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Boom & Bust · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
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  Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
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  Speaker 1: of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting
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  Speaker 1: for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: Hong Hi Kwan had just failed his fourth civil service exam.
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  Speaker 1: He was mortified, but in truth, this was nothing to
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  Speaker 1: be ashamed of. Most people didn't pass. These exams were
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  Speaker 1: a big part of what made China such a dominant nation.
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  Speaker 1: Its leaders were largely in power based on merit, except
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  Speaker 1: for the emperor, of course. Chiquan hated to think of
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  Speaker 1: the Emperor on his throne in Nijing, being born into
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  Speaker 1: power and not having to pass any exam at all.
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  Speaker 1: Later that night, he went to sleep, and he had
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  Speaker 1: a dream. He floated up from his home and into
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  Speaker 1: the clouds, where a strange man who said he was
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  Speaker 1: Shikwan's father told him that demons were destroying China. He
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  Speaker 1: then gave him a sword and introduced him to another
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  Speaker 1: man who he claimed was Schui Kwan's brother. When Chuquan
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  Speaker 1: woke up, the next morning, he didn't know what to
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  Speaker 1: think of this dream. Years later, though, around eighteen thirty nine,
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  Speaker 1: he came across a pamphlet from a Christian missionary. When
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  Speaker 1: he read about the Christian God and his son Jesus,
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  Speaker 1: he came to believe that these were the father and
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  Speaker 1: brother from his dream, and that meant that shu Quan
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  Speaker 1: was the second son of God. And so he decided
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  Speaker 1: that the demons that he was meant to destroy or
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  Speaker 1: the Emperor and the emperor's family. He told his own
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  Speaker 1: family about his revelation and began to cultivate a following
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  Speaker 1: in southern China. Through most of Chinese history, the nation
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  Speaker 1: had been an unstable mix of different ethnic minorities, and
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  Speaker 1: this era was no different. The people of this region
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  Speaker 1: shared no blood relation with the ruling Qing dynasty, and
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  Speaker 1: they were suffering in poverty. Schukwan's message that he was
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  Speaker 1: the son of God meant to liberate them from their
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  Speaker 1: demon rulers quickly caught on The movement became known as
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  Speaker 1: the Heavenly Kingdom. They were somewhat puritanical, demanding abstinence from drugs, alcohol,
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  Speaker 1: and sex outside of marriage. They were also somewhat pre socialist,
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  Speaker 1: as they believed in equality between men and women and
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  Speaker 1: the sharing of property. Before long, they had gathered weapons
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  Speaker 1: and launched attacks on nearby Qing strongholds. They ruthlessly slaughtered
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  Speaker 1: any soldiers who would enjoin their cause. The Emperor, who
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  Speaker 1: had only recently ended a war with the British, was
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  Speaker 1: spread too thin to respond, but this was a mistake,
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  Speaker 1: because soon the Heavenly Kingdom had stolen a whole fleet
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  Speaker 1: of ships. In eighteen fifty two, they were able to
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  Speaker 1: travel up the Yangtsee River to the imperial stronghold of Nanjing.
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  Speaker 1: This was the traditional home of the emperors, and soon
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  Speaker 1: the cultists were scaling the walls, slaughtering the soldiers inside.
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  Speaker 1: Millions died in the wake of their violence. They now
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  Speaker 1: ruled a significant portion of southern China. Chu Quan was
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  Speaker 1: seen as the true son of God, who had delivered
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  Speaker 1: the poor from the Ching's boot. The Emperor, who fled
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  Speaker 1: to Beijing, was distracted by another war with England and
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  Speaker 1: France and wanted to be able to import opium into China.
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  Speaker 1: Chu Quan saw this as just another example of how
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  Speaker 1: the emperor was unable to protect his people. But once
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  Speaker 1: the British and French were victorious. They sent the emperor
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  Speaker 1: after the Heavenly Kingdom. They couldn't tolerate an entire faction
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  Speaker 1: that banned opium. There were rumors that the stress of
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  Speaker 1: the situation led Chuquan to start smoking opium himself, going
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  Speaker 1: against his own sacred beliefs. Ultimately, he died in eighteen
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  Speaker 1: sixty four of mysterious causes. Just as the imperial forces
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  Speaker 1: were besieging Neijing. They took the city and slaughtered any
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  Speaker 1: and all who were loyal to the Heavenly Kingdom. It
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  Speaker 1: said that some of Chuquan's followers saw the end of
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  Speaker 1: the kingdom coming and immolated themselves in public rather than
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  Speaker 1: live under the rule of the supposedly demonic Empire. Millions
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  Speaker 1: were killed as the Imperial army fought its way south
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  Speaker 1: and reclaimed all of its lost territory. Historians estimate that
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  Speaker 1: anywhere between twenty to fifty million people died. For comparison,
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  Speaker 1: the entire deathtoll military and civilian of World War One
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  Speaker 1: was between nine and fifteen million, and all of this
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  Speaker 1: brutality stemmed from a being both a religious war and
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  Speaker 1: a colonial conflict. The Heavenly Kingdom saw their enemies as
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  Speaker 1: demons unworthy of life, and the colonizing British and French
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  Speaker 1: saw them as less than human. Curiously, the Heavenly Kingdom
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  Speaker 1: was inspired by Christian beliefs that were introduced to China
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  Speaker 1: by the British. If they hadn't forced their beliefs on
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  Speaker 1: the country after the First Chinese British War, it's possible
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  Speaker 1: the Taiping Rebellion may never have happened at all. On
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  Speaker 1: a morning in January of nineteen ninety nine, a group
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  Speaker 1: of reporters gathered in a brightly lit office. They were
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  Speaker 1: there to witness an unusual announcement from a financial advisor
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  Speaker 1: named Raven Thoroughgood the Third. It was the height of
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  Speaker 1: the dot com boom, the period when the Internet was
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  Speaker 1: just taking off and tech companies were setting the stock
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  Speaker 1: market on fire. Raven wanted to help investors capitalize on
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  Speaker 1: the trend by launching his own index fund with ten
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  Speaker 1: hand pick stocks that were sure to succeed. What made
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  Speaker 1: Raven so unusual was that he had no prior experience
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  Speaker 1: in finance. He was an actor who had had a
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  Speaker 1: successful career in Hollywood, and he openly admitted that he
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  Speaker 1: knew nothing about internet companies or the stock market in general.
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  Speaker 1: He planned to choose his stocks simply by throwing darts
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  Speaker 1: at a board. The reporters watched in astonishment as Raven
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  Speaker 1: picked up a dart and threw it at the board
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  Speaker 1: on the opposite wall, which was covered in the names
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  Speaker 1: of various internet companies. His assistant removed the dart and
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  Speaker 1: announced the name of a company he had selected, CMGI,
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  Speaker 1: and then he repeated the process, randomly, choosing nine more
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  Speaker 1: relatively unknown companies. The press, needless to say, was skeptical.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, everyone thought this was a total farce. But
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  Speaker 1: within a week, one of Ravens stock picks, CMGI, was
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  Speaker 1: up ninety six percent. Over the next year, the stocks
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  Speaker 1: Raven had selected kept rising and rising and rising. By
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  Speaker 1: the end of the year, his portfolio had outperformed every
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  Speaker 1: other index fund on Wall Street. Raven had bested thousands
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  Speaker 1: of experienced brokers to deliver a shocking two hundred and
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  Speaker 1: thirteen percent return. Within one year of beginning his career,
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  Speaker 1: He was ranked as the twenty second most successful money
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  Speaker 1: manager in the United States. He appeared in the Guinness
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  Speaker 1: of World Records. Everyone on Wall Street was clamoring to
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  Speaker 1: figure out how he did it. Of course, Raven's PR
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  Speaker 1: team attributed his success to sheer natural talent, but market
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  Speaker 1: analysts saw shadows of something a bit more ominous. To them,
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  Speaker 1: Raven's overnight success was a sign that internet stocks were unstable, unpredictable,
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  Speaker 1: and possibly headed for a disaster. If someone like Raven
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  Speaker 1: could gain the system so well, that meant that there
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  Speaker 1: was no logic whatsoever in which stock succeeded and failed,
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  Speaker 1: and no bet was safe because Raven wasn't just inexperienced,
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  Speaker 1: he was also a chimpanzee. Unfortunately, the market analysts were right.
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  Speaker 1: Raven was just riding the wave of the dot com bubble,
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  Speaker 1: and at the turn of the New millennium that bubble burst.
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  Speaker 1: Raven's portfolio fell a stunning thirty four percent in the
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  Speaker 1: year two thousand. Within a few years, every single stock
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  Speaker 1: he had picked was worth absolutely nothing. But Raven's dartboard
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  Speaker 1: experiment lived on as proof that the stock market isn't
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  Speaker 1: all about strategy or careful analysis. Sometimes it's all just
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  Speaker 1: a load of monkey business. I hope you enjoyed today's
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  Speaker 1: guided tour through the Cabinet of curiosities. This show was
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  Speaker 1: created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with iHeart Podcasts,
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  Speaker 1: researched and written by the Grim and Mild team, and
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  Speaker 1: produced by Jesse Funk. Learn more about the show and
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  Speaker 1: the people who make it over at Grimandmild dot com
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  Speaker 1: slash Curiosities. You'll also find a link to the official
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  Speaker 1: cabinet of Curiosity's hardcover book, available in bookstores and online,
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  Speaker 1: as well as ebook and audiobook. And if you're looking
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  Speaker 1: for an ad free option, consider joining our Patreon. It's
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  Speaker 1: all the same stories, but without the interruption for a
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  Speaker 1: small monthly fee. Learn more and sign up over at
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  Speaker 1: patreon dot com slash Grimandmild, and until next time, stay curious.