Are We Repeating the Biggest Mistake of 1873?
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Welcome to Merrin Talks Money, the podcast in which people who know the markets explain the markets. I'm Merrin Somerset Webb. This week, I'm speaking with Pulitzer Prize winning author Leocard Arbman about his new book, 1873, The First Great Depression and the Making of the Modern World. It's a great read. You can take it to the beach. I promise you, you'll like it just as much as all the romances you were planning to read there. It covers the 1873 crash, which is particularly interesting because it was the first global crash across bond markets and stock markets. It also had an extraordinary amount of fallout, some of which you could argue is still with us today. In our conversation, we reflect on the parallels between then and now and the lessons that we can take from those early crashes.
I love this book. Do you know why I love this book? It's basically property porn, right?
You know, I did an event in Newport, Rhode Island, and they wanted to compare the Vanderbilt mansions with Rothschild's mansions. And basically the Rothschild's mansions beat them down.
I mean, this is... This is the best bit about it. You know, I start off and I'm looking at, you know, money supply and gold droughts and market crashes, valuations, railways, CapEx, comparing CapEx numbers. But actually, I'm frantically turning the pages so I can find out about the next guy's great house. You know, what happens, you know, Jim Fiske and Jay Gould, they bought an opera house. What was their actual house like? So that's really what I enjoy most about the project. Right, yeah. But I know that's not the point. So why don't we, why don't we now?
It is hardly the point because I think livens it up.
Absolutely. A lot of it reads like fiction, you know, reads like a great novel and it gallops along as you move from grand party to grand party to grand party. And also, I'll tell you what is missing. Tell you what is missing. I'd like more pictures. I want to see the dresses at the exhibition with all the mud. And I want to see what everyone's wearing when 3,000 people go to the ball for the opening of the Suez Canal. And what the emperor's daughter is wearing when she gets married in Vienna as the stock market crashes.
Right. Okay.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–8:34
2
What is the episode about and who is the guest author?
8:34–23:56
3
How did global growth and the 1870s railway boom set the stage for a bubble?
23:56–32:55
4
What role did bond markets and retail investors play in financing 19th‑century infrastructure?
32:55–40:55
Speakers
10 identifiedMore from Merryn Talks Money
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