservative nobles, with their agricultural-centric values, downplayed this change.

“Commerce? Trade? That requires money! Where does that money come from? From wheat and wool, that is, from the land! Food and clothing all come from the land! Without these tangible goods, trade is just a numbers game, mere words!”

The conservative nobles absolutely believed in the value of tangible goods from agriculture. However, they were forgetting that land wasn’t exclusive to France.

* * *

Charles VIII was well aware that the noble factions he had ousted were biding their time, plotting a comeback. Before long, Charles VIII began to strip them of their traditional powers one by one.

The first, and most enthusiastically pursued, action was to seize the ‘right to collect taxes.’

-From now on, all people of France, regardless of their status, will pay taxes according to the tax rates set by French law.

Charles VIII’s unconventional announcement was met with strong opposition from the noble factions. However, the resistance from those pushed out of the central government was limited. Eventually, the nobles demanded the convocation of the Estates-General [a representative assembly of the three estates: clergy, nobility, and commoners], and the Estates-General was convened. However, this convocation became the decisive blow that led to the nobles’ downfall.

* * *

The Estates-General was a meeting attended by representatives of the nobles, clergy, and commoners. The nobles had their own calculations when they convened this Estates-General.

The first card to be discarded was the commoners’ representatives. Although they were called ‘representatives of the commoners,’ their true identity was the urban citizens’ faction, nicknamed the ‘Third Estate’ [the commoners, particularly the bourgeoisie]. To be precise, these commoner representatives, who were commercial forces in the cities, were staunch supporters of the king.

The next card to be discarded was an unexpected one: nobles like themselves, specifically, nobles working in Charles VIII’s government. Under Louis XI and Charles VIII, new noble factions had emerged in France. These were not traditional nobles boasting long histories and traditions, but nobles who had received titles based on achievements, such as military merits.

Without the economic foundations like the estates held by the conservative nobles, these new nobles had to pledge absolute loyalty to the kings for their survival. Therefore, these new nobles had to be regarded as disposable pawns. In the end, the conservative nobles considered the high-ranking clergy of the church as their last bastion.

And this was their mistake. After the unification of Italy, the Vatican had lost most of its territory. Seeing that the Italian unification government had confiscated most of the Papal States [territories under the direct sovereign rule of the Pope] within Italy without consequence, the kings of other countries rushed to confiscate the Papal States in their own kingdoms. And they, too, were unharmed.

As the Papal States within the major European powers disappeared, the high-ranking clergy in each country also weakened economically. And as the kings confiscated the Papal States without consequence, the political power of the high-ranking clergy also waned. As a result, the high-ranking clergy also faced a crossroads.

Side with the nobles, or side with the new powerhouses: the urban citizens and the king. This was not just happening in France.

* * *

Thanks to these miscalculations, the nobles’ reactionary actions through the Estates-General ended in failure. However, that didn’t mean that King Charles VIII was the sole victor.

-All people of France must pay taxes as prescribed by law.

-However, all matters related to taxes, such as tax items, tax rates, and the scope of taxation, must be approved by the Estates-General.

-Furthermore, the decisions of the Estates-General shall be determined by a majority vote.

The first clause could be seen as a victory for Charles VIII, and the second clause could be seen as a victory for the nobles. However, the last clause was the victory of the citizens’ representatives. The largest group in the Estates-General was the commoners’ representatives.

To pass the first clause, Charles VIII had no choice but to side with the commoners’ representatives, and to protect the second clause, the nobles also had to side with the commoners’ representatives.

* * *

In any case, with the passage of these laws, the French nobles were deprived of their tax exemptions. After all, they were also ‘people of France.’ By stripping the nobles of their tax exemptions, France’s coffers were instantly filled.

On the other hand, the traditional nobles, with their agriculture-based economic structure, suffered from a double whammy. No, they fell into a vicious cycle. As the nobles’ pockets were emptied due to the abolition of tax exemptions, they raised the rents they received from the peasants on their manors and estates. As a result, many peasants in the nobles’ manors and rural areas began to flee their homes with their families in the dead of night.

Those who left their hometowns to survive soon gathered in nearby cities. As these peasants left, many farmlands were abandoned, and a vicious cycle began in which the landlords, the nobles, became even poorer. Eventually, to survive, the nobles had to find new means of livelihood.

They began raising sheep to supply wool to the French and Italian textile industries, or they jumped into the wine industry, especially brandy production. Among these, the industry that the nobles focused on the most was brandy.

* * *

Wine was a popular alcoholic beverage, no, a drink, enjoyed by people of all social classes. However, wine could easily spoil with just a little carelessness. At some point, brandy, a distilled spirit made to prevent this spoilage, began to gain popularity. And with the discovery of the New World in the south, brandy’s popularity soared even further.

The arduous long-distance voyages were physically and mentally exhausting. To alleviate this exhaustion, sailors enjoyed alcohol. However, wine had the problem of spoiling quickly. But brandy didn’t have this problem. In addition, its significantly higher alcohol content compared to wine meant that even a small amount could get them properly drunk.

Therefore, for ships embarking on long-distance voyages, loading oak barrels filled with brandy became the starting point of preparations. And this brandy became a new source of income for the French nobles. There wasn’t a French noble who didn’t own a vineyard. And the quality of the wine was as good as their tastes.

Therefore, brandy made from these high-quality wines boasted excellent aroma, taste, and alcohol content, and soon became a strong challenger threatening colored wine.

From here, the nobles with merchandise went one step further. They began to create low-priced brandy by distilling wines of intermediate and lower quality, targeting the low- to mid-priced market. Seeing the popularity of these low- to mid-priced brandies, other nobles soon created similar grades of brandy and rushed to enter the market.

And this change once again made Hyang start his ‘Deokjil’ [a Korean slang term referring to intense fandom or support, often involving spending money on a particular interest].

* * *

As brandy gained popularity in the European market, the ‘Girus’ [likely a business or trading post] run by Milwi fell into crisis. The main alcoholic beverages sold in Milwi’s ‘Girus’ were colored wines. Many wealthy people still enjoyed expensive colored wines, but as high-quality brandy was released into the market, the number of those who defected began to increase.

As a result, Milwi’s ‘Girus’ also tried to bring in brandy, but the competing guilds stepped in to stop them. In response, Milwi’s executives immediately sent an urgent report to Seoul.

-Although it is not our main business, we are facing an imminent crisis of closure in this state.

-If the ‘Girus’ are closed, our base in Europe will disappear.

Hyeon, who received Milwi’s urgent report requesting assistance, immediately sought out Hyang.

“What should we do? The best thing would be to gather skilled artisans, but since it’s Milwi’s business, it’s not easy.”

Hyang also frowned at Hyeon’s lament and replied.

“Hmm, that is a problem. I’ll have to think about this.”

“I trust that the Grand Emperor will give us a wise answer.”

After Hyeon left, Hyang sighed deeply after pondering for a long time.

“Hoo~. In the end, this is the only answer, isn’t it? I’m reminded of the nightmare of Bacardi when I recklessly drank it straight when I was a college student.”

Hyang, who shuddered slightly as he recalled his past life’s dark history, soon wrote down the distillation method on paper and muttered to himself.

“By the way, rum was the thing during the Age of Exploration, wasn’t it?”

Before long, rum began to be produced in the southwest provinces and the islands off the east coast of Shinji, where the most sugarcane was cultivated in the Empire. And these rums caused a sensation in the European distilled spirits market. It was a liquor made from the byproducts left over from making sugar from sugarcane—hence the name ‘Sugar Wine’—so the production cost was very low.

In addition, it boasted a very strong alcohol content, as the distilled liquor was immediately bottled and sold without any special aging process.

-Strong but cheap liquor.

-You can drink until you die with little money.

Thanks to these characteristics, as soon as ‘Sugar Wine’ was released in the European market, it captivated not only sailors but also the lower classes of the city. Meanwhile, Milwi’s ‘Girus’ introduced cocktail recipes based on ‘Sugar Wine’ and the finest crystal glasses to match.

-Until high-quality ‘Sugar Wine’ comes out, maintain the customer base by using mixed drinks and glasses tailored to this recipe.”

And about three years after its release, high-quality ‘Sugar Wine’ that had undergone a proper aging process began to emerge, captivating the palates of the wealthy.