Footnoting History
  • Home
  • Listen
  • About
  • Calendar
  • Archive
  • Teach
  • Donate
  • Shop
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Listen
  • About
  • Calendar
  • Archive
  • Teach
  • Donate
  • Shop
  • Contact
Search
Picture

How to Make a Fortune in Fictional Poyais

10/6/2018

1 Comment

 
Apple   | Audible |  Spotify  |  RSS  |  YouTube (captioned)
​
Picture
While the brave, the curious, and the outlawed began new lives in New World colonies, industrialists in Europe began searching for investment opportunities. The realities of travel, however, meant that leaps of faith were common for investors. In this episode, Lesley digs deep into the story of a confidence trickster who fabricated an entire country in need of investment. Unfortunately, exotic Poyais did not exist. Who wants to buy the Brooklyn Bridge when you could buy a country the size of Wales instead? 

​Podcaster: Lesley​
Further Reading

Alfred Hasbrouck, "Gregor McGregor and the Colonization of Poyais, between 1820 and 1824." The Hispanic American Historical Review, 7:4 (1927): 438-59.

Derek Johnson, "The Slumps that Shaped Modern Finance." The Economist (April 12, 2014).

David Maurer, The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man, Anchor Publishing: 1999.

Todd Robbins, The Modern Con Man: How to Get Something for Nothing, Bloomsbury Press: 2008.

David Sinclair, The Land that Never Was: Sir Gregor Macgregor and the Most Audacious Fraud in History, Da Capo Press: 2004.

Music: "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin Macleod (www.incompetech.com)
1 Comment
Pierre link
10/20/2018 11:37:56 am

A wonderful story, delightfully well told - thanks, Lesley!

Perhaps another ingredient of scams is that there's a very good chance of getting off scot-free. (As it were ;-) Bernie Madoff was the exception, and Gregor McGregor the rule. A low risk of bad consequences makes for an excellent probability-weighted expected return.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

Site Map

Home
Listen​
Calendar
Archive

​About
​Contact
Shop
Media Kit
 © 2013-2023 Footnoting History.  All rights reserved.
Footnoting History and the Footnoting History logo
are trademarks of Footnoting History, NY.

Footnoting History operates under a SAG-AFTRA New Media Agreement.
Logo design by Alica Desantis (https://adisantis.com/).
  • Home
  • Listen
  • About
  • Calendar
  • Archive
  • Teach
  • Donate
  • Shop
  • Contact