WEBVTT - Episode 8: Cashed Out 0:00:03.440 --> 0:00:12.080 This is an I heart original. William Chaloner was raving. 0:00:12.960 --> 0:00:16.759 His face was slick with sweat, his eyes were rolling. 0:00:17.440 --> 0:00:20.320 He ripped off his clothes, literally tore them to pieces, 0:00:20.400 --> 0:00:24.119 and ran stark naked around the ward At midnight, the 0:00:24.160 --> 0:00:27.040 warder's managed to catch and find him hand and foot, 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:29.960 and confine him to his bed, where he was now 0:00:30.040 --> 0:00:34.040 being taunted by the devil himself, crouched in the corner 0:00:34.040 --> 0:00:39.720 of his cell, laughing and hissing at it. Don't don't 0:00:39.760 --> 0:00:42.800 let him take me. I pray you good, sir, please? 0:00:47.000 --> 0:00:52.000 Or was he the sinews of his roguedy, money being 0:00:52.040 --> 0:00:56.560 gone to and his pretended services all blasted, he had 0:00:56.640 --> 0:01:00.920 little hopes left, and, being of a very cowardly nature, 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:04.840 the apprehension of what he might come to struck him 0:01:04.959 --> 0:01:08.040 into a fit of sickness, and wrought so strong upon 0:01:08.080 --> 0:01:12.640 his brain that he was sometimes delirious, in which fits 0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:16.039 he was continually raving that the devil was come for him. 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:21.440 In such frightful whimsies these intervals of lunacy, he endeavored 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:23.920 to improve to a height sufficient to put off his 0:01:24.000 --> 0:01:32.800 approaching trial, counterfeiting the madman as well he could. Chowner 0:01:32.920 --> 0:01:35.920 could have been faking it. After all, Faking it was 0:01:36.000 --> 0:01:38.959 something that he was very, very good at, but he 0:01:39.040 --> 0:01:42.920 also might not have been. When Chowner had arrived at 0:01:42.959 --> 0:01:45.920 Newgate in October of the previous year, he was confident 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:48.240 that he could figure a way out of this jam. 0:01:48.320 --> 0:01:51.880 But Chowner didn't know what he was up against. When 0:01:51.880 --> 0:01:54.280 he arrived there, he made very light of the matter, 0:01:54.360 --> 0:01:57.240 bragging he had a trick left yet, But when he 0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:00.639 heard how many witnesses came in against him, he began 0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:07.600 to droop. Challenger had by now spent months in Newgate, filthy, 0:02:07.840 --> 0:02:12.799 disgusting Newgate, and without the money that had bullied him 0:02:12.800 --> 0:02:18.800 through his last into Newgate, things were bleak. It was winter, 0:02:19.160 --> 0:02:22.920 cold and wet, and the walls wet with damp. He 0:02:23.040 --> 0:02:26.639 slept on straw covering a bare board. He couldn't afford 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:30.440 to send out for nicer or even palatable food, and 0:02:30.520 --> 0:02:34.160 he was drinking the filthy, disease riddled water that everyone 0:02:34.200 --> 0:02:38.720 else was. And in that time he'd seen his hopes 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:42.720 extinguished one after the other, until all he was left 0:02:42.800 --> 0:02:47.440 with was the dark fact of his impending death. It 0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:51.919 was enough to send someone mad, but in all honesty, 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:55.320 it didn't matter whether Challenger was really suffering a mental 0:02:55.360 --> 0:02:58.480 health episode. It's not like there's an insanity plea in 0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:02.440 the seventeenth century. For one thing and for another time 0:03:03.040 --> 0:03:10.720 for William Challoner was running out, but alas all would 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:15.320 not do, the sessions came in which his long concealed 0:03:15.440 --> 0:03:19.320 villainies were to be laid open to the world, and justice, 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:23.200 which often had attempted as had often been baffled by him, 0:03:23.480 --> 0:03:27.400 was now ready with her iron hands to break in 0:03:27.440 --> 0:03:34.200 two pieces for I Heart Radio, I'm Linda Rodriguez mccrabie, 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:41.480 and this is Newton's Law. Episode eight, our final episode 0:03:42.200 --> 0:04:31.719 cashed out You're Act one Chaloner's defense. While Chaloner wasted 0:04:31.720 --> 0:04:37.400 away in Newgate, Isaac Newton was busy. Challenger's trial would 0:04:37.440 --> 0:04:40.520 take place at the next sessions, although when exactly that 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:44.120 would be was uncertain, but Newton needed the time to 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:48.560 make sure that his case against Challenger was rock solid. 0:04:49.720 --> 0:04:53.839 Newton spent the first few months of deep in the 0:04:53.920 --> 0:04:57.880 Challenger case, collecting the depositions of scores of witnesses who 0:04:57.920 --> 0:05:01.960 could testify that they had seemed Challenger plying as terrible 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:06.599 craft and crucially, Newton made sure that these witnesses weren't 0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:09.200 going to do a runner or get cold feet when 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:12.960 the sessions came around. Tom Levinson, author of Newton and 0:05:13.000 --> 0:05:16.240 the Counterfeiter, One of the things I think Newton learns 0:05:16.360 --> 0:05:20.320 from this first defeat is that he has to arrest 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:23.920 and confine the people who have the goods on Challenger 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:27.640 and offer them, you know, whatever it takes to get 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:30.000 them to tell the story he wanted to hear about 0:05:30.120 --> 0:05:32.880 Challenger and not let him get away. You get to 0:05:32.920 --> 0:05:37.480 a position where challengers techniques could could influence them. Newton's 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:40.720 principal informant was Thomas Carter, the man who had been 0:05:40.800 --> 0:05:44.359 in with Challenger on the mult ticket scam. Carter knew 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:47.400 that giving the warden all the information he could was 0:05:47.480 --> 0:05:49.960 his only chance of making it out of Newgate alive. 0:05:50.440 --> 0:05:53.599 That all his hopes lay in giving Newton everything he 0:05:53.720 --> 0:05:58.520 needed to hang Challenger. I can produce another to justify 0:05:58.640 --> 0:06:01.640 besides myself, and I believe I can produce some of 0:06:01.680 --> 0:06:04.120 his work all this which he has said, I can 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:08.320 bring good witness to justify it. I humbly lay myself 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:11.039 at your honest fate, hoping your honest favor as I 0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:15.360 shall endeavor to deserve it. Carter became Newton's man on 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:19.240 the inside, and he connected Newton with a bunch of informants. 0:06:19.839 --> 0:06:23.240 And one of the things Newton did was put informants 0:06:23.279 --> 0:06:26.400 and spies basically next to Chaloner in the cells. And 0:06:26.480 --> 0:06:28.960 Chaloner was clever enough to know that this was likely 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:32.280 to happen, so he basically disdained the first couple that 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:35.880 Newton put in and and sort of diagnosed them as 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:39.320 potential spies. But Newton just kept putting people in, and 0:06:39.360 --> 0:06:44.000 finally Chaloner actually began to speak more openly to one 0:06:44.040 --> 0:06:48.240 of Newton's agents, John Ignacious Lawson, was a former doctor 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:52.320 turned coiner who was desperate to be abuse. Lawson told 0:06:52.400 --> 0:06:54.840 Newton that he was starving and that since he had 0:06:54.839 --> 0:06:57.919 been locked up, some of his past confederates had stolen 0:06:58.000 --> 0:07:00.520 all of his money and property and are of one 0:07:00.520 --> 0:07:03.440 of his children to death and sent the rest of begging. 0:07:04.920 --> 0:07:08.479 Lawson was the perfect spy. He and Chaloner had never 0:07:08.520 --> 0:07:11.800 worked together, so that meant that Challenger wasn't worried that 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:15.840 Lawson could testify against him directly. Lawson was able to 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:18.880 get close to Challeoner, even sleeping in the same cell. 0:07:19.720 --> 0:07:23.880 Lawson was later tried for coining in October, but he 0:07:24.000 --> 0:07:28.720 got off on a technicality a matter of jurisdiction or 0:07:29.200 --> 0:07:31.880 and this seems like it's more likely a matter of 0:07:31.960 --> 0:07:37.520 past usefulness. Lawson told Newton who Challenger was worried would 0:07:37.520 --> 0:07:41.520 testify against him. Carter, of course, and his wife Catherine, 0:07:41.520 --> 0:07:46.000 and the Holloways, but also some new names. This gave 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:50.840 Newton more people to find to testify against Challenger. Lawson 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:53.440 was also the one who told Newton that Challenger was 0:07:53.520 --> 0:07:58.760 quote feigning madness in order to delay his trial. William Chandoner, 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:01.400 being my chamber mate, owned to me that when the 0:08:01.400 --> 0:08:04.240 sessions came, and if he found himself in danger, he 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:09.640 would pretend himself sick. Challoner obviously didn't know that Lawson 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:13.720 was telling Newton everything, but even if he had, there 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:16.840 was probably little he could have done to save himself. 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:19.840 He didn't even really know what he was being charged with, 0:08:19.920 --> 0:08:22.480 and he had little idea of who else beyond Thomas 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:26.160 Carter and Thomas Holloway. Isaac Newton might be bringing his witness. 0:08:27.000 --> 0:08:30.120 Like most people awaiting trial at Newgate, Challoner would have 0:08:30.120 --> 0:08:34.720 been conducting his own defense. At this time, people accused 0:08:34.720 --> 0:08:38.040 of most crimes were not permitted a defense lawyer. The 0:08:38.080 --> 0:08:41.920 only exception was in cases of high treason, which technically 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:45.840 counterfeiting was this was to curb abuse of the charge 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:50.040 by the sovereign, but counterfeiting wasn't that type of high treason. Evidently, 0:08:50.120 --> 0:08:53.840 so coiners and clippers still didn't get defense lawyers. So 0:08:54.040 --> 0:09:02.040 Chaloner was grasping at straws. Channer wrote to Secretary of 0:09:02.080 --> 0:09:04.880 State James Vernon and too Newton to claim that the 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:09.400 whole malt ticket scam was Carter's plot to ensnare Chander 0:09:09.559 --> 0:09:14.760 in some quote mischief. What's more, Carter, he said, was 0:09:14.920 --> 0:09:18.520 nothing more than a rogue and a criminal. For I 0:09:18.640 --> 0:09:21.520 have such a man to be evidence against me that 0:09:21.640 --> 0:09:24.200 will not stick at anything, to swear to get his 0:09:24.240 --> 0:09:28.760 own liberty. He was once taken for coining and stealing 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:32.640 horses and put him warrick gail. He has been six 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:35.680 times in the pillory in London and one in the 0:09:35.760 --> 0:09:41.800 country for forgery and perjury. He robbed his master and 0:09:41.960 --> 0:09:45.520 was put in the counter and got out in woman's clothes. 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:50.000 He has gone by several names. He has been in 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:55.480 most gails in England. I discovered and convicted him of 0:09:55.559 --> 0:09:59.520 forgery but he got out of jail, so I know 0:09:59.760 --> 0:10:03.920 he will do me all the hurt he can. Challenger 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:07.520 tried to appeal directly to Newton, the man he saw 0:10:07.679 --> 0:10:11.000 as both the author of all of his sufferings and 0:10:11.880 --> 0:10:15.760 the only person who could end them. I beg you 0:10:15.800 --> 0:10:20.120 will not continue your displeasure against me, for I have 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:26.199 suffered very much. I wholly throw myself upon your great goodness. 0:10:27.080 --> 0:10:32.760 I m, Sir, your most humble and obedient servant. His 0:10:32.960 --> 0:10:37.400 letters to Newton were increasingly desperate, increasingly willing to give 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:42.760 up whatever he could to save himself. Sir, in obedience 0:10:42.800 --> 0:10:46.199 to your worship, I will give you the best account 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:50.120 I can remember. God shall be glad to do any 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:54.200 service to the government that is in my power. If 0:10:54.240 --> 0:10:57.880 I intended to have anything to do in counterfeiting of 0:10:58.000 --> 0:11:01.360 mult tickets, then I des God all my team. I 0:11:01.520 --> 0:11:06.400 never received my soul. I have been guilty of no 0:11:06.720 --> 0:11:10.280 crime these six years. If he ever said that he 0:11:10.320 --> 0:11:15.000 could engrave plates and make coin, well that was jest. 0:11:15.120 --> 0:11:17.920 It was a joke. That whole thing in front of Parliament, 0:11:17.920 --> 0:11:22.360 accusing the Mint of corruption. He'd been forced to testify honest, 0:11:23.160 --> 0:11:26.079 and this whole mult ticket scam. This was obviously worked 0:11:26.160 --> 0:11:28.360 up by that David Davis to get money out of 0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:33.280 the government. Oh, for God's sake, do not for suspicions 0:11:33.320 --> 0:11:37.360 and suggestions seem real truth. And so let me go 0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:42.040 murthered out of the world. Oh, let your great goodness 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:46.000 be known to the world by being merciful to me. 0:11:47.720 --> 0:11:51.840 Chalder's mental state was clearly deteriorating by the time he 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:55.480 wrote to Justice Raylton, the local magistrates supervising the case. 0:11:55.920 --> 0:11:59.560 He said, I am so very ill, I cannot hold 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:07.600 my Newton of course, never responded to any of Challenger's letters. 0:12:08.160 --> 0:12:10.920 Why would he. He had all that he needed. The 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:15.200 rope wound from the testimonies of so many people was 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:20.000 around Challenger's neck already, It just needed a good tightening. 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:31.400 On March one, the Grand Jury met at the guild Hall, 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:33.840 the sort of city hall for the city of London. 0:12:34.520 --> 0:12:37.240 This was a hearing to determine whether the indictments against 0:12:37.320 --> 0:12:41.120 Challengers should go ahead and to give Challenger a chance 0:12:41.160 --> 0:12:45.440 to plead. He might have been surprised to learn then 0:12:45.440 --> 0:12:48.480 and there that he was being charged with three counts 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:52.560 of counterfeiting offenses dating back seven years and not as 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:57.160 he thought the Malt lottery ticket scam. At first he 0:12:57.200 --> 0:13:00.800 refused to speak a last ditch effort to lay his trial, 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:04.800 then he claimed he had been mad these last three weeks, 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:09.920 to which a worthy justice on the bench made answer 0:13:10.280 --> 0:13:13.880 that to his knowledge, he had been so for as 0:13:13.920 --> 0:13:19.880 many years. Challenger eventually pleaded not guilty. His trial took 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:22.880 place just a few hours later, this time at the 0:13:22.920 --> 0:13:26.680 Old Bailey, the open air courtroom attached to Newgate. The 0:13:26.800 --> 0:13:31.760 judge south Field Level was infamously ruthless and corrupt, and 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:35.320 was no believer in innocent until proven guilty, which, to 0:13:35.360 --> 0:13:38.040 be fair, wasn't really a thing back then. From the 0:13:38.080 --> 0:13:42.520 moment Challenger was described as notorious by the judge, he 0:13:42.640 --> 0:13:45.040 must have known things were not going to go well. 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:49.520 He was put upon his trial, wherein there were a 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:54.400 whole cloud of witnesses against him. Also, William Chalon told 0:13:54.440 --> 0:13:59.720 me that he intended as more late offenses. Once swore 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:02.920 that she had seen him make some thousand pistols, and 0:14:03.040 --> 0:14:04.920 I told him he would come to be hanged for 0:14:04.960 --> 0:14:07.400 it as price. One another that she had seen him 0:14:07.440 --> 0:14:10.360 do the like by guineas Helena would give Thomas Twin 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:14.000 that he knew him to have made abundance of money 0:14:14.000 --> 0:14:17.200 of all sorts. I could be saved something very bright 0:14:17.280 --> 0:14:22.080 lined before him, which look a plate. In short, the 0:14:22.160 --> 0:14:25.520 evidence was very plain and positive to all which he 0:14:25.640 --> 0:14:30.200 made but an indifferent defense, but was very saucy in 0:14:30.240 --> 0:14:42.000 the court, affronting mister record a diverse times. Challoner's trial 0:14:42.160 --> 0:14:45.520 probably didn't last more than half an hour. We know 0:14:45.800 --> 0:14:48.200 that he would have had only his own word to 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:51.720 defend himself. That he would have stood at the bar, 0:14:51.880 --> 0:14:54.680 the cold march air at his back, facing the judge 0:14:54.720 --> 0:14:58.000 and jury on a raised platform in front of him. 0:14:58.040 --> 0:15:01.200 But he would have stood as whit nous after witness. 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:04.840 Some people he'd once have called friends would place the 0:15:04.960 --> 0:15:08.560 dies and the molds in his hands where the pewter 0:15:08.680 --> 0:15:13.000 shillings or the gilded guineas, and they would say they 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:19.400 saw him do it. He was innocent. He said he 0:15:19.520 --> 0:15:28.960 was set up. The court did not agree. Act two. 0:15:29.760 --> 0:15:41.360 The end, Challoner didn't take his sentencing well. All those 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:44.000 times he had slipped through the iron fingers of justice, 0:15:44.320 --> 0:15:49.880 he probably couldn't believe that this was it. After his condemnation, 0:15:50.120 --> 0:15:54.760 he was continually crying out. He struggled and flunked about 0:15:54.800 --> 0:15:57.440 for life like a whale struck with a harping iron, 0:15:58.480 --> 0:16:01.160 so that the warrant for his exit ution being signed, 0:16:02.320 --> 0:16:06.480 he was amongst the number appointed to die. When that 0:16:06.600 --> 0:16:10.920 fatal story reached his ears, he bellowed and ruled worse 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:16.240 than an Irish woman at a funeral. Nothing but murder, murder, 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:21.800 murder was to be heard from him. Nothing could be 0:16:21.840 --> 0:16:24.880 thought on to make him take that patiently which he 0:16:24.960 --> 0:16:29.960 must embrace, whether he would or no. And indeed a 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:34.000 man who makes new conscience in his life may well 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:46.760 tremble at the approaches of death. Newton received one last 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:51.600 desperate letter from Chaloner just two days before his execution. 0:16:56.640 --> 0:17:00.920 Oh dear sir, nobody can say of me but you. 0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:04.520 Chaloner had crossed Isaac Newton. He had insulted him, He 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:08.520 had insulted the crown. Oh God, my god, I shall 0:17:08.600 --> 0:17:12.960 be murdered unless you saved me. Newton rarely forgave, and 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:16.119 he damn sure I didn't forget. Oh I hope God 0:17:16.160 --> 0:17:19.440 will move your heart with mercy and pity to do 0:17:19.520 --> 0:17:25.399 this thing for me. Newton never wrote back. You're near murdered, 0:17:25.560 --> 0:17:42.520 humble servant, w Challoner. The night before Chaloner was strung 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:46.040 up on the tyburn tree. The sexton of St. Sepulchro 0:17:46.160 --> 0:17:50.000 Without Newgate, the church just outside Newgate's walls, ring a 0:17:50.080 --> 0:17:52.800 handbell under his window and the windows of the others 0:17:52.840 --> 0:17:55.840 faded to die the next day. As he rang the bell, 0:17:55.880 --> 0:17:59.520 he repeated the same poem that hundreds of other condemned 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:03.359 people had heard before this night. All you that in 0:18:03.440 --> 0:18:08.200 the condemned hold, do lie, prepare you for to morrow 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:13.520 you shall die. Watch all and pray. The hour is 0:18:13.640 --> 0:18:20.600 drawing near that you before the Almighty must appear. Examine 0:18:20.640 --> 0:18:25.600 well yourself and time repent that you may not to 0:18:25.760 --> 0:18:33.200 eternal flames be set. And when Saint Sepica's bell tomorrow tones, 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:45.200 the Lord above have mercy on your soul. Chaloner probably 0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:48.959 didn't sleep. At noon the next day the morning bells 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:52.520 of St. Sepulchro Raine, Chaloner was ushered into the Condemned 0:18:52.560 --> 0:18:56.240 room at Newgate, where his iron shackles were removed and 0:18:56.520 --> 0:19:02.240 hands bound the simple rope. He was in haggard, probably 0:19:02.280 --> 0:19:07.480 coughing and undoubtedly itching with lice. Shortly afternoon, Jowner left 0:19:07.520 --> 0:19:10.720 Newgate Prison for the last time. He was bundled into 0:19:10.760 --> 0:19:14.240 an open sled dragged by a horse, open so that 0:19:14.400 --> 0:19:18.720 everyone could see him and shame him. The procession paused 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:23.160 at Saint Seppel. First, the vicar was obligated to once 0:19:23.200 --> 0:19:28.080 again remind them and everyone else watching that they were 0:19:28.119 --> 0:19:34.240 about to die. All good people, pray heartily unto God 0:19:34.440 --> 0:19:38.200 for these poor sinners who are now going to their death, 0:19:38.760 --> 0:19:43.159 for whom this great bell doth toe. You that are 0:19:43.200 --> 0:19:49.199 condemned to die, repent with lamentable tears, Ask mercy of 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:54.359 the Lord for the salvation of your own souls. Lord, 0:19:54.480 --> 0:20:04.080 have mercy upon you, Christ, have mercy upon you. This 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:08.480 was the atmosphere that the authorities wanted, This solemnity, this 0:20:08.720 --> 0:20:13.560 quaking terror, this public shame. This was what was supposed 0:20:13.600 --> 0:20:16.919 to keep other people from attempting the same crimes. What 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:22.920 they got, however, was often more like a carnival. As 0:20:23.040 --> 0:20:26.240 Chaloner and his fellow condemned made their way through the 0:20:26.320 --> 0:20:30.560 city to the Tyburn Tree, people lined the streets and 0:20:30.680 --> 0:20:33.960 hung from the windows. Some people threw things at the 0:20:34.000 --> 0:20:37.560 passing procession, although what they threw depended on the crime. 0:20:38.119 --> 0:20:41.240 When they convicted, were well liked, women blew kisses, and 0:20:41.280 --> 0:20:44.640 according to one contemporary writer, many of the condemned were 0:20:44.720 --> 0:20:47.320 quote on good terms with the mom and jokes were 0:20:47.359 --> 0:20:49.760 exchanged between the men who were going to be hanged 0:20:50.160 --> 0:20:53.560 and the men who deserved to be pickpockets and thieves 0:20:53.760 --> 0:20:57.560 bide their trade throughout the crowds, even as the example 0:20:57.640 --> 0:20:59.720 of what could happen to them if they were caught 0:21:00.160 --> 0:21:08.000 processed a pact. He's going to use bush gold MESA challenger, however, 0:21:08.480 --> 0:21:12.640 was probably not catching kisses or joking. Counterfeiters were often 0:21:12.760 --> 0:21:16.600 among the most reviled of criminals. People hated them for 0:21:16.760 --> 0:21:20.480 making life difficult for everyone else and for undermining trust 0:21:20.600 --> 0:21:24.520 in the currency and the economy. He'd have been cursed 0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:32.320 at hit with mud and rotten food or worse. Though 0:21:32.320 --> 0:21:35.440 the Tyburn Tree was less than three miles from Newgate, 0:21:35.600 --> 0:21:38.600 it took the procession more than two hours to reach it, 0:21:38.680 --> 0:21:41.959 owing to the crowds and to that final stop at 0:21:41.960 --> 0:21:50.160 the pub nearest the tree for one last point, Hey hey, 0:21:52.400 --> 0:21:57.680 hey game. An even larger crowd awaited the notorious Challenger 0:21:57.760 --> 0:22:01.160 when he arrived at the tree. Luckiest were those who 0:22:01.160 --> 0:22:05.840 rented pews and benches nearest the scaffold. Everyone else had 0:22:05.880 --> 0:22:09.119 to stand on tiptoe to witness the hanging. The Tiber 0:22:09.200 --> 0:22:13.240 and Triple tree, three horizontal beams eighteen feet in the air, 0:22:13.880 --> 0:22:17.520 was capable of executing twenty four prisoners all at once, 0:22:18.000 --> 0:22:21.119 but it rarely had so many that you deserve you 0:22:21.280 --> 0:22:25.359 black hearted filling. It's unknown how many others were executed 0:22:25.400 --> 0:22:29.080 the day Challenger was, although he wasn't alone. When the 0:22:29.119 --> 0:22:32.080 moment came. The Challenger stood before the tree and the 0:22:32.119 --> 0:22:40.680 crowd's hands bound, still proclaiming his innocence. Kill them longer, 0:22:40.880 --> 0:22:45.720 I am innocent, Lord, to have mercy upon you, Christ, 0:22:46.000 --> 0:22:50.240 have mercy upon you murdered, but perjury. I need justice 0:22:50.720 --> 0:22:54.520 and pretense of law. And by the warden of the 0:22:54.720 --> 0:23:01.200 mint himself, you know that Challenger didn't get away with it, 0:23:01.720 --> 0:23:04.639 and you know already that Isaac Newton wasn't there to 0:23:04.680 --> 0:23:10.199 watch him, haye, but that anonymous biographer was. Within weeks 0:23:10.240 --> 0:23:13.480 of Challenger's execution, the pamphlet was printed and being sold 0:23:13.560 --> 0:23:17.240 on the same streets which Chaloner had only lately sold 0:23:17.320 --> 0:23:23.919 his counterfeit coins. It concluded, thus lived and thus died, 0:23:24.080 --> 0:23:27.080 A man who had he squared his talent by the 0:23:27.160 --> 0:23:31.080 rules of justice and integrity, might have been useful to 0:23:31.119 --> 0:23:35.399 the Commonwealth. But as he followed only the Dictates of 0:23:35.560 --> 0:23:51.119 Vice was as a rotten member cut off epilogue money 0:23:51.160 --> 0:23:59.960 for nothing. So can I get points of London Pride please, 0:24:01.119 --> 0:24:03.920 and I will come over here and pay with my 0:24:05.560 --> 0:24:19.200 Apple pet. Yeah, okay, I put my past code in here. 0:24:20.840 --> 0:24:26.720 There we go, just like magic, wonderful. Thank you so 0:24:26.720 --> 0:24:31.719 so much. Okay. So I am just bought my point 0:24:31.920 --> 0:24:35.760 at the Devereaux, which is a very historic pub in 0:24:36.240 --> 0:24:41.000 central London. Um. This used to be the Grecian coffee House, 0:24:41.000 --> 0:24:44.960 which was where Isaac Newton, Samuel Peeps so many other 0:24:45.000 --> 0:24:50.679 people would come um to chat about royal society stuff. 0:24:51.280 --> 0:24:54.000 So I'm also sitting in the Isaac Newton booth, and 0:24:54.000 --> 0:24:56.399 I've got a great picture here of Isaac Newton on 0:24:56.440 --> 0:25:00.280 the wall. We've got some some paintings of him and 0:25:00.520 --> 0:25:04.960 his telescope. This is definitely a place that's dedicated to Newton. 0:25:05.680 --> 0:25:09.200 Here at this pub, there aren't newspapers on the table. 0:25:09.240 --> 0:25:12.560 There's pamphlets, mostly because everybody's reading stuff on their phone. 0:25:13.680 --> 0:25:16.200 And the thing that I just paid with this digital 0:25:16.240 --> 0:25:19.280 representation of the money in my bank account, that would 0:25:19.320 --> 0:25:24.000 just be bonkers to the seventeenth century coffee lever or pubgoer. 0:25:24.640 --> 0:25:27.560 But that's all the stuff on the surface, because lots 0:25:27.560 --> 0:25:35.240 of other things haven't changed. Those questions about money, about 0:25:35.280 --> 0:25:38.359 the kinds of things that could be money, whether it's 0:25:38.480 --> 0:25:41.879 bits of hand hammered metal with the King's head on them, 0:25:42.000 --> 0:25:46.679 or paper or lotto tickets, those ideas coalesced into the 0:25:46.800 --> 0:25:50.440 utterly bizarre fact that I can use my phone to 0:25:50.560 --> 0:25:55.000 pay for my points or my dishes of coffee. Can 0:25:55.040 --> 0:25:57.080 you tell that that was like my first time doing it, 0:25:57.119 --> 0:26:00.000 because now I genuinely don't know what my actual waldy 0:26:00.040 --> 0:26:04.680 exists for anyway, A big theme of this podcast has 0:26:04.720 --> 0:26:08.080 been that money is only valuable because we all agree, 0:26:08.800 --> 0:26:12.679 all believe that it has value. We thought gold and 0:26:12.720 --> 0:26:16.159 silver had value, then it does, so it made sense 0:26:16.240 --> 0:26:20.040 to use that as a medium of exchange. Then we 0:26:20.119 --> 0:26:22.359 believe that the word of the government was actually enough. 0:26:22.720 --> 0:26:26.240 In three FDR took the US off the gold standard, 0:26:26.560 --> 0:26:29.840 two years after Britain had already done the same. But 0:26:29.920 --> 0:26:33.159 the fact that US money is backed not by a 0:26:33.240 --> 0:26:36.920 random precious metal, but by a governmental guarantee that's what's 0:26:36.920 --> 0:26:39.879 called fiat currency, is part of the reason that people 0:26:39.920 --> 0:26:44.920 have recently been talking about a trillion dollar coin, a 0:26:45.040 --> 0:26:48.639 one trillion dollar coin, a gazillion dollar debt limit, removing 0:26:48.680 --> 0:26:52.280 Congress from the equation. Those are among democrats proposed solutions 0:26:52.320 --> 0:26:55.960 to the debt ceiling standoff. The idea is that the 0:26:56.080 --> 0:26:58.880 US is once again about to hit its debt ceiling. 0:26:59.280 --> 0:27:01.800 Now remember the national debt thing we invented back in 0:27:01.920 --> 0:27:05.880 episode two, and by we I mean English Parliament. Anyway, 0:27:06.080 --> 0:27:08.560 the US reaching its debt ceiling the amount of money 0:27:08.600 --> 0:27:11.119 that it's allowed to borrow to keep the lights on. 0:27:11.960 --> 0:27:17.840 This happens a bit. The conflict happens when Congress refuses 0:27:17.880 --> 0:27:22.399 to raise the debt ceiling. Then government shutdown ensues. But 0:27:22.480 --> 0:27:28.400 the Treasury Secretary can theoretically solve that. Janet Yellen could 0:27:28.440 --> 0:27:32.720 bypass Congress an issue a single one trillion dollar coin 0:27:33.080 --> 0:27:36.080 made from platinum. She would then deposit it in the 0:27:36.119 --> 0:27:39.080 Federal Reserve just like it's a real account, and thus 0:27:39.160 --> 0:27:42.320 provide the country with enough money to pay its bills, 0:27:42.720 --> 0:27:47.439 no more borrowing necessary. As an one coin that is 0:27:47.520 --> 0:27:52.240 worth more than the GDPs of Greece, Colombia, Poland a 0:27:52.320 --> 0:27:56.560 whole bunch of other countries, a coin that is essentially performing, 0:27:56.920 --> 0:28:02.560 albeit legally the same trick that Challenge did making money 0:28:02.720 --> 0:28:07.320 from nothing. As of this recording, Yellen hasn't and the 0:28:07.359 --> 0:28:12.000 Biden administration very probably won't meant that coin, although the 0:28:12.040 --> 0:28:17.359 deadlock in Congress is certainly making this idea more appealing now. 0:28:17.560 --> 0:28:20.200 Another reason that we're talking about the trillion dollar coin, 0:28:20.480 --> 0:28:23.920 beyond the marre fact that because of the currency it's possible, 0:28:24.640 --> 0:28:27.639 is that other thing that was becoming important in Newton's time, 0:28:28.480 --> 0:28:32.040 mass media. The trillion dollar coin idea was floated by 0:28:32.040 --> 0:28:34.760 the White House privately back in two thousand and eleven, 0:28:35.000 --> 0:28:37.240 but it wouldn't really be a thing now if it 0:28:37.280 --> 0:28:41.480 hadn't been given air on multiple platforms. Paul Krugman, in 0:28:41.480 --> 0:28:44.840 an opinion for The New York Times Bloomberg Podcasts, declaring 0:28:44.960 --> 0:28:48.880 it's not a joke hashtag meant the coin, among many others, 0:28:50.400 --> 0:28:53.920 that these kinds of debates about monetary policy shouldn't just 0:28:54.120 --> 0:28:57.160 happen amongst the bunch of old, rich white dudes who 0:28:57.160 --> 0:29:01.920 make the policy most definitely has it's antecedents and pamphlets 0:29:02.000 --> 0:29:05.960 like Peter Bondo's humble suggestions to the Money Here's the 0:29:06.080 --> 0:29:08.360 money coin with the m O canal to be made 0:29:08.400 --> 0:29:11.960 exactly a long and William Chaloner's proposals to fix the 0:29:11.960 --> 0:29:16.320 coins now England have been more grieved with clipton counterfeit money. 0:29:16.400 --> 0:29:22.280 So yeah, more oxygen for good ideas and boo, more 0:29:22.360 --> 0:29:27.280 oxygen for bad ones. So this trillion dollar coin is 0:29:27.320 --> 0:29:31.560 it a good idea or a bad idea? Janet Yellen 0:29:31.680 --> 0:29:34.280 certainly thinks it's a bad idea. She said so. And 0:29:34.320 --> 0:29:37.960 if your entire currency is based on trust, magic ng 0:29:38.040 --> 0:29:41.320 money out of literally nothing doesn't do much to shore 0:29:41.440 --> 0:29:44.880 up that trust. It doesn't help the inflation situation, and 0:29:44.960 --> 0:29:49.600 it also rather uncomfortably blurs the lines between monetary policy, 0:29:49.920 --> 0:29:53.840 which is meant to be independent of politics, and fiscal policy, 0:29:53.920 --> 0:29:57.600 which is laid out by elected politicians. On the other hand, 0:29:58.080 --> 0:30:00.920 if anyone wants to get that old counterfeit forged fired up, 0:30:01.600 --> 0:30:08.960 now is the time. All this talk about trust and 0:30:09.120 --> 0:30:13.440