WEBVTT - Part One: The Most Evil Company In History 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:08.399 M Hey everybody, I'm Robert Evans and this is again 0:00:08.520 --> 0:00:10.680 Behind the Bastards, the show where we tell you everything 0:00:10.720 --> 0:00:12.840 you don't know about the very worst people in all 0:00:12.840 --> 0:00:16.080 of history. Now, today we have a very special guest, indeed, 0:00:16.200 --> 0:00:20.200 my former co worker and current friend slash friend worker, 0:00:20.720 --> 0:00:25.200 Michael s Wayne. How do y'all? Did I get that right? 0:00:25.320 --> 0:00:29.840 Swam here? That is correct from the cool Ranch. So 0:00:30.000 --> 0:00:33.760 tell you all about the great crunchy taste of doritos. 0:00:33.800 --> 0:00:36.199 We are eating Dorito's. That's not like a joke or 0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:38.279 anything like. It started out as an attempt to get 0:00:38.280 --> 0:00:40.320 money out of the Dorrito's people, and now we just 0:00:40.360 --> 0:00:42.440 eat a lot of derita You're pounding them down. Yeah, 0:00:42.479 --> 0:00:44.720 it's delightful. It's great to be here, Robert, thank you 0:00:44.760 --> 0:00:46.720 so much. Yeah, thanks for showing up. So, Michael, you 0:00:46.760 --> 0:00:48.519 and I worked together for a while and now you 0:00:48.560 --> 0:00:50.800 are are the one of the head beans of the 0:00:50.840 --> 0:00:56.720 Small Beans Network. What true? Oh dat right? True? Dat 0:00:56.720 --> 0:01:01.200 tape fantastic. Uh So today we're talking about the age 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:03.640 of heroic commerce. Have you ever heard of this? No? 0:01:04.000 --> 0:01:06.520 And you I asked for like a clueless so I 0:01:06.560 --> 0:01:09.560 would be talking about and you said, it's the age 0:01:09.560 --> 0:01:12.320 of heroic commerce, and I resisted so strongly there just 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:14.080 to look it up. So I'm coming in fully cold. 0:01:14.440 --> 0:01:16.959 Do not know what you're talking about? Well, yeah, that 0:01:17.120 --> 0:01:19.240 is You've hit upon as I should have explained a 0:01:19.240 --> 0:01:21.360 few seconds earlier, the premise of the show, which is 0:01:21.400 --> 0:01:24.200 that I read a story about someone terrible or someone's 0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:27.760 who are terrible, Uh to a comedian guest who's coming 0:01:27.800 --> 0:01:31.200 in cold. So uh, we're gonna start in on that 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:34.400 right now. Actually, first off, I'm going to open a 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:37.280 diet coke and I'm going to do like a theatric open. So, 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:41.400 my god, no matter who you are or what your 0:01:41.440 --> 0:01:44.880 personal stance on politics and capitalism is, you probably have 0:01:45.240 --> 0:01:47.920 a corporation at least one that you regard as evil. 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:50.360 Maybe it's mont Santo, maybe it's a T and T. 0:01:50.520 --> 0:01:53.600 S Warner Media, the parent of CNN. If you're the president, 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:57.040 perhaps you hate Blackwater now x E. Or perhaps you 0:01:57.040 --> 0:01:59.480 hate news Corps, or maybe you're not a fan of 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:03.040 Twitter because they banned your favorite conspiracy theorist. Everybody hates 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:07.800 at least one corporation these days. Who You've got a 0:02:07.840 --> 0:02:12.640 real problem. I feel like there's not just a story 0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:15.360 but like a solid two seasons of stories and the 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:20.000 explanation for that for another day. Uh. So, yeah, we've 0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:22.400 all got a corporation we hate, and hatred of a 0:02:22.520 --> 0:02:25.600 corporation or corporations feels like a pretty modern thing, right. 0:02:25.639 --> 0:02:28.040 You have trouble imaging someone in like sixteen oh five 0:02:28.440 --> 0:02:32.520 yelling about the corporation. Yeah, but the reality is that 0:02:32.600 --> 0:02:35.040 tens of millions of people have all over the world, 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:37.680 with very good reason, been hating on big business since 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:40.679 the sixteen hundreds. In fact, even with all the nightmarish 0:02:40.680 --> 0:02:43.560 climactic fury of modern oil corporations, the scandals of the 0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:46.480 tobacco industry, and the vast sea of eating disorders caused 0:02:46.480 --> 0:02:49.320 by the fashion industry in Hollywood, corporate evil may have 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:52.720 reached its peak so far more than two hundred years ago. 0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:55.200 So join me, won't you, on a magical tour of 0:02:55.200 --> 0:02:58.160 a period of time the author Stephen are Bound calls 0:02:58.240 --> 0:03:01.440 the age of Heroic Commerce. His book Merchant Kings has 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:04.600 been one of the major sources for this episode. So. Uh. 0:03:04.639 --> 0:03:07.040 The idea of working with several other people to run 0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:09.720 a business goes back a very long time, thousands of years, 0:03:09.840 --> 0:03:12.400 right probably to the beginning of currency in cities and stuff. 0:03:12.400 --> 0:03:17.360 I think Zilgian symbols started that. Whoa oldest incorporated business 0:03:17.400 --> 0:03:20.600 still in existence? That's cool. How older they go back, 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:23.360 I'd have to look it up, but I just know 0:03:23.440 --> 0:03:26.639 they tout that fact and I've verified it online. Well 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:29.920 that's pretty cool. Um. So, yeah, the idea of you know, 0:03:29.960 --> 0:03:31.440 running a business with a bunch of people, that goes 0:03:31.480 --> 0:03:34.040 back a long time. But corporation is a different matter 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:36.720 because for most of human history, there was nothing that 0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:38.480 you would want to do that it would acquire more 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:40.600 than you know, a couple of rich people working together 0:03:40.640 --> 0:03:43.240 in order to provide the funding and the funding. I 0:03:43.280 --> 0:03:45.839 was like, there, rich people wouldn't be doing the work. No, never, 0:03:46.040 --> 0:03:48.960 never never never never, like at no point in history obviously. 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:50.360 But you mean you're like, we don't need to put 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:53.080 ink the paper on this. We're three rich dudes with 0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:55.160 money will do the thing. Yeah, you didn't need like 0:03:55.200 --> 0:03:57.440 if you wanted to run a factory at the very beginning, 0:03:57.520 --> 0:03:58.840 like it was, it was just a couple of rich 0:03:58.880 --> 0:04:01.920 guys could fund it, right, need it didn't take resources 0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:05.000 of huge numbers of people and like vast capital stuff, 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:07.120 you know, anything that did that was generally the province 0:04:07.120 --> 0:04:10.000 of a state, the national government or whatever. Rome built 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:13.720 the roads as a government, not as an of business enterprises. Right. 0:04:14.320 --> 0:04:17.320 The great granddaddy of all modern corporations was the Dutch 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:20.880 East India Company. It was first formed in six two. 0:04:21.400 --> 0:04:23.320 It was a chartered company, so basically a bunch of 0:04:23.320 --> 0:04:25.240 people who didn't know each other all paid in so 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:28.600 they'd get a share of the profits from this business. Uh. 0:04:28.600 --> 0:04:30.480 And in the case of the Dutch East India Company, 0:04:30.520 --> 0:04:32.800 its business was achieving a monopoly on all of the 0:04:32.839 --> 0:04:36.120 spices that came from India and Southeast Asia. So we're 0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:40.000 talking like mace. We're talking maces a cooking spice. Yeah, 0:04:40.360 --> 0:04:42.680 they're related to mace, like the weapon man. I think 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:46.280 it's probably why the spray has its name. There's also 0:04:46.440 --> 0:04:49.520 nutmeg and clothes. You don't want to get a nutmeg 0:04:49.560 --> 0:04:55.120 spray in your eyes. It's that happened all the time. Yeah, 0:04:55.680 --> 0:04:58.560 and a lot of trying to sneak a cookie. Mom 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:02.240 just goes nuts with the nut man. So yeah, now 0:05:02.320 --> 0:05:04.240 that kind of stuff you buy for like eighty nine 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:06.880 cents from Trader Joe's in a big tube. But back 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:08.680 in the day, it was worth enough that like, if 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:11.040 you had a backpack of nutmeg and you like landed 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:14.440 in London six hundreds, you were a rich man. It's 0:05:14.480 --> 0:05:18.760 crazy that like Disney or Facebook, any of the big 0:05:18.800 --> 0:05:22.000 companies you could name back then the big company that 0:05:22.120 --> 0:05:24.640 had that much money and Cloud was just like food 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:28.160 is so fucking bland. This will fix that. Every big sucks. 0:05:28.720 --> 0:05:33.920 Thank god. Finally here's all the money. Well in, all 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:35.680 of the spices that we've talked about so far come 0:05:35.800 --> 0:05:38.640 from our only located in a chunk of Indonesia called 0:05:38.640 --> 0:05:41.640 the Banda Islands. These are known as the Spiceries, so 0:05:42.000 --> 0:05:45.640 you get all the spy that was the only place, yeah, 0:05:45.720 --> 0:05:49.680 only place clothes grew. Um. So yeah, the Duchy c 0:05:49.680 --> 0:05:52.279 India Company is formed to try and gain a monopoly 0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:55.640 on the trade of all the spices from those delightful islands. Now, 0:05:55.640 --> 0:05:57.560 it started out with a twenty one year charter, so 0:05:57.560 --> 0:05:59.480 it was supposed to be dissolved in the money given 0:05:59.480 --> 0:06:01.919 back to its original formers after that point, but it 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:04.000 wound up getting its chry to extend it over and 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:06.640 over again and eventually lasted more than two centuries. So 0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:08.839 this is a company that had a long history. The 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:11.680 Dutch East India Company was the first publicly traded corporation 0:06:11.720 --> 0:06:14.080 in the world, and the first stock market in history 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:16.880 was created to sell its stock. Because if they were 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:19.600 the first publicly traded they had to invent the idea 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:22.480 that this is when people were like stock up markets. 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:25.520 We should have this is doing so well, we should 0:06:25.560 --> 0:06:27.800 make paper that represents a portion of it and just 0:06:27.880 --> 0:06:30.559 sell that. Yeah, we don't even need the spice. People 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:32.560 gamble on whether it'll be worth more or less at 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:34.800 the end of the day and then let that run 0:06:34.800 --> 0:06:37.440 our entire society. So these are I mean, these are 0:06:37.440 --> 0:06:41.159 capitalist vision areas. This is the beginning of capitalism, I 0:06:41.200 --> 0:06:44.720 will say. The only maybe mild spoiler alert, I don't know. 0:06:45.000 --> 0:06:47.760 The only thing I recall about the Dutch East India 0:06:47.760 --> 0:06:50.120 Company is that I read a small plaque about it 0:06:50.160 --> 0:06:53.880 in the Slavery Museum, so that may there's some thread 0:06:53.920 --> 0:06:56.599 there possible. Oh yeah, there's some thread there, although they're 0:06:56.600 --> 0:06:59.960 not like the number one that we'll get to that later. 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:02.560 So according to a book called The Honorable Company, which 0:07:02.600 --> 0:07:04.880 is about the British East India Company, so there's the 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:07.560 Dutch in the British East India company to different companies 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:10.960 almost the same name. Are they competing and how? But 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:15.480 so the British East India Company received its Royal charter 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:18.040 on the thirty one December in sixteen hundreds, so two 0:07:18.080 --> 0:07:20.720 years before the Dutch East India Company. Its original name 0:07:20.720 --> 0:07:23.240 was the Company of Merchants of London trading into the 0:07:23.280 --> 0:07:27.680 East Indies. Now that original name, which is not very clickable, uh, 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:30.120 may inform you that it was not the same thing 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:32.680 as the Dutch East India Company. To start, rather than 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:35.000 being a modern corporation, it was basically a bunch of 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:38.000 independent ventures under the same name. It's like a bunch 0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:40.520 of different individual boats going over to these islands, getting 0:07:40.560 --> 0:07:43.480 spices and bringing them back, all profiting independently, just sort 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:46.400 of market under the same name. Why did they benefit. 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:49.000 It's just like easier to all be under one name. Yeah, 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:51.200 that's what I thought at the time. Yeah, the company 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:53.880 itself had no unlike the Dutch EA Studio Company, had 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:56.800 no ability to invest money in new projects or decide 0:07:56.800 --> 0:07:58.960 how its funds were used across its many ventures. So 0:07:59.000 --> 0:08:01.320 the British East India Company when it starts off, is 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:04.320 not like a modern corporation. Now a few decades later, 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:07.679 in sixteen seventy, the Hustson Bay Company, which still exists today, 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:11.560 is formed uh and winds up gaining control of like 0:08:11.640 --> 0:08:15.120 most of Canada. It's why we have Vancouver. Vancouver started 0:08:15.160 --> 0:08:17.640 as like a corporate outpost for this company. Imagine a 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:20.480 meeting today for that company and you're like, well, how 0:08:20.480 --> 0:08:22.040 are we doing? Well? Were you used tell in most 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:29.440 of Canada? This quarter we made eight hundred thousand dollars. 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:32.360 That's quite a leg once the whole Northwest was all domain. 0:08:32.559 --> 0:08:37.240 But we're doing okay, up one and a half percent exactly. 0:08:38.679 --> 0:08:40.720 So yeah, So that's just to give you an idea 0:08:40.760 --> 0:08:42.800 of sort of this is when the idea of running 0:08:42.840 --> 0:08:45.520 corporation starts to take off and people are trying various 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:47.720 different things. And not all of these companies are quite 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:50.720 like modern companies. The Dutch East India Company is the 0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:53.960 one that from the start is really recognizable as a 0:08:54.000 --> 0:08:57.200 modern corporation in terms of it's it's formulation and the 0:08:57.200 --> 0:09:00.440 way that functions. Um. So, for ane idea of what 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:02.560 made it so special, I'd like to turn to an 0:09:02.640 --> 0:09:05.880 article from the Global Trade magazine called the Violent Birth 0:09:05.920 --> 0:09:10.000 of Corporations. This is why corporations were so different from 0:09:10.000 --> 0:09:12.960 what it existed before. They were anonymous. The partners did 0:09:13.000 --> 0:09:15.240 not all have to know each other. They separated ownership 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:18.440 from control. Elected directors made decisions, while most investors had 0:09:18.480 --> 0:09:21.240 only the choice of accepting those decisions or selling their shares. 0:09:21.440 --> 0:09:23.719 They were permanent. If one or more partners did want out, 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:26.640 there was no need to renegotiate the whole arrangement. Finally, 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:29.120 there were legal entities separate from any one owner, and 0:09:29.160 --> 0:09:32.160 they had unlimited life. The big trading partnerships of the 0:09:32.200 --> 0:09:34.760 sixteenth century and earlier were created with a planned date 0:09:34.800 --> 0:09:37.840 of dissolution, sometimes at the end of one voyage, sometimes 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:39.840 after a set number of years, at which point all 0:09:39.880 --> 0:09:43.000 the firm's holdings would be liquidated and divided among the partners. 0:09:43.200 --> 0:09:46.320 The new firms, like modern corporations, did not self liquidate. 0:09:46.400 --> 0:09:48.760 They built up their capital over the years rather than 0:09:48.760 --> 0:09:52.160 distributing it back to its separate owners. So they have 0:09:52.200 --> 0:09:59.800 now created an immortal being. Yeah, has pretty wide ranging powers, 0:09:59.840 --> 0:10:03.319 as will start to get to the corporation. Corporation. Yeah, 0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:07.120 it sounds like the guild a calamitous intent from venture brothers. Right. 0:10:07.240 --> 0:10:09.560 It's because they're ahead of the curve as far as 0:10:09.640 --> 0:10:13.400 any regulation obviously, so they all get to be anonymous 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:16.880 from even each other. They're just like Mr X has 0:10:17.000 --> 0:10:21.160 charted this mission. Yeah, it's just the company has charted exactly. So, yeah, 0:10:21.320 --> 0:10:23.920 there are some people who get into who are very 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:27.000 critical and the big corporations of this. Yeah. So for 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:29.920 the first two hundred years, you know, from six hundred 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:32.280 of the corporate era, there were almost no corporations meant 0:10:32.280 --> 0:10:34.760 to service the needs of inter European trade or based 0:10:34.800 --> 0:10:37.400 solely within a single nation. So for two centuries, the 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:39.880 job of a corporation was not operating stores or designing 0:10:39.920 --> 0:10:42.440 new products. It was plunder and conquest of the known 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:46.320 and unknown world. Like that's why we made corporations, right. 0:10:46.480 --> 0:10:51.079 The only business that existed was exploration, and the only 0:10:51.080 --> 0:10:54.559 business enough incorporation. Yeah, yeah, exactly. You don't need a 0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:57.240 corporation to sell closed to people on the other side 0:10:57.320 --> 0:11:00.800 of the finn from you and Middle Gross England or 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:03.120 where you just have like handshake deals with people who 0:11:03.120 --> 0:11:05.839 own carts and ships were like small businesses where it's 0:11:05.840 --> 0:11:07.760 like a shop. The shop sells the hats and you 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:09.720 get the hats from the shop or whatever. I just 0:11:09.800 --> 0:11:12.520 wonder who managed that. Who's the first person to be like, 0:11:12.880 --> 0:11:16.199 I'm a stockbroker, I'll manage the stock of the single 0:11:16.240 --> 0:11:18.679 company and track it's ups and downs. I mean, it's 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:21.079 sort of like evolved naturally because you start out with 0:11:21.120 --> 0:11:24.040 these things that weren't really corporations, but they had stock 0:11:24.120 --> 0:11:26.560 and they were for a limited time, and their people start, 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:29.160 you know, once that becomes the thing. Initially it's just 0:11:29.200 --> 0:11:31.360 a way for you to get your profits from the deal. 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:33.920 But eventually people start selling and trading the stock and 0:11:34.120 --> 0:11:37.840 there's stocks instead of just one stock. They're like, we 0:11:37.920 --> 0:11:42.800 need a building to talk about the stocks and exchange. Yes, 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:48.200 it's snowballs or my name's not John Nasdac. So the 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:51.840 main reason that corporations were necessary was essentially that violence 0:11:51.920 --> 0:11:56.200 was necessary in the business of international trade. Operating boats 0:11:56.240 --> 0:11:58.080 and trading stations cost a lot of money, but the 0:11:58.080 --> 0:12:01.559 real cost came because in order to force people to trade, 0:12:01.600 --> 0:12:03.880 sometimes you needed to wage war on the native peoples 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:06.880 who had the resources you wanted. It was also necessary 0:12:06.920 --> 0:12:10.360 because these corporations all wanted monopolies on the areas they 0:12:10.360 --> 0:12:13.680 were trading in, So corporations would fight corporations. So you 0:12:13.720 --> 0:12:17.080 needed money not just to take products from one area 0:12:17.120 --> 0:12:19.480 to the other, not just to operate factories, but to 0:12:19.679 --> 0:12:23.200 operate navies and to operate land armies, and to wage 0:12:23.280 --> 0:12:27.040 war against other corporations and against the local peoples who 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:29.800 didn't want to give you their stuff. So that's why 0:12:30.120 --> 0:12:33.880 corporations are necessary. It's staggering to imagine how profitable this 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:36.880 must have been for the home country government for them 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:40.000 not to give a ship like that private citizens. You know, 0:12:40.000 --> 0:12:43.280 we're amassing a navy and be like, well, just let 0:12:43.320 --> 0:12:46.319 them do it. They they'll pay millions and millions of dollars. 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:49.359 That's how it starts. We'll cover it gets more complicated. 0:12:49.720 --> 0:12:51.640 But at the start, yeah, the Dutch in British East 0:12:51.679 --> 0:12:53.880 India companies were not just licensed to trade. They had 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:56.240 a literal license to kill. They had a power to 0:12:56.320 --> 0:13:00.920 declare war and they did so regularly, like without governmental Yeah, none, 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:04.319 none necessary whatsoever. Now it didn't start out violent. In 0:13:04.400 --> 0:13:07.040 late one the British East India Company was the first 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:10.600 corporation in the spiceries. You know these islands in Indonesia 0:13:10.640 --> 0:13:13.680 that are just filled the fucking bursting with delightful spices. 0:13:13.920 --> 0:13:18.559 Spices like the delicious spices on this cool ranch Dorrito's 0:13:18.640 --> 0:13:21.040 chip that I'm going to fortify myself with before getting 0:13:21.040 --> 0:13:24.400 into the rest of this. Oh yeah, that's that Malleck 0:13:24.440 --> 0:13:28.840 acid you're tasting. We should find the island they grow 0:13:28.880 --> 0:13:34.000 that acid on, I mean, monodium cultures all day. M hmm, 0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:37.559 that's a good derrito. So in late one when the 0:13:37.600 --> 0:13:40.280 British East India Company winds up there, uh, it's actually 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:43.080 pretty peaceful. You know, there's no other corporations around yet. 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:47.000 The native islanders are pretty peaceful people. The vast majority 0:13:47.040 --> 0:13:50.240 of gunpowder expended by the British East India Company is 0:13:50.360 --> 0:13:53.000 used saluting, like they'll pass a poor how they'll pass 0:13:53.000 --> 0:13:55.280 another ship and they'll fire into the air. And so 0:13:55.400 --> 0:13:57.320 most of the people who die at this point die 0:13:57.400 --> 0:14:02.679 in saluting accidents. Just well, let's here's a quote from 0:14:02.720 --> 0:14:06.080 the Honorable Company. The indiscriminate firing of a few pieces, 0:14:06.160 --> 0:14:08.760 often on the flimsiest of free texts, would account for 0:14:08.800 --> 0:14:10.800 a good many lives, so much so that in London 0:14:10.800 --> 0:14:12.599 the directors would be moved to protests that it was 0:14:12.640 --> 0:14:16.640 quite unnecessary to salute every port, every passing vessel, every sailor, 0:14:16.880 --> 0:14:20.400 every imaginable anniversary. Yet, if anything, the practice grew, and 0:14:20.400 --> 0:14:23.280 there was probably more powder expended in ceremony than in bath. 0:14:25.160 --> 0:14:31.600 So it's National peach Day. Shoot those guys I forgot, 0:14:32.560 --> 0:14:35.640 which is a very male thing to do. We've got cannons, 0:14:35.680 --> 0:14:40.000 were on a boat and we're started with gunpowder. Shoots 0:14:40.040 --> 0:14:43.520 some stuff. So the Honorable Company tells the story of 0:14:43.560 --> 0:14:46.160 a captain brand of a boat named the Ascension, who 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:48.920 quote had the unusual misfortune of being shot by the 0:14:48.920 --> 0:14:51.360 guns of his own ship in somber mood. He was 0:14:51.440 --> 0:14:53.960 rowed ashore to attend the funeral of the Red Dragon 0:14:54.000 --> 0:14:56.840 and other boat's mate. When the assumptions gunner let fly 0:14:57.000 --> 0:14:59.400 with the usual three guns salute for a deceased officer, 0:14:59.640 --> 0:15:01.960 and four Actunately, the gunner, being not so careful as 0:15:01.960 --> 0:15:03.920 you should have been, had forgotten that his guns were 0:15:03.920 --> 0:15:06.560 loaded and that the captain was within range. One ball 0:15:06.600 --> 0:15:08.800 scored a direct hit and slewed the captain and the 0:15:08.800 --> 0:15:11.640 boatswain's mate start dead, so that they went to see 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:15.800 the funeral of another and we're both buried themselves. Oh 0:15:15.840 --> 0:15:19.080 I missed the ocean, dude. Well, they were supposed to 0:15:19.120 --> 0:15:21.400 just put powder in the cannons, so it made note. 0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:23.760 But they just left the ball and shot the captain. 0:15:25.320 --> 0:15:27.400 So it's a little bit of a slap dish operation 0:15:27.440 --> 0:15:32.720 at the start. Yeah, it sounds like it's just a 0:15:32.840 --> 0:15:36.880 pack of mercenaries with no training. Oftentimes, these corporations started 0:15:36.880 --> 0:15:39.680 off with a name like the Adventurers Association of whatever, 0:15:39.720 --> 0:15:43.120 because it's just guys with guns going out here. Rich Like, 0:15:43.640 --> 0:15:46.440 I don't think it's a coincidence that their initials are THHC. 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:50.320 That's all I'm saying. Oh ship, Wait are they the 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:53.600 honorable Company? Oh yeah, yeah, that's a nickname for him. 0:15:53.680 --> 0:15:55.840 But yeah, right, but that would be a nickname later. 0:15:56.000 --> 0:15:58.040 Well that's what my dealer calls himself. That's all him. 0:15:58.040 --> 0:16:01.640 So weird dude. Yeah, it's weird that you have a 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:07.360 dealer in Los Angeles. It seems unnecessary but complicating matters. 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:10.840 I like awkwardly hanging out with a weird dude to 0:16:10.920 --> 0:16:13.160 get my weed to give him sixty dollars for a 0:16:13.200 --> 0:16:16.440 bag of Yeah, speaking of giving people too much money 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:21.960 for a tiny amount. Yeah. So around sixteen sixteen o nine, 0:16:22.040 --> 0:16:24.560 the Dutch East India Company makes it to the Spiceries. 0:16:24.640 --> 0:16:27.160 Right now, they had a charter to establish a monopoly 0:16:27.200 --> 0:16:29.600 on spice trading in Asia and India. Things have been 0:16:29.600 --> 0:16:31.600 peaceful up to this point, but now that the Dutch 0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:33.800 were here, they decided they didn't want any English assholes 0:16:33.840 --> 0:16:36.600 buying and selling spices from the same islands that they were. 0:16:37.240 --> 0:16:41.440 So in sixteen o nine, Admiral Peter Verhoven, I'm assuming 0:16:41.480 --> 0:16:46.720 the ancestor, took thirteen warships to the Banda Islands, the 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:49.640 world's only source of nutmeg and mace. Here the orders 0:16:49.680 --> 0:16:52.440 his corporate masters sent him with, we draw your special 0:16:52.440 --> 0:16:55.320 attention to the islands in which grow the clothes and nutmeg, 0:16:55.440 --> 0:16:58.280 and we instruct you to strive after winning them for 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:03.200 the company, either by treaty or by force. The precious nutmeg. 0:17:04.480 --> 0:17:09.280 Thousands will bleed for the nutmeg. Yeah, like, what are 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:13.800 you willing to die for? Oh nutmeger? That's number one? 0:17:13.840 --> 0:17:18.080 With a bullet or a cannon shot, I guess uh. 0:17:18.119 --> 0:17:20.400 So Admiral Verhoeven took with him an army of one 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:23.879 thousand soldiers, including Japanese mercenaries with swords meant to be 0:17:23.960 --> 0:17:27.560 used as executioners, to enforce corporate will through terror. If 0:17:27.560 --> 0:17:30.199 this isn't in the six hundreds. It sounds like a 0:17:30.200 --> 0:17:34.040 cyberpunk store. Also, had the natives in that area been 0:17:34.640 --> 0:17:37.880 rebellious or like stood up for themselves or are they 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:41.359 going in like we're gonna need some executioners. Let's just 0:17:41.640 --> 0:17:43.840 it'll be nice to have them. They think it's it'll 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:45.840 be nice to have him. And he's planning to funk 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:48.800 with the British. Okay, and you want some samurai if 0:17:48.800 --> 0:17:52.000 you're really going to murder British. But then the anniversary 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:57.600 of something comes along the accidentally just executed everybody, So 0:17:58.080 --> 0:18:00.960 Behoven's big enemies or yeah, the to Sheast India Company 0:18:01.000 --> 0:18:03.719 and the Portuguese. So he wants to expel basically everyone 0:18:03.760 --> 0:18:06.520 who's not the Dutch East India Company from the Spice 0:18:06.560 --> 0:18:09.720 Islands and have because he who controls the Spice controls 0:18:09.720 --> 0:18:13.719 the dinner day. Yeah, it's going to come in here. 0:18:14.640 --> 0:18:17.200 On April nineteen, sixteen o nine, the Admiral came ashore 0:18:17.200 --> 0:18:19.199 and the largest of the banded isles with two and 0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:21.520 fifty men and out gifts to the assembled natives and 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:23.560 told them that they had quote broken their promise to 0:18:23.600 --> 0:18:26.000 trade only with the Dutch. As a result, he said, 0:18:26.080 --> 0:18:28.359 the company was building a fort and a permanent factory 0:18:28.400 --> 0:18:30.359 on the island to keep track of things. Then he 0:18:30.400 --> 0:18:32.359 went around to all the different tribal chiefs and had 0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:34.440 them signed agreements which none of them could read, to 0:18:34.480 --> 0:18:36.719 give his company a monopoly on the nutmeg trade from 0:18:36.760 --> 0:18:39.359 their island. The islanders did not take well to this. 0:18:39.480 --> 0:18:41.280 For one thing, he just had all the chiefs on 0:18:41.280 --> 0:18:43.359 one island sign in agreement, and then he tried to 0:18:43.440 --> 0:18:45.040 enforce it on all the islands, and they were like, 0:18:45.080 --> 0:18:47.920 we're different countries, basically, dude, like, we don't work that way. 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:50.000 And for another thing, no one in the Banda Islands 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:52.560 understood why they should agree to give any company a 0:18:52.640 --> 0:18:55.480 monopoly over their stuff. The goods he tried to buy 0:18:55.520 --> 0:18:57.879 them off with were basically wool in velvet, neither of 0:18:57.880 --> 0:19:00.280 which was useful for people on tropical islands. So they 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:03.320 were like, what are we getting out of this? But yeah, 0:19:03.440 --> 0:19:06.440 Verehoven keeps taking islands. So in a little bit later 0:19:06.480 --> 0:19:09.480 he lands with seven fifty of his troops and another island, Nyara, 0:19:09.800 --> 0:19:12.080 and he starts building a big fort. The local people 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:14.399 decided to take matters into their own hands, and we're 0:19:14.440 --> 0:19:17.320 going to get into how the local people fight back 0:19:17.359 --> 0:19:21.960 against sort of corporate encroachment. But first we have another 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:25.600 kind of corporate encroachment that will not result in the 0:19:25.640 --> 0:19:29.800 destruction of island cultures. We'll see, we'll see probably not 0:19:29.920 --> 0:19:32.520 gut now, Actually I will I will guarantee none of 0:19:32.560 --> 0:19:35.320 the sponsors of this show are going to destroy islands 0:19:35.359 --> 0:19:39.119 in Indonesia. Robert doesn't speak from both of us. I 0:19:39.160 --> 0:19:47.760 think it's at time and we're back, and we are 0:19:47.800 --> 0:19:51.960 talking about Admiral Peter Verehoven of the Dutch East India 0:19:52.000 --> 0:19:54.760 Company and his attempts to build a monopoly in the 0:19:54.800 --> 0:19:57.800 Spice Island. So he's landing on islands, he's signing agreements 0:19:57.800 --> 0:20:00.800 with the people on islands, he's building his sulb some forces, 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:02.399 and he's just landed on the island of Nero with 0:20:02.440 --> 0:20:05.200 seven fifty men, and he starts building a giant fortress 0:20:05.200 --> 0:20:07.280 so that he can stop anyone else from trading with 0:20:07.320 --> 0:20:10.359 the island. The local people invite the admiral to parlay 0:20:10.400 --> 0:20:12.399 in the middle of nowhere to talk to him about 0:20:12.480 --> 0:20:15.200 sort of the limitations of this agreement, and he obliged them, 0:20:15.200 --> 0:20:17.920 bringing along too chained up English prisoners as a sign 0:20:18.000 --> 0:20:20.679 of his dominance over the British East India Company to 0:20:20.720 --> 0:20:23.800 be like, check out what a boss I am. I've 0:20:23.840 --> 0:20:27.080 got these dudes and chains who aren't Dutch but probably 0:20:27.080 --> 0:20:29.639 look the same to you, because we're all Europeans, like 0:20:29.760 --> 0:20:33.040 Bob Iger's showing up to the lucasfilm negotiations with like, 0:20:33.600 --> 0:20:36.480 look at this dude from Time Warner, I got chained 0:20:36.520 --> 0:20:41.240