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Micronations: Monaco is More than a Casino! · Ridiculous History

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  Speaker 1: Ridiculous Histories, a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to the
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much for
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  Speaker 1: tuning in. Let's hear it for the Man, the myth,
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  Speaker 1: the legend. Super producer mister Max Williams tag us out. Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: we are returning to our ongoing exploration, our continuing mission
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  Speaker 1: to learn more about the funny little things called micro nations.
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  Speaker 1: I'm Ben your nol and where are we traveling to today?
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  Speaker 2: To a principality? All right, no less than a prince,
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  Speaker 2: not a king though, right like it's weird Monaco. We're
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  Speaker 2: talking about Monico. Many people might know it as a
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  Speaker 2: vacation destination for the rich and famous. It might conjure
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  Speaker 2: images of fine foods, spreads of caviat and chacouterie boards
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  Speaker 2: and such, and gambling, copious gambling.
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  Speaker 3: Right.
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  Speaker 1: For many people, Monaco, the world's second smallest country, is
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  Speaker 1: often thought of as a little more than a race
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  Speaker 1: track and a very fancy casino. It turns out Monaco,
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  Speaker 1: which has been an obsession of mine for quite some time,
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  Speaker 1: is the most densely populated country in the world. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: it's got a lot of well, depending on the metrics.
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  Speaker 1: It's got a lot of strange, anomalous, neat little statistics.
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  Speaker 1: But if you look at it on the map, Thistle,
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  Speaker 1: this little thing right there between Italy and frank As,
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  Speaker 1: one of your first questions would be, how did this
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  Speaker 1: tiny town become a country? Out of all the tiny
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  Speaker 1: towns in the world, why this one? Why not Piughkeepsie.
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  Speaker 1: And it turns out there's a reason for that. You're
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  Speaker 1: absolutely right. No, it is still ruled by a family
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  Speaker 1: monarchy style, ruled by the Grimaldi family. It's a picturesque
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  Speaker 1: little coastal nation. We set us best known for the
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  Speaker 1: casino and the racetrack. Maybe a better way to think
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  Speaker 1: of it is it's best known for the tourism it
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  Speaker 1: attracts and for being home to so many very wealthy,
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  Speaker 1: famous people who love not paying taxes.
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  Speaker 2: Oh man, that was actually news to me, the idea.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, we know about tax shelters and tax havens
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  Speaker 2: and offshore accounts, but no, the principality of Monaco got
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  Speaker 2: rid of the income tax at a certain point, which
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  Speaker 2: we'll talk about historically. But speaking of history, the term
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  Speaker 2: crossroads of history often comes up. It's a little bit cliche,
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  Speaker 2: but It really is kind of true when it applies
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  Speaker 2: to Monaco. The Ligurians were an ancient people who actually
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  Speaker 2: settled Monaco, and they did because you asked about why
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  Speaker 2: this little town, why this little slice of land, They
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  Speaker 2: settled it because it was a very strategic location of
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  Speaker 2: something called the Rock of Monaco. An evidence of this
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  Speaker 2: occupation by the Ligurian people was actually discovered in some
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  Speaker 2: cave paintings in what is called the Saint Martin's Gardens.
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  Speaker 2: They were a clan of mountain dwellers. They were very
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  Speaker 2: hard workers, they were builders, and they were also very
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  Speaker 2: good at managing resources. The website of the official website
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  Speaker 2: of Bonico's Tourism Board referred to them as possessing great
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  Speaker 2: frugality and also they point out of that is a
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  Speaker 2: trade that the people of Monaco carry on to this day.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, the Monogasque, they're called m O n E g
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  Speaker 1: A s q u E. It's always kind of an
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  Speaker 1: art and as science to me when when we in
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  Speaker 1: English try to figure out what the citizens of a
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  Speaker 1: place are called or what they refer to themselves as. Now,
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  Speaker 1: the Ligurians were from north like a northwestern area of
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  Speaker 1: modern day Italy. And if we look at the sixth century,
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  Speaker 1: we'll see that the Phosacians vocations I hope I'm saying
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  Speaker 1: that not too incorrectly.
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  Speaker 2: P h. O. C.
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  Speaker 1: A E A n. S. Of Massalia founded a colony
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  Speaker 1: they called Monoikos that became a hugely important port on
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  Speaker 1: the Mediterranean coast. And if you look at the Greek
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  Speaker 1: translation that that roughly means single house, and that's that's
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  Speaker 1: not because there was just one house there, one huge
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  Speaker 1: It's not that Monaco was always super small. It's because
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  Speaker 1: they wanted to enforce this idea of self reliant, self
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  Speaker 1: sufficiency and sovereignty. And there are a lot of ancient
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  Speaker 1: myths about this which I love. Like Hercules was one
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  Speaker 1: of the most famous original patrons of modern day Monaco.
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  Speaker 1: He passed through the area. I was watching some really
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  Speaker 1: fascinating documentaries about this. There's not actually a temple to
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  Speaker 1: Hercules that people have found in the area, but there
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  Speaker 1: may be one. We probably will never know because the
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  Speaker 1: area is so densely populated and the soil is so
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  Speaker 1: rocky that it's unlikely they're going to make any excavations
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  Speaker 1: to find one.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it could be hidden in them their hills, and
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  Speaker 2: there is a port. The largest port of the region
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  Speaker 2: is named the Port of Hercule. And once again, adding
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  Speaker 2: to the whole crossroads of history, Vibe Julius Caesar is
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  Speaker 2: said to have stopped in Myoikas after he finished his
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  Speaker 2: campaign in Greece during the Gaelic Wars. And of course,
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  Speaker 2: once the Western Roman Empire collapsed in four seventy six,
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  Speaker 2: Monaco was then kind of pillaged by the Saracens and
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  Speaker 2: other barbarian tribes. Then in nine seventy five, once those
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  Speaker 2: invaders were driven from the lands, the area was reclaimed
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  Speaker 2: by you guessed it, the Ligurians.
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  Speaker 1: They love the place, you know what I mean. They're
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  Speaker 1: like peas and carrots with Monaco, which I'm sure they said.
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  Speaker 1: And you can catch a lot of Easter eggs about
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  Speaker 1: Monaco in Forrest Gump, the novel, not the film. No
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  Speaker 1: One fact check us. Monico is in fact older than
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  Speaker 1: France by five hundred years, almost half a millennium. And
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  Speaker 1: if you looked at it centuries ago, you would see
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  Speaker 1: that Monica was about eighty percent larger than it is today.
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  Speaker 1: As soon as we mentioned France, we stumbled as something
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  Speaker 1: that a lot of people here in the US might
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  Speaker 1: be confused about Monaco is not part of France. Now,
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  Speaker 1: historically it had been part of France, but in twelve
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  Speaker 1: fifteen it became a colony of Genoa due to a
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  Speaker 1: land grant from Emperor Henry the sixth And this is
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  Speaker 1: when the Grimaldi family settled in Monaco in twelve ninety seven,
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  Speaker 1: and ancestors of that family have controlled the principality of
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  Speaker 1: Monaco for over seven hundred and fifteen years.
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  Speaker 2: Now.
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  Speaker 1: If you think about it, you could say Monaco is
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  Speaker 1: a family business, and the current prince probably wouldn't get
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  Speaker 1: mad at you for saying that.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is interesting to me because you know, we
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  Speaker 2: think of royal lineages and all of that and God
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  Speaker 2: given rights to govern and all of that and to
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  Speaker 2: lord over underlings. But it's a little unusual, I guess,
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  Speaker 2: for like a not previously considered to be royalty family
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  Speaker 2: is sort of granted that status sort of overnight, right,
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  Speaker 2: unless I'm misreading this, where the Grimaldi's just sort of like,
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  Speaker 2: you know, a moneyed family that was was gifted this
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  Speaker 2: land and then decided to make themselves monarchs or how
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  Speaker 2: does that work exactly?
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  Speaker 1: They won it in a game of horse, which is
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  Speaker 1: very popular, which is a very popular predator basketball.
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  Speaker 4: Of course, she finished runner up in that competition, and
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  Speaker 4: I am still yeah, yeah, you guys were not talking
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  Speaker 4: about it on air, but I guess we're doing.
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  Speaker 1: This well, we're cooking live. Sorry, Max, but it's time
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  Speaker 1: that people learn the truth. So Monaco is without sounding
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  Speaker 1: to anti monarchists or anti royalty, which I very much am.
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  Speaker 1: Part of this goes back to the fact that it
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  Speaker 1: was considered impossible or ungot or barbaric for a country
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  Speaker 1: not to have a royal family ruling it of some sort,
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  Speaker 1: and then the idea of rightful claim to land almost
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  Speaker 1: always went back to the ability to conquer it. But
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  Speaker 1: let's let's get into this because they are the oldest
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  Speaker 1: ruling house in Europe from twelve ninety seven up to
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty three as we record this podcast, and for
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  Speaker 1: a long time their rulership was going to be phased
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  Speaker 1: out if they didn't produce airs. There's a lot of
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  Speaker 1: pressure to deliver on the Grimaldi clan. It wasn't until
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  Speaker 1: two thousand and two that France made a new treaty
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  Speaker 1: or modified their existing agreement and they said okay, if
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  Speaker 1: the Grimaldi family doesn't have airs, Monaco can still be
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  Speaker 1: independent because for years and years and years, the deal
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  Speaker 1: was that if you are a Gramat and you don't
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  Speaker 1: have kids and there are no Grimaldi's to rule Monaco,
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  Speaker 1: boom France takes over. And this feels like it was
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  Speaker 1: kind of a ad hoc solution, you know, where they said, Okay,
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  Speaker 1: you the Grimaldi family, you did a good job, but
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  Speaker 1: when you're done, we're going to return to the state
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  Speaker 1: of affairs as it stands. But yeah, you ask a
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  Speaker 1: great question. So here's what happened. This guy named Malisia,
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  Speaker 1: which in Italian translates to the gunning Francois Grimaldi. He
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  Speaker 1: plays this huge role in a conflict. There's civil strife
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  Speaker 1: in Genoa between these two big deal families. A lot
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  Speaker 1: of people take refuge in Monaco.
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  Speaker 2: Because of that strategic location. Right, there's a fortress up there. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: it looks really really cool too. Do check it out online, folks,
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  Speaker 2: if you get a chance. It looks neat. So there
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  Speaker 2: are these families, the Guilf family and the Gibbelin family.
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  Speaker 1: What do you think.
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  Speaker 2: No, yeah, I was gonna say maybe Guelf and Gibbelini,
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  Speaker 2: But I think we're probably both parking our cars in
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  Speaker 2: the same garage as our friend Chuck would say.
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  Speaker 1: Chuck Bryant, how from stuff you should know recently appeared
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  Speaker 1: on one of Scott Ackerman shows. I think on Scott
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  Speaker 1: hasn't seen, which is their film show. So the guilf
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  Speaker 1: family has some members hiding out in Monaco, and there's
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  Speaker 1: this guy named Grimaldo. He is the son of Otto Canela,
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  Speaker 1: who is the consul of Genoa, and he begins this
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  Speaker 1: family in eleven thirty three. He says, we're going to
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  Speaker 1: start a new house, the House of Grimaldi. So the
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  Speaker 1: Grimaldi family already exists before a lot of the strife occurs.
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  Speaker 1: But in twelve ninety seven, this guy, Francois the Cunning
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  Speaker 1: Grimaldi dresses up as a Franciscan monk alongside his cousin
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  Speaker 1: and him and his crew capture the Rock of Monaco.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, making a demonstrating his namesake, the Cunning. He
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  Speaker 2: was a man of many disguises. After he passed away
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  Speaker 2: in thirteen oh nine, Francois Grimaldi was succeeded by Ranier
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  Speaker 2: the First and then his son, Charles Grimaldi. He would
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  Speaker 2: go on to be known as Charles the First is
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  Speaker 2: considered by history to be the true founder of the
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  Speaker 2: Principality of Monaco. And maybe we should take a second
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  Speaker 2: to talk about what a principality is versus a monarchy.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, think about the root words, right, A principality
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  Speaker 1: versus a monarch. Key, one is ruled by monarch, one
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  Speaker 1: is ruled by a prince. I know it sounds so
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  Speaker 1: so simple, but we're not being snarky here. That's really
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  Speaker 1: what it means.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I thought there maybe was more to it than that,
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  Speaker 2: but that makes perfect sense. So he founded as Charles Grimaldi.
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  Speaker 2: Charles the First founded the Principality of Monaco, and he
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  Speaker 2: grabbed up a couple more lands, the lands of Minton
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  Speaker 2: and Roque Rochebrune, Roche Brune. Oh my goodness, where these
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  Speaker 2: are the prince pronunciation minefield here today we're doing our best, folks,
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  Speaker 2: working live as you say, ben, So this actually added
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  Speaker 2: some area to the region. Charles the First also took
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  Speaker 2: on an important part in the court of the at
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  Speaker 2: the time, the King of France, Regnier the Second, actually
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  Speaker 2: never went to Monaco at all, and he just divided
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  Speaker 2: up the lands between his sons Ambrose, Jean and Antoine.
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  Speaker 1: Oh and let me know here, for any anybody in
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  Speaker 1: the crowd is feeling a little bit pedantic today. You
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  Speaker 1: can be a prince, and I guess still be a monarch.
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  Speaker 1: It's just you're not the king. There's not a king
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  Speaker 1: of Monico. There's only a prince of Monico. So that
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  Speaker 1: would be the big, the big difference.
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  Speaker 2: And I wonder is that like by design, because you know,
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  Speaker 2: the kings don't want there to be more kings. You know,
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  Speaker 2: this is France, it has a king, and Monico is
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  Speaker 2: so closely tied to France and so geographically connected that
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  Speaker 2: maybe it would feel in some way diminishing for there
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  Speaker 2: to also be another king in such close proximity.
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  Speaker 1: I wouldn't point to a fantastic article by at least
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  Speaker 1: Taylor over on Vogue Monico has princes and princesses, but
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  Speaker 1: why no kings and queens? And in this article, which
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  Speaker 1: I think is a great exploration of this, the author
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  Speaker 1: points out that Monaco has always had to ally itself
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  Speaker 1: with other larger countries that already have a king and
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  Speaker 1: or queen. So they decided originally to call themselves a principality.
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  Speaker 1: The rulers of Monaco style themselves as prince and princess.
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  Speaker 1: That way, it is less of a threat. It does
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  Speaker 1: make them more patentable as kind of a vassal or
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  Speaker 1: client state.
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  Speaker 2: Got it, so I wasn't too far off the mark.
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  Speaker 2: So it's basically just about keeping the monarchs happy and
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  Speaker 2: making sure everyone plays nice together. No one gets too
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  Speaker 2: big for their kingly or princely breaches.
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  Speaker 4: Right, And to jump in here, if we remember with Andorra,
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  Speaker 4: there was actually co princess of Andorra. It's like that
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  Speaker 4: one guy that bishop in Spain and then the now
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  Speaker 4: president of France are the co princes fairs because it
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  Speaker 4: was a protectorate as well. I think it's probably a
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  Speaker 4: protectorate like how it's work throughout the you know, centuries
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  Speaker 4: of this whole deal going on.
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  Speaker 2: Max with the fact that seek in the fons and
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  Speaker 2: he's fallen knowledge just for ye right now here with
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  Speaker 2: the fact.
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  Speaker 1: And Jean the first who dies in fourteen fifty four,
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  Speaker 1: is succeeded by his son Catalan, which we'll we'll get
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  Speaker 1: to it in a future episode.
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  Speaker 2: Baby Uh.
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  Speaker 1: Catalan's daughter Claudine marries a Grimaldi from the Antibs or NTBs,
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  Speaker 1: a n tip Es branch named Lambert, and under this rule,
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  Speaker 1: Lambert's rule, it's Monaco gets recognized as independent by King
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  Speaker 1: Charles the eighth of France in fourteen eighty nine. This
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  Speaker 1: is a huge, huge deal. It's almost two hundred years
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  Speaker 1: after our boy Francois the cunning first captured the fortress
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  Speaker 1: over there on the rock. And every time I say it,
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  Speaker 1: I think of Sean Connery. I hope I'm the only
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  Speaker 1: one ridiculous historians. The Grimaldi's finally get sovereignty over this
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  Speaker 1: principality geopolitically. It's quite a coup, and the Genoese are
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  Speaker 1: not happy about this. They keep trying to take over Monaco.
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  Speaker 1: Fast forward, Louis the twelfth confirms Monaco's independence again. He
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  Speaker 1: creates an alliance between the Princess of Monaco that's just
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  Speaker 1: Prince plural and the King of France. And then they
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  Speaker 1: just keep trying to play the great nations off.
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  Speaker 2: Of each other, right because of their kind of you
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  Speaker 2: know situation tucked there between those nations, and Max with
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  Speaker 2: the Facts just a minute ago brought up the idea
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  Speaker 2: of a protectorate. So I'm wondering, like, you can a
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  Speaker 2: place be a protectorate and a principality at the same time.
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  Speaker 2: I think the answer is yes, right, because at this point,
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  Speaker 2: because of the disputes with the French authorities coming to
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  Speaker 2: an end, Monaco was then placed under the protection of Spain.
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  Speaker 2: Am I getting that right? Max?
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  Speaker 3: Yes? I think you're getting it very right.
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  Speaker 1: If I could also answer the question, A protectorate is
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  Speaker 1: any state that's controlled or protected by another so it
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  Speaker 1: can have its own any kind of internal government. It
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  Speaker 1: doesn't have to necessarily be like a monarchy. It doesn't
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  Speaker 1: have to be, you know, a communist state. It doesn't
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  Speaker 1: have to be a democracy or an autocracy. It's just
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  Speaker 1: any kind of client state, you know. And sometimes protectorate
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  Speaker 1: can be a dirty word, as in the rulers of
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  Speaker 1: a protectorate may not want to be called that to
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  Speaker 1: their faces, and they'll say no, no, we're allies. And
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  Speaker 1: then you say, oh, when's the last time you made
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  Speaker 1: a decision the US didn't want you to make? Right
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  Speaker 1: in the days of the Cold War the Soviet Union.
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  Speaker 2: The idea of offering protection also implies somewhat of a
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  Speaker 2: shakedown sometimes, right like you know, in mafia terms. If
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  Speaker 2: you're paying people are paying you for their protection. They're
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  Speaker 2: basically paying you not to mess them up and take
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  Speaker 2: their stuff, you know what I mean.
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  Speaker 4: It's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll protect you, but you
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  Speaker 4: should probably do these things, these ways that we want
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  Speaker 4: you to do.
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  Speaker 2: Be a shamed of something happened to your little micronation
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  Speaker 2: over there.
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  Speaker 1: And they're not all created equally, right in the case
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  Speaker 1: of some previous relationships, geopolitically, protectorate might just be paying
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  Speaker 1: a yearly tribute, or they may have total autonomy on
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  Speaker 1: their own eternal affairs, and it's just understood that the
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  Speaker 1: larger state, the protecting state, will be obligated to jump
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  Speaker 1: in militarily, or it could be absolutely domb needed. And
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  Speaker 1: it could be you know, it could be a parasitic
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  Speaker 1: relationship with the protector state taking up resources right, oppressing
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  Speaker 1: the people and their you know, their ability to speak
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  Speaker 1: freely and so on. I mean, the issues are, it
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  Speaker 1: is a good question. The issues are that a protector
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  Speaker 1: does not one size fits all. And Monaco knew they
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  Speaker 1: needed to be allied with larger forces, right, and they
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  Speaker 1: didn't always get along with these larger forces. There were
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  Speaker 1: disputes with authorities in France that resulted in Monaco being
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  Speaker 1: placed under the protection of Spain, and dealing with Spain
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  Speaker 1: was expensive. Spain put a lot of financial burden on Monaco.
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  Speaker 1: They had to pay for the expense of sheltering a
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  Speaker 1: Spanish garrison in the fortress for more than one hundred
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  Speaker 1: years starting to fifteen twenty four, and the whole time
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  Speaker 1: the Grimaldi's low key are saying, we got to keep
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  Speaker 1: having kids. This is all over if we don't keep
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  Speaker 1: having kids, which is not the most I don't know,
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  Speaker 1: maybe it's kind of romantic in a weird succession way.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe they've got some slow music playing, which means there
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  Speaker 1: would have to be other people in the room, and
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  Speaker 1: they're like, my darling for the principality.
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  Speaker 2: If that's what you're into. Sure. So, speaking of kids,
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  Speaker 2: we've got Lambert Grimaldi de Aantibus, who had three sons
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  Speaker 2: very similarly to him to the previous three sons we mentioned, Jean,
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  Speaker 2: Lucien and Augustin. Lucien's son Honorary the first, then had
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: two sons, Charles the second and Hercule. With that Hercules
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: name dropped there, he Lucien, that is enjoyed a relatively
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: peaceful rn near the end of his lifetime. But his
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: two sons, who ruled us in the succession, you know,
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: one after the other, did not do a particularly good
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: job in keeping that peaceful situation. Moving forward.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's a real game of thrones kind of
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: thing these Whenever you're ruling a country, you're in deep water.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: So his sons didn't sit in the catbird seat for
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: very long. But what you need to know for this
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: is that in sixteen twelve, Erkle's son On the second
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: was given the title Prince of Monico for the first time.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: This has become the official title of Monico's rulers, and
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: it's passed on to successors this day. Let's skip ahead.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: So that's some of the ancient basic history. A lot
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: of other stuff happened, but we want to introduce you
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: to Prince Regnier the third in nineteen forty nine. This
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: guy took the throne of Monaco and he married a
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: beutiful American actress, Grace Kelly in nineteen fifty six. May
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: be familiar to some sin of files in the audience,
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: and this guy played a huge role in making modern Monico.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: As we know it today.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and it was also like I mean, it kind
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: of created the image of the kind of celebrity driven
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: version of Monico. I mean it was really now kind
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: of part and parcel with the idea of American culture.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: You know, Grace Kelly was a huge movie star, you know,
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: one of the biggest, and now for her to essentially
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: become royalty of Monico, this was fodder for the tabloids.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: You know, this was very much like a front page
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: story that really kind of upped the cachet of the
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: micro nation, at least in terms of the eyes of
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: you know, sort of like the way we maybe think
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: of Ibitha or something. Now, you know that Monaco really
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: was starting to get that kind of vibe. I mean
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: it had been for some time, but it was maybe
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: a little bit more of a if you know, you know,
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: now everyone kind of knew.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and Grace Kelly was functioning, I would argue in
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: real way as an ambassador for the tiny nation of Monaco.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: They also, because there's still Grimaldi's remember, they also have
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: to have kids. So they have three children, Caroline, Albert,
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: and Stephanie. The youngest princess. Stephanie gets a lot of
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: ink in tabloids and you know, the the rags that
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: comment on celebrities. For her time as being a singer
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: of Fashion Model Party Girl in the nineteen eighties, she's
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: sort of a proto Kardashian, I would argue anyway, our
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: buddy Prince R also does some important legal work. He
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: reforms Monaco's constitution. He is buffering the economy and he says,
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: he says, look, we depend entirely too much on gambling.
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: When Prince R three, I want to call him when
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: he comes into his power. Nine percent of Monico's entire
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: revenue is coming from gambling. Imagine if ten percent of
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: the revenue from the US came from gambling. Anyway, they
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: knock it down to about three percent as the years
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: go on. Unfortunately, Grace Kelly passes away in a car
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: accident in nineteen eighty two, and the celebrity watchers of
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: the world, the royal watchers of the world, are absolutely shocked,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: you know, and of course our thoughts go to the family.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: It doesn't matter who you are in the world. Losing
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: someone to a car accident, Losing someone suddenly to any
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: accident such a tragic thing too.
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: In the prime of their life for sure. I mean,
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: you know, I don't believe there was any kind of
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: conspiracy attached to this like there was in this other case.
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: But it was very much a Princess Diana kind of
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: situation where you know, the world mourned, you know, the
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: death of Grace Kelly, not only because she was this
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: iconic Hollywood figure, but also because she had taken on
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: this kind of whole other image, you know, of being
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: an actual, actual facts princess, you know, I mean that's
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: sort of what every young girl dreams of and dreamt
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: of in those days. And maybe it's a little bit
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: cliche now, but you know, back in the forties and fifties,
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: the idea of you know, being carried away by a magical,
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: charming prince, you know, that was the stuff of like
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: Disney movies, and this was a real life case of that.
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: And to have that person taken you know, in such
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: a shocking and sudden manner, was you know, truly a
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: tragedy you don't seen that way. And then really everyone
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: mourned kind of collectively, but the prince did go on
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: and maintained a positive reputation, you know, as a ruler.
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: He was very much respected. He lived to a ripe
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: old age when he passed away in two thousand and five,
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: at which point his son, Prince Albert the second assented
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: to the throne.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: So we've sort of eaten our vegetables of tragedy here.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: Let's look at something that probably fascinates everyone who's heard
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: about Monaco, the history of the casino. It wasn't until
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: eighteen fifty six that Charles the third of Monaco granted
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: a concession to a couple of guys, a couple of
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: French guys, Albert Aubert and Napoleon Lingois. Again we're not
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: French speakers, to establish what was called a sea bathing
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: facility to treat various diseases. These were very popular in
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: the eighteen fifties or in the eighteen hundreds in general,
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: the idea that different climates could help with chronic conditions.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: And then they said, also you can build a what
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: they called a German style casino in Monaco.
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: Well, we might think of now as just like a spa,
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: like a resort town or whatever. And then the ad
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: the casino that's just kind of taking it to a level.
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: A German style casino that was new to me. I
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: guess I've never really thought about that, but I think
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: casinos have been you know, legal and very popular in
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: Germany for much longer than in other parts of the world.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm not too familiar. I was looking at this,
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: I was not too familiar with what a German style
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: casino would be, but it seems that most German casinos
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: historically offer all the stuff you would associate with a
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: James Bond film blackjack, baccer, rat, hungry, hungry, hippo roulette,
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: one of those is probably not true go fish and
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: the the the initial casino Shambo Rochambeau, of course, and
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: then estimating how many marbles are in a jar, the
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: sport of kings and carnies, and just just to quickly add,
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: Germany does possess two of the world's oldest casinos, and
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: Roman soldiers in ancient Roman times actually brought gambling to Germany,
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: so I mean they were kind of the prototype for
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: commercial scale gambling parlors. This is at your feet, This
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: is on you Roman Empire, Germany's gambling brothers sandaled feet.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: The initial casino in Monaco is opened in La condemen
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty two, but it wasn't a success right away.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: Its present location is in an area called the Caves
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: of Monte Carlo, and it happened. It's kind of like
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: underground Atlanta here in our fair metropolis, a place that
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: just keeps moving and people keep trying to reinvigorate it
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: and make it cool again. This casino seemed like a
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: good idea. Everybody was on board with it. By everybody,
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: we mean the rulers. But it was not an overnight success.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: To move around a lot. And this prominence of the
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: casino actually grew slowly over time because for quite a
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: while the area was pretty inaccessible for most Europeans. But
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: we'll learn how the casino became such an important part
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: of the economy.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, And you know, sometimes inaccessibility or you know, things
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: being kind of like I isolated in some way can
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: lend an air of exclusivity, but then you know, you
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: kind of you also need to be able to get there,
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: right So we talked about the Caves of Monte Carlo
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: in La Condamine, but it was not until the Society
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: de Bank de Mare opened what is now known as
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: the Monte Carlo Casino in eighteen sixty three. It is
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: kind of the iconic version of this thing. They had
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: an ideal location that was rife for kind of creating
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: that resort kind of type town, you know, a perfect spot, hotels,
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: the arts, you know, and of course the casino. It
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: was still a little bit difficult to reach, but that
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: would soon change in eighteen sixty eight when a link
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: to France's railway system was added, and this turned out
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: to be absolute pay dirt because now it was easy
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: to get there was never geographically that far. It was
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: just kind of nestled in those rocky, you know, fortressy
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: kind of hills. Now you were able to get there
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: by rail and that created a absolute influx of tourists
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: coming to experience it.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: The casino was such a hit that the Grimaldi family
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: looked around in eighteen sixty nine and said, hey, why
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: do we even need to get people to pay taxes?
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: If they live here, they don't have to pay income
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: tax here. Come on, it's Monaco. We want them in
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: the casino, not dealing with I'm dealing with the tax man.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: And the only reason they could afford to do this
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: was because the casino was such a runaway hit. As
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: someone who doesn't personally I'm not personally a gambling sort.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: I'm fascinated. I'm fascinated by it and his and we
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: can see that this is a huge economic boost, right
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: they realized this is the crown jewel of their economy
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: at the moment.
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: But why just offer that? Like were they being pressured
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: in some way to get rid of it? Like it
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: just like surely it wasn't just an act of benevolence.
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: It created a feedback loop. We'll we'll get into it
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: in just a bit.
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: The it has a lot to do with the demographic
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: of the people who were taking aspersage in Monaco. Yeah,
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: so we'll get to that sect. But like, okay, in
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: nineteen eleven, our buddy Prince Albert one who was most
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: famous for the old school telephone prank? Do you have
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: Prince Albert in a can?
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: I don't think it was more famous for the piercing.
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: Well he did.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: He did invent several canned goods and piercings. No one
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: fact checked that. I can't believe Special Prince Albert he
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: had the lip penile, didn't invent that. And also a
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: big thank you again to all the all the cool
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: teachers who play this show as part of their curriculum.
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: Thank you, folks.
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: No, it was hold on, it was uh, let's see,
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: let's go to MythBuster. I just I gotta know, just
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: to make case. Yeah, this is educational for everyone. In
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: case anyone's interested, we're talking about a very strategically located piercing.
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: It was Prince Albert of the United Kingdom. Too many
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: princes of the same name.
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: Not to malign the Monicas. Prince Albert he is the
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: one who adopts the first Constitution for Monaco, and he separates,
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: He makes a separation of power executive, legislative, judiciary. This
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: can sound boring, but the thing is it's incredibly important
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: because otherwise they could be ruling as absolute monarchs, which
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: would be pretty dangerous for the people of Monaco. Another
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: important political development the Treaty of Versailles in July nineteen eighteen.
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: A lot of people have heard about the Treaty Versailles,
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: but one thing you may not know about it is
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: that it gave limited French protection over Monaco and said, basically,
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: you run your indoors, your internal affairs, and we will
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: take care of your outdoor votes the wider world vote
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: Monico gets a vote in the United Nations, it just
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: pretty much is always what France wants.
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: Right, and that's you know, not exactly mandated, you know,
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: I mean there's the illusion of autonomy there, right, ben
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: But it's just more like, yeah, you know, if you
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: know what's good for you, right, Yeah.
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: And the rubber hits the road. In World War Two,
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: when Monaco is trying to remain neutral in the Italian
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: Army invades and occupies occupies the country. The leader of
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: Italy at the time, Benito Mussolini, one of the only
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: bad bins in history. Yeah, he spoiler. Things do not
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: go well for him, thankfully, and.
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: When is anything like dragged behind a vehicle or something
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: like that the streets.
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: It did not end well. It was not dignified. After
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: his regime topples and Italy, Monico is occupied by Nazi Germany.
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: Maybe they just heard about the casinos. Prince Louis did
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: something really cool and the people of Monaco deserve a
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: lot of credit for this. Prince Louis the Second used
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: the police of Monaco to warn Jewish inhabitants if they
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: were being marked for arrest by the Gestapo and allowed
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: them invaluable time to escape with their lives. And they
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: were many people who lived there of a Jewish descent
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: were able to escape due to the assistance of the
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: king and the police. Eventually the Americans came and liberated
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: the principality. So even in the even in these very
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: opulent places, World War two hit hard, and I just
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: wanted to take some time and shout that action out because,
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: you know, as a person who is against the absolutely
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: terrible idea of monarchies and royal rule, it's so incredibly commendable.
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: Dare I say noble to see a positive action taken.
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And you know, I mean, obviously there are tons
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: of problems inherent in monarchies, but I would argue better
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: than fascism most of the time. I guess that you
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: can't have fascist monarchies though let's not get it twisted,
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: but like if you have a monarchy that is more
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: or less operating with the benefit of the people in mind,
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: which you know, there were certainly those, and there were
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: obviously certainly those that were completely self serving and did
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: not give to shakes about the people. But it's cool
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: to see folks that are part of that often maligned
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: fairly system of government taking one for the team and
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: putting themselves at great risk because actually talking with my
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: partner the other day about like, how does something like
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: Hitler happen and how were people able to just go
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: along with it? And the short answer is, sure, some
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: some people went along with it, maybe out of fear,
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: maybe out of true belief in the ideology that he
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: was putting forth, out of just hate and ignorance. But
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: then there were certainly folks that, at great risk to themselves,
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: you know, did not go along with it. But they
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: had to do so very carefully in order to be successful,
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: or else they'd be snuffed out instantly. And we proceed
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: to the modern day. Right, the new Constitution comes out
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: in nineteen sixty two. It gives women the vote.
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: Case just note that there was not women's suffrage until
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: the early nineteen sixties, abolishes capital punishment, establishes a Supreme Court.
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: So people are getting some fundamental liberties. And our buddy
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: prints R III during this is during his reign, he
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: makes Monaco what you could optimistically call a thriving center
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: of international finance. That's what monch Co officially calls itself.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: There's a lot there's a lot in between the lines
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: of those words. But the guy does a huge number
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: of improvements. There are a lot of major projects like
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: renovating that port we mentioned so that they could get
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: more and more ships to dock there, including cruise ships.
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: Monico is very popular with cruises and then creating cultural centers.
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: I think maybe to the best way for us to
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: end just to just explore some fun facts about Monaco
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: in the modern day, with the hope that the tourism
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: board of Monaco will want to take three plucky podcasters
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: on a trip. Yeah, it's true, I guess no, you
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: want to do it? Come on, I will I will
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: gamble if we're in Monaco. It's a win in Rome
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: situation for me.
• 39:51
  Speaker 3: We will learn all these pronunciations.
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: We promise come on, win in Rome or losing Monica.
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: So right, so Monaco has to get said at the top.
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: A huge industry and tours and gambling. But also they're
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: deep in banking because that lack of income tax attracted
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: very wealthy people, not just from Europe but across the world.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: Sixteen percent of revenue comes from the banking industry and
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: money management. So like you know, a state managers those
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: wealth offices, like a lot of people don't have this
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: but if you're from a very wealthy family, you may
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: be familiar with the idea of the family office. Sure,
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: that's when you have so much money that you have
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: a dedicated team of people employed privately by your family
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: just to manage all that's, all that revenue from your
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: interest and all your tax liability and so on and
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: so on. At that point, your money, your horde of treasure,
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: becomes kind of like a thinking institution all its own.
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: Unless do you think, ooh, this sounds great. I hate
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: paying taxes. You probably can't afford to live in Monaco, right, like, yeah,
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: sure you don't. You don't pay income taxes. But the
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: cost of living there and the cost of real estate
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: and the you know again it's densely populated but tiny land,
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: you know, very limited availability. Uh, probably prohibitively expensive for
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: the average folks. You can maybe afford to go there
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: on vacation. That's how most people do it. You can also, uh,
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: you can also sleep in Nice, France and then just
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: take a half hour ride into Monico. That's a lot
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: of people will live outside of it. It's funny because
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: a few years back, you case, no, I've been obsessed
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: with micronations for a while, I started looking up apartments
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: for rent in Monaco because way before we ever did
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: ridiculous history, and the prices aren't uh, they're not super affordable,
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: but there are there are a couple of deals that
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: are there are deals where you could maybe make it work.
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: But the issue is.
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: Why would you when you could just commute in from France.
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: Right The people who are living there, part of the
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: reason they're paying that premium is to get out of
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: the income tax liability.
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: And it's really interesting too. We talked at the top
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: of the show how we're both fascinated by the title
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: or the name. I guess that gets established. They get
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: associated with people who are residents of whether it be
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: a certain country or a certain state like Michigander is
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: one of my favorites here in the US. People who
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: were born in Monaco, we talked about this earlier, are
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: known as Monegasque. But there's also a name for someone
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: who's born in another country but has a residence in Monaco.
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: They're called Monacoean. And it kind of makes sense. Because
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: of the limited availability of resources in land, the Natives
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: are actually in the minority. They're only about a fifth
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: of the population.
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and that population, by the way, I'm sure a
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: lot of people were wondering, it's only like thirty eight
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: thousand people. It is very very small, it's very densely populated.
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: It's a huge conurbation. It also has the highest life
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: expectancy in the world so far as we know as
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: a country, eighty five and a half years old for men,
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: ninety three point five years old for women.
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: Because of the climate, maybe because there's some fountain of
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: youth situations.
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: There's just a lot of people who can afford the
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: world's best healthcare.
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: That's good, That's exactly what it is. Yeah, And if
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: you're interested in the makeup, I guess of nationalities that
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: occupy Monaco, we are looking at French nationals filling up
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: the largest portion of this pie at twenty eight point
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: four percent. Then we've got the native Montagasques at twenty
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: one point six percent, Italians at eighteen point seven percent,
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: British seven point five percent, Belgian two point eight, German
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: at two point five, Swiss two point five, and US
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: nationals only one point two. Because that's you know, that's
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: like new money, man. You know, you got to be like, oh,
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: legacy money, to be able to afford to rocket in Monica.
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: I mean, I'm just kind of joking, but it's also
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: like these are this is legacy wealth we're talking about, right,
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: a lot of it.
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And also the the current Prince and Princess of Monaco,
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: they are Olympians. Albert Cool, Yeah, you'll Max, you'll you'll
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: dig this right. Albert was in the bob sleigh at
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: five different Winter Olympics. Uh, did not walk away with medals.
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: But Princess Charlie has won three gold medals and a
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: silver medal in multiple different swimming competitions. Unfortunately, she did
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: not get the gold for Monaco. Competed for South Africa,
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: where she grew up. Because you know, if I'm assuming empathy,
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: which I always tried to do that, I could see
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: how growing up in Monaco, even if you're amidst all
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: this immense wealth and privilege, you might feel like Ariel
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: in The Little Mermaid, right, you know, there's a wider
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: world out there, you want to go explore it, sore.
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: So that's why she's probably raised in South Africa and
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: trotted the globe. Of course, these people do travel freely.
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: Isn't that interesting though? Because now I guess the law
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: is no longer that you know, the agreement's been changed
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: where you no longer have to be a legacy member
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: of the Grimaldi family.
• 45:46
  Speaker 3: I'm guessing she married into the family.
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: I would assume so for sure. But I'm just saying, like,
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: now the future is wide open. I wonder how how
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: is that determined? If so, I guess that just means
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: there wouldn't be a prince or princess. If there's no
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: heir that family, then is someone installed, but it is
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: still going to be an independent nation. They just would
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: no longer be a prince or princess.
• 46:07
  Speaker 4: Right, That's a good point, Like, look, what is a
• 46:08
  Speaker 4: hierarchy asterist? I mean, granted, Grimaldi's are very good at
• 46:12
  Speaker 4: having more children, as we've learned through the story, but yeah,
• 46:15
  Speaker 4: that is that is an interesting thing. Like what happens
• 46:18
  Speaker 4: does the monarch position?
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: Just see it's the prime minister.
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: Maybe, well, they have a Council of Regency and it
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: takes power. This is not super great for anti monarchists
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: in the crowd. They have a Council of Regency that
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: takes sort of temporary or interim power until something called
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: the Crown Council sort of like the fixers that you
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: see in the TV series Secession, until they elect a
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: new monarch from the more distant descendants of the House
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: of Grimaldi. So they'll just have to see how far
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: they need to go back in the genealogy and say,
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: you know, well, this guy was a fourth cousin in
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: the sixteen hundred, so surely he's up on the policy
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: of Monaco. He's got to be the best guy for
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: the job, because that's how monarchies work.
• 47:09
  Speaker 3: It sounds like the urals trying to get together and
• 47:12
  Speaker 3: call him moot.
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, Skyriel. Uh so yeah, if you want to
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: buy land at Monaco, you can. It is going to
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: be it can, Yes, yes, it is. It is possible
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: in this universe for you to do so. A square
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: meter of land is going to run you between fifty
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: thousand and one hundred thousand euros.
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: You your whole house, right, No, that's.
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: The again, that's you heard you heard it right, ridiculous historians.
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: That's one meter of land. If you want to go
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: to apartments for rent in Monaco, just this is the
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: old website I was going to. Uh, you'll see that
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: you can rent stuff like a studio apartment for just
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: five thousand, five hundred.
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: Euro, which is what with the with the old not inflation,
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: but just do the conversion. I think it's roughly one
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: to one right now with the dollar, or it's not
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: far off, but I think it's it's like a one
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: euro is like a dollar ten. Yeah, right exactly. But
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: still that's that's that's wild five thousand.
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: So think of it like five five hundred bucks for
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: studio apartment.
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: I mean that's like way more than in New York City,
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: you know, are some of the most expensive places in
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: our country. That's insane. Wow, Okay, must be really nice.
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: Must be nice. But let's say maybe maybe you're not.
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: Maybe you're not looking to rent or buy, but you're
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: looking to be incarcerated. Maybe not looking to be but
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: you find yourself to be incarcerated, well, you would be
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: in a very small group of the chosen few, with
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: Monico's jail holding only around twenty prisoners with the seaside
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: view by the way.
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: From those cells, I wonder what their crimes are too,
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: You thinking white collar? Yeah, money laundring and financial scams.
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: And this is a neat little twist of the ways
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: described in Europe. They are jailed for money laundry, not laundry,
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: just laundry. If you are a citizen of Monaco, bad luck.
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: You cannot work in the casino. You cannot gamble in
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: the casino. A lot of people work in the casino
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: as are coming from France, and this is so weird
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: to me because they're kind of doing drug dealer rules right.
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: Don't dip into the product right for sure.
• 49:36
  Speaker 2: And if you're thinking to yourself, man, this place sounds
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: like you'd be a really great setting for like a
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: heist movie or you know, some sort of spy thriller,
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: well you would be absolutely correct. GoldenEye has seen set
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: in Monaco films like the nineteen twenty The Black Spider,
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: nineteen thirty one's bombs on Monte Carlo, the Red Shoes.
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: Which is not a heist, but still Monico is now.
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: I think there's a great website called TV Tropes which
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: everyone should check out. Monaco is essentially a trope now
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: for visual shorthand to show that there are global shenanigans
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: of foot. If something starts in Monaco, then we're talking
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: a high dollar spine or a heisting or so on.
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: At least that's how it's often featured in the United States.
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: You know, Ocean's Twelve has scenes in Monico. Iron Man
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: two has scenes in Monaco, and Monico gets a cut
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: of the film.
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: Oh, I'm sure they get something for sure. Yeah, definitely.
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: And also when one last one, one that I actually
• 50:46
  Speaker 2: haven't seen, would have been meaning to it's on my list.
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: The Alfred Hitchcock directed Rebecca, which won a Best Picture.
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, I remember that one.
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, forty. I think it's based on a novel that
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: was very, very hugely successful. I haven't read the novel, Yeah,
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: but I've really not mention It also doesn't seem quite
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: like a typical Hitchcock that you think of. I mean,
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: it's definitely Gothic.
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: If I remember, I have to rewatch it. Hopefully. It's
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: on the Criterion Channel, which didn't pay me to say this,
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: but their subscription service is awesome.
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: Unbelievable, And then they have such cool rotating kind of
• 51:23
  Speaker 2: curated collections. Also, you know another one that's good. I'm
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: sure you're familiar with. Ben is a movie which I
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: know sounds silly but just the name, but it has
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: a I believe, monthly rotating kind of curated selection of
• 51:37
  Speaker 2: really interesting films and they're constantly kind of moving through,
• 51:40
  Speaker 2: so it's a cool way to just see what's there
• 51:42
  Speaker 2: and check it out because there's always going to be
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: something of interest. And of course I once again recommend
• 51:49
  Speaker 2: the very imperfect but immensely fascinating Wiki travel site. If
• 51:55
  Speaker 2: you want to learn more in a very strange way
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: about a different country, go to their wiki travel articles.
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: Exactly what it sounds like.
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: It's meant to be a primer for people considering traveling
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: to a place. And the funny thing is it contradicts
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: itself often because it's crowdsourced, and sometimes you can tell
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: when the guy who owns the restaurant is writing about
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: his own restaurant, and sometimes you can tell when the
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: informations actually pulled from the un But the wiki travel
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: article on Monaco, love it, love it. It's it's pretty interesting,
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: tells you all the different ways to get in to
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: get around. You can also see some great amateur travel
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: documentaries on Monaco. You're just a YouTube search away. YouTube,
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: by the way, is the world's second largest search engine
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: after Google, which is weird because Google owns YouTube. Anyway,
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: that's a story for another day. Another roll of the dice,
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: but I think we should go to Monico once we
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: get it in the budget.
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: I would love to.
• 53:01
  Speaker 3: I would look.
• 53:01
  Speaker 2: I mean, I've never been to the south of France
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: in general. Like you said, Niece is another adjacent location,
• 53:06
  Speaker 2: and there's that whole area just seems kind of magical.
• 53:09
  Speaker 2: So let's put it on our to do list.
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm heading to you know, I think I have
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: the circumstances are going to find me in Italy later
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: in a few so maybe I.
• 53:19
  Speaker 2: Can try to.
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: Maybe I can see how tough it is to get
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: into Monico. What do you have to do, Rennick, cruise ship.
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: I'll probably just take the train. Who knows.
• 53:28
  Speaker 4: I might be a distant relative of the Grimaldi family,
• 53:31
  Speaker 4: so we might be there soon because I might be
• 53:34
  Speaker 4: running the country.
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: I love it. We might all be. You guys remember
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: the the cinematic masterpiece King Ralph from nineteen ninety one, where.
• 53:44
  Speaker 2: I remember he's something called spotted Dick and I thought
• 53:47
  Speaker 2: that was hilarious.
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: John Goodman, I want to say, yeah, John Ridman. Due
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: to a royal mishap, as the distant illegitimate descendant of
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: the royal family, he'd be the King of the United Kingdom.
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: I remember liking that as a kid, and I think
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: it's one of those that I'm not going to rewatch
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: because I want to keep the memory as it is.
• 54:09
  Speaker 2: I have a feeling it did not age well if
• 54:13
  Speaker 2: I if I'm a mistake.
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: Anyway, So big, big, big thanks to big big things
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: to our super producer, uh the Possible Royal Uh, mister
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: Max Williams. Max, It's hard to get in there, but
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: you have citizenship in the Monaco that is my heart,
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: my friends.
• 54:31
  Speaker 2: Huge thanks to Alex Williams who composed our theme. Christo
• 54:34
  Speaker 2: frasciotis here in spirit, Eve's Jeff Coates wherever she may
• 54:37
  Speaker 2: find herself. And you Ben for being my prince, the
• 54:42
  Speaker 2: prince of my heart.
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: Also also with you, you know what, we can start
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: our own Monaco with black wait, they already have a casino.
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: Shout out to anyone who got that Futurama reference.
• 54:57
  Speaker 2: Who would shuppen We'll see next time, folks. For more
• 55:07
  Speaker 2: podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.