1 00:00:15,410 --> 00:00:15,930 Speaker 1: Pushkin. 2 00:00:19,090 --> 00:00:22,130 Speaker 2: Hello, dear listeners, it is Tim Harford here with an 3 00:00:22,210 --> 00:00:25,090 Speaker 2: exciting idea up my sleeve. I want to know if 4 00:00:25,130 --> 00:00:29,610 Speaker 2: you'd be interested in joining a cautionary club with additional 5 00:00:29,850 --> 00:00:33,250 Speaker 2: member only content. And with that in mind, the Cautionary 6 00:00:33,250 --> 00:00:36,130 Speaker 2: Tales team and I have put together a survey. We'd 7 00:00:36,130 --> 00:00:38,930 Speaker 2: like to find out exactly what kind of content you're 8 00:00:39,010 --> 00:00:40,810 Speaker 2: keen to get your hands on. Would you like a 9 00:00:40,970 --> 00:00:45,610 Speaker 2: cautionary newsletter, perhaps some extra conversations like my last one 10 00:00:45,650 --> 00:00:48,410 Speaker 2: with Adam Grant, or maybe you have another idea for 11 00:00:48,490 --> 00:00:51,810 Speaker 2: us altogether. The link is in the episode description and 12 00:00:51,890 --> 00:00:54,690 Speaker 2: it will take you just a few short minutes to answer, 13 00:00:55,010 --> 00:00:57,410 Speaker 2: so please do take a moment to fill it out 14 00:00:57,490 --> 00:01:00,010 Speaker 2: and let us know your thoughts. We are really keen 15 00:01:00,050 --> 00:01:00,690 Speaker 2: to hear from you. 16 00:01:01,210 --> 00:01:01,570 Speaker 1: Thank you. 17 00:01:05,610 --> 00:01:11,770 Speaker 2: Charles Darwin hated peacocks. The sight of a feather in 18 00:01:11,810 --> 00:01:16,330 Speaker 2: a peacock's tail, he said, whenever I gaze at it 19 00:01:16,370 --> 00:01:20,890 Speaker 2: makes me sick. But what had peacocks ever done to 20 00:01:21,050 --> 00:01:25,050 Speaker 2: Charles Darwin? For years, Darwin had been working out the 21 00:01:25,050 --> 00:01:28,570 Speaker 2: details of his theory of evolution. At the core of 22 00:01:28,570 --> 00:01:33,370 Speaker 2: that theory was a simple but powerful insight some creatures 23 00:01:33,450 --> 00:01:37,730 Speaker 2: are better equipped than others to survive in their particular environment, 24 00:01:38,130 --> 00:01:40,570 Speaker 2: and they get to pass on their characteristics to the 25 00:01:40,610 --> 00:01:46,090 Speaker 2: next generation. Darwin called it natural selection, and it explained 26 00:01:46,090 --> 00:01:50,970 Speaker 2: a lot, but not everything. Look around in nature and 27 00:01:51,010 --> 00:01:53,890 Speaker 2: you'll see plenty of things that don't seem to help 28 00:01:53,930 --> 00:01:58,690 Speaker 2: with survival. The peacock's tail, for example, with its long, 29 00:01:59,010 --> 00:02:04,050 Speaker 2: brightly colored feathers. Surely having to lug around such cumbersome 30 00:02:04,090 --> 00:02:08,650 Speaker 2: plumage must make it harder for peacocks to survive. Wouldn't 31 00:02:08,650 --> 00:02:12,450 Speaker 2: a peacock with a lighter, shorter tail be better able 32 00:02:12,570 --> 00:02:17,330 Speaker 2: to run away from predators? And yet evolution had produced 33 00:02:17,370 --> 00:02:23,210 Speaker 2: the peacock's tail. How every time Darwin saw a peacock, 34 00:02:23,410 --> 00:02:27,090 Speaker 2: it painfully reminded him that he hadn't fully worked out 35 00:02:27,170 --> 00:02:30,770 Speaker 2: the details of his theory. And in the English countryside 36 00:02:30,810 --> 00:02:34,570 Speaker 2: in the eighteen sixties, Charles Darwin must have seen peacocks 37 00:02:34,810 --> 00:02:38,890 Speaker 2: rather often. They were popular with a landed gentry. Charles 38 00:02:38,970 --> 00:02:43,610 Speaker 2: was a country gentleman himself. Where could Darwin turn for 39 00:02:43,810 --> 00:02:48,450 Speaker 2: inspiration to solve his peacock problem, Perhaps to the writings 40 00:02:48,450 --> 00:02:53,170 Speaker 2: of others. It's Charles whose name we associate with evolution today, 41 00:02:53,770 --> 00:02:58,650 Speaker 2: but many earlier thinkers had speculated along similar lines. Chief 42 00:02:58,690 --> 00:03:03,050 Speaker 2: among them was Darwin's own grandfather, the larger than life 43 00:03:03,290 --> 00:03:09,330 Speaker 2: Erasmus Darwin, who had died before Charles was born, was 44 00:03:09,650 --> 00:03:15,850 Speaker 2: enormously fat, gross, and corpulent, said one unkind obituarist. His 45 00:03:16,010 --> 00:03:19,770 Speaker 2: features were coarse, He was rather clumsy and slovenly, and 46 00:03:19,890 --> 00:03:23,210 Speaker 2: frequently walked with his tongue hanging out of his mouth. 47 00:03:24,090 --> 00:03:28,130 Speaker 2: What he lacked in conventional standards for good looks, though, Erasmus, 48 00:03:28,170 --> 00:03:33,010 Speaker 2: made up for in charm. He attracted two beautiful wives 49 00:03:33,330 --> 00:03:37,490 Speaker 2: and fathered fourteen children, two of them with a third woman. 50 00:03:37,810 --> 00:03:42,130 Speaker 2: Between the marriages, Erasmus made his living as a doctor, 51 00:03:42,570 --> 00:03:46,090 Speaker 2: dabbled as an inventor, and one fame as a poet 52 00:03:46,410 --> 00:03:51,290 Speaker 2: and a writer, including on evolution. Would it be too 53 00:03:51,370 --> 00:03:57,330 Speaker 2: bold to imagine, wrote Erasmus, that all warm blooded animals 54 00:03:57,370 --> 00:04:02,970 Speaker 2: have arisen from one living filament. That's impressive for the 55 00:04:03,050 --> 00:04:11,090 Speaker 2: seventeen hundreds, long before anyone conceived of DNA. As it happens, 56 00:04:11,930 --> 00:04:17,330 Speaker 2: there was one particular aspect of Charles Darwin's grandfather's life 57 00:04:18,010 --> 00:04:21,130 Speaker 2: that might have helped Charles figure out the peacock's tail. 58 00:04:21,610 --> 00:04:26,730 Speaker 2: But this is a story about how answers aren't always 59 00:04:26,810 --> 00:04:31,570 Speaker 2: found in the most obvious places to look. I'm Tim 60 00:04:31,650 --> 00:05:00,970 Speaker 2: Harford and you're listening to cautionary tales. Josiah Wedgwood was 61 00:05:01,050 --> 00:05:04,930 Speaker 2: born in seventeen thirty in the village of Burslem in 62 00:05:04,970 --> 00:05:08,650 Speaker 2: the English Midlands. The region was known for pottery from 63 00:05:08,690 --> 00:05:12,370 Speaker 2: its low called clay soils. Josiah's father was a potter, 64 00:05:12,650 --> 00:05:17,090 Speaker 2: but not a successful one. His wares were low priced 65 00:05:17,170 --> 00:05:22,130 Speaker 2: and low quality. His profit margin's slim. While other branches 66 00:05:22,170 --> 00:05:25,730 Speaker 2: of the Wedgewood family had done well for themselves, Josiah's 67 00:05:25,770 --> 00:05:30,970 Speaker 2: side were the poor relations. Josiah was the youngest child 68 00:05:31,010 --> 00:05:35,730 Speaker 2: of eleven. Five of his older siblings died of smallpox. 69 00:05:36,330 --> 00:05:39,370 Speaker 2: Those who lived went to work in the family workshop 70 00:05:39,450 --> 00:05:43,250 Speaker 2: as soon as they were able. First, they shoveled clay 71 00:05:43,290 --> 00:05:46,450 Speaker 2: into a kind of mill. The horse walked in circles, 72 00:05:46,850 --> 00:05:49,970 Speaker 2: turning a shaft that pummeled the clay with metal blades 73 00:05:50,330 --> 00:05:52,810 Speaker 2: until it was ready to throw onto the potter's wheel, 74 00:05:53,130 --> 00:05:55,970 Speaker 2: if in a glaze and bake in the brick oven. 75 00:05:56,730 --> 00:06:02,010 Speaker 2: It was hard physical work. As a boy, or Josiah 76 00:06:02,050 --> 00:06:06,090 Speaker 2: two got smallpox. It seemed for a while that he 77 00:06:06,170 --> 00:06:09,730 Speaker 2: wasn't going to make it. He lay in bed, weak 78 00:06:10,250 --> 00:06:15,290 Speaker 2: and delirious, his body covered in pustules. At last, the 79 00:06:15,330 --> 00:06:19,890 Speaker 2: fever broke, the skin scabbed over, but part of Josiah 80 00:06:20,130 --> 00:06:24,290 Speaker 2: never really recovered from the illness, his right knee. He 81 00:06:24,330 --> 00:06:27,450 Speaker 2: hobbled back to the workshop and tried to find ways 82 00:06:27,490 --> 00:06:31,130 Speaker 2: he could make himself useful while sitting down, resting his 83 00:06:31,250 --> 00:06:36,690 Speaker 2: leg on a stool. It wasn't easy, but times were changing. 84 00:06:37,330 --> 00:06:40,770 Speaker 2: Some other local potters were starting to experiment with new 85 00:06:40,810 --> 00:06:44,850 Speaker 2: techniques and ingredients to make new designs and colored glazes, 86 00:06:45,570 --> 00:06:49,410 Speaker 2: bowls that looked like tortoise shell teapots shaped like a 87 00:06:49,410 --> 00:06:54,050 Speaker 2: couliflower or pineapple. Josiah found a job he could manage 88 00:06:54,170 --> 00:06:58,050 Speaker 2: despite his painful leg. He discovered that he loved to 89 00:06:58,210 --> 00:07:02,770 Speaker 2: experiment a new shade of green, a vibrant orange, yellow, 90 00:07:03,250 --> 00:07:08,610 Speaker 2: a more visually pleasing pineapple teapot. By the age of thirty, 91 00:07:09,250 --> 00:07:13,210 Speaker 2: sire had set up on his own. Every evening after work, 92 00:07:13,610 --> 00:07:16,610 Speaker 2: he'd sit in his kitchen and mix together some new 93 00:07:16,770 --> 00:07:21,170 Speaker 2: combination of metals and minerals, salts, and enamels to glaze 94 00:07:21,250 --> 00:07:25,170 Speaker 2: his wares. He carefully recorded the results in a leather 95 00:07:25,250 --> 00:07:29,810 Speaker 2: bound notebook. Experiment number four six. This seems to separate 96 00:07:30,050 --> 00:07:32,690 Speaker 2: parties run thin like water. That is a good color, 97 00:07:33,170 --> 00:07:37,810 Speaker 2: says one entry. Experiment number four eight much the same, 98 00:07:38,090 --> 00:07:43,850 Speaker 2: but less of the exuded watery part. Every experiment was systematic. 99 00:07:44,530 --> 00:07:48,610 Speaker 2: Very one ingredient hold the other's constant and see how 100 00:07:48,690 --> 00:07:54,090 Speaker 2: it changed the outcome. Experiment number four nine rather better. 101 00:07:57,610 --> 00:08:01,170 Speaker 2: Josiah was trying to solve a problem that frustrated every 102 00:08:01,290 --> 00:08:04,170 Speaker 2: potter at the time. When they tried to make white 103 00:08:04,250 --> 00:08:08,730 Speaker 2: colored wares, they always had a browny yellow tinge. And 104 00:08:08,770 --> 00:08:16,410 Speaker 2: then experiment number four one one a good white glaze. 105 00:08:17,210 --> 00:08:21,370 Speaker 2: Josiah's new white plates were like nothing else on the market. 106 00:08:21,930 --> 00:08:26,290 Speaker 2: He could print on them verses and pictures. Business began 107 00:08:26,410 --> 00:08:30,930 Speaker 2: to boom. Josiah hired new workers, he expanded into a 108 00:08:30,970 --> 00:08:35,610 Speaker 2: second workshop, and he finally felt successful enough to propose 109 00:08:35,810 --> 00:08:39,930 Speaker 2: to the love of his life. Sally was his cousin 110 00:08:40,570 --> 00:08:43,690 Speaker 2: from the wealthy branch of the Wedgwood family. They had 111 00:08:43,730 --> 00:08:47,450 Speaker 2: been smitten with each other for years, but Sally's father, 112 00:08:47,730 --> 00:08:51,970 Speaker 2: a successful banker, had always been sniffy about his only 113 00:08:52,090 --> 00:08:56,330 Speaker 2: daughter marrying a potter. He wanted Josiah to make him 114 00:08:56,370 --> 00:09:01,930 Speaker 2: financial guarantees. Exasperated, Josiah told a friend, I have gone 115 00:09:01,970 --> 00:09:06,530 Speaker 2: through a long series of bargain making, of settlements, reversions, provisions, 116 00:09:06,530 --> 00:09:11,250 Speaker 2: et cetera, et cetera. It was mortifying, he said, to 117 00:09:11,290 --> 00:09:15,050 Speaker 2: have to negotiate marriage like just another business deal. If 118 00:09:15,090 --> 00:09:18,370 Speaker 2: it were up to him and Sally, they could settle 119 00:09:18,450 --> 00:09:21,330 Speaker 2: the whole affair in three lines and so many minutes. 120 00:09:22,970 --> 00:09:28,570 Speaker 2: Sally put her foot down. She was nearly thirty, she'd 121 00:09:28,650 --> 00:09:34,450 Speaker 2: never wanted anyone else, and her father relented. Josiah was 122 00:09:34,490 --> 00:09:38,130 Speaker 2: soon gushing in another letter to his friend they were 123 00:09:38,370 --> 00:09:42,730 Speaker 2: two married lovers, as happy as this world can make them. 124 00:09:43,450 --> 00:09:47,650 Speaker 2: Sali joined Josiah in the kitchen every night, mixing chemicals, 125 00:09:47,890 --> 00:09:52,250 Speaker 2: glazing pots, and filling notebooks. He'd taught her his code. 126 00:09:52,930 --> 00:09:56,570 Speaker 2: She helped him make more fashionable products that caught the 127 00:09:56,610 --> 00:10:00,050 Speaker 2: attention of high society. One hundred and fifty miles away 128 00:10:00,090 --> 00:10:04,530 Speaker 2: in London, an order came in that Josiah could barely 129 00:10:04,570 --> 00:10:10,170 Speaker 2: have dreamed of a tea service for the Queen of England, 130 00:10:10,570 --> 00:10:14,450 Speaker 2: Queen Charlotte, the wife of mad King George the Third. 131 00:10:15,650 --> 00:10:20,650 Speaker 2: Josiah's business could hardly be going better. His right leg, though, 132 00:10:21,010 --> 00:10:24,490 Speaker 2: was giving him more and more trouble on a badly 133 00:10:24,610 --> 00:10:28,890 Speaker 2: rutted road, had fallen from his horse. The pain was 134 00:10:29,050 --> 00:10:33,210 Speaker 2: constant now, and his trusted doctor said there was only 135 00:10:33,290 --> 00:10:37,570 Speaker 2: one thing for it. That leg would have to come off. 136 00:10:38,530 --> 00:10:49,050 Speaker 2: The doctor Erasmus Darwin. Erasmus Darwin was born in seventeen 137 00:10:49,170 --> 00:10:53,010 Speaker 2: thirty one, a year after Josiah. His career as a 138 00:10:53,050 --> 00:10:56,770 Speaker 2: doctor got off to a shaky start. His first patient, 139 00:10:57,570 --> 00:11:01,050 Speaker 2: a man who'd been stabbed in a drunken brawl, died. 140 00:11:01,810 --> 00:11:06,250 Speaker 2: He got no other patients. After a couple of months, 141 00:11:06,690 --> 00:11:10,010 Speaker 2: he gave up and moved forty miles to another town 142 00:11:10,490 --> 00:11:14,330 Speaker 2: to try for a fresh start. This time, his first 143 00:11:14,330 --> 00:11:17,890 Speaker 2: patient was a young man from a wealthy family whose 144 00:11:17,930 --> 00:11:22,890 Speaker 2: doctor had told them that his illness was incurable. In desperation, 145 00:11:23,370 --> 00:11:25,730 Speaker 2: the young man's mother called on the new doctor in 146 00:11:25,850 --> 00:11:30,170 Speaker 2: town and asked for a second opinion. Was there nothing 147 00:11:30,250 --> 00:11:35,010 Speaker 2: Erasmus could do? In truth, there wasn't much choice of 148 00:11:35,050 --> 00:11:39,610 Speaker 2: treatments In the seventeen hundreds. Erasmus later wrote down his 149 00:11:39,730 --> 00:11:44,250 Speaker 2: prescriptions for a range of conditions. For anorexia, for instance, 150 00:11:44,770 --> 00:11:49,810 Speaker 2: opium half a grain twice a day. For impotence, a 151 00:11:49,850 --> 00:11:55,170 Speaker 2: grain of opium before bed epilepsy, opium a grain every 152 00:11:55,210 --> 00:12:02,450 Speaker 2: half hour, gallstones, tetanus, you guessed it. History doesn't record 153 00:12:02,530 --> 00:12:05,410 Speaker 2: what Erasmus gave the young man whose doctor had given 154 00:12:05,490 --> 00:12:09,250 Speaker 2: up on him. Perhaps it was opium, but whether or 155 00:12:09,330 --> 00:12:12,410 Speaker 2: not Erasmus had anything to do with it. The patient 156 00:12:12,490 --> 00:12:18,290 Speaker 2: made a miraculous recovery, and his family recommended Erasmus to everyone. 157 00:12:18,450 --> 00:12:21,530 Speaker 2: Soon Erasmus was making friends among the great and the 158 00:12:21,570 --> 00:12:25,730 Speaker 2: good of the Industrial Revolution, treating their illnesses and sending 159 00:12:25,810 --> 00:12:30,970 Speaker 2: them ideas for inventions. Some didn't work out, like the 160 00:12:31,050 --> 00:12:36,610 Speaker 2: horizontal windmill. Others did, like a clever new steering mechanism 161 00:12:36,650 --> 00:12:40,330 Speaker 2: for carriages. He didn't bother to patent it. He just 162 00:12:40,410 --> 00:12:44,170 Speaker 2: wanted to make his own journeys safer. Erasmus had to 163 00:12:44,210 --> 00:12:46,850 Speaker 2: travel a lot to see his patients, and the roads 164 00:12:46,850 --> 00:12:50,610 Speaker 2: were terrible. His idea for the steering mechanism was good 165 00:12:50,730 --> 00:12:54,330 Speaker 2: enough to last over a century later. It was the 166 00:12:54,370 --> 00:13:00,210 Speaker 2: standard in the early car industry. In his early thirties, 167 00:13:00,410 --> 00:13:03,730 Speaker 2: Erasmus heard from an up and coming potter from the 168 00:13:03,770 --> 00:13:08,330 Speaker 2: other side of the county, Josiah Wedgwood, was lobbying to 169 00:13:08,450 --> 00:13:11,010 Speaker 2: raise from them for a canal. It was hard to 170 00:13:11,010 --> 00:13:14,850 Speaker 2: get his fragile goods to distant cities on the potholed roads. 171 00:13:15,010 --> 00:13:18,650 Speaker 2: Josiah explained, no matter how much straw he packed them in, 172 00:13:19,090 --> 00:13:25,090 Speaker 2: something always got smashed. Erasmus was well respected, would he 173 00:13:25,250 --> 00:13:26,290 Speaker 2: support the campaign? 174 00:13:27,050 --> 00:13:27,490 Speaker 1: He would. 175 00:13:28,010 --> 00:13:32,330 Speaker 2: Erasmus threw himself into the cause, writing a long pamphlet 176 00:13:32,370 --> 00:13:37,010 Speaker 2: on the benefits of inland waterways. He became close friends 177 00:13:37,050 --> 00:13:42,850 Speaker 2: with Josiah and doctor to the Wedgwood family. Erasmus recommended 178 00:13:42,850 --> 00:13:46,770 Speaker 2: a surgeon to take care of Josiah's troublesome leg. The 179 00:13:46,850 --> 00:13:51,730 Speaker 2: amputation was risky no antibiotics in the seventeen sixties, and 180 00:13:52,210 --> 00:14:00,650 Speaker 2: fearful no anesthetic either. Erasmus prescribed opium. Josiah sat in 181 00:14:00,690 --> 00:14:03,890 Speaker 2: a chair at home in a drug induced haze, while 182 00:14:03,930 --> 00:14:07,490 Speaker 2: his wife Sally waited anxiously in the next room with 183 00:14:07,570 --> 00:14:14,690 Speaker 2: their little daughter, Susannah. The surgeon readed his sore cautionary tales. 184 00:14:14,730 --> 00:14:26,650 Speaker 2: Will be back after the break. You're listening to a 185 00:14:26,770 --> 00:14:31,330 Speaker 2: cautionary tale about Charles Darwin and how he struggled to 186 00:14:31,450 --> 00:14:35,490 Speaker 2: understand how the peacock's tail could have evolved when it 187 00:14:35,490 --> 00:14:40,010 Speaker 2: seemed so obviously to hinder survival. We'll come back to 188 00:14:40,170 --> 00:14:44,410 Speaker 2: Charles and his peacock problem later on. But I promised 189 00:14:44,450 --> 00:14:48,570 Speaker 2: that Charles might have better understood the peacock's tail if 190 00:14:48,650 --> 00:14:53,490 Speaker 2: only he'd paid more attention to his own grandfather's life. 191 00:14:53,570 --> 00:14:56,770 Speaker 2: So let's get back to that life where we left it. 192 00:14:59,210 --> 00:15:04,970 Speaker 2: Erasmus Darwin anxiously watched over his friend Josiah Wedgwood. Josiah 193 00:15:05,090 --> 00:15:08,730 Speaker 2: was off his head on opium, his right leg a 194 00:15:08,810 --> 00:15:15,650 Speaker 2: stu ump wrapped in bandages. Ever, the hard nosed businessman 195 00:15:16,010 --> 00:15:18,810 Speaker 2: Josiah would have been happy to know his employees were 196 00:15:18,810 --> 00:15:19,290 Speaker 2: getting on. 197 00:15:19,290 --> 00:15:19,890 Speaker 1: With a job. 198 00:15:20,770 --> 00:15:26,450 Speaker 2: A letter survives from the Midlands workshop to the London showroom. 199 00:15:26,610 --> 00:15:29,930 Speaker 2: Sir mister Wedgewood has this day had his leg taken 200 00:15:29,930 --> 00:15:32,490 Speaker 2: off and is as well as can be expected after 201 00:15:32,530 --> 00:15:36,490 Speaker 2: such an execution. Mister Horn's goods are packed a moncrate 202 00:15:36,610 --> 00:15:42,210 Speaker 2: for the warehouse. Josiah's leg healed well. He commissioned a 203 00:15:42,210 --> 00:15:45,730 Speaker 2: craftsman to make him a wooden prosthetic with joints that 204 00:15:45,890 --> 00:15:49,290 Speaker 2: moved and a foot that could wear a shoe and stocking. 205 00:15:52,050 --> 00:15:55,010 Speaker 2: Josiah worked hard on his tea service for the Queen. 206 00:15:55,730 --> 00:16:00,370 Speaker 2: The request was specific a complete set of tea things 207 00:16:00,490 --> 00:16:03,890 Speaker 2: with a gold ground and raised flowers upon it in green. 208 00:16:05,010 --> 00:16:09,290 Speaker 2: Josiah knew how to do green glazes, but gold. He 209 00:16:09,370 --> 00:16:12,530 Speaker 2: had some gold leaf sent up from London and tried 210 00:16:12,530 --> 00:16:15,210 Speaker 2: to work out how to burn it onto his smooth 211 00:16:15,770 --> 00:16:20,170 Speaker 2: ivory white plates. He was mortified to find it does 212 00:16:20,210 --> 00:16:24,090 Speaker 2: not look so well as I expected. He consulted books 213 00:16:24,130 --> 00:16:28,090 Speaker 2: with ArKade knowledge that might help or might not. Mix 214 00:16:28,170 --> 00:16:33,610 Speaker 2: the gold leaf with virgin honey, add resin asphaltaman lead, boil, 215 00:16:34,290 --> 00:16:39,570 Speaker 2: straying through a flannel. Night after night, Josiah depleted his 216 00:16:39,650 --> 00:16:45,210 Speaker 2: stocks of gold until at last he was happy. He 217 00:16:45,290 --> 00:16:50,050 Speaker 2: sent off the tea set and waited nervously. Then he 218 00:16:50,170 --> 00:16:56,010 Speaker 2: received an invitation to Buckingham Palace. Josiah traveled to London, 219 00:16:56,450 --> 00:17:00,810 Speaker 2: dressed up in his best scarlet waistcoat and blue velvet jacket, 220 00:17:01,130 --> 00:17:06,130 Speaker 2: and treated himself to a brand new wig that the palace. 221 00:17:06,570 --> 00:17:10,970 Speaker 2: Queen Charlotte told Josiah how much all her guests had 222 00:17:10,970 --> 00:17:14,490 Speaker 2: been impressed with her new tea service. She wanted to 223 00:17:14,530 --> 00:17:19,690 Speaker 2: give Josiah a title potter to her majesty. It was 224 00:17:19,730 --> 00:17:24,730 Speaker 2: an honor and a marketing godsend. Josiah promptly paid for 225 00:17:24,770 --> 00:17:28,370 Speaker 2: announcements in the newspapers. He also left the palace with 226 00:17:28,610 --> 00:17:32,090 Speaker 2: Charlotte's blessing to make more of the same design and 227 00:17:32,250 --> 00:17:39,610 Speaker 2: market them. As queenswear orders flooded in, Josiah took on 228 00:17:39,650 --> 00:17:42,530 Speaker 2: a business partner and drew up plans for a big 229 00:17:42,610 --> 00:17:47,370 Speaker 2: new factory. It is really amazing, Josiah mused to his partner, 230 00:17:47,730 --> 00:17:51,290 Speaker 2: how rapidly the use of queenswear has spread almost over 231 00:17:51,330 --> 00:17:56,290 Speaker 2: the whole globe, and how universally it is liked. Then 232 00:17:56,410 --> 00:18:02,010 Speaker 2: Josiah asked himself, why how much of this general estimation 233 00:18:02,330 --> 00:18:05,370 Speaker 2: is owing to the mode of its introduction and how 234 00:18:05,450 --> 00:18:08,730 Speaker 2: much to its real utility and beauty. We should be 235 00:18:09,290 --> 00:18:13,050 Speaker 2: a good deal interested in the answer to that question, 236 00:18:13,210 --> 00:18:16,930 Speaker 2: he said, because if a royal or noble introduction be 237 00:18:16,970 --> 00:18:21,930 Speaker 2: as necessary as real elegance and beauty, then the manufacturer 238 00:18:21,970 --> 00:18:25,530 Speaker 2: should bestow as much pains and expense on the former 239 00:18:25,970 --> 00:18:34,610 Speaker 2: as the latter. Josiah now had an open door into 240 00:18:34,690 --> 00:18:38,890 Speaker 2: London's high society. That's what happens when you're potter. To 241 00:18:38,970 --> 00:18:43,210 Speaker 2: her Majesty, he sought out the aristocratic trendsetters. 242 00:18:43,890 --> 00:18:45,290 Speaker 1: What were they excited by? 243 00:18:46,290 --> 00:18:51,050 Speaker 2: The answer turned out to be antique vases currently being 244 00:18:51,130 --> 00:18:56,370 Speaker 2: brought back from the excavation of Pompeii. What if Josiah 245 00:18:56,370 --> 00:19:00,930 Speaker 2: could produce new vases in a similar style. He went 246 00:19:01,050 --> 00:19:05,970 Speaker 2: back to his workshop to experiment forget Potter to her majesty, 247 00:19:06,530 --> 00:19:10,810 Speaker 2: he playfully told his business partner going to be vase 248 00:19:10,850 --> 00:19:20,330 Speaker 2: maker general to the universe. There remained the problem of 249 00:19:20,450 --> 00:19:25,770 Speaker 2: transporting those fragile vases from Josiah's new factory to the 250 00:19:25,770 --> 00:19:28,970 Speaker 2: rest of the universe. But the new canal that Josiah 251 00:19:29,050 --> 00:19:33,090 Speaker 2: had lobbed for was finally being built, and just like 252 00:19:33,170 --> 00:19:39,810 Speaker 2: in Pompeii, some unexpected things were being excavated. Josiah was 253 00:19:39,890 --> 00:19:44,450 Speaker 2: fascinated to be shown a prodigious rib with the backbone 254 00:19:44,450 --> 00:19:48,130 Speaker 2: of a monstrous sized fish. It had to be the 255 00:19:48,170 --> 00:19:52,730 Speaker 2: whale that swallowed Jonah. The canal diggers said other long 256 00:19:52,850 --> 00:19:57,810 Speaker 2: buried remains were even more mysterious. Josiah thought Erasmus might 257 00:19:57,850 --> 00:20:03,050 Speaker 2: be interested, so he sent them off. Erasmus had no 258 00:20:03,170 --> 00:20:05,410 Speaker 2: idea what he was looking at, so he made a 259 00:20:05,490 --> 00:20:09,010 Speaker 2: joke of it. The bone seems to be the third 260 00:20:09,450 --> 00:20:15,090 Speaker 2: vertebra of a camel, he wrote back. The horn must 261 00:20:15,090 --> 00:20:19,330 Speaker 2: have been that of a Patagonian ox, But beneath the jokes. 262 00:20:20,010 --> 00:20:25,410 Speaker 2: Erasmus was intrigued. These long dead creatures that once roamed 263 00:20:25,450 --> 00:20:31,210 Speaker 2: the English midlands were unlike anything alive today. How did 264 00:20:31,290 --> 00:20:37,490 Speaker 2: species change through the ages? Erasmus began to think, but 265 00:20:37,570 --> 00:20:42,130 Speaker 2: also decided to keep his thoughts to himself. Everyone thought 266 00:20:42,170 --> 00:20:46,170 Speaker 2: that God created species just as they were. If he 267 00:20:46,490 --> 00:20:51,210 Speaker 2: openly doubted that he'd scandalized the devout among his patients, 268 00:20:51,890 --> 00:20:55,170 Speaker 2: he couldn't afford to risk the income. Erasmus had a 269 00:20:55,250 --> 00:20:59,330 Speaker 2: growing family to support, and his wife was becoming more 270 00:20:59,450 --> 00:21:04,450 Speaker 2: and more unwell, with violent pains in her side and 271 00:21:04,530 --> 00:21:10,890 Speaker 2: fits of delirium. Nothing Erasmus tried any help except the 272 00:21:10,890 --> 00:21:16,730 Speaker 2: opium to ease the pain, until one day the dear 273 00:21:16,970 --> 00:21:20,250 Speaker 2: partner of all the cares and pleasures of my life 274 00:21:21,050 --> 00:21:25,410 Speaker 2: ceased to be ill, Erasmus wrote, and I felt myself 275 00:21:25,410 --> 00:21:30,330 Speaker 2: alone in the world. When Erasmus became a widower, his 276 00:21:30,530 --> 00:21:40,690 Speaker 2: youngest son, Robert, was just four years old. Josiah Wedgwood's 277 00:21:40,770 --> 00:21:46,290 Speaker 2: new Pompeii themed vases were a huge success. Vass for 278 00:21:46,330 --> 00:21:51,530 Speaker 2: the mantlepieces, vazis as candle holders, vases for potpourri. They 279 00:21:52,050 --> 00:21:57,850 Speaker 2: exceed the ancients, said one impressed aristocrat in beauty and variety. 280 00:21:58,890 --> 00:22:03,290 Speaker 2: But success brought problems. Josiah was investing so much to 281 00:22:03,370 --> 00:22:06,610 Speaker 2: expand production, his cash flow became stretched. 282 00:22:06,970 --> 00:22:08,290 Speaker 1: Where should he cut back? 283 00:22:09,090 --> 00:22:12,370 Speaker 2: Tiah embarked on an exercise of what we'd now call 284 00:22:12,690 --> 00:22:17,090 Speaker 2: management accounting. It didn't have a name then, as nobody 285 00:22:17,130 --> 00:22:20,850 Speaker 2: did it. He wanted to understand how much profit each 286 00:22:21,010 --> 00:22:25,290 Speaker 2: line brought in when you apportioned wages, materials, coal for 287 00:22:25,370 --> 00:22:26,570 Speaker 2: the kilns. 288 00:22:26,130 --> 00:22:26,650 Speaker 1: And so on. 289 00:22:27,570 --> 00:22:33,010 Speaker 2: I'm puzzling my brains, he wrote to his partner, But 290 00:22:33,090 --> 00:22:38,570 Speaker 2: he figured it out. Josiah was a pioneer beyond accountancy. 291 00:22:39,090 --> 00:22:43,370 Speaker 2: In marketing his new vases. He instinctively hit on two 292 00:22:43,610 --> 00:22:47,250 Speaker 2: ideas that wouldn't be given names for over a century. 293 00:22:48,850 --> 00:22:55,010 Speaker 2: One idea was conspicuous consumption. A few wealthy aristocrats would 294 00:22:55,010 --> 00:22:57,170 Speaker 2: pay a high price to be among the first to 295 00:22:57,250 --> 00:23:00,530 Speaker 2: buy a new design of vas that could show off 296 00:23:00,610 --> 00:23:04,850 Speaker 2: both their money and their good taste. Josiah gave his 297 00:23:04,930 --> 00:23:09,290 Speaker 2: London showroom manager strict instructions when the first. 298 00:23:09,570 --> 00:23:11,730 Speaker 1: Samples of a new product arrived. 299 00:23:12,250 --> 00:23:14,890 Speaker 2: Do not keep them open in the rooms, he said, 300 00:23:15,290 --> 00:23:19,450 Speaker 2: show them only to people of fashion. He defined his 301 00:23:19,690 --> 00:23:24,090 Speaker 2: target market that sort of customers who can afford to 302 00:23:24,090 --> 00:23:30,730 Speaker 2: pay for anything they like. The second idea Josiah instinctively 303 00:23:30,850 --> 00:23:35,130 Speaker 2: understood is now known as the trickle down theory of fashion. 304 00:23:35,730 --> 00:23:39,210 Speaker 2: When a high status person shows off something new, others 305 00:23:39,330 --> 00:23:42,410 Speaker 2: try to copy them. We see it today with wasteful 306 00:23:42,570 --> 00:23:45,930 Speaker 2: fast fashion in the clothing industry. A new designer look 307 00:23:46,050 --> 00:23:49,850 Speaker 2: debuts on the catwalk, a few weeks later, high street 308 00:23:49,930 --> 00:23:55,930 Speaker 2: stores are selling cheaper lookalikes. Here's how Josiah described the process. 309 00:23:56,850 --> 00:23:59,930 Speaker 2: The great people have had their vases in their palaces 310 00:24:00,050 --> 00:24:02,730 Speaker 2: long enough for them to be seen and admired by 311 00:24:02,770 --> 00:24:06,170 Speaker 2: the middling class of people, He wrote to his business partner. 312 00:24:06,890 --> 00:24:10,650 Speaker 2: The middling people would probably buy quantities of them at 313 00:24:10,690 --> 00:24:15,850 Speaker 2: a reduced price. Josiah's marketing strategy fit perfectly with what 314 00:24:16,010 --> 00:24:19,770 Speaker 2: he had discovered from his accounting exercise. It cost a 315 00:24:19,810 --> 00:24:22,730 Speaker 2: lot to figure out how to make something new, but 316 00:24:22,890 --> 00:24:28,010 Speaker 2: then he could easily churn out replicas that would eventually 317 00:24:28,090 --> 00:24:30,250 Speaker 2: cause the item to fall out of fashion. 318 00:24:30,850 --> 00:24:31,930 Speaker 1: And Josiah knew it. 319 00:24:32,650 --> 00:24:36,210 Speaker 2: Our customers will not much longer be content with queenswear, 320 00:24:36,570 --> 00:24:39,770 Speaker 2: he wrote, a few years after its launch. It now 321 00:24:39,810 --> 00:24:44,850 Speaker 2: being rendered vulgar and common everywhere, But that was fine. 322 00:24:44,890 --> 00:24:49,290 Speaker 2: It simply created demand for another novelty. It always seemed 323 00:24:49,330 --> 00:24:54,170 Speaker 2: to be ladies who drove new fashions. Josiah noticed. He 324 00:24:54,250 --> 00:24:58,370 Speaker 2: studied the trends in the leading female salons and never 325 00:24:58,450 --> 00:25:03,650 Speaker 2: launched a product without his wife, Sally's approval. He also 326 00:25:03,770 --> 00:25:08,050 Speaker 2: kept in mind his lesson that new products benefited from 327 00:25:08,370 --> 00:25:12,250 Speaker 2: a noble introduction. When he made a new flower pot. 328 00:25:12,250 --> 00:25:16,410 Speaker 2: For example, he suggested to his partner, suppose you present 329 00:25:16,530 --> 00:25:19,770 Speaker 2: the Duchess of Devonshire with a set and beg leave 330 00:25:19,850 --> 00:25:26,370 Speaker 2: to call them Devonshire flower pots. The Duchess of Devonshire 331 00:25:26,410 --> 00:25:31,130 Speaker 2: was quite the social trendsetter, much like her great great 332 00:25:31,290 --> 00:25:38,650 Speaker 2: great grand niece, Princess Diana Wedgwood's Devonshire flower pots flew 333 00:25:38,730 --> 00:25:42,890 Speaker 2: off the shelves. Make something new, charge a high price, 334 00:25:43,330 --> 00:25:47,850 Speaker 2: sell cheaper copies to the mass market, rinse and repeat. 335 00:25:48,770 --> 00:25:58,610 Speaker 2: Josiah became very rich. Erasmus brought in a teenage governess 336 00:25:58,690 --> 00:26:02,570 Speaker 2: to look after his children when his wife died. Before long, 337 00:26:02,970 --> 00:26:06,770 Speaker 2: it had two more daughters with her. Then he fell 338 00:26:06,850 --> 00:26:09,610 Speaker 2: madly in love with the young wife of an elderly 339 00:26:09,810 --> 00:26:16,090 Speaker 2: aristocratic patient. He bombarded her with love poems. Understandably, perhaps 340 00:26:16,570 --> 00:26:20,170 Speaker 2: the old husband decided to get himself a different doctor, 341 00:26:21,090 --> 00:26:25,850 Speaker 2: but he died anyway. Erasmus married his widow, who'd inherited 342 00:26:25,890 --> 00:26:31,210 Speaker 2: a sizeable income. They had seven more children together and 343 00:26:31,370 --> 00:26:34,730 Speaker 2: folded the two young daughters of the governess into their 344 00:26:34,770 --> 00:26:40,770 Speaker 2: blended family. Erasmus's new wife encouraged him to publish his 345 00:26:40,890 --> 00:26:45,410 Speaker 2: thoughts about evolution, among other things. He was growing older. 346 00:26:46,010 --> 00:26:48,530 Speaker 2: He didn't need to worry so much about money anymore, 347 00:26:49,090 --> 00:26:55,890 Speaker 2: and if his writings caused a scandal, who cares? Cautionary 348 00:26:55,930 --> 00:27:08,170 Speaker 2: tales will be back after the break. As Josiah Wedgwood 349 00:27:08,210 --> 00:27:13,890 Speaker 2: became richer and more famous, his experiments became more ambitious. 350 00:27:14,930 --> 00:27:18,410 Speaker 2: I want to astonish the world, he wrote to his 351 00:27:18,490 --> 00:27:21,410 Speaker 2: business partner, for I hate piddling, you know. 352 00:27:22,810 --> 00:27:24,290 Speaker 1: Josiah came up with a. 353 00:27:24,290 --> 00:27:29,290 Speaker 2: Brand new way of coloring pottery, not by adding a glaze, 354 00:27:29,610 --> 00:27:34,530 Speaker 2: but by infusing color into the clay itself. A distinctive 355 00:27:34,610 --> 00:27:38,930 Speaker 2: shade of pale blue became synonymous with the Wedgewood name. 356 00:27:39,610 --> 00:27:44,970 Speaker 2: He made teapots and vases with tasteful decorations in white relief, 357 00:27:45,570 --> 00:27:51,490 Speaker 2: and medallions with the profiles of famous people. By the 358 00:27:51,570 --> 00:27:57,530 Speaker 2: late seventeen eighties, Josiah and Erasmus were both approaching sixty. 359 00:27:58,410 --> 00:28:02,370 Speaker 2: Josiah launched a product that became a best seller, a 360 00:28:02,410 --> 00:28:08,730 Speaker 2: medallion depicting a black African slave in chains inscribed with 361 00:28:08,770 --> 00:28:12,290 Speaker 2: the words words am I not a man and a brother? 362 00:28:13,850 --> 00:28:17,490 Speaker 2: Josiah gave the prophets to the cause of abolishing slavery. 363 00:28:18,210 --> 00:28:22,970 Speaker 2: The medallion, said one campaigner, had an effect equal to 364 00:28:23,050 --> 00:28:29,570 Speaker 2: that of the best written pamphlet. Erasmus meanwhile, transformed almost 365 00:28:29,610 --> 00:28:33,890 Speaker 2: overnight from an obscure provincial doctor into one of the 366 00:28:33,890 --> 00:28:38,690 Speaker 2: most famous writers in the land. His first publication was 367 00:28:38,770 --> 00:28:43,810 Speaker 2: a poem, The Loves of the Plants. In rhyming couplets, 368 00:28:44,170 --> 00:28:49,530 Speaker 2: Erasmus combined an explanation of sexual reproduction in plant species 369 00:28:49,770 --> 00:28:55,130 Speaker 2: with riskuae allusions to human relationships. The poem is all 370 00:28:55,570 --> 00:29:00,090 Speaker 2: flushed cheeks and seductive smiles, while the footnotes read like 371 00:29:00,290 --> 00:29:05,170 Speaker 2: popular science. It sounds like it shouldn't work, but apparently 372 00:29:05,570 --> 00:29:10,890 Speaker 2: it did. The most del poem on earth, said one 373 00:29:11,010 --> 00:29:15,290 Speaker 2: famous critic. The author is a great poet. The follow 374 00:29:15,370 --> 00:29:19,610 Speaker 2: up poem was an even bigger success, and even more unlikely. 375 00:29:20,170 --> 00:29:25,770 Speaker 2: In a single poem with eighty thousand words of explanatory footnotes. 376 00:29:26,050 --> 00:29:31,010 Speaker 2: Erasmus deals with everything from astronomy to geology to the 377 00:29:31,050 --> 00:29:35,090 Speaker 2: workings of steam engines, an artistic interpretation of his friend 378 00:29:35,210 --> 00:29:40,010 Speaker 2: Josiah's Latest VARs, and a polemic against his country's role 379 00:29:40,090 --> 00:29:45,250 Speaker 2: in the slave trade, inspired by Josiah's medallion the poor 380 00:29:45,290 --> 00:29:50,250 Speaker 2: fettered Slave on bended knee from Britain's sons imploring to 381 00:29:50,290 --> 00:29:59,330 Speaker 2: be free. By now Erasmus's daughters with the Governess were 382 00:29:59,370 --> 00:30:03,570 Speaker 2: grown up, Erasmus started a school for girls and put 383 00:30:03,650 --> 00:30:07,370 Speaker 2: them in charge. He wrote a plan for the conduct 384 00:30:07,370 --> 00:30:11,930 Speaker 2: of female education, ahead of its time, for the seventeen nineties, 385 00:30:12,290 --> 00:30:17,050 Speaker 2: when any kind of education for girls was a niche idea. 386 00:30:17,650 --> 00:30:21,330 Speaker 2: Some of his other books haven't aged as well, such 387 00:30:21,330 --> 00:30:25,690 Speaker 2: as his textbook on medicine, which took nearly eight hundred 388 00:30:25,730 --> 00:30:30,130 Speaker 2: pages to leave the strong impression that whatever your ailment, 389 00:30:30,770 --> 00:30:36,690 Speaker 2: you may as well try opium. He finally published his 390 00:30:36,770 --> 00:30:38,490 Speaker 2: thoughts on evolution too. 391 00:30:39,530 --> 00:30:41,170 Speaker 1: Would it be too bold to. 392 00:30:41,210 --> 00:30:45,410 Speaker 2: Imagine that all warm blood animals have arisen from one 393 00:30:45,610 --> 00:30:51,290 Speaker 2: living filament? Too bold it was for many readers. These 394 00:30:51,450 --> 00:30:56,130 Speaker 2: godless musings proved just as controversial as Erasmus had feared, 395 00:30:56,690 --> 00:31:00,930 Speaker 2: and for all that his living filament sounds startlingly prescient. 396 00:31:01,530 --> 00:31:08,330 Speaker 2: Erasmus couldn't yet explain convincingly how evolution worked. That would 397 00:31:08,370 --> 00:31:12,770 Speaker 2: have to wait a cut of generations. Charles Darwin read 398 00:31:13,090 --> 00:31:17,730 Speaker 2: everything his grandfather wrote about evolution, but he was reluctant 399 00:31:17,730 --> 00:31:20,890 Speaker 2: to cite Erasmus in his own work. He seems to 400 00:31:20,890 --> 00:31:26,330 Speaker 2: have been embarrassed by Erasmus's libertine lifestyle and unashamed enjoyment 401 00:31:26,370 --> 00:31:30,770 Speaker 2: of sex. Charles Darwin was a product of his era, 402 00:31:31,090 --> 00:31:36,930 Speaker 2: the Victorian era, prudish and straight laced. In our present 403 00:31:37,090 --> 00:31:41,490 Speaker 2: state of society, wrote Charles, it may seem a strange 404 00:31:41,490 --> 00:31:45,370 Speaker 2: fact that my grandfather's practice as a physician should not 405 00:31:45,530 --> 00:31:52,130 Speaker 2: have suffered by his openly bringing up illegitimate children. As 406 00:31:52,170 --> 00:31:57,290 Speaker 2: for the popular acclaim for Erasmus's racy poems, while that 407 00:31:57,570 --> 00:32:06,410 Speaker 2: was quite incomprehensible to Charles, Just like Erasmus, Charles dithered 408 00:32:06,450 --> 00:32:11,330 Speaker 2: for years before publishing his ideas on evolution, fearful of 409 00:32:11,370 --> 00:32:16,370 Speaker 2: the backlash they might cause. Remember Charles's great insight about 410 00:32:16,450 --> 00:32:21,970 Speaker 2: natural selection. Creatures that survive would pass on their characteristics 411 00:32:21,970 --> 00:32:27,170 Speaker 2: to the next generation. But the peacock's cumbersome tale seem 412 00:32:27,250 --> 00:32:32,170 Speaker 2: to hinder survival not help it, so how had it evolved? 413 00:32:33,250 --> 00:32:38,130 Speaker 2: The answer, Charles realized, starts with the insight that survival 414 00:32:38,330 --> 00:32:43,210 Speaker 2: isn't enough to pass on your characteristics to the next generation. 415 00:32:43,770 --> 00:32:48,970 Speaker 2: You need not only to survive, but to attract a mate. 416 00:32:49,090 --> 00:32:53,490 Speaker 2: In his private writing, Charles began to work out another 417 00:32:53,570 --> 00:32:59,610 Speaker 2: strand to his theory, sexual selection. If p hens chose 418 00:32:59,650 --> 00:33:03,210 Speaker 2: to mate with peacocks with the most magnificent tales, then 419 00:33:03,530 --> 00:33:07,930 Speaker 2: magnificent tales will be passed on to their offspring. Charles 420 00:33:08,050 --> 00:33:10,650 Speaker 2: was thinking along the right line, but when it came 421 00:33:10,690 --> 00:33:14,050 Speaker 2: to going public with his theory, Charles knew he had 422 00:33:14,050 --> 00:33:21,010 Speaker 2: a problem. In prudish, patriarchal Victorian society, nobody would want 423 00:33:21,010 --> 00:33:25,570 Speaker 2: to believe that sex was a powerful force in shaping nature, 424 00:33:26,410 --> 00:33:35,170 Speaker 2: even worse, female choice about who to have sex with. Today, 425 00:33:35,210 --> 00:33:39,810 Speaker 2: that idea is uncontroversial, but as Eveline Richards argues in 426 00:33:39,850 --> 00:33:44,410 Speaker 2: her book Darwin and the Making of Sexual Selection, to 427 00:33:44,610 --> 00:33:52,050 Speaker 2: male Victorian scientists, it was almost unthinkable. That's why the 428 00:33:52,090 --> 00:33:56,090 Speaker 2: sight of a peacock made Charles feel so sick. He 429 00:33:56,170 --> 00:33:59,610 Speaker 2: knew he'd need some brilliantly persuasive arguments to have his 430 00:33:59,690 --> 00:34:04,170 Speaker 2: idea taken seriously, but he failed to find them. When 431 00:34:04,290 --> 00:34:09,050 Speaker 2: Charles eventually published his theory of sexual selection, it was ridiculed, 432 00:34:09,770 --> 00:34:15,050 Speaker 2: widely ignored, and quickly forgotten. For one hundred years, it 433 00:34:15,210 --> 00:34:21,690 Speaker 2: languished in intellectual obscurity. Perhaps Charles could have made a 434 00:34:21,730 --> 00:34:25,650 Speaker 2: more convincing case if he had had access to insights 435 00:34:25,690 --> 00:34:30,850 Speaker 2: from modern biology. One intellectual breakthrough came in the nineteen 436 00:34:30,930 --> 00:34:36,410 Speaker 2: seventies the handicap principle. To Charles and his critics, it 437 00:34:36,490 --> 00:34:39,850 Speaker 2: seemed like an obvious weakness in his theory that lugging 438 00:34:39,890 --> 00:34:45,130 Speaker 2: around a massive tale surely makes survival harder. The handicap 439 00:34:45,170 --> 00:34:50,250 Speaker 2: principle turns that objection on its head. It says, the 440 00:34:50,250 --> 00:34:56,450 Speaker 2: peacock's tail evolved precisely because it hinders survival. The peacock 441 00:34:56,570 --> 00:34:59,690 Speaker 2: is showing off to pea hens. Look how fit and 442 00:34:59,730 --> 00:35:03,090 Speaker 2: strong I am. I can grow this magnificent tale and 443 00:35:03,250 --> 00:35:08,530 Speaker 2: still outrun any predators. Josiah Wedgwood would have understood this 444 00:35:08,650 --> 00:35:14,250 Speaker 2: idea instinctively because it so closely mirrors another idea he anticipated, 445 00:35:14,970 --> 00:35:21,010 Speaker 2: conspicuous consumption. Remember how Josiah defined his target market for 446 00:35:21,090 --> 00:35:24,970 Speaker 2: his expensive new vases, that sort of customers who could 447 00:35:24,970 --> 00:35:29,810 Speaker 2: afford to pay for anything they like. Josiah knew some 448 00:35:29,890 --> 00:35:33,450 Speaker 2: of his customers wanted to say something much like the peacock. 449 00:35:34,170 --> 00:35:37,810 Speaker 2: Look how wealthy I am. I can buy Wedgwood's latest 450 00:35:37,930 --> 00:35:44,730 Speaker 2: vas and still afford to live in luxury. If only 451 00:35:44,770 --> 00:35:48,610 Speaker 2: this analogy had occurred to Charles Darwin, he might have 452 00:35:48,650 --> 00:35:52,210 Speaker 2: been less sickened by the peacock's tail. He might have 453 00:35:52,330 --> 00:35:56,690 Speaker 2: realized that hindering survival could be a powerful feature of 454 00:35:56,770 --> 00:36:02,170 Speaker 2: his sexual selection theory, not a troublesome bug. But that 455 00:36:02,330 --> 00:36:07,490 Speaker 2: wasn't the only insight Charles was lacking. When Charles published 456 00:36:07,490 --> 00:36:12,170 Speaker 2: his theory, his critics scorned the implication that pea hens 457 00:36:12,290 --> 00:36:16,610 Speaker 2: must have a human likability to appreciate beauty. It seemed 458 00:36:16,650 --> 00:36:21,290 Speaker 2: like a stretch, and biologists now say sexual selection can 459 00:36:21,330 --> 00:36:22,170 Speaker 2: work without it. 460 00:36:22,770 --> 00:36:24,050 Speaker 1: Pea Hens didn't. 461 00:36:23,770 --> 00:36:28,050 Speaker 2: Need to evaluate the objective ideal of beauty, if there 462 00:36:28,090 --> 00:36:30,770 Speaker 2: is such a thing. They only needed to be able 463 00:36:30,810 --> 00:36:35,130 Speaker 2: to spot the distinguishing features of the highest status peacocks. 464 00:36:36,490 --> 00:36:40,730 Speaker 2: Once again, Josiah Wedgwood would have had no trouble grasping 465 00:36:40,770 --> 00:36:44,570 Speaker 2: that idea. Remember what he wants, asked himself about the 466 00:36:44,610 --> 00:36:49,850 Speaker 2: success of queenswear. How much of this general estimation is 467 00:36:49,850 --> 00:36:52,610 Speaker 2: owing to the mode of its introduction and how much 468 00:36:52,650 --> 00:36:57,010 Speaker 2: to its real utility and beauty. Josiah knew that people 469 00:36:57,130 --> 00:37:01,330 Speaker 2: might buy queenswear even if they themselves didn't find it beautiful, 470 00:37:01,770 --> 00:37:05,850 Speaker 2: simply to boost their own status by associating themselves with 471 00:37:05,930 --> 00:37:11,850 Speaker 2: the queen biologists. Now I'll see sexual selection as being 472 00:37:11,890 --> 00:37:17,330 Speaker 2: about signals. Peacocks, for example, signaling their genetic fitness through 473 00:37:17,330 --> 00:37:20,770 Speaker 2: their tail in much the same way we humans send 474 00:37:20,850 --> 00:37:25,210 Speaker 2: signals about ourselves with our purchasing decisions. We signal our wealth, 475 00:37:25,490 --> 00:37:32,290 Speaker 2: our taste, our understanding of the latest trends, even our virtue. Josiah, 476 00:37:32,530 --> 00:37:39,450 Speaker 2: with his anti slavery medallion, understood that too. I told 477 00:37:39,490 --> 00:37:42,690 Speaker 2: you that Charles Darwin might have found the answer to 478 00:37:42,730 --> 00:37:46,050 Speaker 2: the peacock puzzle in the life of his grandfather. But 479 00:37:46,370 --> 00:37:50,650 Speaker 2: I didn't mean Erasmus Darwin. I meant his other grandfather, 480 00:37:51,610 --> 00:37:56,890 Speaker 2: Josiah Wedgwood. In the winter of seventeen ninety four, Josiah 481 00:37:56,930 --> 00:38:01,810 Speaker 2: became ill. His friend Erasmus prescribed everything he could think of, 482 00:38:02,570 --> 00:38:06,810 Speaker 2: but nothing could work because Josiah had cancer of the jaw. 483 00:38:08,090 --> 00:38:13,410 Speaker 2: He died aged sixty four. The following year. His daughter 484 00:38:13,530 --> 00:38:19,610 Speaker 2: Susanna married Erasmus's son Robert. Susannah Wedgwood and Robert Darwin 485 00:38:19,890 --> 00:38:26,410 Speaker 2: had six children, including a boy called Charles. While Charles 486 00:38:26,450 --> 00:38:30,650 Speaker 2: grew up to share one grandfather's fascination with evolution, he 487 00:38:30,730 --> 00:38:36,090 Speaker 2: didn't share the other grandfather's fascination with pottery. We are 488 00:38:36,330 --> 00:38:40,730 Speaker 2: degenerate descendants of old Josiah w. Charles wrote to a friend, 489 00:38:41,130 --> 00:38:43,850 Speaker 2: for we have not a bit of pretty where in 490 00:38:43,930 --> 00:38:50,810 Speaker 2: the house, pretty where you can almost hear the condescension. Yet, 491 00:38:50,930 --> 00:38:55,610 Speaker 2: perhaps if Charles had studied his grandfather's pretty ware business, 492 00:38:56,290 --> 00:38:59,650 Speaker 2: the peacock's tail might not have puzzled him so much. 493 00:39:00,930 --> 00:39:04,210 Speaker 2: He might have noticed that peacock's showing off their tales 494 00:39:04,570 --> 00:39:09,410 Speaker 2: are much like Josiah's customers showing off their vases. The 495 00:39:09,450 --> 00:39:14,450 Speaker 2: clues were right there in Charles's family history, just not 496 00:39:14,610 --> 00:39:29,450 Speaker 2: where it thought to look. This episode relied on biographies 497 00:39:29,490 --> 00:39:33,570 Speaker 2: such as Josiah Wedgwood, Entrepreneur to the Enlightenment by Brian 498 00:39:33,650 --> 00:39:38,210 Speaker 2: Dolan and Tristram Hunts The Radical Potter. For a full 499 00:39:38,210 --> 00:39:44,730 Speaker 2: list of sources, see the show notes at Timharford dot com. 500 00:39:44,770 --> 00:39:48,610 Speaker 2: Cautionary Tales is written by me Tim Harford with Andrew Wright. 501 00:39:49,370 --> 00:39:52,410 Speaker 2: The show is produced by Alice Fines, with Marilyn Rust. 502 00:39:52,770 --> 00:39:55,250 Speaker 2: The sound design and original music for the work of 503 00:39:55,330 --> 00:40:01,010 Speaker 2: Pascal Wise. Sarah Nix edited the script. Cautionary Tales features 504 00:40:01,010 --> 00:40:04,930 Speaker 2: the voice talents of Ben Crowe, Melanie Guttridge, Stella Harford, 505 00:40:05,130 --> 00:40:09,930 Speaker 2: Gemma Saunders and Rufus Wright. The show would have impossible 506 00:40:09,970 --> 00:40:13,730 Speaker 2: without the work of Jacob Weisberg, Ryan Dilly, Greta Cohne, 507 00:40:14,330 --> 00:40:19,730 Speaker 2: Eric Sandler, Carrie Brody, Christina Sullivan, Kira Posey and Owen Miller. 508 00:40:20,530 --> 00:40:24,850 Speaker 2: Cautionary Tales is a production of Pushkin Industries. It's recorded 509 00:40:24,850 --> 00:40:28,850 Speaker 2: at ward Or Studios in London by Tom Berry. If 510 00:40:28,890 --> 00:40:32,730 Speaker 2: you like the show, please remember to share, rate and review. 511 00:40:32,770 --> 00:40:35,850 Speaker 2: It doesn't really make a difference to us and if 512 00:40:35,890 --> 00:40:38,610 Speaker 2: you want to hear the show ad free, sign up 513 00:40:38,650 --> 00:40:41,970 Speaker 2: to Pushkin Plus on the show page on Apple Podcasts 514 00:40:42,370 --> 00:41:03,330 Speaker 2: or at pushkin dot Fm, slash plus