1 00:00:15,410 --> 00:00:30,650 Speaker 1: Pushkin eighteen eighty six. A train near Paris, two men 2 00:00:30,730 --> 00:00:35,210 Speaker 1: are sitting in silence. One decides to strike up a conversation. 3 00:00:36,290 --> 00:00:39,410 Speaker 1: What's your line of work? He asks his fellow passenger. 4 00:00:39,970 --> 00:00:44,810 Speaker 1: It's a mundane, everyday question. Almost everyone in France would 5 00:00:44,810 --> 00:00:48,250 Speaker 1: have been astonished to hear it. How has this man 6 00:00:48,450 --> 00:00:52,930 Speaker 1: failed to recognize who he's talking to? The twinkling black 7 00:00:52,970 --> 00:00:57,130 Speaker 1: eyes and walrus mustache under a shock of thick white hair. 8 00:00:57,770 --> 00:01:01,290 Speaker 1: This is one of the most famous faces in the country, 9 00:01:02,250 --> 00:01:06,850 Speaker 1: the Grand Francis. They call him the great Frenchman, Ferdinand 10 00:01:06,890 --> 00:01:10,650 Speaker 1: the Lesser. He looks younger than he is. He'd never 11 00:01:10,730 --> 00:01:14,650 Speaker 1: guess he's eighty. Here's how the New York Herald had 12 00:01:14,690 --> 00:01:19,170 Speaker 1: once described La grand Francais. He bears his years with 13 00:01:19,410 --> 00:01:22,810 Speaker 1: ease and grace, showing no signs of age in his movements. 14 00:01:23,290 --> 00:01:26,130 Speaker 1: His face is tanned and ruddy, with the evidence of 15 00:01:26,410 --> 00:01:31,370 Speaker 1: perfect health. His bearing is erect, his manner suave, courteous, 16 00:01:31,370 --> 00:01:36,570 Speaker 1: and polished. Ferdinando les Seppe might be surprised that the 17 00:01:36,610 --> 00:01:40,570 Speaker 1: other passenger hasn't recognized him, but he's not offended. He's 18 00:01:40,610 --> 00:01:45,370 Speaker 1: amused his line of work. He flashes a smile and 19 00:01:45,450 --> 00:01:53,450 Speaker 1: says isthmuses. Ferdinand Lessppe built the Suez Canal. Everyone told 20 00:01:53,490 --> 00:01:57,410 Speaker 1: him it couldn't be done, the waterway slicing one hundred 21 00:01:57,450 --> 00:02:02,490 Speaker 1: and twenty miles through the Egyptian Isthmus. It was too ambitious, 22 00:02:03,210 --> 00:02:07,450 Speaker 1: but Ferdinand Lessseppe did it. The new canal was an 23 00:02:07,490 --> 00:02:12,930 Speaker 1: instant hit, slashed journey times between Asia and Europe. Instead 24 00:02:12,930 --> 00:02:16,690 Speaker 1: of going thousands of miles around the southern tip of Africa, 25 00:02:17,010 --> 00:02:19,890 Speaker 1: ships could pay to take the shortcut from the Red 26 00:02:19,930 --> 00:02:25,890 Speaker 1: Sea to the Mediterranean. Today, twelve percent of global trade 27 00:02:26,410 --> 00:02:30,650 Speaker 1: goes through Suez. De Leasseeppe made a lot of French 28 00:02:30,690 --> 00:02:35,210 Speaker 1: investors very, very rich, and now he's trying to do 29 00:02:35,250 --> 00:02:40,050 Speaker 1: it all over again in Panama. But for Ferdinand de 30 00:02:40,130 --> 00:02:45,890 Speaker 1: les Seppe, Panama will not be a happy isthmus. I'm 31 00:02:45,970 --> 00:03:13,330 Speaker 1: Tim Harford and you're listening to cautionary tales. Ferdinando Lesseppe 32 00:03:13,570 --> 00:03:16,810 Speaker 1: was born in eighteen oh five in Versailles into a 33 00:03:16,850 --> 00:03:21,730 Speaker 1: distinguished family. His cousin would later become Empress Eugenie, the 34 00:03:21,810 --> 00:03:25,610 Speaker 1: wife of Napoleon the Third. Like his father, De la 35 00:03:25,730 --> 00:03:30,290 Speaker 1: Seppe became a diplomat. He served in Portugal, Spain, and Tunisia. 36 00:03:30,370 --> 00:03:34,210 Speaker 1: He spent five years in Egypt as France's vice consul. 37 00:03:34,930 --> 00:03:39,130 Speaker 1: De Leeseppe was charming and charismatic. He made friends wherever 38 00:03:39,170 --> 00:03:43,610 Speaker 1: he went. It is wonderful, said his first wife, to 39 00:03:43,730 --> 00:03:48,730 Speaker 1: have a husband so liked by everyone. Fernando Lesseppe was 40 00:03:48,730 --> 00:03:53,570 Speaker 1: a fine horseman, a crack shot and accomplished fencer. He 41 00:03:53,770 --> 00:03:57,690 Speaker 1: was not an engineer, or a financier or an administrator, 42 00:03:58,170 --> 00:04:00,810 Speaker 1: all skills you might expect someone to need if they 43 00:04:00,810 --> 00:04:03,850 Speaker 1: were going to embark on a groundbreaking one hundred and 44 00:04:03,890 --> 00:04:08,690 Speaker 1: twenty mile canal. So how did de Lesseppe get put 45 00:04:08,770 --> 00:04:12,890 Speaker 1: in Chos of Suez? In his five years in Egypt, 46 00:04:12,970 --> 00:04:16,730 Speaker 1: he had become firm friends with the ruler's son. By 47 00:04:16,770 --> 00:04:20,130 Speaker 1: the time the ruler's son took over, De Lesseppe had 48 00:04:20,370 --> 00:04:24,570 Speaker 1: left the diplomatic service and recently been widowed. He went 49 00:04:24,650 --> 00:04:28,850 Speaker 1: to visit his old friend. They talked about canals. The 50 00:04:28,930 --> 00:04:31,730 Speaker 1: idea had been around for years, but nobody had ever 51 00:04:31,810 --> 00:04:34,930 Speaker 1: got very far with it. I'll put up some money, 52 00:04:35,250 --> 00:04:38,050 Speaker 1: the ruler told De Lesseepe if you can raise the rest. 53 00:04:40,530 --> 00:04:43,970 Speaker 1: As the historian David McCulloch puts it, de Lesseppe had 54 00:04:44,170 --> 00:04:49,050 Speaker 1: no experience faintly related to such an undertaking. He had 55 00:04:49,090 --> 00:04:52,690 Speaker 1: no backing from France's government or from banks, but why 56 00:04:52,690 --> 00:04:56,370 Speaker 1: should that stop him. De Lesseppe convened a committee of 57 00:04:56,490 --> 00:04:59,810 Speaker 1: experts to come up with a plan. He formed a company, 58 00:04:59,890 --> 00:05:03,810 Speaker 1: and he barn stormed around France selling his scheme to 59 00:05:03,930 --> 00:05:09,370 Speaker 1: small investors. He was magnetic, a compelling speaker. Thousan of 60 00:05:09,410 --> 00:05:13,690 Speaker 1: French families entrusted him with their savings. The British Prime 61 00:05:13,690 --> 00:05:20,010 Speaker 1: Minister called the Lesseppe a swindler and a fool, but 62 00:05:20,090 --> 00:05:23,090 Speaker 1: then he would say that if the canal were actually 63 00:05:23,090 --> 00:05:26,170 Speaker 1: to happen, the British didn't want it controlled by a 64 00:05:26,290 --> 00:05:30,850 Speaker 1: French company. But could you really cut a canal right 65 00:05:30,890 --> 00:05:34,450 Speaker 1: across the Egyptian desert? It can't be easy to dig 66 00:05:34,490 --> 00:05:39,130 Speaker 1: in sand. De Lesseppe had no time for the doomsters 67 00:05:39,170 --> 00:05:43,890 Speaker 1: and gloomsters. They never achieve anything, who do not believe 68 00:05:43,930 --> 00:05:49,650 Speaker 1: in success, He liked to say. By eighteen sixty seven 69 00:05:50,050 --> 00:05:54,050 Speaker 1: they'd been digging for eight years and gone way over budget. 70 00:05:54,450 --> 00:05:57,730 Speaker 1: De Lesseppe was running out of cash. He went back 71 00:05:57,770 --> 00:06:01,090 Speaker 1: to the French public with another scheme to raise more money. 72 00:06:01,610 --> 00:06:05,770 Speaker 1: Lottery bonds, invest in finishing the Suez Canal. With a 73 00:06:05,890 --> 00:06:10,730 Speaker 1: chance of winning big cash prizes, public snapped up the bonds, 74 00:06:11,370 --> 00:06:16,370 Speaker 1: and two years later the very first ship steamed through 75 00:06:16,570 --> 00:06:23,810 Speaker 1: the newly opened canal, the state yacht of Empress Eugenie. 76 00:06:24,010 --> 00:06:28,490 Speaker 1: Somehow de Lasseppe had pulled it off. The two sides 77 00:06:28,530 --> 00:06:32,730 Speaker 1: of the world approached to greet one another, said one commentator. 78 00:06:33,570 --> 00:06:38,090 Speaker 1: Another gave de Lesseppe his new nickname, La Grange Franseille. 79 00:06:38,890 --> 00:06:43,490 Speaker 1: The triumph made him a symbol of France's self image 80 00:06:43,850 --> 00:06:48,650 Speaker 1: and the age of globalism and technological progress. In the 81 00:06:48,690 --> 00:06:53,410 Speaker 1: words of Matthew Parker, the author of Hell's Gorge, he 82 00:06:53,490 --> 00:06:59,650 Speaker 1: represented a new patriotism based around not war, but achievement 83 00:06:59,770 --> 00:07:06,690 Speaker 1: for all mankind. De Lesseppe married again. He was sixty four, 84 00:07:07,250 --> 00:07:12,370 Speaker 1: his glamorous new wife just twenty. Soon they had a child, 85 00:07:12,610 --> 00:07:18,290 Speaker 1: then another, and another. The photogenic family was never out 86 00:07:18,290 --> 00:07:22,930 Speaker 1: of the newspapers. The Grand Francais set his heart on 87 00:07:23,170 --> 00:07:30,610 Speaker 1: conquering another isthmus. As with Egypt, the idea of a 88 00:07:30,650 --> 00:07:35,930 Speaker 1: canal across Panama had been discussed for years. As with Suez, 89 00:07:36,370 --> 00:07:39,770 Speaker 1: such a canal would save ships. A detail of thousands 90 00:07:39,850 --> 00:07:44,010 Speaker 1: upon thousands of miles instead of sailing all around South America, 91 00:07:44,250 --> 00:07:47,490 Speaker 1: they'd be able to shortcut between the Pacific and Atlantic. 92 00:07:48,370 --> 00:07:51,410 Speaker 1: Surveyors had scoped out the lie of the land in Panama. 93 00:07:52,210 --> 00:07:55,170 Speaker 1: Various routes were proposed for locks that might convey a 94 00:07:55,250 --> 00:07:58,410 Speaker 1: ship over the hills between the oceans, like a set 95 00:07:58,450 --> 00:08:04,770 Speaker 1: of steps. To Lesseppe had strong views about locks. He 96 00:08:04,930 --> 00:08:08,730 Speaker 1: hated them more the ship close one set of gates, 97 00:08:09,170 --> 00:08:13,050 Speaker 1: open another wait for the water to gush in or out. 98 00:08:13,690 --> 00:08:17,490 Speaker 1: Locks make a canal journey slow and cumbersome, And as 99 00:08:17,530 --> 00:08:21,210 Speaker 1: far as de Lesseppe was concerned, there was only one 100 00:08:21,410 --> 00:08:25,210 Speaker 1: right way to build a canal at sea level. That's 101 00:08:25,250 --> 00:08:27,690 Speaker 1: what had done at Suez. You sail in at one 102 00:08:27,850 --> 00:08:32,330 Speaker 1: end and out the other. Simple and the Suez Canal 103 00:08:32,490 --> 00:08:35,890 Speaker 1: was one hundred and twenty miles. It's only forty odd 104 00:08:35,930 --> 00:08:39,530 Speaker 1: miles across the Panama isthmus. How hard could it be? 105 00:08:41,250 --> 00:08:44,650 Speaker 1: In eighteen seventy nine, De Lesseppe had the Saciete de 106 00:08:44,770 --> 00:08:48,690 Speaker 1: Geography convene a congress in Paris to study all the 107 00:08:48,850 --> 00:08:55,730 Speaker 1: possible routes. He invited delegates from twenty two countries, explorers, economists, engineers, 108 00:08:56,170 --> 00:09:01,530 Speaker 1: an expert. After expert explained very clearly why the sea 109 00:09:01,610 --> 00:09:05,130 Speaker 1: level canal that had worked in Egypt was never going 110 00:09:05,170 --> 00:09:10,090 Speaker 1: to work in Panama. For a start, Egypt was pretty flat, 111 00:09:10,410 --> 00:09:14,130 Speaker 1: Panama was hilly. How much earth would you have to dig, 112 00:09:14,490 --> 00:09:17,090 Speaker 1: how much would it cost? How long would it take? 113 00:09:17,810 --> 00:09:23,330 Speaker 1: And Egypt was dry. Panama's river Chagres cut across any 114 00:09:23,450 --> 00:09:27,130 Speaker 1: route the canal might take. Have you ever seen the chuglis, 115 00:09:27,610 --> 00:09:32,090 Speaker 1: asked one delegate to de Lesseppe's conference. I have. I've 116 00:09:32,170 --> 00:09:36,450 Speaker 1: watched it after a storm rise ten feet in an hour. 117 00:09:36,890 --> 00:09:40,930 Speaker 1: I've seen it gushing like a torrent fifteen hundred feet across. 118 00:09:41,290 --> 00:09:43,570 Speaker 1: What's going to happen to the ships in your sea 119 00:09:43,650 --> 00:09:49,890 Speaker 1: level canal when all that floodwater hits them? Problems, problems, problems, 120 00:09:50,090 --> 00:09:53,010 Speaker 1: said de Lesseppe. Of course there are problems. There were 121 00:09:53,050 --> 00:09:56,650 Speaker 1: problems at Suez too. People had said you could never 122 00:09:56,810 --> 00:10:01,250 Speaker 1: dig through sand, but men of genius came forward to 123 00:10:01,370 --> 00:10:07,010 Speaker 1: solve every problem by inventing machines, massive steam powered dredges. 124 00:10:07,490 --> 00:10:11,090 Speaker 1: Men of genius will invent whatever is needed for Panama too. 125 00:10:13,290 --> 00:10:16,610 Speaker 1: The Congress ended with a vote on which plan to support. 126 00:10:17,490 --> 00:10:21,410 Speaker 1: A surprising number of delegates were nowhere to be found. 127 00:10:21,890 --> 00:10:25,050 Speaker 1: One later explained that it was obvious which way de 128 00:10:25,130 --> 00:10:28,130 Speaker 1: le Seppe wanted the vote to go, and he didn't 129 00:10:28,170 --> 00:10:32,210 Speaker 1: agree with it. But he'd also dined very well in Paris, 130 00:10:32,330 --> 00:10:36,930 Speaker 1: and he'd hate to upset his hosts. Others were braver 131 00:10:37,770 --> 00:10:41,370 Speaker 1: in order not to burden my conscience, said one with 132 00:10:41,650 --> 00:10:47,490 Speaker 1: unnecessary deaths and useless expenditure, I say no. De le 133 00:10:47,650 --> 00:10:51,610 Speaker 1: Seppe got up to cast his vote and make an announcement. 134 00:10:52,370 --> 00:10:57,970 Speaker 1: I vote yes, and I have accepted command of the enterprise. 135 00:10:59,090 --> 00:11:05,810 Speaker 1: The room erupted. Lesseeppe was seventy four years old. It 136 00:11:05,850 --> 00:11:09,930 Speaker 1: has been suggested he said that after Suez I ought 137 00:11:09,970 --> 00:11:13,610 Speaker 1: to take a rest. But I ask you, when a 138 00:11:13,810 --> 00:11:17,250 Speaker 1: general has just won one battle and is invited to 139 00:11:17,290 --> 00:11:22,210 Speaker 1: win another, why should he refuse. By the end of 140 00:11:22,210 --> 00:11:27,290 Speaker 1: the vote, Yes had a resounding majority. Look more closely, 141 00:11:27,610 --> 00:11:31,690 Speaker 1: and the result seems less reassuring. Most of the Yes 142 00:11:31,770 --> 00:11:36,410 Speaker 1: delegates were French, not many were engineers, and of the 143 00:11:36,450 --> 00:11:41,170 Speaker 1: engineers only one had ever actually been to Panama, and 144 00:11:41,290 --> 00:11:45,650 Speaker 1: he had a financial interest in del Sepe's plan. Still, 145 00:11:46,010 --> 00:11:48,330 Speaker 1: now de la Seppe could go to the French public 146 00:11:48,370 --> 00:11:51,930 Speaker 1: to seek investment and claim the packing of experts, just 147 00:11:52,010 --> 00:11:55,690 Speaker 1: as it done with Suez. De la Sepe's son from 148 00:11:55,690 --> 00:12:00,130 Speaker 1: his first marriage, his loyal right hand man, Charles, wasn't 149 00:12:00,170 --> 00:12:04,770 Speaker 1: sure this was wise. You succeeded at Suez by a miracle, 150 00:12:05,450 --> 00:12:09,010 Speaker 1: he said to his father. Should not one be satisfied 151 00:12:09,170 --> 00:12:15,810 Speaker 1: with completing one miracle in a lifetime. Cautionary tales will 152 00:12:15,850 --> 00:12:30,170 Speaker 1: be back in a moment. If Ferdinand de Lesseppe was 153 00:12:30,210 --> 00:12:33,530 Speaker 1: going to persuade ordinary French families to invest in his 154 00:12:33,650 --> 00:12:37,650 Speaker 1: Panama Canal company as they had in Suez, it would 155 00:12:37,690 --> 00:12:42,530 Speaker 1: probably help if he'd actually been to Panama. On December thirtieth, 156 00:12:42,770 --> 00:12:46,770 Speaker 1: eighteen seventy nine, his ship docked in the small town 157 00:12:46,850 --> 00:12:51,090 Speaker 1: of Cologne. Down the ramp walked de Lesseppe with his 158 00:12:51,210 --> 00:12:55,450 Speaker 1: beautiful young wife and three of their little children. In 159 00:12:55,490 --> 00:12:59,130 Speaker 1: a white linen suit. De Lesseppe gave a rousing speech. 160 00:13:00,650 --> 00:13:04,730 Speaker 1: The canal will be made, he said, again and again. 161 00:13:05,770 --> 00:13:10,770 Speaker 1: The canal will be made. On was a railway town, 162 00:13:10,890 --> 00:13:16,610 Speaker 1: and not somewhere travelers like to linger. Unpaved streets strewn 163 00:13:16,690 --> 00:13:20,490 Speaker 1: with garbage, a couple of seedy hotels, and that was 164 00:13:20,530 --> 00:13:24,610 Speaker 1: about it. You landed in Colon only to get the 165 00:13:24,650 --> 00:13:29,170 Speaker 1: train to Panama City. The railway across Panama had been 166 00:13:29,170 --> 00:13:33,530 Speaker 1: built by American investors in the mid nineteenth century, when 167 00:13:33,570 --> 00:13:35,730 Speaker 1: the easiest way to get from the east coast of 168 00:13:35,770 --> 00:13:39,290 Speaker 1: America to the west was not to go through America 169 00:13:39,330 --> 00:13:42,890 Speaker 1: at all. Instead, you'd take a ship down to Panama, 170 00:13:43,690 --> 00:13:46,890 Speaker 1: make your way by land across the forty mile Isthmus, 171 00:13:47,130 --> 00:13:52,330 Speaker 1: and take another ship back north. De Lasseppe had arrived 172 00:13:52,330 --> 00:13:56,130 Speaker 1: at the start of the dry season. The skies were blue, 173 00:13:56,650 --> 00:14:00,130 Speaker 1: the breeze was pleasant. It was the perfect time of 174 00:14:00,210 --> 00:14:03,290 Speaker 1: year to visit Panama if you wanted to enjoy a vacation, 175 00:14:03,850 --> 00:14:07,770 Speaker 1: the most uninformative time if you wanted to understand how 176 00:14:07,810 --> 00:14:12,090 Speaker 1: hard it might be to build a canal. De la 177 00:14:12,170 --> 00:14:15,530 Speaker 1: Seppe and his entourage bordered the train for Panama City. 178 00:14:16,090 --> 00:14:20,250 Speaker 1: It took them across a swamp, through a jungle, and 179 00:14:20,490 --> 00:14:24,450 Speaker 1: up into the hills. The scenery was stunning, and on 180 00:14:24,530 --> 00:14:28,890 Speaker 1: board the train, the Champagne flowed freely. De la Seppe 181 00:14:29,010 --> 00:14:34,330 Speaker 1: was captivated La plu Bergen dumand he declared the most 182 00:14:34,410 --> 00:14:39,010 Speaker 1: beautiful place in the world. Then the train ground to 183 00:14:39,050 --> 00:14:44,530 Speaker 1: a halt. Everybody out. It was time to cross the 184 00:14:44,690 --> 00:14:49,330 Speaker 1: Chaghlis River, which flowed gently down a valley forty feet below. 185 00:14:50,570 --> 00:14:54,810 Speaker 1: There was, however, a problem. A few months earlier, after 186 00:14:54,850 --> 00:14:58,210 Speaker 1: a storm in the rainy season, the river had swelled 187 00:14:58,930 --> 00:15:03,770 Speaker 1: forty six feet. The railway bridge, huge and sturdy and 188 00:15:03,850 --> 00:15:07,650 Speaker 1: made from iron, had been battered and mangled out of shape. 189 00:15:08,050 --> 00:15:09,810 Speaker 1: It wasn't safe to take a CA train across it, 190 00:15:10,850 --> 00:15:13,610 Speaker 1: but another train was waiting on the other side to 191 00:15:13,650 --> 00:15:16,770 Speaker 1: take them on to Panama City if they'd cared to 192 00:15:17,130 --> 00:15:22,930 Speaker 1: cross the bridge on foot. Some of the passengers looked 193 00:15:23,010 --> 00:15:27,530 Speaker 1: down at the drop and across the twisted bridge and 194 00:15:27,690 --> 00:15:30,730 Speaker 1: decided and had had too much champagne to risk it. 195 00:15:31,490 --> 00:15:34,730 Speaker 1: De Leasseeppe gathered up his small children and led them 196 00:15:34,850 --> 00:15:38,490 Speaker 1: happily across. It was all a big adventure. If the 197 00:15:38,530 --> 00:15:42,610 Speaker 1: destructive power of the floods had impressed him, he kept 198 00:15:42,610 --> 00:15:46,690 Speaker 1: it to himself. Writing back to France, he mentioned only 199 00:15:46,770 --> 00:15:52,530 Speaker 1: that there'd been a small delay on the railway in 200 00:15:52,570 --> 00:15:56,330 Speaker 1: Panama City. On New Year's Day, they'd arranged a boat 201 00:15:56,410 --> 00:15:58,930 Speaker 1: for the three mile trip to the bay where the 202 00:15:58,930 --> 00:16:02,290 Speaker 1: canal would meet the ocean. De Leeseppe had brought a 203 00:16:02,330 --> 00:16:07,130 Speaker 1: shiny new pickaxe from France to strike the symbolic first blow, 204 00:16:07,930 --> 00:16:10,890 Speaker 1: but her heads were saw from the night before, and 205 00:16:10,970 --> 00:16:14,930 Speaker 1: the boat was late to leave. After more Champagne, they 206 00:16:15,010 --> 00:16:18,410 Speaker 1: neared the bay and realized they'd missed the tide. They 207 00:16:18,410 --> 00:16:23,290 Speaker 1: couldn't land. No matter, said de la Seppe. If the 208 00:16:23,330 --> 00:16:26,010 Speaker 1: first blow is only symbolic, we can do it right 209 00:16:26,050 --> 00:16:29,850 Speaker 1: here on the boat. He handed the pickaxe to his 210 00:16:29,970 --> 00:16:33,170 Speaker 1: seven year old daughter and lined up an old Champagne 211 00:16:33,250 --> 00:16:37,850 Speaker 1: crate emptied of bottles. The Bishop of Panama blessed the work, 212 00:16:38,450 --> 00:16:41,810 Speaker 1: and the little girl brought the pickaxe swinging down onto 213 00:16:41,810 --> 00:16:47,610 Speaker 1: the wooden box. Construction of the Panama Canal had big gun, 214 00:16:48,770 --> 00:16:53,290 Speaker 1: sort of, and after his trip across the Isthmus, Ferdinand 215 00:16:53,370 --> 00:16:57,850 Speaker 1: Lesseeppe was in a confident mood. Our work, he declared, 216 00:16:58,130 --> 00:17:07,090 Speaker 1: will be easier at Panama than at Suez. The Congress 217 00:17:07,130 --> 00:17:09,730 Speaker 1: in Paris had made a rough guess at what might 218 00:17:09,770 --> 00:17:12,890 Speaker 1: be involved, how much earth they'd have to shift, how 219 00:17:12,890 --> 00:17:15,370 Speaker 1: long it would take, and how much it would cost. 220 00:17:16,130 --> 00:17:19,290 Speaker 1: De Lesseppe had brought with him to Panama a technical 221 00:17:19,290 --> 00:17:22,850 Speaker 1: committee to give those numbers a sense check. They decided 222 00:17:22,850 --> 00:17:27,130 Speaker 1: their need to do even more excavation, half as much again. 223 00:17:27,810 --> 00:17:32,090 Speaker 1: But they also decided oddly that this would be quicker, 224 00:17:32,730 --> 00:17:37,290 Speaker 1: not twelve years, but eight and cheaper two de Lesseppe 225 00:17:37,570 --> 00:17:42,250 Speaker 1: once again barnstormed around France, drumming up interest in shares 226 00:17:42,330 --> 00:17:46,410 Speaker 1: in his Panama company. Everywhere he went he flew the 227 00:17:46,410 --> 00:17:51,730 Speaker 1: flags of France and America, though the French government had 228 00:17:51,810 --> 00:17:54,570 Speaker 1: nothing to do with his scheme, and the Americans were 229 00:17:54,730 --> 00:17:57,930 Speaker 1: just as wary of this Panama project as the Brits 230 00:17:57,930 --> 00:18:03,530 Speaker 1: had been of Suez. A single share in the company 231 00:18:03,570 --> 00:18:06,970 Speaker 1: would cost something like a year's wages for a typical 232 00:18:07,010 --> 00:18:11,690 Speaker 1: worker in the Suez company had cost the same, and 233 00:18:11,770 --> 00:18:14,970 Speaker 1: now they were trading at four times as much and 234 00:18:15,050 --> 00:18:20,410 Speaker 1: paying dividends of seventeen percent a year. The French public 235 00:18:20,570 --> 00:18:26,690 Speaker 1: had a question to resolve. Why had Suez succeeded. Was 236 00:18:26,730 --> 00:18:30,490 Speaker 1: it because of la craent Francis the sheer force of 237 00:18:30,690 --> 00:18:35,330 Speaker 1: personality of Ferdinand Lesseppe. If so, it might be worth 238 00:18:35,370 --> 00:18:39,050 Speaker 1: betting that it'd put it off again. But there was 239 00:18:39,090 --> 00:18:46,730 Speaker 1: an alternative explanation. Perhaps everyone had initially overestimated how challenging 240 00:18:46,810 --> 00:18:52,450 Speaker 1: Suez would be. Maybe with hindsight, it wasn't that hard. 241 00:18:53,210 --> 00:18:55,690 Speaker 1: If that were the case, we shouldn't be quite so 242 00:18:55,850 --> 00:19:05,450 Speaker 1: impressed that de Lesseppe had managed it. Psychologists now have 243 00:19:05,610 --> 00:19:09,410 Speaker 1: some jargon for thinking about questions like this. We have 244 00:19:09,490 --> 00:19:15,810 Speaker 1: to weigh up two types of explanation, dispositional and situational. 245 00:19:16,730 --> 00:19:20,490 Speaker 1: We might attribute an event to someone's disposition, what type 246 00:19:20,490 --> 00:19:26,210 Speaker 1: of person they are, or to their situation, chance and circumstance. 247 00:19:27,010 --> 00:19:31,930 Speaker 1: For example, suppose someone's late to a meeting, sorry, they say, 248 00:19:32,170 --> 00:19:38,730 Speaker 1: stuck in traffic. That's a situational explanation. Do you believe it? What? 249 00:19:38,850 --> 00:19:41,410 Speaker 1: Do you suspect that they're probably just the type of 250 00:19:41,490 --> 00:19:45,850 Speaker 1: person who's late to everything. Researchers have found that humans 251 00:19:45,890 --> 00:19:49,490 Speaker 1: are innately biased. We're too quick to jump to the 252 00:19:49,610 --> 00:19:55,450 Speaker 1: dispositional explanations, too slow to believe the situational. Even if 253 00:19:55,490 --> 00:19:58,770 Speaker 1: we know the traffic was bad on some level, we 254 00:19:58,890 --> 00:20:00,890 Speaker 1: tend to think that it must have been their fault. 255 00:20:01,890 --> 00:20:06,610 Speaker 1: In one famous experiment in nineteen sixty seven, subjects read 256 00:20:06,730 --> 00:20:11,290 Speaker 1: articles that are either praised or damn Fidel Castro. The 257 00:20:11,370 --> 00:20:15,090 Speaker 1: experimenters told them how the articles had come about. It 258 00:20:15,170 --> 00:20:18,850 Speaker 1: was an exercise, they explained. We flipped a coin heads 259 00:20:19,290 --> 00:20:21,170 Speaker 1: and we told the writer they had to make the 260 00:20:21,210 --> 00:20:25,570 Speaker 1: case for Castro tales, and we told them to argue against. 261 00:20:27,010 --> 00:20:31,090 Speaker 1: Then they asked, what do you think the writer's attitude 262 00:20:31,170 --> 00:20:36,810 Speaker 1: is towards Fidel Castro? The answer is obvious, right, You 263 00:20:36,850 --> 00:20:41,970 Speaker 1: simply can't tell. But even though the experiments subjects knew 264 00:20:42,130 --> 00:20:45,410 Speaker 1: the article came from a coin toss, they couldn't quite 265 00:20:45,530 --> 00:20:49,130 Speaker 1: bring themselves to believe it. They were more likely to 266 00:20:49,170 --> 00:20:53,010 Speaker 1: say that the writer of the pro Castro article probably 267 00:20:53,090 --> 00:20:56,450 Speaker 1: liked Castro and the writer of the anti Castro article 268 00:20:56,730 --> 00:21:05,170 Speaker 1: probably didn't. Psychologists call this the fundamental attribution error. We're 269 00:21:05,210 --> 00:21:10,650 Speaker 1: inclined to attribute things to people, not chars, and that 270 00:21:10,770 --> 00:21:14,010 Speaker 1: leads us astray because it makes us too likely to 271 00:21:14,130 --> 00:21:19,210 Speaker 1: expect the same outcome when the person's the same but 272 00:21:19,330 --> 00:21:26,410 Speaker 1: the situation is different. The sale of shares in the 273 00:21:26,450 --> 00:21:31,410 Speaker 1: Panama Company was a huge success. Tens of thousands of 274 00:21:31,650 --> 00:21:34,930 Speaker 1: ordinary French people applied to buy more than twice as 275 00:21:34,970 --> 00:21:39,530 Speaker 1: many shares as were available. The world of finance had 276 00:21:39,570 --> 00:21:44,090 Speaker 1: never seen anything like it. In January eighteen eighty one, 277 00:21:44,610 --> 00:21:47,770 Speaker 1: the first group of French engineers went out to Panama. 278 00:21:48,370 --> 00:21:52,570 Speaker 1: Their task higher local laborers and clearer path along the 279 00:21:52,650 --> 00:21:56,410 Speaker 1: route the canal was to take. It soon became clear 280 00:21:56,450 --> 00:22:02,410 Speaker 1: that Panama was nothing like Suez. The jungle was so dense, 281 00:22:02,610 --> 00:22:05,370 Speaker 1: said one worker, you could only see a few yards 282 00:22:05,410 --> 00:22:10,290 Speaker 1: in any direction. Hacking away with machetes and axes, you 283 00:22:10,410 --> 00:22:12,850 Speaker 1: had to watch out for the snakes, some of the 284 00:22:12,890 --> 00:22:18,050 Speaker 1: world's deadliest species, and you couldn't avoid the mosquitoes, the spiders, 285 00:22:18,610 --> 00:22:22,450 Speaker 1: the ants, the ticks, and the jiggers that laid eggs 286 00:22:22,530 --> 00:22:26,610 Speaker 1: under the skin. The workers would spend their evenings trying 287 00:22:26,650 --> 00:22:31,410 Speaker 1: to pick them out. De Leasseeppe had enjoyed Panama in 288 00:22:31,450 --> 00:22:35,370 Speaker 1: the dry season. When the rains came, said one engineer, 289 00:22:35,890 --> 00:22:40,730 Speaker 1: it was like working in a steambark. The tools rusted, 290 00:22:41,090 --> 00:22:45,690 Speaker 1: colorful mold sprouted up on belts and bags and boots. 291 00:22:46,010 --> 00:22:51,410 Speaker 1: Nothing dried. Did sleep, then put back on the sweat soaked, 292 00:22:51,570 --> 00:22:56,330 Speaker 1: rain drenched clothes you'd taken off the night before. After 293 00:22:56,490 --> 00:23:01,050 Speaker 1: just six months, only one in ten workers was still 294 00:23:01,170 --> 00:23:03,690 Speaker 1: on the job. And the worst of it wasn't the 295 00:23:03,770 --> 00:23:11,370 Speaker 1: climate or the bites. It was the illness. Typhoid, cholera, dysentery, pneumonia, 296 00:23:12,090 --> 00:23:18,010 Speaker 1: the biggest cause of death, malaria, chills and shivering, then fever, 297 00:23:18,410 --> 00:23:23,530 Speaker 1: thirst and sweat, and often those who lived never really recovered, 298 00:23:24,010 --> 00:23:26,650 Speaker 1: and yellow fever too, which we heard all about in 299 00:23:26,690 --> 00:23:31,890 Speaker 1: another cautionary tale. Less common than malaria but much deadlier. 300 00:23:32,930 --> 00:23:36,650 Speaker 1: The cause of all these tropical diseases at the time 301 00:23:37,370 --> 00:23:42,490 Speaker 1: nobody really knew. There were vague ideas about bad air, 302 00:23:43,130 --> 00:23:48,930 Speaker 1: hence mal area, but many people had no doubt the 303 00:23:48,970 --> 00:23:54,930 Speaker 1: cause was moral turpitude. Workers in Panama didn't have much 304 00:23:54,970 --> 00:23:58,650 Speaker 1: to do for entertainment. There were no theaters or concert 305 00:23:58,650 --> 00:24:03,570 Speaker 1: halls or galleries. There were, however, plenty of brothels. You 306 00:24:03,610 --> 00:24:06,850 Speaker 1: could gamble, and you could drink. In fact, you probably 307 00:24:06,890 --> 00:24:09,810 Speaker 1: should drink, because wine was a lot less likely to 308 00:24:09,850 --> 00:24:13,610 Speaker 1: make you ill than the local water. Was all this 309 00:24:13,850 --> 00:24:17,970 Speaker 1: debauchery being punished by the fates through disease and death. 310 00:24:19,050 --> 00:24:25,010 Speaker 1: It's the fundamental attribution error, again, that innate human tendency 311 00:24:25,490 --> 00:24:30,370 Speaker 1: to look for explanations in people's characters, not their circumstances. 312 00:24:31,490 --> 00:24:37,010 Speaker 1: One man was especially convinced, Jule Donglais. He was France's 313 00:24:37,210 --> 00:24:42,130 Speaker 1: top civil engineer, and in eighteen eighty three, with costs 314 00:24:42,170 --> 00:24:46,330 Speaker 1: mounting and workers dying and nowhere near enough earth being 315 00:24:46,410 --> 00:24:50,450 Speaker 1: dug de Lesseppe offered him a huge salary to go 316 00:24:50,530 --> 00:24:56,050 Speaker 1: out to Panama and sort everything out. Was Joule Donglais 317 00:24:56,170 --> 00:25:01,610 Speaker 1: afraid of disease, not at all. I intend to show 318 00:25:01,650 --> 00:25:05,690 Speaker 1: the world. He announced that only the drunk and the 319 00:25:05,770 --> 00:25:11,250 Speaker 1: dissipated will die of yellow fever. Cautionary tales will be 320 00:25:11,330 --> 00:25:24,410 Speaker 1: back after the break. When Jule Donglais arrived in Panama, 321 00:25:24,610 --> 00:25:28,970 Speaker 1: he found a mess of waste, mismanagement and corruption. Some 322 00:25:29,130 --> 00:25:33,330 Speaker 1: workers were collecting wages for five different jobs because nobody 323 00:25:33,410 --> 00:25:37,610 Speaker 1: was tracking who was spending time on what. Somehow, more 324 00:25:37,650 --> 00:25:41,330 Speaker 1: than one hundred thoroughbred race horses had been shipped over 325 00:25:41,370 --> 00:25:45,010 Speaker 1: from Europe, and the canal company was paying the stabling costs. 326 00:25:45,530 --> 00:25:50,130 Speaker 1: Although this particular extravagance seems not to have offended Donglais 327 00:25:50,210 --> 00:25:53,250 Speaker 1: too much, as he promptly arranged for his own horses 328 00:25:53,290 --> 00:25:56,450 Speaker 1: to be shipped over as well. Along with his wife, 329 00:25:56,570 --> 00:25:59,850 Speaker 1: his twenty year old son, his eighteen year old daughter, 330 00:26:00,170 --> 00:26:04,610 Speaker 1: and his daughter's fiancee, they rode in the hills, exploring 331 00:26:04,650 --> 00:26:10,210 Speaker 1: the countryside. The work, meanwhile, was being done with a 332 00:26:10,250 --> 00:26:15,290 Speaker 1: mishmash of badly planned tools. The company had built railroads 333 00:26:15,330 --> 00:26:18,570 Speaker 1: to reach parts of the planned canal route, but they'd 334 00:26:18,650 --> 00:26:22,530 Speaker 1: managed to build them in six different gages. Trucks from 335 00:26:22,570 --> 00:26:26,810 Speaker 1: one couldn't run on the others. Donglais surveyed the route 336 00:26:26,850 --> 00:26:31,290 Speaker 1: and found seventeen types of rock formation, an engineering nightmare. 337 00:26:31,930 --> 00:26:36,210 Speaker 1: The hard volcanic rock was bad enough. Even worse was 338 00:26:36,250 --> 00:26:41,130 Speaker 1: the clay. Utterly impossible, said one engineer. For a man 339 00:26:41,370 --> 00:26:43,970 Speaker 1: to throw off his shovel, he has to have a 340 00:26:43,970 --> 00:26:47,730 Speaker 1: little scraper to shove it off. And then when the 341 00:26:47,850 --> 00:26:51,650 Speaker 1: rains came the sides of the ditch, your doug would 342 00:26:51,650 --> 00:26:56,650 Speaker 1: come slipping right back in again, great avalanches of sodden 343 00:26:56,730 --> 00:27:01,090 Speaker 1: clay that swept away train tracks. The only thing to do, 344 00:27:01,090 --> 00:27:06,010 Speaker 1: Donglais realized, was make the sides less steep by digging 345 00:27:06,050 --> 00:27:11,090 Speaker 1: them wider. Donglais did some sum In total, he reckoned 346 00:27:11,210 --> 00:27:15,170 Speaker 1: that have to shift one hundred and twenty million cubic 347 00:27:15,250 --> 00:27:19,250 Speaker 1: meters of earth. That'd be like digging two meters down 348 00:27:19,290 --> 00:27:23,330 Speaker 1: across the whole of Manhattan. More to the point, it 349 00:27:23,450 --> 00:27:25,770 Speaker 1: was also two and a half times the amount that 350 00:27:25,930 --> 00:27:31,530 Speaker 1: Paris Congress had initially estimated. Back in Paris, de Lesseppe 351 00:27:31,650 --> 00:27:35,290 Speaker 1: took the news calmly. He decided there was no need 352 00:27:35,330 --> 00:27:38,530 Speaker 1: to revise his estimates of the cost or the timescale, 353 00:27:38,970 --> 00:27:45,370 Speaker 1: Everything he said, is proceeding as planned. Donglais too was optimistic. 354 00:27:46,250 --> 00:27:50,450 Speaker 1: It only requires that we quadruple our efforts, he said, 355 00:27:50,850 --> 00:27:56,890 Speaker 1: which is absolutely possible. And for a while it seemed 356 00:27:56,930 --> 00:28:01,530 Speaker 1: it might be. New machines arrived, custom built for the challenge, 357 00:28:02,170 --> 00:28:06,490 Speaker 1: monstrous contraptions on wooden legs, with a tall tower and 358 00:28:06,530 --> 00:28:09,970 Speaker 1: a wheel hauling huge buckets on a chair, and great 359 00:28:10,130 --> 00:28:14,050 Speaker 1: pipes spewing jets of water to fire the earth in 360 00:28:14,090 --> 00:28:17,410 Speaker 1: the buckets far away from the ditch. It looked just 361 00:28:17,690 --> 00:28:21,010 Speaker 1: like the sort of fantastic invention that de Lesseppe had 362 00:28:21,050 --> 00:28:26,250 Speaker 1: promised men of genius would come up with. Maybe, just maybe, 363 00:28:26,610 --> 00:28:33,930 Speaker 1: Jule Donglais could turn the project around. But then donglais 364 00:28:34,210 --> 00:28:39,650 Speaker 1: eighteen year old daughter fell ill and died yellow fever. 365 00:28:41,330 --> 00:28:45,170 Speaker 1: My poor husband is in a despair, which is painful 366 00:28:45,210 --> 00:28:49,930 Speaker 1: to see, wrote Madame Donglais. My first desire was to 367 00:28:50,010 --> 00:28:53,370 Speaker 1: flee as fast as possible and carry far from this 368 00:28:53,570 --> 00:28:56,850 Speaker 1: murderous country those who were left to me. But my 369 00:28:57,050 --> 00:29:01,770 Speaker 1: husband is a man of duty. A month later, the 370 00:29:01,890 --> 00:29:08,810 Speaker 1: sun fell ill and died yellow fever. Madame Donglais controls 371 00:29:08,850 --> 00:29:13,130 Speaker 1: her health with courage wrote Monsieur Donglais, but she is 372 00:29:13,370 --> 00:29:21,050 Speaker 1: deeply shaken. Then the daughter's fiance died yellow fever, and 373 00:29:21,090 --> 00:29:27,250 Speaker 1: then yellow fever came for Madame Donglais too. After his 374 00:29:27,490 --> 00:29:32,690 Speaker 1: beloved wife died, Jule Donglais ordered that the family's horses 375 00:29:33,050 --> 00:29:36,650 Speaker 1: be shot. It was too painful to think of someone 376 00:29:36,730 --> 00:29:40,890 Speaker 1: else riding them into the Panamanian hills. He quit his 377 00:29:41,010 --> 00:29:51,770 Speaker 1: job and returned to France a broken man. The United 378 00:29:51,810 --> 00:29:54,450 Speaker 1: States had never been keen on the idea of a 379 00:29:54,690 --> 00:29:59,850 Speaker 1: French owned canal through Panama. It would, as President Rutherford B. 380 00:30:00,130 --> 00:30:04,570 Speaker 1: Hayes put it, be virtually a part of our coastline. 381 00:30:05,010 --> 00:30:08,890 Speaker 1: American newspapers sent reporters to see how things were going. 382 00:30:09,450 --> 00:30:13,850 Speaker 1: The news they sent back was dumbfounding hospitals with a 383 00:30:14,050 --> 00:30:18,130 Speaker 1: seventy five percent death rate, a ship that arrived with 384 00:30:18,250 --> 00:30:21,810 Speaker 1: thirty three workers and twenty seven died in the first 385 00:30:21,850 --> 00:30:26,810 Speaker 1: three weeks. Corpses left on streets for buzzards to pick at, 386 00:30:27,570 --> 00:30:32,930 Speaker 1: laborers dropping dead on the job, and being unceremoniously rolled 387 00:30:32,970 --> 00:30:37,050 Speaker 1: down the embankment to be covered up with excavated spoil. 388 00:30:38,290 --> 00:30:42,170 Speaker 1: None of this made the newspapers in France The French 389 00:30:42,290 --> 00:30:45,450 Speaker 1: media had been on side ever since they pushed that 390 00:30:45,650 --> 00:30:50,810 Speaker 1: successful share issue. Oh Ye of little faith, wrote La Libertee. 391 00:30:51,530 --> 00:30:54,290 Speaker 1: Hear the words of Monsieur de le Sep and believe 392 00:30:55,570 --> 00:31:01,130 Speaker 1: they didn't ask many questions. When an earthquake struck Panama, 393 00:31:01,570 --> 00:31:04,970 Speaker 1: journalists allowed de le Sepe to get away with blithely 394 00:31:05,010 --> 00:31:12,530 Speaker 1: promising there will be no more earthquakes. By the time 395 00:31:12,650 --> 00:31:16,650 Speaker 1: he entered his eightieth year, de Lesseppe was still as 396 00:31:16,810 --> 00:31:21,690 Speaker 1: vigorous as ever. His wife was expecting child number twelve, 397 00:31:22,570 --> 00:31:25,690 Speaker 1: but he was being forced to divert his energies to 398 00:31:25,810 --> 00:31:30,650 Speaker 1: maintaining the project's reputation. This wasn't easy, As a writer 399 00:31:30,810 --> 00:31:35,090 Speaker 1: in the New York Tribune explained, every difficulty by which 400 00:31:35,130 --> 00:31:39,850 Speaker 1: the company is beset requires two distinct efforts. It must 401 00:31:39,890 --> 00:31:42,730 Speaker 1: be overcome, and it must also be kept secret from 402 00:31:42,770 --> 00:31:46,370 Speaker 1: the supporters of the project, who would otherwise be discouraged. 403 00:31:48,130 --> 00:31:51,650 Speaker 1: How long could the awful secret of the true situation 404 00:31:51,770 --> 00:31:56,610 Speaker 1: in Panama be kept from France? Too? Many French families 405 00:31:56,650 --> 00:32:00,010 Speaker 1: were starting to discuss how sons and husbands went out 406 00:32:00,010 --> 00:32:06,170 Speaker 1: to Panama and didn't come back. The price of shares 407 00:32:06,210 --> 00:32:10,850 Speaker 1: in the Panama Canal company started to wobble. De le 408 00:32:10,970 --> 00:32:13,930 Speaker 1: Seppe tried to shore up the situation with an upbeat 409 00:32:14,050 --> 00:32:19,010 Speaker 1: speech at the annual shareholders meeting. The efforts actually put forth, 410 00:32:19,210 --> 00:32:22,410 Speaker 1: he announced, may be considered as more than half the 411 00:32:22,530 --> 00:32:26,930 Speaker 1: total efforts necessary, more than halfway there. It was a 412 00:32:26,970 --> 00:32:30,970 Speaker 1: strange thing to claim. In fact, they dug only about 413 00:32:31,090 --> 00:32:35,930 Speaker 1: ten percent of the canal. Then de Lesseppe casually proclaimed 414 00:32:35,970 --> 00:32:38,810 Speaker 1: that they had changed the course of the Chagles River. 415 00:32:39,610 --> 00:32:42,130 Speaker 1: He meant they'd come up with a new plan for 416 00:32:42,170 --> 00:32:44,650 Speaker 1: a dam that would change the course of the river, 417 00:32:45,490 --> 00:32:48,690 Speaker 1: but the newspaper reports made it sound like it had 418 00:32:48,850 --> 00:32:54,490 Speaker 1: happened already. For all the Lesseeppe tried, the company's finances 419 00:32:54,530 --> 00:32:59,250 Speaker 1: were becoming stretched. Every new bond issue got fewer and 420 00:32:59,370 --> 00:33:04,690 Speaker 1: fewer takers, Borrowing money became more and more expensive. De 421 00:33:04,810 --> 00:33:09,850 Speaker 1: Leeseppe reached for another tactic from his Suez playbook, a 422 00:33:09,850 --> 00:33:14,650 Speaker 1: lottery bond. France's laws said the government had to approve 423 00:33:14,890 --> 00:33:19,250 Speaker 1: every lottery. Debate was fierce. The amount de les Seppe 424 00:33:19,290 --> 00:33:22,050 Speaker 1: wanted to raise was more than he had said the 425 00:33:22,090 --> 00:33:26,890 Speaker 1: whole thing would cost, But the vote went in his favor, 426 00:33:27,170 --> 00:33:30,650 Speaker 1: and the Leasseeppe barn stormed round the country for one 427 00:33:30,930 --> 00:33:35,570 Speaker 1: last time. His message was simple, you can't stop now. 428 00:33:36,610 --> 00:33:40,090 Speaker 1: Hundreds of thousands of French men and women had money 429 00:33:40,130 --> 00:33:43,610 Speaker 1: on the line in Panama. They'd mortgaged their houses, they 430 00:33:43,650 --> 00:33:47,130 Speaker 1: had sold off their jewelry. If the lottery bond failed, 431 00:33:47,730 --> 00:33:51,250 Speaker 1: they'd be ruined. But if each one bought a bond, 432 00:33:51,570 --> 00:33:55,690 Speaker 1: it would raise the cash to finish the canal. I 433 00:33:55,810 --> 00:34:00,090 Speaker 1: appealed to all Frenchmen, he said. I appealed to all 434 00:34:00,170 --> 00:34:04,330 Speaker 1: my colleagues whose fortunes are threatened. Your fates are in 435 00:34:04,450 --> 00:34:12,410 Speaker 1: your own hands. Decide. In December eighteen eighty eight, it 436 00:34:12,530 --> 00:34:15,370 Speaker 1: fell to de le Sppe's son and right hand man, 437 00:34:15,890 --> 00:34:20,130 Speaker 1: the loyal Charles, to announce the results of the investment drive. 438 00:34:20,930 --> 00:34:24,810 Speaker 1: They had sold fewer than half the bonds they needed 439 00:34:24,810 --> 00:34:32,730 Speaker 1: to The company was bankrupt. It was over A reporter 440 00:34:33,170 --> 00:34:39,090 Speaker 1: tracked down Ferdinand de Lesseppe. The blood had drained from 441 00:34:39,130 --> 00:34:48,010 Speaker 1: his face. Sitting possible, he said, set indign It's impossible, 442 00:34:49,210 --> 00:34:54,850 Speaker 1: and indignity all at once. Ferdinand de Lessepe's age caught 443 00:34:54,930 --> 00:34:59,090 Speaker 1: up with him as the liquidators picked over his company's books. 444 00:34:59,370 --> 00:35:03,810 Speaker 1: The Grand Francais hold up in his country house, His 445 00:35:04,130 --> 00:35:12,450 Speaker 1: prodigious energies finally spent, the liquidators found a scandal. The 446 00:35:12,530 --> 00:35:17,290 Speaker 1: company had bribed politicians to approve the lottery. For years, 447 00:35:17,330 --> 00:35:22,730 Speaker 1: they'd been paying newspapers not to print negative news. Over 448 00:35:22,810 --> 00:35:27,010 Speaker 1: two thousand, five hundred editors had been secretly on the 449 00:35:27,050 --> 00:35:30,930 Speaker 1: company's pay roll, including not just the big dailies, but 450 00:35:31,450 --> 00:35:36,770 Speaker 1: such unlikely outlets as Marriage Journal, the bee Keeper's Journal, 451 00:35:37,210 --> 00:35:41,410 Speaker 1: and the Choral Society's Echo. Some people had set up 452 00:35:41,410 --> 00:35:45,610 Speaker 1: publications just to be able to take the company's money. 453 00:35:46,450 --> 00:35:51,530 Speaker 1: The losses were astronomical. The Lessep's company had burned to 454 00:35:51,690 --> 00:35:55,090 Speaker 1: the kind of money only usually spent on a war. 455 00:35:56,410 --> 00:35:59,290 Speaker 1: It's hard to be sure about the cost in workers' lives. 456 00:36:00,050 --> 00:36:05,210 Speaker 1: A reasonable estimate is that twenty five thousand people died 457 00:36:06,010 --> 00:36:09,850 Speaker 1: in the failure to build the canal. Of course, the 458 00:36:09,850 --> 00:36:13,330 Speaker 1: canal does now exist, and will pick up the story 459 00:36:13,370 --> 00:36:16,170 Speaker 1: of how that happened. In the next episode of this 460 00:36:16,370 --> 00:36:23,810 Speaker 1: two part Panama special, Ferdinand and Charles de l'eseppe went 461 00:36:23,890 --> 00:36:28,730 Speaker 1: on trial for fraud. Both were sentenced to prison. Charles 462 00:36:28,850 --> 00:36:32,090 Speaker 1: served his time, but nobody had the heart to lock 463 00:36:32,210 --> 00:36:36,650 Speaker 1: up his father. Now a doddering, bewildered old man who 464 00:36:36,690 --> 00:36:40,210 Speaker 1: spent his days at home staring blankly at the fire 465 00:36:41,010 --> 00:36:45,370 Speaker 1: or out through the window. There was sympathy because amid 466 00:36:45,410 --> 00:36:50,210 Speaker 1: all the corruption, Ferdinand Leseseppe had never tried to enrich himself. 467 00:36:50,890 --> 00:36:55,170 Speaker 1: It was never about the money for La Grand Francis. Instead, 468 00:36:55,450 --> 00:37:01,250 Speaker 1: he'd been guilty of one big error, the fundamental attribution error. 469 00:37:01,970 --> 00:37:06,210 Speaker 1: Having led one triumph, he assumed, like many others, that 470 00:37:06,290 --> 00:37:12,250 Speaker 1: the essential ingredient for a second triumph was Legrand Francis himself. 471 00:37:13,770 --> 00:37:18,330 Speaker 1: You succeeded at Suez by a miracle, Charles had once 472 00:37:18,410 --> 00:37:22,770 Speaker 1: told his father de Lesseppe had wrongly concluded that he 473 00:37:22,810 --> 00:37:35,170 Speaker 1: could work a second miracle whenever he wanted. For a 474 00:37:35,210 --> 00:37:37,850 Speaker 1: full list of our sources, see the show notes at 475 00:37:37,890 --> 00:37:49,610 Speaker 1: Timharford dot com. Cautionary Tales is written by me Tim 476 00:37:49,690 --> 00:37:53,050 Speaker 1: Harford with Andrew Wright. It's produced by Alice Fines with 477 00:37:53,210 --> 00:37:57,010 Speaker 1: support from Marilyn Rust. The sound design and original music 478 00:37:57,210 --> 00:38:01,450 Speaker 1: is the work of Pascal Wise. Sarah Nix edited the scripts. 479 00:38:02,130 --> 00:38:05,410 Speaker 1: It features the voice talents of Ben Crowe, Melany Guttridge, 480 00:38:05,530 --> 00:38:10,050 Speaker 1: Stella Harford, Jama Saunders, and Rufus Wright. The show also 481 00:38:10,210 --> 00:38:13,250 Speaker 1: wouldn't have been possible without the work of Jacob Weisberg, 482 00:38:13,450 --> 00:38:18,890 Speaker 1: Ryan Dilly, Greta Cohene, Eric Handler, Carrie Brody and Christina Sullivan. 483 00:38:19,650 --> 00:38:24,290 Speaker 1: Cautionary Tales is a production of Pushkin Industries. It's recorded 484 00:38:24,330 --> 00:38:28,050 Speaker 1: at Wardoor Studios in London by Tom Berry. If you 485 00:38:28,290 --> 00:38:32,450 Speaker 1: like the show, please remember to share, rate and review, 486 00:38:33,010 --> 00:38:35,170 Speaker 1: tell your friends and if you want to hear the 487 00:38:35,210 --> 00:38:38,690 Speaker 1: show ad free. Sign up for Pushkin Plus on the 488 00:38:38,730 --> 00:38:42,970 Speaker 1: show page in Apple Podcasts or at pushkin dot fm, 489 00:38:43,130 --> 00:39:00,770 Speaker 1: slash plus