1 00:00:03,400 --> 00:00:12,800 Speaker 1: This is an I Heart original. William Shaloner arranged the 2 00:00:12,840 --> 00:00:18,160 Speaker 1: whole thing. The printers, William new Bolton Edward Butler, We're 3 00:00:18,160 --> 00:00:20,920 Speaker 1: going to meet him at the Blue Post Pub in Haymarket, 4 00:00:21,120 --> 00:00:25,440 Speaker 1: near St James's Palace in Westminster. Chaloner had asked them 5 00:00:25,520 --> 00:00:28,280 Speaker 1: to print forty copies of ex King James the Second's 6 00:00:28,360 --> 00:00:32,440 Speaker 1: most recent declaration proclaiming his intention to take back the throne. 7 00:00:34,920 --> 00:00:41,280 Speaker 1: New Bolton Butler showed up, pamphlets in hand and sat 8 00:00:41,320 --> 00:00:47,280 Speaker 1: down for a bit of supper Chaloner's treat cheers. But 9 00:00:47,479 --> 00:00:56,760 Speaker 1: suddenly Chalander gave the signal, and, as his biographer wrote, 10 00:00:57,120 --> 00:01:00,840 Speaker 1: instead of grace off the meat, he entered shamed them 11 00:01:00,840 --> 00:01:10,120 Speaker 1: with musketeas instead of suffer. The printers were arrested by 12 00:01:10,120 --> 00:01:12,600 Speaker 1: the Crown soldiers and packed off to await trial at 13 00:01:12,640 --> 00:01:21,920 Speaker 1: Newgate Jail. That's right. It was a set up, one 14 00:01:22,080 --> 00:01:26,160 Speaker 1: that ultimately saw two poor printers executed for treason, and 15 00:01:26,240 --> 00:01:32,160 Speaker 1: one William Chaloner made eight thousand pounds richer for I 16 00:01:32,280 --> 00:01:36,520 Speaker 1: Heart Radio. I'm Linda Rodriguez, McRobie and this is Newton's 17 00:01:36,600 --> 00:01:44,199 Speaker 1: Law and I heard original podcast episode four The Other 18 00:01:44,280 --> 00:02:29,359 Speaker 1: side of the Coin. You Act one the demon printers 19 00:02:29,360 --> 00:02:42,919 Speaker 1: of Fleet Street. So I'm standing at Ldgate Circus. It's 20 00:02:42,919 --> 00:02:47,040 Speaker 1: the corner of Fleet Street and Farringdon Street. Fleet Street 21 00:02:47,760 --> 00:02:51,600 Speaker 1: has a lot of history. Might have heard Sweeney Todd, 22 00:02:51,639 --> 00:02:54,560 Speaker 1: the demon barber of Fleet Street. Not a real person, 23 00:02:54,720 --> 00:02:58,840 Speaker 1: by the way, or if you're a journalism history buff 24 00:02:58,960 --> 00:03:01,760 Speaker 1: because those do actually exist and I am one of them, 25 00:03:01,919 --> 00:03:05,799 Speaker 1: you'd recognize Fleet Street as the historic heart of London's 26 00:03:05,840 --> 00:03:09,040 Speaker 1: print media industry. I'm gonna turn around and I'm gonna 27 00:03:09,040 --> 00:03:13,880 Speaker 1: walk down Fleet Street now going west. So I've heard 28 00:03:14,240 --> 00:03:19,440 Speaker 1: that there is a mural down here on Magpie Alley 29 00:03:19,560 --> 00:03:25,400 Speaker 1: that depicts the Fleet Street print media industry. So I'm 30 00:03:25,400 --> 00:03:28,480 Speaker 1: hoping to find that. Back in the late fourteen hundreds, 31 00:03:28,639 --> 00:03:32,560 Speaker 1: English merchant William Caxton introduced the printing press to England 32 00:03:32,840 --> 00:03:35,160 Speaker 1: and he sat up in nearby Westminster. But after his 33 00:03:35,320 --> 00:03:39,839 Speaker 1: death his partner winkened the word just actually his name, 34 00:03:40,320 --> 00:03:42,920 Speaker 1: set up shop on Shoe Lane, which is just a 35 00:03:42,960 --> 00:03:46,040 Speaker 1: few hundred meters from where I am now in undred 36 00:03:46,640 --> 00:03:49,840 Speaker 1: and that was really the start of what became this 37 00:03:49,960 --> 00:03:55,200 Speaker 1: area's most lasting industry. Oh here's the mural, so right 38 00:03:55,240 --> 00:03:57,480 Speaker 1: at the top is William Caxton. It's a it's a 39 00:03:57,560 --> 00:04:01,400 Speaker 1: painting of William Caxton showing his printing to King Edward 40 00:04:01,440 --> 00:04:07,600 Speaker 1: the fourth and below it there's etchings of the hawker 41 00:04:07,760 --> 00:04:11,120 Speaker 1: from seventeen eighties. Is a person selling newspapers on the 42 00:04:11,120 --> 00:04:14,840 Speaker 1: street corner. There's the wooden printing press from six hundred. 43 00:04:15,360 --> 00:04:18,799 Speaker 1: There's a printing office here from six nine, which depicts 44 00:04:19,279 --> 00:04:21,200 Speaker 1: exactly what it would have looked like. You've got the 45 00:04:21,240 --> 00:04:24,279 Speaker 1: man setting the type, and you've got the big rolling 46 00:04:24,800 --> 00:04:27,240 Speaker 1: printing press, you've got the paper, and you've got a 47 00:04:27,320 --> 00:04:31,880 Speaker 1: dog sitting on the floor, because no office is complete 48 00:04:31,920 --> 00:04:35,200 Speaker 1: without a dog. Now, that would have been right around 49 00:04:35,200 --> 00:04:39,559 Speaker 1: the time that Newton would have been working and living 50 00:04:39,560 --> 00:04:42,360 Speaker 1: in London, and it's also right around the time when 51 00:04:42,800 --> 00:04:46,080 Speaker 1: the print media industry is really starting to take off. 52 00:04:46,200 --> 00:04:51,160 Speaker 1: It's becoming something that can actually change and shape public policy, 53 00:04:51,279 --> 00:04:54,240 Speaker 1: public discourse. It's something that people are actually reading and 54 00:04:54,320 --> 00:05:00,440 Speaker 1: listening to. It's also something that clever p Bill were 55 00:05:00,520 --> 00:05:04,440 Speaker 1: exploiting in a bunch of different ways, which brings us 56 00:05:04,440 --> 00:05:07,920 Speaker 1: back to William Newbolt and Edward Butler are hapless printers 57 00:05:08,600 --> 00:05:11,239 Speaker 1: at the time they made their ill fated bargain with Challenger. 58 00:05:11,560 --> 00:05:13,960 Speaker 1: They're very likely would have been employed in a workshop 59 00:05:14,040 --> 00:05:17,240 Speaker 1: like that around Fleet Street. After all, they were printers 60 00:05:17,279 --> 00:05:21,080 Speaker 1: and this neighborhood was full of them. The pamphlet that 61 00:05:21,160 --> 00:05:24,440 Speaker 1: new Bolton Butler printed was only paper, but it was 62 00:05:24,880 --> 00:05:31,120 Speaker 1: dangerous paper. In his declaration of former King James the 63 00:05:31,200 --> 00:05:35,200 Speaker 1: second exiled de France promised to protect the Protestant Church 64 00:05:35,240 --> 00:05:39,279 Speaker 1: of England and allow Parliament to proceed. Just come on, guys, 65 00:05:39,720 --> 00:05:44,280 Speaker 1: take me back. Thus we have sincerely declared our royal 66 00:05:44,320 --> 00:05:48,800 Speaker 1: intentions to regain our own right and to relieve our 67 00:05:48,880 --> 00:05:52,800 Speaker 1: people from oppression and slavery. And may God give us 68 00:05:53,120 --> 00:05:57,360 Speaker 1: success in the prosecution of the one, as we sincerely 69 00:05:57,400 --> 00:06:03,000 Speaker 1: intend the confirmation of the other. Uh. The seventeenth century 70 00:06:03,080 --> 00:06:08,280 Speaker 1: saw an increasing recognition that printing meant power, so printed 71 00:06:08,320 --> 00:06:11,960 Speaker 1: material was subject to licensing by the government. The government 72 00:06:12,080 --> 00:06:15,839 Speaker 1: was restrictive in some senses. Sexy stories about witches were 73 00:06:15,960 --> 00:06:19,400 Speaker 1: a okay, but printing. The intention of a deposed king 74 00:06:19,520 --> 00:06:21,760 Speaker 1: to snatch his throne out from under the people who 75 00:06:21,760 --> 00:06:26,039 Speaker 1: had taken it from him was definitely not on. More 76 00:06:26,080 --> 00:06:31,279 Speaker 1: than just not on, this was actual treason. Treason cost 77 00:06:31,320 --> 00:06:35,360 Speaker 1: people their heads, but other people had figured out how 78 00:06:35,400 --> 00:06:40,680 Speaker 1: to make treason pay handsomely. William Jowner knew that the 79 00:06:40,680 --> 00:06:44,000 Speaker 1: government of the relatively new monarchs William and Mary, was 80 00:06:44,080 --> 00:06:48,440 Speaker 1: offering a thousand pounds for confirmed Jacobite traders, people who 81 00:06:48,480 --> 00:06:51,880 Speaker 1: supported James. The second Jacobite, just in case you were wondering, 82 00:06:52,120 --> 00:06:55,919 Speaker 1: came from Jacobus, which was Latin for James. This was 83 00:06:56,080 --> 00:07:01,560 Speaker 1: an outrageous amount, nearly two d and pounds in today's money, 84 00:07:01,880 --> 00:07:05,400 Speaker 1: and Channer wanted it. Who could blame him? The only 85 00:07:05,440 --> 00:07:09,560 Speaker 1: problem was he didn't have any Jacobite traders on hand, 86 00:07:10,720 --> 00:07:16,640 Speaker 1: so he decided, true to form, to make some. He 87 00:07:16,680 --> 00:07:19,360 Speaker 1: approached a bunch of London printers with an offer to 88 00:07:19,440 --> 00:07:23,720 Speaker 1: pay them to print the pamphlet. Most of them said no, obviously, 89 00:07:24,200 --> 00:07:28,240 Speaker 1: but remember Chaloner had that knack of tongue padding, which 90 00:07:28,280 --> 00:07:31,360 Speaker 1: is still a gross way of saying that he could 91 00:07:31,400 --> 00:07:36,040 Speaker 1: talk just about anyone into just about anything. He assured 92 00:07:36,080 --> 00:07:38,920 Speaker 1: the luckless New Bolton Butler that the pamphlets weren't going 93 00:07:38,960 --> 00:07:41,600 Speaker 1: to be distributed, that they were just for a private 94 00:07:41,600 --> 00:07:46,200 Speaker 1: gentleman in the country. Plus New Bolton Butler needed the business, 95 00:07:47,120 --> 00:07:51,160 Speaker 1: so they agreed. The pamphlets were printed, and New Bolton 96 00:07:51,240 --> 00:07:56,000 Speaker 1: Butler never got to eat that dinner they were promised. Instead, 97 00:07:56,680 --> 00:08:00,840 Speaker 1: they were thrown in Newgate for four months. The prosecution 98 00:08:00,880 --> 00:08:03,360 Speaker 1: presented their case at the Session's House, better known as 99 00:08:03,400 --> 00:08:08,920 Speaker 1: the Old Bailey in September. Being moved and instigated by 100 00:08:08,920 --> 00:08:11,520 Speaker 1: the power of the devil, and being enemies of our 101 00:08:11,560 --> 00:08:15,400 Speaker 1: sovereign Lord and Lady, the King and Queen, they did compose, 102 00:08:15,560 --> 00:08:20,040 Speaker 1: print and publish all cause to be composed, printed and 103 00:08:20,200 --> 00:08:25,440 Speaker 1: published a most false and scandalous, malicious and traitorous libel 104 00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:31,760 Speaker 1: entitled His Majesty's most Gracious Declaration. Butler and new Boat 105 00:08:31,800 --> 00:08:34,920 Speaker 1: responded that they were hired men, and that the printing 106 00:08:34,960 --> 00:08:40,840 Speaker 1: press wasn't even theirs. We are but servants. It was 107 00:08:40,920 --> 00:08:44,880 Speaker 1: never known that servants did suffer for their master's quotes. 108 00:08:45,400 --> 00:08:48,400 Speaker 1: The court, of course disagree, Butler and Newbot knew what 109 00:08:48,440 --> 00:08:52,120 Speaker 1: they were doing. They were found guilty and sentenced to death, 110 00:08:52,800 --> 00:08:59,680 Speaker 1: and Chaloner collected his reward. What WILLIAMS. Chaloner really had 111 00:09:00,400 --> 00:09:03,599 Speaker 1: was the knack of looking at a chaotic situation and 112 00:09:03,760 --> 00:09:08,520 Speaker 1: seeing immediately how to exploit it. The country's crumbling currency, 113 00:09:08,640 --> 00:09:13,640 Speaker 1: the paranoia of the new government and now this new industry, 114 00:09:14,120 --> 00:09:18,720 Speaker 1: the media. Pamphlets like the ones that the printers got 115 00:09:18,760 --> 00:09:22,040 Speaker 1: done for us. We have sincerely declared our oil intake, 116 00:09:22,200 --> 00:09:25,440 Speaker 1: like the one the challenger's anonymous biographer printed after his death, 117 00:09:25,559 --> 00:09:28,679 Speaker 1: short view of the life of William, like the one 118 00:09:28,679 --> 00:09:31,079 Speaker 1: that Peter blonde fired off at the money are is 119 00:09:31,280 --> 00:09:36,079 Speaker 1: humble representation of Peter Blondel were huge business at the 120 00:09:36,200 --> 00:09:39,960 Speaker 1: end of the seventeenth century. Some unlucky rogues trick or other, 121 00:09:40,120 --> 00:09:43,480 Speaker 1: have you read the ideas of this challenge, and by 122 00:09:43,520 --> 00:09:46,360 Speaker 1: the abuse of the mintors of our money who have 123 00:09:46,520 --> 00:09:49,920 Speaker 1: made the coin with so little art and to do it. 124 00:09:50,640 --> 00:09:55,079 Speaker 1: Pamphlets were basically little books, usually a longish essay. If 125 00:09:55,080 --> 00:09:57,320 Speaker 1: you wrote one, you could either pay a printer to 126 00:09:57,400 --> 00:10:00,280 Speaker 1: make and distribute them, or a printer would more or 127 00:10:00,360 --> 00:10:02,640 Speaker 1: less invest in your words and the hopes that they 128 00:10:02,640 --> 00:10:06,080 Speaker 1: could earn their money back through sales. Pamphlets weren't often 129 00:10:06,120 --> 00:10:09,000 Speaker 1: printed in quantities less than five hundred, because these were 130 00:10:09,000 --> 00:10:16,040 Speaker 1: meant to be distributed widely. They, as well as magazines, broadsheets, ballads, gazettes, 131 00:10:16,200 --> 00:10:20,000 Speaker 1: manuscripts of all types were sold everywhere on London streets, 132 00:10:20,720 --> 00:10:23,880 Speaker 1: and it didn't entirely matter if you could read It's 133 00:10:23,880 --> 00:10:25,920 Speaker 1: not kind of the binary thing being able to read 134 00:10:26,000 --> 00:10:27,960 Speaker 1: or not being able to read. In terms of the 135 00:10:27,960 --> 00:10:32,680 Speaker 1: political culture around print by seventeen hundred, there are all 136 00:10:32,800 --> 00:10:36,800 Speaker 1: kinds of social spaces in which the illiterate person or 137 00:10:36,840 --> 00:10:41,319 Speaker 1: the semi literate person can encounter the contents of print. 138 00:10:41,600 --> 00:10:45,640 Speaker 1: That's Professor Joad Raymond. He teaches and studies sixteenth and 139 00:10:45,720 --> 00:10:50,160 Speaker 1: seventeenth century news communication at Queen Mary University of London. 140 00:10:50,720 --> 00:10:54,520 Speaker 1: These are churchyards around of course churchyard, which is where 141 00:10:54,320 --> 00:10:58,200 Speaker 1: the book trade is more or less centered. They are 142 00:10:58,559 --> 00:11:01,600 Speaker 1: coffee houses that are as a past slightly more socially 143 00:11:01,760 --> 00:11:07,960 Speaker 1: elite institutions. That's emotionally, the coffee houses a primarily male 144 00:11:08,480 --> 00:11:10,600 Speaker 1: space where you can go sit, drink a cup of 145 00:11:10,600 --> 00:11:13,000 Speaker 1: coffee and access all of the books that have been 146 00:11:13,040 --> 00:11:15,920 Speaker 1: published this all the pamphlets, newspapers that have been published 147 00:11:15,960 --> 00:11:19,440 Speaker 1: this week. So they work as kind of our experience 148 00:11:19,480 --> 00:11:23,120 Speaker 1: of the library. For indeed, at Starbucks and also in 149 00:11:23,160 --> 00:11:26,760 Speaker 1: those places you might engage a conversation and debate the 150 00:11:26,800 --> 00:11:30,040 Speaker 1: contents of the newspapers. So these are spaces where this 151 00:11:30,120 --> 00:11:34,480 Speaker 1: kind of conversation could happen, where political debate happens, and 152 00:11:35,240 --> 00:11:39,760 Speaker 1: printed and written texts a part of that political debate. 153 00:11:40,920 --> 00:11:45,120 Speaker 1: Newspapers were growing in importance, but pamphlets, they were really 154 00:11:45,160 --> 00:11:48,880 Speaker 1: the beginning of mass media, a way of speaking directly 155 00:11:48,960 --> 00:11:54,319 Speaker 1: to the people about everything, foreign news, social and political developments, 156 00:11:54,440 --> 00:12:00,440 Speaker 1: religious rights and trade, salicious rumors and sexy biography, worries 157 00:12:00,520 --> 00:12:05,800 Speaker 1: about murderers and strange beasts, and about witches. Which is 158 00:12:05,920 --> 00:12:11,720 Speaker 1: which is in Essex? Please from the dead? Captured Resultants, 159 00:12:11,760 --> 00:12:16,560 Speaker 1: granddaughter Henry, the trial of Mary Blandy Spinster for the 160 00:12:16,679 --> 00:12:21,160 Speaker 1: murder of her father, The stories of our Riches of 161 00:12:21,240 --> 00:12:28,000 Speaker 1: the Sussex drakon a most terrible season, the Vindication of Christmas. 162 00:12:28,040 --> 00:12:30,880 Speaker 1: A single piece of written material would likely be passed 163 00:12:30,920 --> 00:12:34,000 Speaker 1: on to ten or twenty other people, and that's not 164 00:12:34,040 --> 00:12:37,240 Speaker 1: including the people who heard it read aloud. So going 165 00:12:37,400 --> 00:12:40,800 Speaker 1: viral was a thing even in the late seventeenth century. 166 00:12:41,120 --> 00:12:44,679 Speaker 1: To put it another way, pamphlets were almost like Twitter, 167 00:12:45,040 --> 00:12:49,800 Speaker 1: like a physical proto Twitter. They were sometimes informed or 168 00:12:50,000 --> 00:12:53,520 Speaker 1: just funny or titillating, but they could also be useful 169 00:12:53,720 --> 00:12:57,600 Speaker 1: or clever, and they could sway public opinion, which was 170 00:12:57,760 --> 00:13:02,120 Speaker 1: just starting to be important. And that's why Nowble and 171 00:13:02,200 --> 00:13:05,479 Speaker 1: Butler had to die, why they had to be executed 172 00:13:05,480 --> 00:13:12,400 Speaker 1: for something as ostensibly innocuous as printing a pamphlet. Clearly, 173 00:13:12,440 --> 00:13:16,440 Speaker 1: by the sixt sixties and sixteen seventies the public and 174 00:13:16,480 --> 00:13:19,960 Speaker 1: the views of the public are perceived as mattering, and 175 00:13:20,000 --> 00:13:22,920 Speaker 1: so there is certainly a London constituency in which the 176 00:13:23,000 --> 00:13:26,720 Speaker 1: notional and actual public can be brought to bear upon 177 00:13:27,080 --> 00:13:30,760 Speaker 1: public figures in order to influence their actions and to 178 00:13:30,800 --> 00:13:33,200 Speaker 1: persuade them that something should be done in a particular way. 179 00:13:33,920 --> 00:13:38,760 Speaker 1: So remember that Challoner published his own pamphlets in outlining 180 00:13:38,840 --> 00:13:42,320 Speaker 1: his proposals to fix the coinage and confound the counterfeiters. 181 00:13:42,360 --> 00:13:46,479 Speaker 1: Now England have been more grieved with clipped and counterfeit 182 00:13:46,600 --> 00:13:50,679 Speaker 1: money than any other country for want of crop. Again, 183 00:13:51,200 --> 00:13:54,640 Speaker 1: Challner knew a lot more than most people about counterfeiting, 184 00:13:54,760 --> 00:13:57,800 Speaker 1: given that coining was his bread and butter. But this 185 00:13:57,920 --> 00:14:02,000 Speaker 1: pamphlet scam, this was part of a much bigger, longer 186 00:14:02,120 --> 00:14:05,200 Speaker 1: con even bigger than setting up some gormless printers to 187 00:14:05,240 --> 00:14:08,199 Speaker 1: hang for treason. Chaloner was throwing his ideas out to 188 00:14:08,240 --> 00:14:12,080 Speaker 1: the public, certainly an entity that had become more important, 189 00:14:12,280 --> 00:14:17,160 Speaker 1: more accordable, if that's a word, over the last century. 190 00:14:17,440 --> 00:14:20,840 Speaker 1: But he was also trying to reach some very specific people, 191 00:14:21,280 --> 00:14:24,200 Speaker 1: and he could do that because these specific people were 192 00:14:24,200 --> 00:14:26,960 Speaker 1: paying attention to what was being printed and passed around, 193 00:14:27,360 --> 00:14:29,320 Speaker 1: because there was a kind of people who took note 194 00:14:29,360 --> 00:14:32,040 Speaker 1: of what was being talked about in coffee shops and 195 00:14:32,120 --> 00:14:36,880 Speaker 1: places of commerce. I guess that particular example it sounds 196 00:14:37,080 --> 00:14:40,280 Speaker 1: very much like the kind of debate that takes place 197 00:14:40,520 --> 00:14:46,680 Speaker 1: within London, which is designed specifically to influence, not people 198 00:14:46,720 --> 00:14:49,560 Speaker 1: in the country. More broadly, it sounds very much debatement's 199 00:14:49,640 --> 00:14:54,480 Speaker 1: intended to shape the opinions of the major players who 200 00:14:54,760 --> 00:14:59,040 Speaker 1: are conscious not so much of the people who are voting, 201 00:14:59,400 --> 00:15:03,320 Speaker 1: but all the kind of the clients and the interest 202 00:15:03,360 --> 00:15:07,640 Speaker 1: groups with whom they interact. With his pamphlet, his foray 203 00:15:07,720 --> 00:15:12,240 Speaker 1: into manipulating the media and manufacturing influence, Challenger was getting 204 00:15:12,280 --> 00:15:15,960 Speaker 1: closer than ever to what he really wanted to get 205 00:15:16,000 --> 00:15:22,360 Speaker 1: inside the mint itself. He scorned the petty rogueries of 206 00:15:22,440 --> 00:15:26,960 Speaker 1: tricking single men, but boldly aimed at imposing upon a 207 00:15:27,040 --> 00:15:31,680 Speaker 1: whole kingdom, and whilest he was acting villainy in private, 208 00:15:32,480 --> 00:15:35,840 Speaker 1: pretended himself to be still busied for the good of 209 00:15:35,920 --> 00:15:49,360 Speaker 1: the public. Act two, A little creative accounting the media 210 00:15:49,520 --> 00:15:54,920 Speaker 1: wasn't the only fledgling institution that Challenger was trying to manipulate. Pamphlets, 211 00:15:55,000 --> 00:15:58,120 Speaker 1: print media. These were up ending power dynamics and this 212 00:15:58,240 --> 00:16:01,480 Speaker 1: was a big shift. But the image was still a mess, 213 00:16:01,560 --> 00:16:06,080 Speaker 1: and so was the country's finances, and that required a 214 00:16:06,080 --> 00:16:09,920 Speaker 1: little ingenuity. One of the things about, you know, times 215 00:16:09,960 --> 00:16:14,600 Speaker 1: of great change, is that we get abilities, we get 216 00:16:14,600 --> 00:16:18,600 Speaker 1: capacities whose implications we don't fully get. That's Tom Levinson, 217 00:16:18,720 --> 00:16:21,680 Speaker 1: author of Newton and the Counterfeiter and his most recent book, 218 00:16:22,080 --> 00:16:24,440 Speaker 1: Money for Nothing. And so what happens in the six 219 00:16:24,720 --> 00:16:27,760 Speaker 1: nineties is you get a whole bunch of new, weird 220 00:16:27,840 --> 00:16:31,120 Speaker 1: ideas about money. And one of the things that those 221 00:16:31,160 --> 00:16:33,680 Speaker 1: ideas do, one of the reasons they actually get developed 222 00:16:34,240 --> 00:16:37,840 Speaker 1: is because England needs money. The cost of keeping William 223 00:16:37,880 --> 00:16:39,960 Speaker 1: and Mary on the throne and their heads on their 224 00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:43,680 Speaker 1: bodies really wasn't cheap. Money was being stiphoned off by 225 00:16:43,680 --> 00:16:46,520 Speaker 1: William's war with his Catholic art rival and the country's 226 00:16:46,600 --> 00:16:49,600 Speaker 1: longtime freenemy France and what would be called the Nine 227 00:16:49,680 --> 00:16:52,440 Speaker 1: Years War. So you've got all this money you want 228 00:16:52,440 --> 00:16:55,240 Speaker 1: to spend, but you don't have the money available. Um, 229 00:16:55,360 --> 00:16:57,160 Speaker 1: so what you need to do is figure out how 230 00:16:57,280 --> 00:17:00,040 Speaker 1: to get the future to pay for the things you 231 00:17:00,040 --> 00:17:04,200 Speaker 1: want to do in the present. The idea that money 232 00:17:04,240 --> 00:17:08,280 Speaker 1: currency is ultimately just an agreement that this thing, whatever 233 00:17:08,320 --> 00:17:11,960 Speaker 1: it is, has or represents value. This was an idea 234 00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:15,520 Speaker 1: that was just getting some traction in England is about 235 00:17:15,560 --> 00:17:18,000 Speaker 1: to take that idea to the next level and build 236 00:17:18,040 --> 00:17:23,520 Speaker 1: a whole financial system around it. But first Parliament raised taxes, 237 00:17:23,600 --> 00:17:26,399 Speaker 1: which is never popular. And then it got creative and 238 00:17:26,440 --> 00:17:29,679 Speaker 1: started issuing government bonds, the first ever really, which are 239 00:17:29,680 --> 00:17:32,639 Speaker 1: basically loans to the government that are assured to yield 240 00:17:32,640 --> 00:17:36,120 Speaker 1: a return over time. And when that stopped being enough, 241 00:17:36,760 --> 00:17:39,720 Speaker 1: a group of the country's wealthiest men clubbed together to 242 00:17:39,840 --> 00:17:44,840 Speaker 1: form a bank, not just a bank, the bank, as 243 00:17:44,880 --> 00:17:49,359 Speaker 1: in the Bank of England. The country's first national bank. 244 00:17:50,840 --> 00:17:53,680 Speaker 1: The Bank of England was founded in six four after 245 00:17:53,720 --> 00:17:57,440 Speaker 1: an Act of Parliament incorporated it. It opened with one 246 00:17:57,480 --> 00:18:00,440 Speaker 1: point two million pounds put up by subscribers, who became 247 00:18:00,480 --> 00:18:03,199 Speaker 1: the governor and the company of the bank. It was, 248 00:18:03,680 --> 00:18:07,120 Speaker 1: to put this in perspective, only the second such central 249 00:18:07,119 --> 00:18:11,359 Speaker 1: bank in existence, behind the Swedish reichs Bank. Private banks 250 00:18:11,359 --> 00:18:13,960 Speaker 1: had been around for centuries. If you were wealthy, you 251 00:18:14,080 --> 00:18:16,560 Speaker 1: leave your stacks of gold and silver with the goldsmiths 252 00:18:16,640 --> 00:18:20,119 Speaker 1: or someone else who had secure vaults like green gods. 253 00:18:20,400 --> 00:18:23,320 Speaker 1: The goldsmiths charged a fee to people who used the service, 254 00:18:23,440 --> 00:18:25,280 Speaker 1: but this meant that there was a lot of money 255 00:18:25,359 --> 00:18:29,080 Speaker 1: just sort of lying around collecting dust. Some folks realize 256 00:18:29,119 --> 00:18:30,879 Speaker 1: that this money could be put to better use, like 257 00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:33,639 Speaker 1: being used to loan to other people, or being invested 258 00:18:33,720 --> 00:18:38,560 Speaker 1: in new colonization schemes, and the whatnot better is definitely arguable. 259 00:18:39,440 --> 00:18:42,200 Speaker 1: Fast forward to sixteen ninety four and as it turns out, 260 00:18:42,480 --> 00:18:45,159 Speaker 1: it's not just private citizens who need loans, but the 261 00:18:45,280 --> 00:18:50,199 Speaker 1: government the country too. Here's Tom Levinson. Basically, what happens 262 00:18:50,359 --> 00:18:55,640 Speaker 1: is the English Parliament invents the national debt in se 263 00:18:55,680 --> 00:18:59,440 Speaker 1: when for the first time authorizes borrowing a million pounds. 264 00:19:00,119 --> 00:19:04,199 Speaker 1: That are not a call on the notional person of 265 00:19:04,240 --> 00:19:07,080 Speaker 1: the king. You know, it's not the monarch's treasury, it's 266 00:19:07,080 --> 00:19:10,480 Speaker 1: not the monarchs resources that pay for it, as is 267 00:19:10,760 --> 00:19:14,439 Speaker 1: notionally ultimately the case in an absolute monarchy. In this case, 268 00:19:15,200 --> 00:19:19,080 Speaker 1: the million pounds is sought by Parliament and guaranteed as 269 00:19:19,080 --> 00:19:22,960 Speaker 1: an obligation that the taxing authority in Britain Parliament has 270 00:19:23,040 --> 00:19:27,240 Speaker 1: undertaken and this works, and just like that we have 271 00:19:27,320 --> 00:19:30,040 Speaker 1: the national debt, and politicians have been arguing about it 272 00:19:30,080 --> 00:19:35,240 Speaker 1: ever since now. It worked because private bank customers left 273 00:19:35,280 --> 00:19:37,280 Speaker 1: their money in the bank, which was then lent to 274 00:19:37,320 --> 00:19:39,919 Speaker 1: the government on the understanding that not everyone was going 275 00:19:39,960 --> 00:19:43,560 Speaker 1: to withdraw their money at the same time. This incidentally 276 00:19:43,640 --> 00:19:49,040 Speaker 1: becomes the foundation of modern capitalism, the national financial system 277 00:19:49,080 --> 00:19:54,520 Speaker 1: and what is properly called fractional reserve banking. This system 278 00:19:54,680 --> 00:19:57,280 Speaker 1: also had the effect of doubling the power of the 279 00:19:57,280 --> 00:19:59,919 Speaker 1: money that the bank held, and this is where they 280 00:20:00,200 --> 00:20:03,720 Speaker 1: get super tricky and where the biggest innovation comes in 281 00:20:04,119 --> 00:20:07,960 Speaker 1: and where challenger sees a weakness. So say you deposit 282 00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:10,880 Speaker 1: a hundred pounds, That money would be used to finance 283 00:20:10,880 --> 00:20:14,240 Speaker 1: the government's war in Europe. But you're a high roller. 284 00:20:14,359 --> 00:20:16,679 Speaker 1: You're a person who's moving lots of money around all 285 00:20:16,680 --> 00:20:19,040 Speaker 1: the time. You're not just some dude trying to buy 286 00:20:19,080 --> 00:20:22,159 Speaker 1: a dish of coffee with a busted penny. The bank 287 00:20:22,280 --> 00:20:25,360 Speaker 1: wanted to make sure that it's customers still had access 288 00:20:25,359 --> 00:20:29,439 Speaker 1: to and could in a sense use their money, so 289 00:20:29,520 --> 00:20:34,640 Speaker 1: it created what we're called running cash notes. These were 290 00:20:34,720 --> 00:20:37,919 Speaker 1: bank issued pieces of paper that the bank was obligated 291 00:20:37,960 --> 00:20:42,640 Speaker 1: to turn into coin on demand. Paper that had value, 292 00:20:43,400 --> 00:20:47,680 Speaker 1: paper that could itself be traded for goods and services, 293 00:20:48,359 --> 00:20:53,440 Speaker 1: paper that was money. If I could make a believable 294 00:20:53,480 --> 00:21:02,199 Speaker 1: explosion sound here, I would, but I can't, so boom. 295 00:21:02,280 --> 00:21:05,520 Speaker 1: Using paper to represent value had actually been part of 296 00:21:05,520 --> 00:21:08,200 Speaker 1: the landscape for a while. There were deeds to property, 297 00:21:08,280 --> 00:21:12,160 Speaker 1: for example, or promissory notes, which were essentially proto checks 298 00:21:12,560 --> 00:21:15,280 Speaker 1: or their bills of exchange or any record of value 299 00:21:15,320 --> 00:21:19,200 Speaker 1: being passed on. But this was on a much larger, 300 00:21:19,840 --> 00:21:25,080 Speaker 1: more regular, more organized scale. What's called in the profession 301 00:21:25,119 --> 00:21:28,439 Speaker 1: of the English and then British financial revolution of the 302 00:21:28,520 --> 00:21:31,639 Speaker 1: sixteen nineties into the first half of the eighteenth century 303 00:21:31,880 --> 00:21:35,680 Speaker 1: really is a major and rapid development of these ideas. 304 00:21:35,680 --> 00:21:39,640 Speaker 1: That this notion of money as an abstract idea has 305 00:21:39,640 --> 00:21:42,199 Speaker 1: been building for a long time. But then you know, 306 00:21:42,440 --> 00:21:47,400 Speaker 1: very quickly the implications of that get realized in London 307 00:21:47,560 --> 00:21:51,359 Speaker 1: and Amsterdam and Paris, but especially in London, where where 308 00:21:51,400 --> 00:21:53,840 Speaker 1: a number of these events, you know, just sort of 309 00:21:53,880 --> 00:21:56,960 Speaker 1: blow up in a big way. Isaac Newton, for one, 310 00:21:57,320 --> 00:22:00,440 Speaker 1: really got this. He got the idea that money doesn't 311 00:22:00,480 --> 00:22:04,399 Speaker 1: strictly have to be a physical material thing. Other people 312 00:22:04,440 --> 00:22:07,240 Speaker 1: got it too, of course, but they worried in coffee 313 00:22:07,240 --> 00:22:10,280 Speaker 1: shops and in banks and on the proto stock exchanges 314 00:22:10,280 --> 00:22:13,639 Speaker 1: in London and on the continent about the implications of 315 00:22:13,680 --> 00:22:17,320 Speaker 1: money being a kind of abstraction. Newton once wrote a 316 00:22:17,359 --> 00:22:20,720 Speaker 1: defense of quote paper credit, as he termed it does 317 00:22:20,800 --> 00:22:24,639 Speaker 1: mere opinion that sets a value upon money. We value 318 00:22:24,680 --> 00:22:27,920 Speaker 1: it because with it we can purchase all sorts of commodities. 319 00:22:28,920 --> 00:22:33,639 Speaker 1: The same opinion sets alike value upon paper security. Money 320 00:22:33,760 --> 00:22:36,480 Speaker 1: could be what everyone agrees it is, and it could 321 00:22:36,520 --> 00:22:40,480 Speaker 1: exist in an abstract or future state, but still be 322 00:22:40,720 --> 00:22:46,080 Speaker 1: used in the present. This was a big step. Once 323 00:22:46,119 --> 00:22:49,160 Speaker 1: we got used to the notion of paper money, other 324 00:22:49,200 --> 00:22:51,399 Speaker 1: shifts were easier to make, such as to what we 325 00:22:51,440 --> 00:22:54,800 Speaker 1: have now what's called fiat currency, which does not derive 326 00:22:54,840 --> 00:22:57,800 Speaker 1: its value from the material from which it's made or 327 00:22:57,840 --> 00:23:01,280 Speaker 1: even representing it has value you because the government and 328 00:23:01,320 --> 00:23:04,920 Speaker 1: authorities agree that it does and guarantee that it does. 329 00:23:06,040 --> 00:23:08,879 Speaker 1: Another fun and Bonker's way to think about this is 330 00:23:08,920 --> 00:23:11,400 Speaker 1: how much money there is in the world right now? 331 00:23:12,440 --> 00:23:17,480 Speaker 1: According to data from January, there's about thirty seven trillion 332 00:23:17,640 --> 00:23:20,720 Speaker 1: in US dollars in circulation. That's the money that you 333 00:23:20,760 --> 00:23:23,919 Speaker 1: can immediately pay to someone or convert into actual cash. 334 00:23:24,280 --> 00:23:27,479 Speaker 1: It's the most liquid but the amount of money, and 335 00:23:27,520 --> 00:23:29,600 Speaker 1: this is the essence of money, as in like a 336 00:23:29,720 --> 00:23:34,919 Speaker 1: pure number in investments and cryptocurrencies and derivatives and products 337 00:23:34,920 --> 00:23:39,160 Speaker 1: that have value but aren't like a real physical thing 338 00:23:39,960 --> 00:23:45,040 Speaker 1: that's more than one point to quadrillion with a quaw, 339 00:23:46,280 --> 00:23:50,080 Speaker 1: and without this conceptual shift about what money could be 340 00:23:50,200 --> 00:23:57,399 Speaker 1: in the seventeenth century, that quadrillion wouldn't exist. But you 341 00:23:57,440 --> 00:24:01,520 Speaker 1: can probably already see the problem with this because William 342 00:24:01,640 --> 00:24:07,760 Speaker 1: Chaloner certainly did counterfeiting coins that took effort, raw materials tools, 343 00:24:08,560 --> 00:24:11,879 Speaker 1: counterfeiting bank notes while all that really took was a 344 00:24:11,880 --> 00:24:15,199 Speaker 1: bit of paper and a good artist. The Bank of 345 00:24:15,240 --> 00:24:18,000 Speaker 1: England realized the danger it was in, so it took precautions. 346 00:24:18,280 --> 00:24:20,800 Speaker 1: The notes were printed on marbled paper and they were 347 00:24:20,840 --> 00:24:24,560 Speaker 1: most often issued in a hundred pound denominations, a huge 348 00:24:24,600 --> 00:24:27,840 Speaker 1: sum of money for your average person. This offered some 349 00:24:27,880 --> 00:24:29,760 Speaker 1: protection because it's not like you could move a fake 350 00:24:29,840 --> 00:24:33,639 Speaker 1: hundred pound note by paying your butcher with him. But 351 00:24:33,760 --> 00:24:36,920 Speaker 1: within a year of the Bank of England's opening, Chaloner 352 00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:40,600 Speaker 1: was counterfeiting hundred pound Bank of England notes. In fact, 353 00:24:41,240 --> 00:24:43,720 Speaker 1: it's probably less than a year because first fakes weren't 354 00:24:43,920 --> 00:24:50,240 Speaker 1: noticed until August, a year after the bank started. Chaloner 355 00:24:50,320 --> 00:24:53,159 Speaker 1: was a skilled man with a graving plate that was 356 00:24:53,200 --> 00:24:55,920 Speaker 1: what the copper engraving plate he etched the bank's notes 357 00:24:56,000 --> 00:24:58,760 Speaker 1: on two was called. He had a steady hand and 358 00:24:58,800 --> 00:25:01,639 Speaker 1: a good eye for d tail. He would sit at 359 00:25:01,640 --> 00:25:05,000 Speaker 1: a table and his rented lodgings in a less salubrious 360 00:25:05,040 --> 00:25:07,480 Speaker 1: part of town, not wanting to do his dirty work 361 00:25:07,520 --> 00:25:11,760 Speaker 1: and his fine lodgings and Knightsbridge carefully. Over a period 362 00:25:11,760 --> 00:25:15,320 Speaker 1: of weeks, he scratched the bank seal at the corner 363 00:25:15,440 --> 00:25:19,560 Speaker 1: Britannia herself framed by two fronds of foliage, and he 364 00:25:19,600 --> 00:25:22,639 Speaker 1: would shine up the plate using a cloth. Once he 365 00:25:22,680 --> 00:25:25,800 Speaker 1: had the plate done, all he needed was the fancy paper. 366 00:25:26,800 --> 00:25:29,320 Speaker 1: What he did with the notes he printed up is unclear. 367 00:25:29,520 --> 00:25:31,400 Speaker 1: He might have tried to sell them on to other 368 00:25:31,520 --> 00:25:35,280 Speaker 1: London criminals, but Bank of England officials eventually traced a 369 00:25:35,320 --> 00:25:37,840 Speaker 1: counterfeit note back to the printer who had done the 370 00:25:37,840 --> 00:25:45,000 Speaker 1: marbled paper. The printer snitched on Chalder. Chaloner was arrested 371 00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:58,359 Speaker 1: and tossed into Newgate Jail Act three. All that glitters 372 00:25:58,760 --> 00:26:04,760 Speaker 1: is not gold. Chaloner was caught, so he did the 373 00:26:04,840 --> 00:26:09,720 Speaker 1: only thing he could. He immediately clapped in with the bank, 374 00:26:10,320 --> 00:26:12,640 Speaker 1: delivered up the false notes he had, and became an 375 00:26:12,640 --> 00:26:16,119 Speaker 1: impeacher of his fellows. We had upon the governor and 376 00:26:16,240 --> 00:26:21,280 Speaker 1: directors of the bank generously forbad prosecution. Chalder gave up 377 00:26:21,320 --> 00:26:24,280 Speaker 1: some names other criminals who were trying to hoodwink the bank. 378 00:26:24,640 --> 00:26:27,400 Speaker 1: The bank had recently lost about a thousand pounds when 379 00:26:27,400 --> 00:26:30,680 Speaker 1: it cash some bad promisory notes, so Chaloner told them 380 00:26:30,680 --> 00:26:33,320 Speaker 1: who'd done it and where to find them, and neglected 381 00:26:33,359 --> 00:26:35,040 Speaker 1: to mention that he might have had a role in 382 00:26:35,040 --> 00:26:39,320 Speaker 1: that scam. Not only did the bank officials generously forbear 383 00:26:39,480 --> 00:26:44,399 Speaker 1: prosecution and spring him from Newgate, but they also, and 384 00:26:45,240 --> 00:26:48,359 Speaker 1: I find this actually hard to believe, but it was 385 00:26:48,400 --> 00:26:51,880 Speaker 1: printed right there in that biographical pamphlet, so it's got 386 00:26:51,920 --> 00:26:56,600 Speaker 1: to be true, gave him a reward of two hundred pounds. 387 00:26:57,440 --> 00:27:00,920 Speaker 1: That's more than thirty eight thousand pounds in today's money, 388 00:27:00,960 --> 00:27:05,760 Speaker 1: or nearly fifty three thou dollars, which is just insane. 389 00:27:06,200 --> 00:27:09,119 Speaker 1: Like how good of a con man was Challenger that 390 00:27:09,160 --> 00:27:12,040 Speaker 1: the bank governors were like, yes, this checks out, Thank 391 00:27:12,080 --> 00:27:16,320 Speaker 1: you very much, here's a boatload of money. In November, 392 00:27:17,520 --> 00:27:20,240 Speaker 1: emboldened by his success, he even sent a list of 393 00:27:20,280 --> 00:27:22,840 Speaker 1: suggestions to the bank governors on how to deal with 394 00:27:22,920 --> 00:27:28,919 Speaker 1: counterfeit notes. It's almost impossible not to admire Challenger, his 395 00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:32,480 Speaker 1: anonymous biographer for all the pearl grasping certainly seemed to 396 00:27:33,240 --> 00:27:36,080 Speaker 1: But this was a dangerous jig our Challenger was dancing. 397 00:27:37,040 --> 00:27:42,119 Speaker 1: His efforts to get himself noticed had worked. Charles Morten, 398 00:27:42,320 --> 00:27:45,000 Speaker 1: the Earl of Monmouth and former Lord of the Treasury, 399 00:27:45,280 --> 00:27:47,520 Speaker 1: was a political player who was on the ounce. He 400 00:27:47,560 --> 00:27:50,440 Speaker 1: had once been King William's buddy, but that had gone 401 00:27:50,440 --> 00:27:54,040 Speaker 1: south somehow. He was looking for ways to prove his 402 00:27:54,200 --> 00:27:58,600 Speaker 1: worth and to get one over on his rival, Charles Montague, 403 00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:01,280 Speaker 1: the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the man who would 404 00:28:01,320 --> 00:28:05,240 Speaker 1: later give Isaac Newton the Warden job. Morden saw an 405 00:28:05,240 --> 00:28:09,440 Speaker 1: opportunity in William Chaloner, specifically in Challenger's ideas that he 406 00:28:09,560 --> 00:28:11,960 Speaker 1: put into his sixteen ninety four pamphlet on how to 407 00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:14,760 Speaker 1: Fix the Coinage. Obviously, it had found its way to 408 00:28:14,800 --> 00:28:18,600 Speaker 1: the right people. Morden was impressed, so impressed that he 409 00:28:18,640 --> 00:28:22,159 Speaker 1: got Challenger and audience with the Privy Council, perhaps the 410 00:28:22,320 --> 00:28:25,800 Speaker 1: most powerful men in the country, the advisors to the Sovereign, 411 00:28:26,440 --> 00:28:33,119 Speaker 1: now just William after Mary's death in December, Finally challengers 412 00:28:33,160 --> 00:28:36,760 Speaker 1: long game was paying off. He the son of a 413 00:28:36,760 --> 00:28:39,320 Speaker 1: country we were, a man who used to pedal dildo 414 00:28:39,400 --> 00:28:42,800 Speaker 1: watches and quack medicines in the streets, had the confidence 415 00:28:42,840 --> 00:28:45,560 Speaker 1: of men like Charles Mordent and the governors of the 416 00:28:45,560 --> 00:28:49,280 Speaker 1: Bank of England, and now he was about to make 417 00:28:49,520 --> 00:28:54,040 Speaker 1: his play for the Mint itself. He does actually get 418 00:28:54,080 --> 00:28:57,240 Speaker 1: the Ear of Government. That's Chris Barker, historian at the 419 00:28:57,320 --> 00:29:00,800 Speaker 1: modern Royal Mint. You end up with the situation whereby 420 00:29:00,880 --> 00:29:04,440 Speaker 1: he's sort of really selling himself to the various committees 421 00:29:04,480 --> 00:29:07,560 Speaker 1: that have been tasked with investigating sort of miscarriages at 422 00:29:07,560 --> 00:29:11,080 Speaker 1: the raw Mint, and he's standing before a governmental committee, 423 00:29:11,240 --> 00:29:14,040 Speaker 1: or at least going before it in various ways. That's 424 00:29:14,120 --> 00:29:16,959 Speaker 1: That's something that's an incredible thing about Challoner is that 425 00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:20,680 Speaker 1: he's actually getting officials to believe what he's saying. He's 426 00:29:20,720 --> 00:29:25,120 Speaker 1: selling his car at the highest levels. Challoner walked into 427 00:29:25,160 --> 00:29:27,360 Speaker 1: his meeting with the Council at the Palace of Whitehall, 428 00:29:27,440 --> 00:29:30,200 Speaker 1: the enormous complex on the banks of the Thames in 429 00:29:30,240 --> 00:29:34,400 Speaker 1: the spring of and there, in the presence of some 430 00:29:34,480 --> 00:29:38,880 Speaker 1: of the country's most influential men, he unleashed a horrant 431 00:29:39,040 --> 00:29:43,000 Speaker 1: of well aimed criticism at the Mint, describing an institution 432 00:29:43,040 --> 00:29:48,280 Speaker 1: that was either incompetent or corrupt, or both. The Mint 433 00:29:48,440 --> 00:29:54,760 Speaker 1: is either incompetent or corrupt, or both, and he, he 434 00:29:54,840 --> 00:29:58,240 Speaker 1: told the counselors, was just the man to help clean 435 00:29:58,320 --> 00:30:02,240 Speaker 1: it up. We don't have a really good record of 436 00:30:02,280 --> 00:30:05,920 Speaker 1: exactly what Challenger said or exactly who was there to 437 00:30:05,960 --> 00:30:09,160 Speaker 1: hear it, but we do know that Challenger wasn't suddenly 438 00:30:09,200 --> 00:30:11,840 Speaker 1: made head of the Mint and running his scams from there. 439 00:30:12,880 --> 00:30:16,080 Speaker 1: The challengers allegations did lead to an investigation of the 440 00:30:16,120 --> 00:30:19,800 Speaker 1: Mince practices. Challenger wasn't the only person raising the concern 441 00:30:19,840 --> 00:30:22,640 Speaker 1: that the Mince moneyers were taking advantage of their proximity 442 00:30:22,680 --> 00:30:26,000 Speaker 1: to all that gold and silver, and as you can imagine, 443 00:30:26,640 --> 00:30:29,840 Speaker 1: the Mint employees weren't too pleased with that. They already 444 00:30:29,840 --> 00:30:32,880 Speaker 1: suspected that maybe there was a not so above board 445 00:30:32,960 --> 00:30:37,000 Speaker 1: reason that this Mr Challenger knew so much about counterfeiting. 446 00:30:37,560 --> 00:30:41,080 Speaker 1: The Mint's higher ups hired private thief takers were basically 447 00:30:41,120 --> 00:30:45,000 Speaker 1: bounty hunters. To bring in a load of witnesses, mostly 448 00:30:45,040 --> 00:30:49,680 Speaker 1: fellow coiners and criminals, to testify against Challender. They didn't 449 00:30:49,720 --> 00:30:52,880 Speaker 1: have to look far. Some of Challenger's acquaintances included part 450 00:30:52,880 --> 00:30:56,160 Speaker 1: time thief takers and full time extortionists, not to mention 451 00:30:56,280 --> 00:30:58,600 Speaker 1: a motley crew of petty criminals who had seen the 452 00:30:58,640 --> 00:31:03,479 Speaker 1: inside of various jails for various reasons. When they had 453 00:31:03,600 --> 00:31:06,959 Speaker 1: enough witnesses willing to rat on Challenger, they snapped him 454 00:31:07,040 --> 00:31:13,320 Speaker 1: up and threw him in Newgate again. Early in six 455 00:31:14,560 --> 00:31:18,680 Speaker 1: just days before Parliament ordered the recoinage, Challenger wrote to 456 00:31:18,760 --> 00:31:23,440 Speaker 1: Charles Montague, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He declared that 457 00:31:23,600 --> 00:31:26,440 Speaker 1: he was in jail on trumped up charges, that he 458 00:31:26,520 --> 00:31:30,320 Speaker 1: was actually a whistleblower who dared to call out the 459 00:31:30,360 --> 00:31:35,000 Speaker 1: Mint officials and got arrested for it. Now you think 460 00:31:35,040 --> 00:31:38,760 Speaker 1: that Montague would be a little suspicious of Challenger, after all, 461 00:31:38,800 --> 00:31:42,680 Speaker 1: he was writing from jail. But even if Montague did 462 00:31:42,720 --> 00:31:46,160 Speaker 1: want to check up on Challenger's past, there wouldn't really 463 00:31:46,160 --> 00:31:48,640 Speaker 1: have been any place to do so. After all, there's 464 00:31:48,680 --> 00:31:52,200 Speaker 1: no police force, no crime bureau, no winter Pole, no 465 00:31:52,360 --> 00:31:56,720 Speaker 1: one sharing information and he knows that Challenger had testified 466 00:31:56,720 --> 00:31:59,080 Speaker 1: in front of the Privy Council. That's got to me, 467 00:31:59,160 --> 00:32:03,200 Speaker 1: and he had some kind political cloud. Montague, fearing a 468 00:32:03,240 --> 00:32:10,240 Speaker 1: scandal that could taint the recoinage, had Shaloner released in May, 469 00:32:10,280 --> 00:32:13,800 Speaker 1: not long after Newton accepted the job as Warden, Challenger 470 00:32:13,960 --> 00:32:18,120 Speaker 1: testified before the Investigative Committee of the Lord's Justices of Appeal. 471 00:32:18,840 --> 00:32:24,160 Speaker 1: Newton wasn't there, But wow, did Chaloner put on a show. 472 00:32:24,880 --> 00:32:27,120 Speaker 1: This wasn't just a reprise of his performance for the 473 00:32:27,160 --> 00:32:30,440 Speaker 1: Privy Council. He had never made a false coin in 474 00:32:30,520 --> 00:32:34,720 Speaker 1: his life, he claimed, but he knew who did. The 475 00:32:34,840 --> 00:32:38,280 Speaker 1: Mint is staffed by corrupt money is who are cheating 476 00:32:38,320 --> 00:32:41,960 Speaker 1: the nation by making the coins too light, not the 477 00:32:42,000 --> 00:32:45,840 Speaker 1: full weight, and putting the difference into their own pockets. 478 00:32:46,520 --> 00:32:49,920 Speaker 1: And even worse, they are using the Mint's own machinery 479 00:32:50,040 --> 00:32:53,959 Speaker 1: to make counterfeit guineas out of base metals. And worst 480 00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:58,200 Speaker 1: of all, those excellent, nearly indistinguishable from the real deal 481 00:32:58,200 --> 00:33:02,320 Speaker 1: counterfeit coins making the rounds in the street, well, they 482 00:33:02,360 --> 00:33:05,520 Speaker 1: were so good because they were made using the Mint's 483 00:33:05,640 --> 00:33:10,360 Speaker 1: own dies. The Mint's own engraver has sold the official 484 00:33:10,440 --> 00:33:16,200 Speaker 1: Mint dies to counterfeits, which counterfeiters. Chander knew that too, 485 00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:24,960 Speaker 1: Patrick Coffee, his own former accomplice coffee, had maybe become inconvenient. 486 00:33:25,800 --> 00:33:33,280 Speaker 1: And who else the mysterious figure called William Chandler. Spoiler alert, 487 00:33:33,480 --> 00:33:36,720 Speaker 1: it was him. William Chalder was William Chandler. It was 488 00:33:36,800 --> 00:33:40,600 Speaker 1: his name that he used on the streets. But okay, 489 00:33:41,240 --> 00:33:44,840 Speaker 1: the lords Justices of Appeal don't know that William Chandler 490 00:33:44,960 --> 00:33:49,280 Speaker 1: is William Chalder. But even so, why would anyone believe 491 00:33:49,840 --> 00:33:54,800 Speaker 1: William Chaloner powerful friends? Notwithstanding he had just been in Newgate. 492 00:33:55,920 --> 00:34:00,120 Speaker 1: The thing was some of the dies had actually gone missing, 493 00:34:00,960 --> 00:34:04,080 Speaker 1: and whether he liked it or not, as the Mince 494 00:34:04,160 --> 00:34:11,600 Speaker 1: new Warden, Isaac Newton had to find out who took them. 495 00:34:11,600 --> 00:34:17,320 Speaker 1: Coming up on Newton's Law, criminals, like dogs always returned 496 00:34:17,320 --> 00:34:21,879 Speaker 1: to the oral vomit I saw in William Challoner's brother 497 00:34:21,920 --> 00:34:25,600 Speaker 1: in law's house. Cutters and tools instruments properly for coining. 498 00:34:26,360 --> 00:34:29,200 Speaker 1: Newton's Law is a production of I Heart Radio. It's 499 00:34:29,239 --> 00:34:32,960 Speaker 1: written and hosted by me Linda Rodriguez mccrabbie. Our senior 500 00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:37,040 Speaker 1: producer is Ryan Murdoch. Our producer is Emily Marina. Our 501 00:34:37,080 --> 00:34:41,800 Speaker 1: Executive producer is Jason English. Original music by Alice McCoy 502 00:34:42,200 --> 00:34:46,120 Speaker 1: with editing help from Mary Do, Sound design and mixing 503 00:34:46,160 --> 00:34:49,239 Speaker 1: by Jeremy Thal, Research and fact checking by Me and 504 00:34:49,320 --> 00:34:54,240 Speaker 1: Jocelyn Sears. Voice acting by Keith Fleming, Mark McDonald, Robert 505 00:34:54,280 --> 00:34:58,560 Speaker 1: Jack and Austin Rodriguez McRobie Special thanks to Professor Joe 506 00:34:58,680 --> 00:35:02,680 Speaker 1: Ed Raymond, Chris Barker and Tom Levinson. Special thanks to 507 00:35:02,719 --> 00:35:07,520 Speaker 1: mangesh Hati Kudur and Fineflex Sound Studios. Our show logo 508 00:35:07,680 --> 00:35:17,000 Speaker 1: is designed by Lucy Quintinilla. Thanks for listening, Bye checks, 509 00:35:17,719 --> 00:35:21,040 Speaker 1: See you tomorrow on Austin's Weekly. I am here to 510 00:35:21,080 --> 00:35:22,120 Speaker 1: your Thursday Falls