Boom & Bust

0:04Speaker 1:Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Hong Hi Kwan had just failed his fourth civil service exam. He was mortified, but in truth, this was nothing to be ashamed of. Most people didn't pass. These exams were a big part of what made China such a dominant nation.

0:50Speaker 1:Its leaders were largely in power based on merit, except for the emperor, of course. Chiquan hated to think of the Emperor on his throne in Nijing, being born into power and not having to pass any exam at all. Later that night, he went to sleep, and he had a dream. He floated up from his home and into the clouds, where a strange man who said he was Shikwan's father told him that demons were destroying China. He then gave him a sword and introduced him to another man who he claimed was Schui Kwan's brother. When Chuquan woke up, the next morning, he didn't know what to think of this dream. Years later, though, around eighteen thirty nine, he came across a pamphlet from a Christian missionary. When he read about the Christian God and his son Jesus, he came to believe that these were the father and brother from his dream, and that meant that shu Quan was the second son of God. And so he decided that the demons that he was meant to destroy or the Emperor and the emperor's family. He told his own family about his revelation and began to cultivate a following in southern China. Through most of Chinese history, the nation

1:56Speaker 1:had been an unstable mix of different ethnic minorities, and this era was no different. The people of this region shared no blood relation with the ruling Qing dynasty, and they were suffering in poverty. Schukwan's message that he was the son of God meant to liberate them from their demon rulers quickly caught on The movement became known as the Heavenly Kingdom. They were somewhat puritanical, demanding abstinence from drugs, alcohol, and sex outside of marriage. They were also somewhat pre socialist, as they believed in equality between men and women and the sharing of property. Before long, they had gathered weapons and launched attacks on nearby Qing strongholds. They ruthlessly slaughtered any soldiers who would enjoin their cause. The Emperor, who had only recently ended a war with the British, was spread too thin to respond, but this was a mistake, because soon the Heavenly Kingdom had stolen a whole fleet of ships. In eighteen fifty two, they were able to travel up the Yangtsee River to the imperial stronghold of Nanjing.

2:58Speaker 1:This was the traditional home of the emperors, and soon the cultists were scaling the walls, slaughtering the soldiers inside. Millions died in the wake of their violence. They now ruled a significant portion of southern China. Chu Quan was seen as the true son of God, who had delivered the poor from the Ching's boot. The Emperor, who fled to Beijing, was distracted by another war with England and France and wanted to be able to import opium into China.

3:25Speaker 1:Chu Quan saw this as just another example of how the emperor was unable to protect his people. But once the British and French were victorious. They sent the emperor after the Heavenly Kingdom. They couldn't tolerate an entire faction that banned opium. There were rumors that the stress of the situation led Chuquan to start smoking opium himself, going against his own sacred beliefs. Ultimately, he died in eighteen sixty four of mysterious causes. Just as the imperial forces were besieging Neijing. They took the city and slaughtered any and all who were loyal to the Heavenly Kingdom. It said that some of Chuquan's followers saw the end of the kingdom coming and immolated themselves in public rather than live under the rule of the supposedly demonic Empire. Millions were killed as the Imperial army fought its way south and reclaimed all of its lost territory. Historians estimate that anywhere between twenty to fifty million people died. For comparison, the entire deathtoll military and civilian of World War One was between nine and fifteen million, and all of this brutality stemmed from a being both a religious war and

4:33Speaker 1:a colonial conflict. The Heavenly Kingdom saw their enemies as demons unworthy of life, and the colonizing British and French saw them as less than human. Curiously, the Heavenly Kingdom was inspired by Christian beliefs that were introduced to China by the British. If they hadn't forced their beliefs on the country after the First Chinese British War, it's possible the Taiping Rebellion may never have happened at all. On a morning in January of nineteen ninety nine, a group of reporters gathered in a brightly lit office. They were there to witness an unusual announcement from a financial advisor named Raven Thoroughgood the Third. It was the height of the dot com boom, the period when the Internet was just taking off and tech companies were setting the stock market on fire. Raven wanted to help investors capitalize on the trend by launching his own index fund with ten hand pick stocks that were sure to succeed. What made Raven so unusual was that he had no prior experience in finance. He was an actor who had had a successful career in Hollywood, and he openly admitted that he knew nothing about internet companies or the stock market in general.

5:56Speaker 1:He planned to choose his stocks simply by throwing darts at a board. The reporters watched in astonishment as Raven picked up a dart and threw it at the board on the opposite wall, which was covered in the names of various internet companies. His assistant removed the dart and announced the name of a company he had selected, CMGI, and then he repeated the process, randomly, choosing nine more relatively unknown companies. The press, needless to say, was skeptical.

6:24Speaker 1:In fact, everyone thought this was a total farce. But within a week, one of Ravens stock picks, CMGI, was up ninety six percent. Over the next year, the stocks Raven had selected kept rising and rising and rising. By the end of the year, his portfolio had outperformed every other index fund on Wall Street. Raven had bested thousands of experienced brokers to deliver a shocking two hundred and thirteen percent return. Within one year of beginning his career, He was ranked as the twenty second most successful money manager in the United States. He appeared in the Guinness of World Records. Everyone on Wall Street was clamoring to figure out how he did it. Of course, Raven's PR team attributed his success to sheer natural talent, but market analysts saw shadows of something a bit more ominous. To them, Raven's overnight success was a sign that internet stocks were unstable, unpredictable, and possibly headed for a disaster. If someone like Raven could gain the system so well, that meant that there was no logic whatsoever in which stock succeeded and failed, and no bet was safe because Raven wasn't just inexperienced,

7:35Speaker 1:he was also a chimpanzee. Unfortunately, the market analysts were right. Raven was just riding the wave of the dot com bubble, and at the turn of the New millennium that bubble burst. Raven's portfolio fell a stunning thirty four percent in the year two thousand. Within a few years, every single stock he had picked was worth absolutely nothing. But Raven's dartboard experiment lived on as proof that the stock market isn't all about strategy or careful analysis. Sometimes it's all just a load of monkey business. I hope you enjoyed today's guided tour through the Cabinet of curiosities. This show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with iHeart Podcasts, researched and written by the Grim and Mild team, and produced by Jesse Funk. Learn more about the show and the people who make it over at Grimandmild dot com slash Curiosities. You'll also find a link to the official cabinet of Curiosity's hardcover book, available in bookstores and online, as well as ebook and audiobook. And if you're looking for an ad free option, consider joining our Patreon. It's all the same stories, but without the interruption for a

8:47Speaker 1:small monthly fee. Learn more and sign up over at patreon dot com slash Grimandmild, and until next time, stay curious.