Are you looking for a great opportunity in the new world???? Can we introduce you to the beautiful country of Poyias? It's on the coast of South America, and there are palaces and princesses, promenades, and an opera house! The land, you ask? It can give you multiple harvests per year! The rivers, too, you ask? Well - they are filled with GOLD!!! Wait, do people already live there? Yes, yes, they do - but they LOVE colonists, and they can't wait to see you!! Just buy a land grant from our grand Cazique - Gregor MacGregor! He'll take your £ and convert them into Poyais dollars right here on the dock before you leave! Nothing could possibly go wrong!! Join us for the wild story of Gregor MacGregor this week!
Are you looking for a great opportunity in the new world???? Can we introduce you to the beautiful country of Poyias? It's on the coast of South America, and there are palaces and princesses, promenades, and an opera house! The land, you ask? It can give you multiple harvests per year! The rivers, too, you ask? Well - they are filled with GOLD!!! Wait, do people already live there? Yes, yes, they do - but they LOVE colonists, and they can't wait to see you!!
Just buy a land grant from our grand Cazique - Gregor MacGregor! He'll take your £ and convert them into Poyais dollars right here on the dock before you leave!
Nothing could possibly go wrong!!
Join us for the wild story of Gregor MacGregor this week!
Hi Friends! Our transcripts aren't perfect, but I wanted to make sure you had something - if you'd like an edited transcript, I'd be happy to prioritize one for you - please email doomedtofailpod@gmail.com - Thanks! - Taylor
Taylor: I have a problem with glassware. It's not a bad problem
>> Taylor: In the matter of the people of the State of California v. Orenthal James Simpson, case number BA096.
>> Farz: And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you.
>> Taylor: Ask what you can do for your country. Boom.
>> Farz: Taylor, we are back. How are you doing today?
>> Taylor: Good. Have you refilled your sippy cup of wine?
>> Farz: It's Yeah, yeah, I'm pretty proud of it.
>> Taylor: Good for you.
>> Farz: How how's your, how's your vino consumption going?
>> Taylor: Good. I have this, like, this glass. Cause I couldn't find a red wine glass and I actually like really wanted one, so I had to like find this one. I have a lot of glassware, like kind of a problem with. I love going to their stores and buying dishes. I have like so many dishes.
>> Farz: It's not a bad problem. Okay.
>> Taylor: As long as I continue to have places to put in. I'm not like piling up dishes on the floor.
>> Farz: You do have this one really fun looking crystal that you use one night where it was like had little spiky things sticking out all the way around.
>> Farz: You have a good dishware taste.
>> Taylor: Thank you. Thank you. cool.
Doomed to Fail is the podcast that brings you history's most notorious disasters
Well, hello friends. Welcome to Doomed to Fail. We are the podcast that brings you history's most notorious disasters and epic failures. And I am Taylor joined by Fars.
>> Farz: And we are going into a Taylor story today.
>> Taylor: I hm. Have a fun one that I heard about. Wait, let me find my writing. I'll tell you how I heard about it. So I listened to another podcast about this which was okay. And an article and I'll tell you what, those are up at them in the notes. But I heard this story in the Niagara book that I read for last week and they mentioned it like kind of just as passing. And I was like, whoa, what is that about? So I looked it up and there's a book about it I didn't get a chance to read. But I got other stuff from the Internet as well.
Gregor McGregor was one of the biggest con men in history
So I know we talked about con men before. You talked about Ponzi.
>> Farz: Oh yeah.
>> Taylor: But I'm gonna talk about one of the biggest con men in history. Gregor McGregor. Have you heard of him?
>> Farz: No, that doesn't even sound like a real name.
>> Taylor: Gregor McGregor. He was of course from Japanese.
>> Farz: he was from Korea.
>> Taylor: m. He was Scottish. And Yeah, Gregor McGregor was Scottish. He was. And I'm gonna tell you what he did. It's wild. I'm not even giving you any hints. I'm just gonna tell you. So he was born on December 24, 1786, in Sterling Shire, Scotland, which sounds adorable.
>> Farz: It sounds like where Frodo and Sam.
>> Taylor: Weiss would play, right? And it's cute. It's also the ancestral home of Glengyle on the north shore of Loch Katrine. I don't even know what that means, but, like, it sounds even cooler. And there's a big castle there. There were some William Wallace battles there and near there. So it's like, very Scottish, very old, very pretty. And his dad was a sea captain for the East India Company, because, of course he was. So he was, you know, making money going back and forth, colonizing. And they were from the Klan McGregor, which is also really fun to be like, he's part of this clan. The McGregor clan. They go back to the 9th century. The clan McGregor motto is royal is my race, which is intense, but fine.
>> Farz: Hardcore people.
>> Taylor: A couple hundred years before R. Gregor was born, there was a thing with religion and I think potentially, like, Catholicism and Protestantism, like, always is up in those parts. And the McGregors stopped being allowed to exist. So in an act of Parliament in 1617, they said, quote, it was ordained that the name of McGregor should be altogether abolished and that the whole persons of that clan should renounce their name and take them some other name, and that they nor none of their posterity should call themselves Gregor or McGregor under the pain of death. So that's super intense. And then, like, takes hundreds of years for them to be able to say that they're McGregor's again for, like, a very complicated, very Scottish reason that I don't really understand.
>> Farz: So it's interesting because my first thought originally went to, oh, this is like, if you were to get canceled in, like, our culture, except in this case, you'd be killed.
>> Taylor: Like, I cancel you and your family forever.
>> Farz: Yeah, intense.
>> Taylor: Exactly.
Taylor: Rob Roy is a Manhattan with scotch instead of whiskey
So there's a couple other people in his family who are famous. There is Rob Roy. Rob Roy McGregor, which is, like, so hard to say for me. Rob Roy that goes back to not being able to say my Rs. But, you know, the Rob Roy, because it is a drink. It's a cocktail. Yes, correct. A, Rob Roy is a Manhattan, essentially, but with scotch instead of whiskey. And it was invented in 1894 in the Waldorf. Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan. And it was named because there was a operetta about Rob Roy, the person that was premiering that night. And the bartender was like, let me switch out this whiskey for scotch in honor of Rob Roy. So that's what that is. And Rob Roy was Like a Scottish hero. And he became sort of like a folk legend hero person. Just like a very brave Scots who was fighting all around for freedom.
>> Farz: Thank you, Taylor, for that very robust recap of Scottish history.
>> Taylor: You are welcome. So that's fun. But by the time our Gregor McGregor is around, he's going to use his clan name because his grandpa, who was also named Gregor McGregor, aka the beautiful Gregor McGregor, was high up in the British army and he got it back. Which I love the idea of an army guy's name being like the Beautiful. You know what?
>> Farz: my whole thought, Taylor, as you've been talking, since I was like a kid, it's like my first year in college, I was like into the UFC finally. And the biggest celebrity that came out of the UFC was Conor McGregor, which I think most people have heard of. And when you've been talking this whole time, I was thinking about him and then also going to the fact that he literally just, just got convicted of like, sexual assaults. Like, like how. but also I was like, confused. I was like, his name's McGregor, but he's Irish. I was like, well, yeah, but people can move across lines. So he was probably Scottish. And then maybe he, his family left Scotland to go to Ireland.
>> Taylor: More McGregors, you know, would have more McGregors.
>> Farz: But then also you're like. And then this guy called himself the Beautiful. And I was like, yeah, that's something that I could see like a very weird fighter saying about, themselves, like.
>> Taylor: Trying to say, I can see Conor McGregor saying that, yes, that man should be in prison. Most likely.
>> Farz: I would, I would agree with that.
>> Taylor: Yes. For a, not for like 50 reasons, actually.
>> Farz: Not even.
>> Taylor: You know what's funny, for many reasons.
>> Farz: Is the sexual assault part is the only. The recent thing that happened.
>> Taylor: Exactly.
>> Farz: Forget the fact that he assaulted and punched a 80 year old man in the face in his bar and then also threw a. Something in the window of a van carrying. All UFC fighters have nothing to do with any, any of the. Anyways, whatever.
>> Taylor: He punched that mascot and then he.
>> Farz: Also cleaned the clock off some poor, probably 43 year old divorcee, with like his kids who he gets custody of once every three months for like a $40,000 year job. Like, he just. He's not a good guy.
>> Taylor: Yes, I will.
>> Farz: I do appreciate what he did for the ufc. I think he was a, he was a great fighter at that time, but he's kind of a scumbag now.
>> Taylor: Yes. He should be a jail.
>> Farz: Anyways, be right back to your McGregor cool.
>> Taylor: He could be really into this McGregor, because this McGregor is also not that great. We'll get to that.
Adam Baldwin plays Major Mitchell in Independence Day
Oh, this is my aside. in that is not as funny anymore because yours was. Makes more sense. But I was watching Independence Day the other day, and there's a guy named Adam Baldwin who's a distant cousin of the other Baldwins, who plays Major Mitchell, who was, like, one of the top people who's like, in area 50. Wait, area 41. Area 52. 51. 51, whatever. Where the aliens are.
>> Farz: It's 51.
>> Taylor: Oh, my God. That was really hard for me for no reason.
>> Farz: you lived in Nevada for, like.
>> Taylor: No, I know. I don't know. I just. I lost it. But that man, Adam Baldwin, the actor, it was very handsome. And I was, like, distracted by his handsomeness. So, like, I get that there's, like, cancel in the army. He's an actor, so he's. He's. That was my side.
>> Farz: He's a residual Alec Baldwin. Like, what is he again?
>> Taylor: Yeah, he's like a second cousin of other Baldwins, but he's more handsome, dude.
>> Farz: That's how, For the younger audience. That's how fucking incredible Alec Baldwin was when Taylor and I were kids that these, like, weird offsprings of the Baldwin group who, like, even they are famous now for no reason other than they are his relative.
>> Taylor: That's not true. I just said he was very handsome, like, distractingly so.
>> Farz: He made Kim Basinger when Kim Basinger was like, the peak of the peak.
>> Taylor: No, totally Batman. I get it. I get it.
Gregor joined the army in 1805 during the Napoleonic wars
Anyway, back to this story.
>> Farz: So many side.
>> Taylor: You get it sidetracked. So Art. Gregor may not have gone to university. He said he did, but he can't be trusted. So who knows? But he did join the army. So this is the tail end of my favorite time, which is the Enlightenment and the Napoleonic wars are just starting. And Gregor joins the army. He's 16, and his family buys him the rank of ensign. So it sounds like you have to pay to get any sort of rank at all when you get in. Or you're just going to be like a grunch, like a nothing in the army. So in 1872, the word ensign gets changed to second lieutenant. So you can kind of like, think about that. But that's also the lowest rank you can get. But he had to pay to start at a rank rather than start at, like, the very beginning. He quickly gets promoted. He becomes a lieutenant for real. And he goes down to Gibraltar. He's gonna spend a lot of Time in like the coast of Spain, Gibraltar, Portugal area.
>> Farz: During his gonna be off the coast of the country known as Gibraltar.
>> Taylor: Yes. You know where Gibraltar is? The Rock of Gibraltar. Yes. So in 1805 he marries a woman named Maria Bowater. And she's pretty rich and they live in her aunt's house in London. So like, that's good. He's good. He's got like a good deal going on. Two months later he joins his group is called the 57th foot, which is like foot, I don't know. 57th group, they're called the Foot and they're in Gibraltar. And he buys the rank of captain for £900. And so I assume that's 1805 money, otherwise everyone would do that because they'd be like, okay, that seems easy. But in our money, it's roughly 80,000 to £90,000 in today's money that he paid to move up to the rank of captain. So he is back in the 57th foot, up and down the coast of Portugal to Gibraltar. He ends up in a fight with other, other people in his, in his division and he gets kicked out. But they give him his money back, which I was surprised by. I feel like they wouldn't.
>> Farz: M. I doubt that that's like in a contract, right?
>> Taylor: M. Yeah, I don't either. But later, like a couple weeks later, the 57th is in like a really big battle and they do really, really well. And they get called the Die Hards. And they're going to be. It's going to be a thing where you're gona be able to say like, oh yeah, I was part of the 57th Foot, the die Hards. People will be like, you are so brave. That is so great. So he just said that he was there during that battle, even though he had left a few weeks before.
>> Farz: I mean, Taylor, I would do that. There's no Internet, Nobody knows, right? Who gives a shit?
>> Taylor: I mean a lot of this is no Internet. Yes, exactly.
Gregor McGregor is out of the army but still wears his full dress uniform
So Gregor and Maria head back to Edinburgh. He's only 23 when he's like out of the army for real, but he still likes to wear like his full dress uniform. He's really into making everybody, even when he's in the army, we all their medals and everything. You have to be like fully dressed every, every time you go out. And he makes people call him Colonel even though he's not a colonel. And he has this beautiful carriage and he's like, I'm super important. And he drives around Edinburgh, but people don't Buy it. They don't like it, so they move. They move back to London because he wasn't getting as popular as he wanted to be in Edboro by, like, being fancy.
>> Farz: So was his wife, like, constantly just rolling her eyes, being like, whatever this guy is?
>> Taylor: I mean, I imagine I can't find really a lot about her, but I feel like probably. So they move back to London, and he calls himself a baron, which is, like, also not true. And he told people in London that he was part of the McGregor clan leadership, which was also not true. So Marie Maria, I couldn't find out how, but she dies in December 1811. So now he's widowed and it's bad because they were living off of her money and he. They don't have kids. They haven't been together that long. So he can't, like, go to her family and be. Be like, great, can you support me forever now? They'd be like, absolutely not. Like, who are you? Who cares? So he didn't want to go home, and he couldn't really go back to the military because he had left in, like, a weird way because he got in a fight with someone. So he was, like, not sure what to do next. So he decides to take the money that he has, his little bit of money from inheritances, and he sails to the Americas. And he stops in Kingston, Jamaica, but no one gives him a job there. Like, they also are not impressed by his, like, not zero accomplishments. And so he goes to Venezuela. And so there's a dude in Venezuela who is fighting the Spanish because, the Spanish are. Have control of it at the moment. There's a man named General Francisco de Miranda. Have you heard of him?
>> Farz: It sounds pretty familiar.
>> Taylor: I really feel like I haven't, and I wish I knew more, but he's a Venezuelan who fought in the American, French, and Spanish revolutions.
>> Farz: Like, he couldn't find a revolution that he didn't want to be a part of 100%.
>> Taylor: I wish I knew more. I might talk about him later. That's another story. But that was so interesting. and he's pulling Venezuela away from Spanish rule with the help of the English, which is wild to me because it's like the early 1800s, and the Revolutionary War is, like 40 years ago, 50 years ago. So he's like, A, older, and B, like, now he wants the English to help him stop colonization.
>> Farz: Hey, makes sense. I mean, it's the whole. The enemy of my enemy of my friend.
>> Taylor: Yeah, totally. So Gregor ends up working for him, and he says, oh, call Me, sir. People, like, assume that that's actually like, an earned title, but it's not. But he says that anyway. And he marries a woman named Josefa, Lovera, and she is a cousin of Simone Bolivar. So he's now like, in with the people who are doing this revolution in Venezuela. The camp first campaign they do fails and they all flee a Curacao. And that's not the end of it. There's more battles. He fights alongside Bolivar in New Granada, which is like Colombia area, and he goes to Venezuela and moves troops and he does this like, thing where for a whole month he takes these troops from one side of Venezuela to the other, and they're fighting people, they're fighting the Spanish. They're doing all these, like little mini battles. And it is legitimately very brave that he did this. And when he was done, Bolivar said, quote, the retreat, which you had the honor to conduct, is, in my opinion, superior to the conquest of an empire. Please accept my congratulations for the prodigious services you have rendered my country. So, like, that's good. They said that the people down there called M. McGregor, the Xenophon of the Americas because he was like, a great general. And they like, he did a really good job legitimately. And this one thing. Right.
>> Farz: Well, he might, He might not have been full shit after all.
Fair Fair: McGregor decides to liberate Florida from Spain
>> Taylor: Yeah, well, so now he's like, I can do anything. So he goes to find something else that the Spanish own that he can try to take back or take. And guess what he finds.
>> Farz: the Fountain of youth.
>> Taylor: Close. He finds Florida.
>> Farz: That is actually pretty close.
>> Taylor: I think the Fountain of Youth was in Florida or supposed to be. Right?
>> Farz: So I. My understanding of it was it's in Puerto Rico at Ponce de Leon's mansion. M. But I could be wrong.
>> Taylor: No, that might be right, because I do think that we have a kids book about a turtle and a frog who try to find it. So he decides to liberate Florida from Spain. And they don't necessarily care or want this, but he's going in to do it anyway. It gets money and men. So he can, like, go back to the. To England, to Scotland, and get people to, like, come on board, loan him money, do all these things. And he goes to Amelia island, which is an island that's very beautiful, is in the northeast of Florida, kind of by Jacksonville. And the men that he recruits are mostly from. Mostly from Georgia and South. South Carolina. And on June 29, 1817, he says the words, I shall sleep either in hell or Amelia tonight. And like, Charges on Amelia island, like, brings his ships and they're like going to take it, take it over. And people didn't really care. They were like, okay, either they left or they stayed. Like it didn't really matter. There was no fighting, like, no one, not even a single shot was fired. Nothing really happened. When he got there, he put down a flag. And the flag is like white with a green, cross. It's like an up and down, like a plus sign all the way across. And he declared himself in charge of the Republic of Florida's. So he was like, he wasn't really taking it over for any other country. He was like, I am in charge of this area now. And it started with Amelia M Island. He tried to attack mainland Florida, but some of his troops died and the people who were in his troops were in his army. He was paying with Amelia dollars, which were not real dollars. They're things he had just printed and was like, this is gonna be worth something once we have this Republic of Florida and have all this stuff going. So he was paying them with Amelia dollars and they were pissed and a lot of people left. And he ended up kind of sneaking off of Amelia island without telling anybody and leaving. And when he left, he went back down to the Bahamas and he was trying to get things engraved that said Amelia. I, came, I saw, I conquered. And liberty for the Florida is under the leadership of McGregor. But nothing ever had really happened. They really were only there for three months and then the US Took it back because they were just kind of holding this island for no reason. And the US Took it back and they held it for Spain until the Florida purchase. So that kind of fails and was weird.
>> Farz: So I will say that I'm going to sound, nuts saying this, but that doesn't sound crazy to me if you. If. Isn't that what everybody does? It's crazy because he failed, but isn't that what everybody does? You take over an area and they're like, this is money now. It's got my face on and not your face. Go for yourself.
>> Taylor: That part is true. And I actually going to bring that up later that like, yeah, he made up money, but, like, so did we.
>> Farz: Yeah, it's all.
>> Taylor: That's. That part's totally true. But the, part that is weird is that he did it like for himself for no reason, like, not like on behalf of Scotland. You know, he was like, I'm in charge now.
>> Farz: Right. Right.
>> Taylor: And then we're going to invade all of Florida on behalf of this and Start this new thing. It's going to be. The Republic of Florida is not connected to any European country. Right.
>> Farz: I can't admire the. The tenacity Fair.
>> Taylor: Fair.
Gregor MacGregor gave birth to his first child in 1817
So Josefa, his wife, gave birth to their first child in the Bahamas on November 9, 1817. And if you were a Scottish man named Gregor MacGregor and you had a baby whose family spoke Spanish, what would you name your son?
>> Farz: I don't know. I can't.
>> Taylor: Gregorio.
>> Farz: Oh, yeah. Okay. I couldn't imagine two more different things than Scottish in Spanish, you know?
>> Taylor: No, totally, totally. But his son was in. Gregorio m. Gregorio McGregor, which I think is hilarious. And they're living in the Bahamas, and then they kind of skip town because things aren't really working out, and they go back to London. In London, he's involved in a couple schemes to take over places like New Granada, which is, like I said, it turns into Colombia. And I'm not even sure who's taking it over for. Like, he gets people to give him money to, like, give him loans, to promise him land and all these things, but nothing really happens. Like, no one goes anywhere. He doesn't really own any land in South America, and people kind of get embarrassed because they give him their money and then it disappears. So it's like your friend who has, like, a new startup every week, and finally you're like, I can't give you any money anymore. Like, this is embarrassing, you know?
>> Farz: Yeah.
>> Taylor: And eventually he gets. He's wanted for piracy because he stole a boat and named it El McGregor, among other things, which made me laugh also. So he decides to do his next thing, and his next thing is, like, the big bad thing that he does if you Google, him. So in April 1820, he's back in South America. He's in the Mosquito coast, and that's like, the east coast of South. South. South America. There are a shit ton of mosquitoes there. But it's not named after that. It's named after the local mosquito nation, spelled M, M I, S, K I, T, O, not spelled that way, but, like, that's one way to spell it. On, April 29, 1820, there was a man named George Frederick Augustus, and he's, like a native leader from the Mosquito nation. And. But he also is, like, involved in these dealings with. With the. With the UK and Spain and all these things. So he signs the document granting McGregor and his heirs 8 million acres of this mosquito coastline, which is a lot, but he's like, sure, like, you can have this land for you and your. And your heirs. The reason that he gave it to him, it sounds like, is because the land was pretty terrible. So that land on the east coast of South America, what else was there? Do you remember what else famous was there where they weren't able to grow anything?
>> Farz: No.
>> Taylor: Jonestown. Because I think it's the same land. Oh, God, yeah. Remember, they went to Jonestown and they were like, oh. Like, he was like, oh, everything is going to. We're able to grow all this food. It's gonna be great. And they couldn't grow anything. Like, you can't grow anything there. So it's a very similar, like, very uninhabitable. Also, just. I was looking up exactly where Jonestown is because it's on the east coast of Guyana, and then, like, Venezuela is, like, right above it. But the Jonestown, settlement has 48 Google reviews and 3.6 stars. And they're also. They're very sassy. So Gregor takes us 8,000 acres and names it Poirier. P O Y A I s. I'm going to say it Poirier. Like, it's French. He is a poirier. And he calls himself the kazi of Poirier. And the kazique is, like, a princely word. So he's like, I'm in charge of this area. I'm, the kazika Poirier. So he goes back to. So that was in April 1820. He goes back to Europe and says he wants people to come to be with the cazique in Poyer. He calls them poyers. He says that, like, there is. He is the kaziq and father of this area, and he wants people to start to move there. So in the meantime, a man named Rafter had written a book about what a fool Gregor McGregor M was because of the other things that he had done when he had done, like, these other weird schemes and, like, was kind of a pirate and, like, all those things. Not a pirate, but, like, in trouble for piracy. And no one really paid attention to that book. It should have been more of a warning for what was to come, but it ended up not being that. So he gets to London and he wants to raise money for his new land. And now people like him because now he's exotic. He. Now he's not just like, like, the Scottish dude who's, like, trying to get people to like him. He's a kazika poyer. And he has his beautiful wife, and they have another. Another baby, and they name her Gregoria. You know, I took her third name. It's, it's Josefa, Anna Gregoria, but hilarious. And even though we know that there's nothing in poi, we know it's not a real thing. It's like it is land that he can bring people to, but we know there's nothing there. But he tells people there's, a lot there and that it's great. He says there's land, there are people, there's a parliament, there are banks, there are money. Here's the money. I have it printed. You can have it. There's a coat of arms. Guess what animal is on the coat of arms.
>> Farz: It's gotta be a lizard.
>> Taylor: no, it's not a real animal.
>> Farz: It's like a unicorn.
>> Taylor: Yeah, it's a unicorn.
In 1822, people are coming to the Americas to colonize
>> Farz: Are you serious?
>> Taylor: Yes. It's two unicorns holding up that, that green check flag.
>> Farz: Buy this money. How expensive is this money? What's the money called?
>> Taylor: It's called Poirier dollars.
>> Farz: How do you spell Poirier?
>> Taylor: P O, Y. Oh my God, I lost that. P O, Y, I, A, S. I don't know if any exists still. But wait, don't, don't Google it because you might know what happens. Just wait. Okay, so of course this is unicorn. It's all printed and it looks really nice. So he says there's several offices in like Edinburgh and London, other cities that are selling land grants in Poirier. So you're like, I want to give all my money to this to get like, you know, a thousand acres in poet. The land is so lush and amazing. People get really, really excited. Waterloo had just happened. So the Napoleonic wars are over. So people are like looking for something else. Like, everything has been crazy. They're really excited to go. In 1822, there's a 355 page book called the Sketch the Mosquito Shore, including the territory of Poirier. That's supposed to talk about how great it is. It has illustrations, it has facts. It's written by a man named Captain Thomas Strangeways, who is obviously not a real person.
>> Farz: I kind of love this guy. I want to be his friend.
>> Taylor: And so in the book, Captain Strangeways is like, everything is so great. Did we tell you there's a capital city called St. Joseph? It has mansions and boulevards and an opera house and a palace. And the natives there, they love England. They're really excited to work with us. They like absolutely love us. So we're super excited. They're super excited for us to be there.
>> Farz: There should have been everybody's Tell that he's lying.
>> Taylor: No, wait. There's one more. There's one more thing. Guess what the rivers have in them.
>> Farz: champagne.
>> Taylor: Gold.
>> Farz: Yeah.
>> Taylor: So this is the place. This is the place to go. So he gets gold, he has loans, he gets bonds. He's gonna make a lot of money. And people are like, fuck, yeah, let's go. So he's paid people to be in the military. There is a cobbler, there are doctors, there are bankers. Most of the people are Scottish, but there's a lot of people ready to go. They're like, we're in. The first 50 people leave from London on September 10, 1822. They ex. Before they leave, they exchange their real pound dollar pounds for poyer dollars, like, on the shore. So they're basically, like, giving him all the real money and he's giving them all this fake money.
>> Farz: And again, like, I know that, like, you're more socially, empathetic than I am, but you can blame the guy. If Taylor, if I showed up in Joshua Tree with Farsbucks and I fooled a bunch of your neighbors into, like, trading their. The equity in their homes for Farsbucks, could you even be mad at me?
>> Taylor: Like a couple. I have a couple of really big points. Like, yeah, that is such a. It's so interesting because, like, a. I just wrote, we know that money is fake. You know, so there's that. There is all this stuff happening. People are legitimately coming to the Americas to, like, colonize and, like, live their lives. Like that stuff's happening. But also, like this week, that one, that Hawk talk girl did her fake coin and people lost tons of money.
>> Farz: So there are famous people, okay?
>> Taylor: So now doing that.
>> Farz: So that literally happens with every meme coin. Like, somebody launches it.
>> Taylor: But how different is that?
>> Farz: And then, huh?
>> Taylor: isn't that just, like, people are always going to try to, like, do the next get rich quick scheme? I mean, like, want to believe you.
>> Farz: So here's.
>> Taylor: I see, like, four people getting rich from going to the Americas. And I see four people who are rich from crypto.
>> Farz: And like, I would buy the hock to a meme coin before I would buy far's bucks. And my name is Fars. Like, that's all I'm saying.
>> Taylor: Totally. But you wouldn't do that now. You would do a Fars meme coin. You know that. That's like the equivalent of this. The poi dollars were produced by the bank of Scotland's official printer. So, like, they look real. Like they were real.
The world was on a gold standard. Money was backed by gold
They weren't not real. As far as money goes.
>> Farz: The world was on a gold standard. Money was backed by gold. It's not real gold.
>> Taylor: There's gold in the river.
>> Farz: Far as you got a fish, you gotta get the gold out, get some.
>> Taylor: Wellies, get the gold, you'll be fine. So, this is.
>> Farz: Now you're starting to talk like somebody that worked for a hedge fund.
>> Taylor: M fair. So this is September 1822. By the end of 1823, the poet dollars have totally crashed, which, like, we knew they would, but, like, they had a little bit of market value because you could trade them for your regular money because you thought you were going to poyer, but now you're not, so of course that's going to happen. So Those first, first 50 people off in September, 200 more people left on January 22, 1823, from London. There were women and children on board. They sailed free because they're going to this land of opportunity. So that was like, even, ah, more reason. They sang songs and hoisted the flag and they were like, we're going to poi. They were like, just could not have been more excited. They were going to the new world. So when they got there, guess what they found? There was nothing. They got off the boat and they were like, where is the palace? Where are, the boulevards? Where is the welcome party that was supposed to come? They couldn't believe that they were being duped. They were like, something must be wrong with, like, where we landed. Some. Something must be wrong with, like, the information that they had sent to, like, the people who in charge of the government. Like, there's no way that Gregor McGregor duped us. And then they had doctors and they had provisions. They could have technically been there for a while.
Of the 250 people who went on the first two ships, 180 died
But I'm going to read another quote from the poi immigrants situation as described by Alfred Hasbrouck in 1927. This is in a book, but this author says, quote, disease seized upon them and spread rapidly. Lack of proper food and water and failure to take the requisite sanitary precautions brought on intermittent fever and dysentery. Whole families were ill. Most of the sufferers lay on the ground without other protection from the sun and rain than a few leaves and branches thrown across some sticks. Many were so weak as to be unable to crawl to the woods for the common offices of nature. The stench arising from the filth they were in was unendurable. It was bad.
>> Farz: and I'm not even going to make fun of them because that actually must be awful if you think you're Doing something amazing for your family lineage.
>> Taylor: Yeah, because it's like.
>> Farz: It's like a lot of people who left for America in, like, the 1920s and they just happened to guess, right? But like, it was always a guess. So you're always rolling the dice.
>> Taylor: Exactly. So the, poor cobbler died by suicide because he was like, nope, no one here needs shoes. It's terrible. And eventually people were going out and trying to find help, trying to figure out what to do, because people were just like, dying. And they learned that Poirier never existed and that the. Even the title of Kaziq was made up. So the person who had given him the land was like, I never made him ruler or like, did all these things, like, never said he could. He could come here if he wanted to. So by the time that word got back to England that this was a scam, five more ships were already on their way. And they got intercepted somehow and were told to turn back. Of the 250 people who went on the first two ships, 180 of them died. And some of them stayed in the Americas, but about less than 50 went back to Britain.
>> Farz: I don't know, man. Like, it almost worked. Like, it almost worked. Like, I mean, that's how you build a civilization. You can't tell people, let's go live on the Mosquito coast for nothing. It's like you gotta sell them a vision and all of a sudden you're there and like, I, have no choice but to make it work.
>> Taylor: That's true. But there were a lot of lies involved. Like the palace and the golds. Well, the gold. They always said that, but like, pilgrims.
>> Farz: Do the same thing. Like the, the Mayflower and all that. Like, wasn't that all a bunch of.
>> Taylor: Yeah, I think so. Well, I know they left. They were boring, and then like, yeah, it worked. But like, all people died in Jamestown. Remember? They ate each other.
>> Farz: We are living in this country, Taylor. The country works.
>> Taylor: Yeah, but like a bunch of people. It was hard, but this was like. This was like, very specifically a lie. And they were he.
>> Farz: If they hadn't turned those. Those boats around, we could figure it out. We'd be seeing a different tune. All those people would have found the way to m. Make it work, I bet.
>> Taylor: You know, I think you have your right.
>> Farz: Thank you.
>> Taylor: Wow.
>> Farz: That's the first thing you've ever said that to me.
>> Taylor: That's not the first time you ever.
>> Farz: Said that in 24 years, but I.
>> Taylor: Know that does make sense. They. Maybe they could have made it work if There were like a thousand people rather than just 250, because you're right, a lot of them would have died anyway. But then some of them would have had to figure something out. Yeah.
>> Farz: If there's like, 20 people, the cobbler has nothing to trade his cobling for, because how many can shoes can you sell a year to 20 people? You sell 20 shoes once every 10 years.
>> Taylor: I think you're also repairing shoes.
>> Farz: Oh, I don't know how it works. I've never been to a cobbler.
>> Taylor: Yeah, I've been to a cobbler many times, and they repair my shoes. I've never bought shoes from a cobbler, but there's one here in town anyway. but by the time that a couple people got back, they got back in November. They left in January. They got back in November, and Gregor had gone. He had fled to France. People were like, there's still, People were still like, it's not his fault. It's not his fault. But he had, like, taken their money and let them go to a place where he knew that there was nothing. In 1825, he ran away and he was hiding in the French countryside. There were other people involved. It wasn't like just him. And him and two other people were arrested and sent to prison in. In France. And he said. What did he say? He said that he was held prisoner for reasons they. He wasn't aware he was suffering as one of the founders of independence in the New World. So he was like, saying what you're saying, like, everybody does it this way, you know, like, why am I the person who's being called out for this? And he got tried for this being a crime, but he got off. It was. He was acquitted. And then he was.
Rob Taylor: Conor McGregor kept selling land after his wife dies
Then they did it again, and he was not guilty. So he was just like, he was not guilty. And he went back to the UK and he kept doing it. He kept selling land employer, even though Poirier was nothing. And he sold land and bonds. I got loans from banks. And he tried again for, like, years and years to do this. Finally, at one point, Josefina, his wife, dies. And then somewhere in there, two of their kids had died as well. Wait, I feel like her name is not Josefina if I didn't say that. But his wife dies and his, Oh, Josefa was her name. And his wife dies. Some of his kids are dead. So he goes back to Venezuela where he had started his journeys. And in 1839, they made him a citizen and gave him a rank in the military. So that he got a pension and he died in Caracas on December 4, 1845 with full honors. And nothing was mentioned at his funeral about any of his schemes or any of that. And he is buried there. And he. The McGregor clan doesn't mention him at all in like their burial grounds in Scotland. And the part of Honduras is where Po was that was, you know, cut out to be. Po is still uninhabited today because it's not a place where you can live. What going to be.
>> Farz: What country is it a part of?
>> Taylor: Honduras?
>> Farz: You know what, I, I kind of take back what I said earlier. Do you want to know which. Which one?
>> Taylor: Which part? Which part?
>> Farz: So I think the difference is, I think that the American settlers were doing this because of ideological reasons, of disagreements with how taxation worked with or not the taxation, like how the monarchy works in England. So it was like a very. We want to create a different structure of societal living.
>> Taylor: No, I think it's about money.
>> Farz: You think that the Pilgrims moved here because they were trying to get rich? Yes, I think you got to defend it. You got to defend it. You can just say it then. Then you got to do a. Oh, do you have an answer or.
>> Taylor: Well, kind of. I feel like they would have been happy to get rich. You know, they were coming here thinking that like they. If they got here and it was made of. But I think that's what that. I think a big part of it was. Then they're able to convince like family people and other folks who would not necessarily leave their town that they're going for this religious reason when really they're going to be workers in this new world and create money.
>> Farz: Taylor, can I ask you a question? If I was worth like $80 billion. Right. but I lived on the moon. Does it matter that I have $80 billion?
>> Taylor: Can you get Amazon deliveries up there? Probably. I'm gonna say yes, I think.
>> Farz: Oh my God. But. But the distinction I was drawing in my mind was that this guy kept selling this after, afterwards, and that puts him in a different category of like broad embezzlement versus like I'm doing this because of my own spiritual beliefs or ideological right.
>> Taylor: There's no, there's something ideal ideological right. You know, it wasn't like. I don't even, I don't hear. I didn't even see any mention of God and like the whole thing. I did today, I did go to a thrift store and I bought some books and I did buy one on Cotton Mather, which I was very excited about. So I'LL keep it posted.
>> Farz: The stories are always going to intertwine.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: yeah, that's fun. So by the way, I looked it up. So the McGregor clan, which is like a weird way to call your family, but Conor McGregor is part of this McGregor clan. So is Ewan McGregor. Oh, yeah.
>> Taylor: Cool, huh?
>> Farz: Yeah. So you got now, well, two currently famous and I guess four total famous because you're. We can count this guy and Rob.
>> Taylor: Yeah, that's fun. I. We went to. We were at a pizza place the yesterday and some bikers came in, like, motorcycle guys. And then one guy had his, like, cut, and it was like the full thing and he had the name. And I don't even want to say it because we looked them up and, like, they have done bad things, but he had, like, the name of his thing. And then two other guys, I had only, like, the. The bottom part of their vest had a patch. So they're definitely like rookies in the motorcycle gang, but they bought a pizza and the guy bungee corded it to the back of his motorcycle and then drove away.
>> Farz: Is it Mongols?
>> Taylor: No, but I was like, that's brave.
>> Farz: I think. Join a motorcycle gang where your only job is to cook and distribute methods. Yeah. You're going to take some risks in life, you know.
>> Taylor: Yeah. You some bungee cord of pizza.
Miles asked me what the name of the moon was last night
My last bit is not nothing to do with anything, but last night Miles asked me, what the name of the moon was. And this kind of reminds me of, like, the money conversation that we're having because I was like, well, it's just the moon, but, like, Saturn's moons have names, but our moon doesn't have a name because we invented the word moon. So our moon is the moon. And then other moons have names, like planets. Our earth is the Earth, like the dirt, but other planets we give names to. Gorgeous. Made everything up.
>> Farz: I'm going to spend all night thinking about the moon thing. The other thing doesn't make any sense because planets are a thing. But, like, what is the moon, right? What is the moon is the m. Moon. Why don't we just name it something, right?
>> Taylor: Like, why don't we like Jeffrey or, Gregor McGregor, like, name it something. Just the only one we have. Oh, my God.
>> Farz: Oh, my God. It's a full Jeffrey tonight.
>> Taylor: Anyway, anyway, thank you for listening, everyone. I hope you thought that was fun. If you know any other fun cons and please don't buy any meme coins.
>> Farz: Taylor, you can actually legitimately, I just found that a Paul, poison bond signed by Gregor McGregor for seventeen hundred dollars.
>> Taylor: All right, well if it was like seventeen, I'd buy it. That's fun.
>> Farz: That's ah, fun. Part of history. that was very fun. That was a very, very fun. I love your light hearted episodes where it's just like there's a part of me that always loves scam people because it's like, good for you man. Like, good for you for fucking.
>> Taylor: Like I'm more, I'm definitely more empathetic towards him than I was this morning.
>> Farz: It's like, it's like good for you for like finding a thing, finding a niche, getting great at it and then also suckering people into that thing. Like you gotta be like kind of smart and talented. It's weird because all these guys who do this, they could have been like you, a hedge fund manager. Like they could have done something different. You know what I mean? Like they could have. I'm joking. I know, you weren't a hedge fund fan.
>> Taylor: That's very kind of. You know, I'm laughing at the idea like this. Oh my God, what a time in my life. Yes. Yeah, I remember being like, this is bad. But you know, whatever, I'm fine, I'm fine.
>> Farz: Is it evil the way they make money?
>> Taylor: And I think that it's evil to have such a concentration of money.
>> Farz: You know, but all they're doing is they're taking rich people's money and moving it into company accounts. what do they do?
>> Taylor: They like, I don't, I don't really know. They like move it around, dude. At one point they're like, learn more about this. I was like, nah, watch X Files, it's fine. I turned up. I wasn't going to stay there forever, so whatever. Had a breakdown. I had a breakdown. They gave me severance. It was very nice. cool. Well, thanks everyone for listening. Please tell your friends we're doomed. To Philipod. Gmail.com doom. To Philipod and all social medias. And if we are on your wrapped, let us know and I'll mail you a sticker. And we have merch. It still exists out there. It's on our link tree. Buy a T shirt. Buy a coffee mug. They're cute.
>> Farz: great choice. It's Christmas time and Christmas is when we make our money on this podcast through merch sales.
>> Taylor: So if you want, if you want.
>> Farz: Little FL miles to get the toys they want, you gotta start buying.
>> Taylor: Great, great. Thank you.
>> Farz: Thank you, Taylor.
>> Taylor: Thanks. Bars.