May 16, 2023 • 55 mins
For the vast majority of the world, Monaco seems like something out of a billionaire's fever dream -- completely surrounded by France, this tiny country is perhaps best known for the wealth of its residents and its opulent approach to gambling. However, there's much, much more to the story. In today's episode, Ben, Noel and Max explore the origin story of this unique micronation, from the ancient past to the modern day.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous Histories, a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to the
(00:27):
show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much for
tuning in. Let's hear it for the Man, the myth,
the legend. Super producer mister Max Williams tag us out. Indeed,
we are returning to our ongoing exploration, our continuing mission
to learn more about the funny little things called micro nations.
(00:52):
I'm Ben your nol and where are we traveling to today?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
To a principality? All right, no less than a prince,
not a king though, right like it's weird Monaco. We're
talking about Monico. Many people might know it as a
vacation destination for the rich and famous. It might conjure
images of fine foods, spreads of caviat and chacouterie boards
(01:20):
and such, and gambling, copious gambling.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Right.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
For many people, Monaco, the world's second smallest country, is
often thought of as a little more than a race
track and a very fancy casino. It turns out Monaco,
which has been an obsession of mine for quite some time,
is the most densely populated country in the world. In fact,
it's got a lot of well, depending on the metrics.
(01:47):
It's got a lot of strange, anomalous, neat little statistics.
But if you look at it on the map, Thistle,
this little thing right there between Italy and frank As,
one of your first questions would be, how did this
tiny town become a country? Out of all the tiny
(02:08):
towns in the world, why this one? Why not Piughkeepsie.
And it turns out there's a reason for that. You're
absolutely right. No, it is still ruled by a family
monarchy style, ruled by the Grimaldi family. It's a picturesque
little coastal nation. We set us best known for the
(02:28):
casino and the racetrack. Maybe a better way to think
of it is it's best known for the tourism it
attracts and for being home to so many very wealthy,
famous people who love not paying taxes.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Oh man, that was actually news to me, the idea.
I mean, we know about tax shelters and tax havens
and offshore accounts, but no, the principality of Monaco got
rid of the income tax at a certain point, which
we'll talk about historically. But speaking of history, the term
crossroads of history often comes up. It's a little bit cliche,
(03:08):
but It really is kind of true when it applies
to Monaco. The Ligurians were an ancient people who actually
settled Monaco, and they did because you asked about why
this little town, why this little slice of land, They
settled it because it was a very strategic location of
something called the Rock of Monaco. An evidence of this
(03:30):
occupation by the Ligurian people was actually discovered in some
cave paintings in what is called the Saint Martin's Gardens.
They were a clan of mountain dwellers. They were very
hard workers, they were builders, and they were also very
good at managing resources. The website of the official website
(03:54):
of Bonico's Tourism Board referred to them as possessing great
frugality and also they point out of that is a
trade that the people of Monaco carry on to this day.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Yeah, the Monogasque, they're called m O n E g
A s q u E. It's always kind of an
art and as science to me when when we in
English try to figure out what the citizens of a
place are called or what they refer to themselves as. Now,
the Ligurians were from north like a northwestern area of
(04:28):
modern day Italy. And if we look at the sixth century,
we'll see that the Phosacians vocations I hope I'm saying
that not too incorrectly.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
P h. O. C.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
A E A n. S. Of Massalia founded a colony
they called Monoikos that became a hugely important port on
the Mediterranean coast. And if you look at the Greek
translation that that roughly means single house, and that's that's
not because there was just one house there, one huge
(05:00):
It's not that Monaco was always super small. It's because
they wanted to enforce this idea of self reliant, self
sufficiency and sovereignty. And there are a lot of ancient
myths about this which I love. Like Hercules was one
of the most famous original patrons of modern day Monaco.
He passed through the area. I was watching some really
(05:23):
fascinating documentaries about this. There's not actually a temple to
Hercules that people have found in the area, but there
may be one. We probably will never know because the
area is so densely populated and the soil is so
rocky that it's unlikely they're going to make any excavations
to find one.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Yeah, it could be hidden in them their hills, and
there is a port. The largest port of the region
is named the Port of Hercule. And once again, adding
to the whole crossroads of history, Vibe Julius Caesar is
said to have stopped in Myoikas after he finished his
campaign in Greece during the Gaelic Wars. And of course,
(06:06):
once the Western Roman Empire collapsed in four seventy six,
Monaco was then kind of pillaged by the Saracens and
other barbarian tribes. Then in nine seventy five, once those
invaders were driven from the lands, the area was reclaimed
(06:27):
by you guessed it, the Ligurians.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
They love the place, you know what I mean. They're
like peas and carrots with Monaco, which I'm sure they said.
And you can catch a lot of Easter eggs about
Monaco in Forrest Gump, the novel, not the film. No
One fact check us. Monico is in fact older than
France by five hundred years, almost half a millennium. And
if you looked at it centuries ago, you would see
(06:53):
that Monica was about eighty percent larger than it is today.
As soon as we mentioned France, we stumbled as something
that a lot of people here in the US might
be confused about Monaco is not part of France. Now,
historically it had been part of France, but in twelve
fifteen it became a colony of Genoa due to a
(07:16):
land grant from Emperor Henry the sixth And this is
when the Grimaldi family settled in Monaco in twelve ninety seven,
and ancestors of that family have controlled the principality of
Monaco for over seven hundred and fifteen years.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Now.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
If you think about it, you could say Monaco is
a family business, and the current prince probably wouldn't get
mad at you for saying that.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Yeah, this is interesting to me because you know, we
think of royal lineages and all of that and God
given rights to govern and all of that and to
lord over underlings. But it's a little unusual, I guess,
for like a not previously considered to be royalty family
is sort of granted that status sort of overnight, right,
(08:08):
unless I'm misreading this, where the Grimaldi's just sort of like,
you know, a moneyed family that was was gifted this
land and then decided to make themselves monarchs or how
does that work exactly?
Speaker 1 (08:22):
They won it in a game of horse, which is
very popular, which is a very popular predator basketball.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Of course, she finished runner up in that competition, and
I am still yeah, yeah, you guys were not talking
about it on air, but I guess we're doing.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
This well, we're cooking live. Sorry, Max, but it's time
that people learn the truth. So Monaco is without sounding
to anti monarchists or anti royalty, which I very much am.
Part of this goes back to the fact that it
was considered impossible or ungot or barbaric for a country
(09:02):
not to have a royal family ruling it of some sort,
and then the idea of rightful claim to land almost
always went back to the ability to conquer it. But
let's let's get into this because they are the oldest
ruling house in Europe from twelve ninety seven up to
(09:22):
twenty twenty three as we record this podcast, and for
a long time their rulership was going to be phased
out if they didn't produce airs. There's a lot of
pressure to deliver on the Grimaldi clan. It wasn't until
two thousand and two that France made a new treaty
(09:43):
or modified their existing agreement and they said okay, if
the Grimaldi family doesn't have airs, Monaco can still be
independent because for years and years and years, the deal
was that if you are a Gramat and you don't
have kids and there are no Grimaldi's to rule Monaco,
(10:04):
boom France takes over. And this feels like it was
kind of a ad hoc solution, you know, where they said, Okay,
you the Grimaldi family, you did a good job, but
when you're done, we're going to return to the state
of affairs as it stands. But yeah, you ask a
(10:26):
great question. So here's what happened. This guy named Malisia,
which in Italian translates to the gunning Francois Grimaldi. He
plays this huge role in a conflict. There's civil strife
in Genoa between these two big deal families. A lot
of people take refuge in Monaco.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Because of that strategic location. Right, there's a fortress up there. Yeah,
it looks really really cool too. Do check it out online, folks,
if you get a chance. It looks neat. So there
are these families, the Guilf family and the Gibbelin family.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
What do you think.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
No, yeah, I was gonna say maybe Guelf and Gibbelini,
But I think we're probably both parking our cars in
the same garage as our friend Chuck would say.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Chuck Bryant, how from stuff you should know recently appeared
on one of Scott Ackerman shows. I think on Scott
hasn't seen, which is their film show. So the guilf
family has some members hiding out in Monaco, and there's
this guy named Grimaldo. He is the son of Otto Canela,
(11:39):
who is the consul of Genoa, and he begins this
family in eleven thirty three. He says, we're going to
start a new house, the House of Grimaldi. So the
Grimaldi family already exists before a lot of the strife occurs.
But in twelve ninety seven, this guy, Francois the Cunning
(12:02):
Grimaldi dresses up as a Franciscan monk alongside his cousin
and him and his crew capture the Rock of Monaco.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Yeah yeah, making a demonstrating his namesake, the Cunning. He
was a man of many disguises. After he passed away
in thirteen oh nine, Francois Grimaldi was succeeded by Ranier
the First and then his son, Charles Grimaldi. He would
go on to be known as Charles the First is
considered by history to be the true founder of the
(12:38):
Principality of Monaco. And maybe we should take a second
to talk about what a principality is versus a monarchy.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Yeah, well, think about the root words, right, A principality
versus a monarch. Key, one is ruled by monarch, one
is ruled by a prince. I know it sounds so
so simple, but we're not being snarky here. That's really
what it means.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Yeah, I thought there maybe was more to it than that,
but that makes perfect sense. So he founded as Charles Grimaldi.
Charles the First founded the Principality of Monaco, and he
grabbed up a couple more lands, the lands of Minton
and Roque Rochebrune, Roche Brune. Oh my goodness, where these
are the prince pronunciation minefield here today we're doing our best, folks,
(13:33):
working live as you say, ben, So this actually added
some area to the region. Charles the First also took
on an important part in the court of the at
the time, the King of France, Regnier the Second, actually
never went to Monaco at all, and he just divided
up the lands between his sons Ambrose, Jean and Antoine.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Oh and let me know here, for any anybody in
the crowd is feeling a little bit pedantic today. You
can be a prince, and I guess still be a monarch.
It's just you're not the king. There's not a king
of Monico. There's only a prince of Monico. So that
would be the big, the big difference.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
And I wonder is that like by design, because you know,
the kings don't want there to be more kings. You know,
this is France, it has a king, and Monico is
so closely tied to France and so geographically connected that
maybe it would feel in some way diminishing for there
(14:36):
to also be another king in such close proximity.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
I wouldn't point to a fantastic article by at least
Taylor over on Vogue Monico has princes and princesses, but
why no kings and queens? And in this article, which
I think is a great exploration of this, the author
points out that Monaco has always had to ally itself
(15:02):
with other larger countries that already have a king and
or queen. So they decided originally to call themselves a principality.
The rulers of Monaco style themselves as prince and princess.
That way, it is less of a threat. It does
(15:24):
make them more patentable as kind of a vassal or
client state.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Got it, so I wasn't too far off the mark.
So it's basically just about keeping the monarchs happy and
making sure everyone plays nice together. No one gets too
big for their kingly or princely breaches.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
Right, And to jump in here, if we remember with Andorra,
there was actually co princess of Andorra. It's like that
one guy that bishop in Spain and then the now
president of France are the co princes fairs because it
was a protectorate as well. I think it's probably a
protectorate like how it's work throughout the you know, centuries
of this whole deal going on.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Max with the fact that seek in the fons and
he's fallen knowledge just for ye right now here with
the fact.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
And Jean the first who dies in fourteen fifty four,
is succeeded by his son Catalan, which we'll we'll get
to it in a future episode.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Baby Uh.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Catalan's daughter Claudine marries a Grimaldi from the Antibs or NTBs,
a n tip Es branch named Lambert, and under this rule,
Lambert's rule, it's Monaco gets recognized as independent by King
(16:52):
Charles the eighth of France in fourteen eighty nine. This
is a huge, huge deal. It's almost two hundred years
after our boy Francois the cunning first captured the fortress
over there on the rock. And every time I say it,
I think of Sean Connery. I hope I'm the only
one ridiculous historians. The Grimaldi's finally get sovereignty over this
(17:17):
principality geopolitically. It's quite a coup, and the Genoese are
not happy about this. They keep trying to take over Monaco.
Fast forward, Louis the twelfth confirms Monaco's independence again. He
creates an alliance between the Princess of Monaco that's just
(17:40):
Prince plural and the King of France. And then they
just keep trying to play the great nations off.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Of each other, right because of their kind of you
know situation tucked there between those nations, and Max with
the Facts just a minute ago brought up the idea
of a protectorate. So I'm wondering, like, you can a
place be a protectorate and a principality at the same time.
I think the answer is yes, right, because at this point,
because of the disputes with the French authorities coming to
(18:10):
an end, Monaco was then placed under the protection of Spain.
Am I getting that right? Max?
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Yes? I think you're getting it very right.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
If I could also answer the question, A protectorate is
any state that's controlled or protected by another so it
can have its own any kind of internal government. It
doesn't have to necessarily be like a monarchy. It doesn't
have to be, you know, a communist state. It doesn't
have to be a democracy or an autocracy. It's just
(18:39):
any kind of client state, you know. And sometimes protectorate
can be a dirty word, as in the rulers of
a protectorate may not want to be called that to
their faces, and they'll say no, no, we're allies. And
then you say, oh, when's the last time you made
a decision the US didn't want you to make? Right
(19:00):
in the days of the Cold War the Soviet Union.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
The idea of offering protection also implies somewhat of a
shakedown sometimes, right like you know, in mafia terms. If
you're paying people are paying you for their protection. They're
basically paying you not to mess them up and take
their stuff, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
It's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll protect you, but you
should probably do these things, these ways that we want
you to do.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Be a shamed of something happened to your little micronation
over there.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
And they're not all created equally, right in the case
of some previous relationships, geopolitically, protectorate might just be paying
a yearly tribute, or they may have total autonomy on
their own eternal affairs, and it's just understood that the
(19:51):
larger state, the protecting state, will be obligated to jump
in militarily, or it could be absolutely domb needed. And
it could be you know, it could be a parasitic
relationship with the protector state taking up resources right, oppressing
the people and their you know, their ability to speak
(20:12):
freely and so on. I mean, the issues are, it
is a good question. The issues are that a protector
does not one size fits all. And Monaco knew they
needed to be allied with larger forces, right, and they
didn't always get along with these larger forces. There were
(20:34):
disputes with authorities in France that resulted in Monaco being
placed under the protection of Spain, and dealing with Spain
was expensive. Spain put a lot of financial burden on Monaco.
They had to pay for the expense of sheltering a
(20:55):
Spanish garrison in the fortress for more than one hundred
years starting to fifteen twenty four, and the whole time
the Grimaldi's low key are saying, we got to keep
having kids. This is all over if we don't keep
having kids, which is not the most I don't know,
maybe it's kind of romantic in a weird succession way.
(21:16):
Maybe they've got some slow music playing, which means there
would have to be other people in the room, and
they're like, my darling for the principality.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
If that's what you're into. Sure. So, speaking of kids,
we've got Lambert Grimaldi de Aantibus, who had three sons
very similarly to him to the previous three sons we mentioned, Jean,
Lucien and Augustin. Lucien's son Honorary the first, then had
two sons, Charles the second and Hercule. With that Hercules
name dropped there, he Lucien, that is enjoyed a relatively
(21:49):
peaceful rn near the end of his lifetime. But his
two sons, who ruled us in the succession, you know,
one after the other, did not do a particularly good
job in keeping that peaceful situation. Moving forward.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Yeah, it's it's a real game of thrones kind of
thing these Whenever you're ruling a country, you're in deep water.
So his sons didn't sit in the catbird seat for
very long. But what you need to know for this
is that in sixteen twelve, Erkle's son On the second
(22:25):
was given the title Prince of Monico for the first time.
This has become the official title of Monico's rulers, and
it's passed on to successors this day. Let's skip ahead.
So that's some of the ancient basic history. A lot
of other stuff happened, but we want to introduce you
to Prince Regnier the third in nineteen forty nine. This
(22:49):
guy took the throne of Monaco and he married a
beutiful American actress, Grace Kelly in nineteen fifty six. May
be familiar to some sin of files in the audience,
and this guy played a huge role in making modern Monico.
As we know it today.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Yeah, and it was also like I mean, it kind
of created the image of the kind of celebrity driven
version of Monico. I mean it was really now kind
of part and parcel with the idea of American culture.
You know, Grace Kelly was a huge movie star, you know,
one of the biggest, and now for her to essentially
(23:29):
become royalty of Monico, this was fodder for the tabloids.
You know, this was very much like a front page
story that really kind of upped the cachet of the
micro nation, at least in terms of the eyes of
you know, sort of like the way we maybe think
of Ibitha or something. Now, you know that Monaco really
was starting to get that kind of vibe. I mean
(23:50):
it had been for some time, but it was maybe
a little bit more of a if you know, you know,
now everyone kind of knew.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Yeah, and Grace Kelly was functioning, I would argue in
real way as an ambassador for the tiny nation of Monaco.
They also, because there's still Grimaldi's remember, they also have
to have kids. So they have three children, Caroline, Albert,
and Stephanie. The youngest princess. Stephanie gets a lot of
(24:21):
ink in tabloids and you know, the the rags that
comment on celebrities. For her time as being a singer
of Fashion Model Party Girl in the nineteen eighties, she's
sort of a proto Kardashian, I would argue anyway, our
buddy Prince R also does some important legal work. He
(24:43):
reforms Monaco's constitution. He is buffering the economy and he says,
he says, look, we depend entirely too much on gambling.
When Prince R three, I want to call him when
he comes into his power. Nine percent of Monico's entire
(25:06):
revenue is coming from gambling. Imagine if ten percent of
the revenue from the US came from gambling. Anyway, they
knock it down to about three percent as the years
go on. Unfortunately, Grace Kelly passes away in a car
accident in nineteen eighty two, and the celebrity watchers of
the world, the royal watchers of the world, are absolutely shocked,
(25:28):
you know, and of course our thoughts go to the family.
It doesn't matter who you are in the world. Losing
someone to a car accident, Losing someone suddenly to any
accident such a tragic thing too.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
In the prime of their life for sure. I mean,
you know, I don't believe there was any kind of
conspiracy attached to this like there was in this other case.
But it was very much a Princess Diana kind of
situation where you know, the world mourned, you know, the
death of Grace Kelly, not only because she was this
iconic Hollywood figure, but also because she had taken on
(25:59):
this kind of whole other image, you know, of being
an actual, actual facts princess, you know, I mean that's
sort of what every young girl dreams of and dreamt
of in those days. And maybe it's a little bit
cliche now, but you know, back in the forties and fifties,
the idea of you know, being carried away by a magical,
(26:19):
charming prince, you know, that was the stuff of like
Disney movies, and this was a real life case of that.
And to have that person taken you know, in such
a shocking and sudden manner, was you know, truly a
tragedy you don't seen that way. And then really everyone
mourned kind of collectively, but the prince did go on
(26:39):
and maintained a positive reputation, you know, as a ruler.
He was very much respected. He lived to a ripe
old age when he passed away in two thousand and five,
at which point his son, Prince Albert the second assented
to the throne.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
So we've sort of eaten our vegetables of tragedy here.
Let's look at something that probably fascinates everyone who's heard
about Monaco, the history of the casino. It wasn't until
eighteen fifty six that Charles the third of Monaco granted
(27:18):
a concession to a couple of guys, a couple of
French guys, Albert Aubert and Napoleon Lingois. Again we're not
French speakers, to establish what was called a sea bathing
facility to treat various diseases. These were very popular in
the eighteen fifties or in the eighteen hundreds in general,
(27:40):
the idea that different climates could help with chronic conditions.
And then they said, also you can build a what
they called a German style casino in Monaco.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Well, we might think of now as just like a spa,
like a resort town or whatever. And then the ad
the casino that's just kind of taking it to a level.
A German style casino that was new to me. I
guess I've never really thought about that, but I think
casinos have been you know, legal and very popular in
Germany for much longer than in other parts of the world.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Yeah, I'm not too familiar. I was looking at this,
I was not too familiar with what a German style
casino would be, but it seems that most German casinos
historically offer all the stuff you would associate with a
James Bond film blackjack, baccer, rat, hungry, hungry, hippo roulette,
(28:38):
one of those is probably not true go fish and
the the the initial casino Shambo Rochambeau, of course, and
then estimating how many marbles are in a jar, the
sport of kings and carnies, and just just to quickly add,
Germany does possess two of the world's oldest casinos, and
(29:03):
Roman soldiers in ancient Roman times actually brought gambling to Germany,
so I mean they were kind of the prototype for
commercial scale gambling parlors. This is at your feet, This
is on you Roman Empire, Germany's gambling brothers sandaled feet.
The initial casino in Monaco is opened in La condemen
(29:26):
in eighteen sixty two, but it wasn't a success right away.
Its present location is in an area called the Caves
of Monte Carlo, and it happened. It's kind of like
underground Atlanta here in our fair metropolis, a place that
just keeps moving and people keep trying to reinvigorate it
(29:48):
and make it cool again. This casino seemed like a
good idea. Everybody was on board with it. By everybody,
we mean the rulers. But it was not an overnight success.
To move around a lot. And this prominence of the
casino actually grew slowly over time because for quite a
while the area was pretty inaccessible for most Europeans. But
(30:13):
we'll learn how the casino became such an important part
of the economy.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Absolutely, And you know, sometimes inaccessibility or you know, things
being kind of like I isolated in some way can
lend an air of exclusivity, but then you know, you
kind of you also need to be able to get there,
right So we talked about the Caves of Monte Carlo
in La Condamine, but it was not until the Society
(30:42):
de Bank de Mare opened what is now known as
the Monte Carlo Casino in eighteen sixty three. It is
kind of the iconic version of this thing. They had
an ideal location that was rife for kind of creating
that resort kind of type town, you know, a perfect spot, hotels,
the arts, you know, and of course the casino. It
(31:05):
was still a little bit difficult to reach, but that
would soon change in eighteen sixty eight when a link
to France's railway system was added, and this turned out
to be absolute pay dirt because now it was easy
to get there was never geographically that far. It was
just kind of nestled in those rocky, you know, fortressy
(31:28):
kind of hills. Now you were able to get there
by rail and that created a absolute influx of tourists
coming to experience it.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
The casino was such a hit that the Grimaldi family
looked around in eighteen sixty nine and said, hey, why
do we even need to get people to pay taxes?
If they live here, they don't have to pay income
tax here. Come on, it's Monaco. We want them in
the casino, not dealing with I'm dealing with the tax man.
(32:02):
And the only reason they could afford to do this
was because the casino was such a runaway hit. As
someone who doesn't personally I'm not personally a gambling sort.
I'm fascinated. I'm fascinated by it and his and we
can see that this is a huge economic boost, right
(32:24):
they realized this is the crown jewel of their economy
at the moment.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
But why just offer that? Like were they being pressured
in some way to get rid of it? Like it
just like surely it wasn't just an act of benevolence.
It created a feedback loop. We'll we'll get into it
in just a bit.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
The it has a lot to do with the demographic
of the people who were taking aspersage in Monaco. Yeah,
so we'll get to that sect. But like, okay, in
nineteen eleven, our buddy Prince Albert one who was most
famous for the old school telephone prank? Do you have
(33:07):
Prince Albert in a can?
Speaker 3 (33:09):
I don't think it was more famous for the piercing.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
Well he did.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
He did invent several canned goods and piercings. No one
fact checked that. I can't believe Special Prince Albert he
had the lip penile, didn't invent that. And also a
big thank you again to all the all the cool
teachers who play this show as part of their curriculum.
(33:37):
Thank you, folks.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
No, it was hold on, it was uh, let's see,
let's go to MythBuster. I just I gotta know, just
to make case. Yeah, this is educational for everyone. In
case anyone's interested, we're talking about a very strategically located piercing.
It was Prince Albert of the United Kingdom. Too many
princes of the same name.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Not to malign the Monicas. Prince Albert he is the
one who adopts the first Constitution for Monaco, and he separates,
He makes a separation of power executive, legislative, judiciary. This
can sound boring, but the thing is it's incredibly important
(34:23):
because otherwise they could be ruling as absolute monarchs, which
would be pretty dangerous for the people of Monaco. Another
important political development the Treaty of Versailles in July nineteen eighteen.
A lot of people have heard about the Treaty Versailles,
but one thing you may not know about it is
(34:44):
that it gave limited French protection over Monaco and said, basically,
you run your indoors, your internal affairs, and we will
take care of your outdoor votes the wider world vote
Monico gets a vote in the United Nations, it just
(35:04):
pretty much is always what France wants.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Right, and that's you know, not exactly mandated, you know,
I mean there's the illusion of autonomy there, right, ben
But it's just more like, yeah, you know, if you
know what's good for you, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
And the rubber hits the road. In World War Two,
when Monaco is trying to remain neutral in the Italian
Army invades and occupies occupies the country. The leader of
Italy at the time, Benito Mussolini, one of the only
(35:42):
bad bins in history. Yeah, he spoiler. Things do not
go well for him, thankfully, and.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
When is anything like dragged behind a vehicle or something
like that the streets.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
It did not end well. It was not dignified. After
his regime topples and Italy, Monico is occupied by Nazi Germany.
Maybe they just heard about the casinos. Prince Louis did
something really cool and the people of Monaco deserve a
lot of credit for this. Prince Louis the Second used
(36:16):
the police of Monaco to warn Jewish inhabitants if they
were being marked for arrest by the Gestapo and allowed
them invaluable time to escape with their lives. And they
were many people who lived there of a Jewish descent
were able to escape due to the assistance of the
(36:37):
king and the police. Eventually the Americans came and liberated
the principality. So even in the even in these very
opulent places, World War two hit hard, and I just
wanted to take some time and shout that action out because,
you know, as a person who is against the absolutely
(37:01):
terrible idea of monarchies and royal rule, it's so incredibly commendable.
Dare I say noble to see a positive action taken.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Yeah, And you know, I mean, obviously there are tons
of problems inherent in monarchies, but I would argue better
than fascism most of the time. I guess that you
can't have fascist monarchies though let's not get it twisted,
but like if you have a monarchy that is more
or less operating with the benefit of the people in mind,
which you know, there were certainly those, and there were
obviously certainly those that were completely self serving and did
(37:34):
not give to shakes about the people. But it's cool
to see folks that are part of that often maligned
fairly system of government taking one for the team and
putting themselves at great risk because actually talking with my
partner the other day about like, how does something like
Hitler happen and how were people able to just go
(37:56):
along with it? And the short answer is, sure, some
some people went along with it, maybe out of fear,
maybe out of true belief in the ideology that he
was putting forth, out of just hate and ignorance. But
then there were certainly folks that, at great risk to themselves,
you know, did not go along with it. But they
had to do so very carefully in order to be successful,
(38:17):
or else they'd be snuffed out instantly. And we proceed
to the modern day. Right, the new Constitution comes out
in nineteen sixty two. It gives women the vote.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
Case just note that there was not women's suffrage until
the early nineteen sixties, abolishes capital punishment, establishes a Supreme Court.
So people are getting some fundamental liberties. And our buddy
prints R III during this is during his reign, he
makes Monaco what you could optimistically call a thriving center
(38:57):
of international finance. That's what monch Co officially calls itself.
There's a lot there's a lot in between the lines
of those words. But the guy does a huge number
of improvements. There are a lot of major projects like
renovating that port we mentioned so that they could get
more and more ships to dock there, including cruise ships.
(39:19):
Monico is very popular with cruises and then creating cultural centers.
I think maybe to the best way for us to
end just to just explore some fun facts about Monaco
in the modern day, with the hope that the tourism
board of Monaco will want to take three plucky podcasters
(39:41):
on a trip. Yeah, it's true, I guess no, you
want to do it? Come on, I will I will
gamble if we're in Monaco. It's a win in Rome
situation for me.
Speaker 3 (39:51):
We will learn all these pronunciations.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
We promise come on, win in Rome or losing Monica.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
So right, so Monaco has to get said at the top.
A huge industry and tours and gambling. But also they're
deep in banking because that lack of income tax attracted
very wealthy people, not just from Europe but across the world.
Sixteen percent of revenue comes from the banking industry and
(40:18):
money management. So like you know, a state managers those
wealth offices, like a lot of people don't have this
but if you're from a very wealthy family, you may
be familiar with the idea of the family office. Sure,
that's when you have so much money that you have
a dedicated team of people employed privately by your family
(40:41):
just to manage all that's, all that revenue from your
interest and all your tax liability and so on and
so on. At that point, your money, your horde of treasure,
becomes kind of like a thinking institution all its own.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
Unless do you think, ooh, this sounds great. I hate
paying taxes. You probably can't afford to live in Monaco, right, like, yeah,
sure you don't. You don't pay income taxes. But the
cost of living there and the cost of real estate
and the you know again it's densely populated but tiny land,
you know, very limited availability. Uh, probably prohibitively expensive for
(41:22):
the average folks. You can maybe afford to go there
on vacation. That's how most people do it. You can also, uh,
you can also sleep in Nice, France and then just
take a half hour ride into Monico. That's a lot
of people will live outside of it. It's funny because
a few years back, you case, no, I've been obsessed
(41:44):
with micronations for a while, I started looking up apartments
for rent in Monaco because way before we ever did
ridiculous history, and the prices aren't uh, they're not super affordable,
but there are there are a couple of deals that
are there are deals where you could maybe make it work.
(42:07):
But the issue is.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
Why would you when you could just commute in from France.
Right The people who are living there, part of the
reason they're paying that premium is to get out of
the income tax liability.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
And it's really interesting too. We talked at the top
of the show how we're both fascinated by the title
or the name. I guess that gets established. They get
associated with people who are residents of whether it be
a certain country or a certain state like Michigander is
one of my favorites here in the US. People who
were born in Monaco, we talked about this earlier, are
known as Monegasque. But there's also a name for someone
(42:44):
who's born in another country but has a residence in Monaco.
They're called Monacoean. And it kind of makes sense. Because
of the limited availability of resources in land, the Natives
are actually in the minority. They're only about a fifth
of the population.
Speaker 1 (43:01):
Yeah, and that population, by the way, I'm sure a
lot of people were wondering, it's only like thirty eight
thousand people. It is very very small, it's very densely populated.
It's a huge conurbation. It also has the highest life
expectancy in the world so far as we know as
a country, eighty five and a half years old for men,
(43:23):
ninety three point five years old for women.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
Because of the climate, maybe because there's some fountain of
youth situations.
Speaker 1 (43:32):
There's just a lot of people who can afford the
world's best healthcare.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
That's good, That's exactly what it is. Yeah, And if
you're interested in the makeup, I guess of nationalities that
occupy Monaco, we are looking at French nationals filling up
the largest portion of this pie at twenty eight point
four percent. Then we've got the native Montagasques at twenty
(43:56):
one point six percent, Italians at eighteen point seven percent,
British seven point five percent, Belgian two point eight, German
at two point five, Swiss two point five, and US
nationals only one point two. Because that's you know, that's
like new money, man. You know, you got to be like, oh,
legacy money, to be able to afford to rocket in Monica.
(44:18):
I mean, I'm just kind of joking, but it's also
like these are this is legacy wealth we're talking about, right,
a lot of it.
Speaker 1 (44:26):
Yeah. And also the the current Prince and Princess of Monaco,
they are Olympians. Albert Cool, Yeah, you'll Max, you'll you'll
dig this right. Albert was in the bob sleigh at
five different Winter Olympics. Uh, did not walk away with medals.
But Princess Charlie has won three gold medals and a
(44:50):
silver medal in multiple different swimming competitions. Unfortunately, she did
not get the gold for Monaco. Competed for South Africa,
where she grew up. Because you know, if I'm assuming empathy,
which I always tried to do that, I could see
(45:11):
how growing up in Monaco, even if you're amidst all
this immense wealth and privilege, you might feel like Ariel
in The Little Mermaid, right, you know, there's a wider
world out there, you want to go explore it, sore.
So that's why she's probably raised in South Africa and
trotted the globe. Of course, these people do travel freely.
Speaker 2 (45:32):
Isn't that interesting though? Because now I guess the law
is no longer that you know, the agreement's been changed
where you no longer have to be a legacy member
of the Grimaldi family.
Speaker 3 (45:46):
I'm guessing she married into the family.
Speaker 2 (45:48):
I would assume so for sure. But I'm just saying, like,
now the future is wide open. I wonder how how
is that determined? If so, I guess that just means
there wouldn't be a prince or princess. If there's no
heir that family, then is someone installed, but it is
still going to be an independent nation. They just would
no longer be a prince or princess.
Speaker 4 (46:07):
Right, That's a good point, Like, look, what is a
hierarchy asterist? I mean, granted, Grimaldi's are very good at
having more children, as we've learned through the story, but yeah,
that is that is an interesting thing. Like what happens
does the monarch position?
Speaker 2 (46:19):
Just see it's the prime minister.
Speaker 1 (46:22):
Maybe, well, they have a Council of Regency and it
takes power. This is not super great for anti monarchists
in the crowd. They have a Council of Regency that
takes sort of temporary or interim power until something called
the Crown Council sort of like the fixers that you
see in the TV series Secession, until they elect a
(46:45):
new monarch from the more distant descendants of the House
of Grimaldi. So they'll just have to see how far
they need to go back in the genealogy and say,
you know, well, this guy was a fourth cousin in
the sixteen hundred, so surely he's up on the policy
of Monaco. He's got to be the best guy for
(47:06):
the job, because that's how monarchies work.
Speaker 3 (47:09):
It sounds like the urals trying to get together and
call him moot.
Speaker 1 (47:14):
Yes, yes, Skyriel. Uh so yeah, if you want to
buy land at Monaco, you can. It is going to
be it can, Yes, yes, it is. It is possible
in this universe for you to do so. A square
meter of land is going to run you between fifty
(47:35):
thousand and one hundred thousand euros.
Speaker 2 (47:38):
You your whole house, right, No, that's.
Speaker 1 (47:40):
The again, that's you heard you heard it right, ridiculous historians.
That's one meter of land. If you want to go
to apartments for rent in Monaco, just this is the
old website I was going to. Uh, you'll see that
you can rent stuff like a studio apartment for just
five thousand, five hundred.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
Euro, which is what with the with the old not inflation,
but just do the conversion. I think it's roughly one
to one right now with the dollar, or it's not
far off, but I think it's it's like a one
euro is like a dollar ten. Yeah, right exactly. But
still that's that's that's wild five thousand.
Speaker 1 (48:18):
So think of it like five five hundred bucks for
studio apartment.
Speaker 2 (48:22):
I mean that's like way more than in New York City,
you know, are some of the most expensive places in
our country. That's insane. Wow, Okay, must be really nice.
Must be nice. But let's say maybe maybe you're not.
Maybe you're not looking to rent or buy, but you're
looking to be incarcerated. Maybe not looking to be but
you find yourself to be incarcerated, well, you would be
(48:42):
in a very small group of the chosen few, with
Monico's jail holding only around twenty prisoners with the seaside
view by the way.
Speaker 1 (48:54):
From those cells, I wonder what their crimes are too,
You thinking white collar? Yeah, money laundring and financial scams.
And this is a neat little twist of the ways
described in Europe. They are jailed for money laundry, not laundry,
just laundry. If you are a citizen of Monaco, bad luck.
(49:18):
You cannot work in the casino. You cannot gamble in
the casino. A lot of people work in the casino
as are coming from France, and this is so weird
to me because they're kind of doing drug dealer rules right.
Don't dip into the product right for sure.
Speaker 2 (49:36):
And if you're thinking to yourself, man, this place sounds
like you'd be a really great setting for like a
heist movie or you know, some sort of spy thriller,
well you would be absolutely correct. GoldenEye has seen set
in Monaco films like the nineteen twenty The Black Spider,
(49:56):
nineteen thirty one's bombs on Monte Carlo, the Red Shoes.
Speaker 1 (50:01):
Which is not a heist, but still Monico is now.
I think there's a great website called TV Tropes which
everyone should check out. Monaco is essentially a trope now
for visual shorthand to show that there are global shenanigans
of foot. If something starts in Monaco, then we're talking
(50:23):
a high dollar spine or a heisting or so on.
At least that's how it's often featured in the United States.
You know, Ocean's Twelve has scenes in Monico. Iron Man
two has scenes in Monaco, and Monico gets a cut
of the film.
Speaker 2 (50:41):
Oh, I'm sure they get something for sure. Yeah, definitely.
And also when one last one, one that I actually
haven't seen, would have been meaning to it's on my list.
The Alfred Hitchcock directed Rebecca, which won a Best Picture.
Speaker 1 (50:54):
Oh, yeah, I remember that one.
Speaker 2 (50:55):
Yeah, forty. I think it's based on a novel that
was very, very hugely successful. I haven't read the novel, Yeah,
but I've really not mention It also doesn't seem quite
like a typical Hitchcock that you think of. I mean,
it's definitely Gothic.
Speaker 1 (51:11):
If I remember, I have to rewatch it. Hopefully. It's
on the Criterion Channel, which didn't pay me to say this,
but their subscription service is awesome.
Speaker 2 (51:20):
Unbelievable, And then they have such cool rotating kind of
curated collections. Also, you know another one that's good. I'm
sure you're familiar with. Ben is a movie which I
know sounds silly but just the name, but it has
a I believe, monthly rotating kind of curated selection of
really interesting films and they're constantly kind of moving through,
(51:40):
so it's a cool way to just see what's there
and check it out because there's always going to be
something of interest. And of course I once again recommend
the very imperfect but immensely fascinating Wiki travel site. If
you want to learn more in a very strange way
about a different country, go to their wiki travel articles.
(52:03):
Exactly what it sounds like.
Speaker 1 (52:04):
It's meant to be a primer for people considering traveling
to a place. And the funny thing is it contradicts
itself often because it's crowdsourced, and sometimes you can tell
when the guy who owns the restaurant is writing about
his own restaurant, and sometimes you can tell when the
informations actually pulled from the un But the wiki travel
(52:24):
article on Monaco, love it, love it. It's it's pretty interesting,
tells you all the different ways to get in to
get around. You can also see some great amateur travel
documentaries on Monaco. You're just a YouTube search away. YouTube,
by the way, is the world's second largest search engine
after Google, which is weird because Google owns YouTube. Anyway,
(52:49):
that's a story for another day. Another roll of the dice,
but I think we should go to Monico once we
get it in the budget.
Speaker 2 (53:00):
I would love to.
Speaker 3 (53:01):
I would look.
Speaker 2 (53:01):
I mean, I've never been to the south of France
in general. Like you said, Niece is another adjacent location,
and there's that whole area just seems kind of magical.
So let's put it on our to do list.
Speaker 1 (53:11):
Yeah, I'm heading to you know, I think I have
the circumstances are going to find me in Italy later
in a few so maybe I.
Speaker 2 (53:19):
Can try to.
Speaker 1 (53:20):
Maybe I can see how tough it is to get
into Monico. What do you have to do, Rennick, cruise ship.
I'll probably just take the train. Who knows.
Speaker 4 (53:28):
I might be a distant relative of the Grimaldi family,
so we might be there soon because I might be
running the country.
Speaker 1 (53:35):
I love it. We might all be. You guys remember
the the cinematic masterpiece King Ralph from nineteen ninety one, where.
Speaker 2 (53:44):
I remember he's something called spotted Dick and I thought
that was hilarious.
Speaker 1 (53:48):
John Goodman, I want to say, yeah, John Ridman. Due
to a royal mishap, as the distant illegitimate descendant of
the royal family, he'd be the King of the United Kingdom.
I remember liking that as a kid, and I think
it's one of those that I'm not going to rewatch
because I want to keep the memory as it is.
Speaker 2 (54:09):
I have a feeling it did not age well if
I if I'm a mistake.
Speaker 1 (54:16):
Anyway, So big, big, big thanks to big big things
to our super producer, uh the Possible Royal Uh, mister
Max Williams. Max, It's hard to get in there, but
you have citizenship in the Monaco that is my heart,
my friends.
Speaker 2 (54:31):
Huge thanks to Alex Williams who composed our theme. Christo
frasciotis here in spirit, Eve's Jeff Coates wherever she may
find herself. And you Ben for being my prince, the
prince of my heart.
Speaker 1 (54:46):
Also also with you, you know what, we can start
our own Monaco with black wait, they already have a casino.
Shout out to anyone who got that Futurama reference.
Speaker 2 (54:57):
Who would shuppen We'll see next time, folks. For more
podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous Histories, a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to the
(00:27):
show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much for
tuning in. Let's hear it for the Man, the myth,
the legend. Super producer mister Max Williams tag us out. Indeed,
we are returning to our ongoing exploration, our continuing mission
to learn more about the funny little things called micro nations.
(00:52):
I'm Ben your nol and where are we traveling to today?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
To a principality? All right, no less than a prince,
not a king though, right like it's weird Monaco. We're
talking about Monico. Many people might know it as a
vacation destination for the rich and famous. It might conjure
images of fine foods, spreads of caviat and chacouterie boards
(01:20):
and such, and gambling, copious gambling.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Right.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
For many people, Monaco, the world's second smallest country, is
often thought of as a little more than a race
track and a very fancy casino. It turns out Monaco,
which has been an obsession of mine for quite some time,
is the most densely populated country in the world. In fact,
it's got a lot of well, depending on the metrics.
(01:47):
It's got a lot of strange, anomalous, neat little statistics.
But if you look at it on the map, Thistle,
this little thing right there between Italy and frank As,
one of your first questions would be, how did this
tiny town become a country? Out of all the tiny
(02:08):
towns in the world, why this one? Why not Piughkeepsie.
And it turns out there's a reason for that. You're
absolutely right. No, it is still ruled by a family
monarchy style, ruled by the Grimaldi family. It's a picturesque
little coastal nation. We set us best known for the
(02:28):
casino and the racetrack. Maybe a better way to think
of it is it's best known for the tourism it
attracts and for being home to so many very wealthy,
famous people who love not paying taxes.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Oh man, that was actually news to me, the idea.
I mean, we know about tax shelters and tax havens
and offshore accounts, but no, the principality of Monaco got
rid of the income tax at a certain point, which
we'll talk about historically. But speaking of history, the term
crossroads of history often comes up. It's a little bit cliche,
(03:08):
but It really is kind of true when it applies
to Monaco. The Ligurians were an ancient people who actually
settled Monaco, and they did because you asked about why
this little town, why this little slice of land, They
settled it because it was a very strategic location of
something called the Rock of Monaco. An evidence of this
(03:30):
occupation by the Ligurian people was actually discovered in some
cave paintings in what is called the Saint Martin's Gardens.
They were a clan of mountain dwellers. They were very
hard workers, they were builders, and they were also very
good at managing resources. The website of the official website
(03:54):
of Bonico's Tourism Board referred to them as possessing great
frugality and also they point out of that is a
trade that the people of Monaco carry on to this day.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Yeah, the Monogasque, they're called m O n E g
A s q u E. It's always kind of an
art and as science to me when when we in
English try to figure out what the citizens of a
place are called or what they refer to themselves as. Now,
the Ligurians were from north like a northwestern area of
(04:28):
modern day Italy. And if we look at the sixth century,
we'll see that the Phosacians vocations I hope I'm saying
that not too incorrectly.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
P h. O. C.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
A E A n. S. Of Massalia founded a colony
they called Monoikos that became a hugely important port on
the Mediterranean coast. And if you look at the Greek
translation that that roughly means single house, and that's that's
not because there was just one house there, one huge
(05:00):
It's not that Monaco was always super small. It's because
they wanted to enforce this idea of self reliant, self
sufficiency and sovereignty. And there are a lot of ancient
myths about this which I love. Like Hercules was one
of the most famous original patrons of modern day Monaco.
He passed through the area. I was watching some really
(05:23):
fascinating documentaries about this. There's not actually a temple to
Hercules that people have found in the area, but there
may be one. We probably will never know because the
area is so densely populated and the soil is so
rocky that it's unlikely they're going to make any excavations
to find one.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Yeah, it could be hidden in them their hills, and
there is a port. The largest port of the region
is named the Port of Hercule. And once again, adding
to the whole crossroads of history, Vibe Julius Caesar is
said to have stopped in Myoikas after he finished his
campaign in Greece during the Gaelic Wars. And of course,
(06:06):
once the Western Roman Empire collapsed in four seventy six,
Monaco was then kind of pillaged by the Saracens and
other barbarian tribes. Then in nine seventy five, once those
invaders were driven from the lands, the area was reclaimed
(06:27):
by you guessed it, the Ligurians.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
They love the place, you know what I mean. They're
like peas and carrots with Monaco, which I'm sure they said.
And you can catch a lot of Easter eggs about
Monaco in Forrest Gump, the novel, not the film. No
One fact check us. Monico is in fact older than
France by five hundred years, almost half a millennium. And
if you looked at it centuries ago, you would see
(06:53):
that Monica was about eighty percent larger than it is today.
As soon as we mentioned France, we stumbled as something
that a lot of people here in the US might
be confused about Monaco is not part of France. Now,
historically it had been part of France, but in twelve
fifteen it became a colony of Genoa due to a
(07:16):
land grant from Emperor Henry the sixth And this is
when the Grimaldi family settled in Monaco in twelve ninety seven,
and ancestors of that family have controlled the principality of
Monaco for over seven hundred and fifteen years.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Now.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
If you think about it, you could say Monaco is
a family business, and the current prince probably wouldn't get
mad at you for saying that.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Yeah, this is interesting to me because you know, we
think of royal lineages and all of that and God
given rights to govern and all of that and to
lord over underlings. But it's a little unusual, I guess,
for like a not previously considered to be royalty family
is sort of granted that status sort of overnight, right,
(08:08):
unless I'm misreading this, where the Grimaldi's just sort of like,
you know, a moneyed family that was was gifted this
land and then decided to make themselves monarchs or how
does that work exactly?
Speaker 1 (08:22):
They won it in a game of horse, which is
very popular, which is a very popular predator basketball.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Of course, she finished runner up in that competition, and
I am still yeah, yeah, you guys were not talking
about it on air, but I guess we're doing.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
This well, we're cooking live. Sorry, Max, but it's time
that people learn the truth. So Monaco is without sounding
to anti monarchists or anti royalty, which I very much am.
Part of this goes back to the fact that it
was considered impossible or ungot or barbaric for a country
(09:02):
not to have a royal family ruling it of some sort,
and then the idea of rightful claim to land almost
always went back to the ability to conquer it. But
let's let's get into this because they are the oldest
ruling house in Europe from twelve ninety seven up to
(09:22):
twenty twenty three as we record this podcast, and for
a long time their rulership was going to be phased
out if they didn't produce airs. There's a lot of
pressure to deliver on the Grimaldi clan. It wasn't until
two thousand and two that France made a new treaty
(09:43):
or modified their existing agreement and they said okay, if
the Grimaldi family doesn't have airs, Monaco can still be
independent because for years and years and years, the deal
was that if you are a Gramat and you don't
have kids and there are no Grimaldi's to rule Monaco,
(10:04):
boom France takes over. And this feels like it was
kind of a ad hoc solution, you know, where they said, Okay,
you the Grimaldi family, you did a good job, but
when you're done, we're going to return to the state
of affairs as it stands. But yeah, you ask a
(10:26):
great question. So here's what happened. This guy named Malisia,
which in Italian translates to the gunning Francois Grimaldi. He
plays this huge role in a conflict. There's civil strife
in Genoa between these two big deal families. A lot
of people take refuge in Monaco.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Because of that strategic location. Right, there's a fortress up there. Yeah,
it looks really really cool too. Do check it out online, folks,
if you get a chance. It looks neat. So there
are these families, the Guilf family and the Gibbelin family.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
What do you think.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
No, yeah, I was gonna say maybe Guelf and Gibbelini,
But I think we're probably both parking our cars in
the same garage as our friend Chuck would say.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Chuck Bryant, how from stuff you should know recently appeared
on one of Scott Ackerman shows. I think on Scott
hasn't seen, which is their film show. So the guilf
family has some members hiding out in Monaco, and there's
this guy named Grimaldo. He is the son of Otto Canela,
(11:39):
who is the consul of Genoa, and he begins this
family in eleven thirty three. He says, we're going to
start a new house, the House of Grimaldi. So the
Grimaldi family already exists before a lot of the strife occurs.
But in twelve ninety seven, this guy, Francois the Cunning
(12:02):
Grimaldi dresses up as a Franciscan monk alongside his cousin
and him and his crew capture the Rock of Monaco.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Yeah yeah, making a demonstrating his namesake, the Cunning. He
was a man of many disguises. After he passed away
in thirteen oh nine, Francois Grimaldi was succeeded by Ranier
the First and then his son, Charles Grimaldi. He would
go on to be known as Charles the First is
considered by history to be the true founder of the
(12:38):
Principality of Monaco. And maybe we should take a second
to talk about what a principality is versus a monarchy.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Yeah, well, think about the root words, right, A principality
versus a monarch. Key, one is ruled by monarch, one
is ruled by a prince. I know it sounds so
so simple, but we're not being snarky here. That's really
what it means.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Yeah, I thought there maybe was more to it than that,
but that makes perfect sense. So he founded as Charles Grimaldi.
Charles the First founded the Principality of Monaco, and he
grabbed up a couple more lands, the lands of Minton
and Roque Rochebrune, Roche Brune. Oh my goodness, where these
are the prince pronunciation minefield here today we're doing our best, folks,
(13:33):
working live as you say, ben, So this actually added
some area to the region. Charles the First also took
on an important part in the court of the at
the time, the King of France, Regnier the Second, actually
never went to Monaco at all, and he just divided
up the lands between his sons Ambrose, Jean and Antoine.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Oh and let me know here, for any anybody in
the crowd is feeling a little bit pedantic today. You
can be a prince, and I guess still be a monarch.
It's just you're not the king. There's not a king
of Monico. There's only a prince of Monico. So that
would be the big, the big difference.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
And I wonder is that like by design, because you know,
the kings don't want there to be more kings. You know,
this is France, it has a king, and Monico is
so closely tied to France and so geographically connected that
maybe it would feel in some way diminishing for there
(14:36):
to also be another king in such close proximity.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
I wouldn't point to a fantastic article by at least
Taylor over on Vogue Monico has princes and princesses, but
why no kings and queens? And in this article, which
I think is a great exploration of this, the author
points out that Monaco has always had to ally itself
(15:02):
with other larger countries that already have a king and
or queen. So they decided originally to call themselves a principality.
The rulers of Monaco style themselves as prince and princess.
That way, it is less of a threat. It does
(15:24):
make them more patentable as kind of a vassal or
client state.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Got it, so I wasn't too far off the mark.
So it's basically just about keeping the monarchs happy and
making sure everyone plays nice together. No one gets too
big for their kingly or princely breaches.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
Right, And to jump in here, if we remember with Andorra,
there was actually co princess of Andorra. It's like that
one guy that bishop in Spain and then the now
president of France are the co princes fairs because it
was a protectorate as well. I think it's probably a
protectorate like how it's work throughout the you know, centuries
of this whole deal going on.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Max with the fact that seek in the fons and
he's fallen knowledge just for ye right now here with
the fact.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
And Jean the first who dies in fourteen fifty four,
is succeeded by his son Catalan, which we'll we'll get
to it in a future episode.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Baby Uh.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Catalan's daughter Claudine marries a Grimaldi from the Antibs or NTBs,
a n tip Es branch named Lambert, and under this rule,
Lambert's rule, it's Monaco gets recognized as independent by King
(16:52):
Charles the eighth of France in fourteen eighty nine. This
is a huge, huge deal. It's almost two hundred years
after our boy Francois the cunning first captured the fortress
over there on the rock. And every time I say it,
I think of Sean Connery. I hope I'm the only
one ridiculous historians. The Grimaldi's finally get sovereignty over this
(17:17):
principality geopolitically. It's quite a coup, and the Genoese are
not happy about this. They keep trying to take over Monaco.
Fast forward, Louis the twelfth confirms Monaco's independence again. He
creates an alliance between the Princess of Monaco that's just
(17:40):
Prince plural and the King of France. And then they
just keep trying to play the great nations off.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Of each other, right because of their kind of you
know situation tucked there between those nations, and Max with
the Facts just a minute ago brought up the idea
of a protectorate. So I'm wondering, like, you can a
place be a protectorate and a principality at the same time.
I think the answer is yes, right, because at this point,
because of the disputes with the French authorities coming to
(18:10):
an end, Monaco was then placed under the protection of Spain.
Am I getting that right? Max?
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Yes? I think you're getting it very right.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
If I could also answer the question, A protectorate is
any state that's controlled or protected by another so it
can have its own any kind of internal government. It
doesn't have to necessarily be like a monarchy. It doesn't
have to be, you know, a communist state. It doesn't
have to be a democracy or an autocracy. It's just
(18:39):
any kind of client state, you know. And sometimes protectorate
can be a dirty word, as in the rulers of
a protectorate may not want to be called that to
their faces, and they'll say no, no, we're allies. And
then you say, oh, when's the last time you made
a decision the US didn't want you to make? Right
(19:00):
in the days of the Cold War the Soviet Union.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
The idea of offering protection also implies somewhat of a
shakedown sometimes, right like you know, in mafia terms. If
you're paying people are paying you for their protection. They're
basically paying you not to mess them up and take
their stuff, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
It's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll protect you, but you
should probably do these things, these ways that we want
you to do.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Be a shamed of something happened to your little micronation
over there.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
And they're not all created equally, right in the case
of some previous relationships, geopolitically, protectorate might just be paying
a yearly tribute, or they may have total autonomy on
their own eternal affairs, and it's just understood that the
(19:51):
larger state, the protecting state, will be obligated to jump
in militarily, or it could be absolutely domb needed. And
it could be you know, it could be a parasitic
relationship with the protector state taking up resources right, oppressing
the people and their you know, their ability to speak
(20:12):
freely and so on. I mean, the issues are, it
is a good question. The issues are that a protector
does not one size fits all. And Monaco knew they
needed to be allied with larger forces, right, and they
didn't always get along with these larger forces. There were
(20:34):
disputes with authorities in France that resulted in Monaco being
placed under the protection of Spain, and dealing with Spain
was expensive. Spain put a lot of financial burden on Monaco.
They had to pay for the expense of sheltering a
(20:55):
Spanish garrison in the fortress for more than one hundred
years starting to fifteen twenty four, and the whole time
the Grimaldi's low key are saying, we got to keep
having kids. This is all over if we don't keep
having kids, which is not the most I don't know,
maybe it's kind of romantic in a weird succession way.
(21:16):
Maybe they've got some slow music playing, which means there
would have to be other people in the room, and
they're like, my darling for the principality.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
If that's what you're into. Sure. So, speaking of kids,
we've got Lambert Grimaldi de Aantibus, who had three sons
very similarly to him to the previous three sons we mentioned, Jean,
Lucien and Augustin. Lucien's son Honorary the first, then had
two sons, Charles the second and Hercule. With that Hercules
name dropped there, he Lucien, that is enjoyed a relatively
(21:49):
peaceful rn near the end of his lifetime. But his
two sons, who ruled us in the succession, you know,
one after the other, did not do a particularly good
job in keeping that peaceful situation. Moving forward.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Yeah, it's it's a real game of thrones kind of
thing these Whenever you're ruling a country, you're in deep water.
So his sons didn't sit in the catbird seat for
very long. But what you need to know for this
is that in sixteen twelve, Erkle's son On the second
(22:25):
was given the title Prince of Monico for the first time.
This has become the official title of Monico's rulers, and
it's passed on to successors this day. Let's skip ahead.
So that's some of the ancient basic history. A lot
of other stuff happened, but we want to introduce you
to Prince Regnier the third in nineteen forty nine. This
(22:49):
guy took the throne of Monaco and he married a
beutiful American actress, Grace Kelly in nineteen fifty six. May
be familiar to some sin of files in the audience,
and this guy played a huge role in making modern Monico.
As we know it today.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Yeah, and it was also like I mean, it kind
of created the image of the kind of celebrity driven
version of Monico. I mean it was really now kind
of part and parcel with the idea of American culture.
You know, Grace Kelly was a huge movie star, you know,
one of the biggest, and now for her to essentially
(23:29):
become royalty of Monico, this was fodder for the tabloids.
You know, this was very much like a front page
story that really kind of upped the cachet of the
micro nation, at least in terms of the eyes of
you know, sort of like the way we maybe think
of Ibitha or something. Now, you know that Monaco really
was starting to get that kind of vibe. I mean
(23:50):
it had been for some time, but it was maybe
a little bit more of a if you know, you know,
now everyone kind of knew.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Yeah, and Grace Kelly was functioning, I would argue in
real way as an ambassador for the tiny nation of Monaco.
They also, because there's still Grimaldi's remember, they also have
to have kids. So they have three children, Caroline, Albert,
and Stephanie. The youngest princess. Stephanie gets a lot of
(24:21):
ink in tabloids and you know, the the rags that
comment on celebrities. For her time as being a singer
of Fashion Model Party Girl in the nineteen eighties, she's
sort of a proto Kardashian, I would argue anyway, our
buddy Prince R also does some important legal work. He
(24:43):
reforms Monaco's constitution. He is buffering the economy and he says,
he says, look, we depend entirely too much on gambling.
When Prince R three, I want to call him when
he comes into his power. Nine percent of Monico's entire
(25:06):
revenue is coming from gambling. Imagine if ten percent of
the revenue from the US came from gambling. Anyway, they
knock it down to about three percent as the years
go on. Unfortunately, Grace Kelly passes away in a car
accident in nineteen eighty two, and the celebrity watchers of
the world, the royal watchers of the world, are absolutely shocked,
(25:28):
you know, and of course our thoughts go to the family.
It doesn't matter who you are in the world. Losing
someone to a car accident, Losing someone suddenly to any
accident such a tragic thing too.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
In the prime of their life for sure. I mean,
you know, I don't believe there was any kind of
conspiracy attached to this like there was in this other case.
But it was very much a Princess Diana kind of
situation where you know, the world mourned, you know, the
death of Grace Kelly, not only because she was this
iconic Hollywood figure, but also because she had taken on
(25:59):
this kind of whole other image, you know, of being
an actual, actual facts princess, you know, I mean that's
sort of what every young girl dreams of and dreamt
of in those days. And maybe it's a little bit
cliche now, but you know, back in the forties and fifties,
the idea of you know, being carried away by a magical,
(26:19):
charming prince, you know, that was the stuff of like
Disney movies, and this was a real life case of that.
And to have that person taken you know, in such
a shocking and sudden manner, was you know, truly a
tragedy you don't seen that way. And then really everyone
mourned kind of collectively, but the prince did go on
(26:39):
and maintained a positive reputation, you know, as a ruler.
He was very much respected. He lived to a ripe
old age when he passed away in two thousand and five,
at which point his son, Prince Albert the second assented
to the throne.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
So we've sort of eaten our vegetables of tragedy here.
Let's look at something that probably fascinates everyone who's heard
about Monaco, the history of the casino. It wasn't until
eighteen fifty six that Charles the third of Monaco granted
(27:18):
a concession to a couple of guys, a couple of
French guys, Albert Aubert and Napoleon Lingois. Again we're not
French speakers, to establish what was called a sea bathing
facility to treat various diseases. These were very popular in
the eighteen fifties or in the eighteen hundreds in general,
(27:40):
the idea that different climates could help with chronic conditions.
And then they said, also you can build a what
they called a German style casino in Monaco.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Well, we might think of now as just like a spa,
like a resort town or whatever. And then the ad
the casino that's just kind of taking it to a level.
A German style casino that was new to me. I
guess I've never really thought about that, but I think
casinos have been you know, legal and very popular in
Germany for much longer than in other parts of the world.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Yeah, I'm not too familiar. I was looking at this,
I was not too familiar with what a German style
casino would be, but it seems that most German casinos
historically offer all the stuff you would associate with a
James Bond film blackjack, baccer, rat, hungry, hungry, hippo roulette,
(28:38):
one of those is probably not true go fish and
the the the initial casino Shambo Rochambeau, of course, and
then estimating how many marbles are in a jar, the
sport of kings and carnies, and just just to quickly add,
Germany does possess two of the world's oldest casinos, and
(29:03):
Roman soldiers in ancient Roman times actually brought gambling to Germany,
so I mean they were kind of the prototype for
commercial scale gambling parlors. This is at your feet, This
is on you Roman Empire, Germany's gambling brothers sandaled feet.
The initial casino in Monaco is opened in La condemen
(29:26):
in eighteen sixty two, but it wasn't a success right away.
Its present location is in an area called the Caves
of Monte Carlo, and it happened. It's kind of like
underground Atlanta here in our fair metropolis, a place that
just keeps moving and people keep trying to reinvigorate it
(29:48):
and make it cool again. This casino seemed like a
good idea. Everybody was on board with it. By everybody,
we mean the rulers. But it was not an overnight success.
To move around a lot. And this prominence of the
casino actually grew slowly over time because for quite a
while the area was pretty inaccessible for most Europeans. But
(30:13):
we'll learn how the casino became such an important part
of the economy.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Absolutely, And you know, sometimes inaccessibility or you know, things
being kind of like I isolated in some way can
lend an air of exclusivity, but then you know, you
kind of you also need to be able to get there,
right So we talked about the Caves of Monte Carlo
in La Condamine, but it was not until the Society
(30:42):
de Bank de Mare opened what is now known as
the Monte Carlo Casino in eighteen sixty three. It is
kind of the iconic version of this thing. They had
an ideal location that was rife for kind of creating
that resort kind of type town, you know, a perfect spot, hotels,
the arts, you know, and of course the casino. It
(31:05):
was still a little bit difficult to reach, but that
would soon change in eighteen sixty eight when a link
to France's railway system was added, and this turned out
to be absolute pay dirt because now it was easy
to get there was never geographically that far. It was
just kind of nestled in those rocky, you know, fortressy
(31:28):
kind of hills. Now you were able to get there
by rail and that created a absolute influx of tourists
coming to experience it.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
The casino was such a hit that the Grimaldi family
looked around in eighteen sixty nine and said, hey, why
do we even need to get people to pay taxes?
If they live here, they don't have to pay income
tax here. Come on, it's Monaco. We want them in
the casino, not dealing with I'm dealing with the tax man.
(32:02):
And the only reason they could afford to do this
was because the casino was such a runaway hit. As
someone who doesn't personally I'm not personally a gambling sort.
I'm fascinated. I'm fascinated by it and his and we
can see that this is a huge economic boost, right
(32:24):
they realized this is the crown jewel of their economy
at the moment.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
But why just offer that? Like were they being pressured
in some way to get rid of it? Like it
just like surely it wasn't just an act of benevolence.
It created a feedback loop. We'll we'll get into it
in just a bit.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
The it has a lot to do with the demographic
of the people who were taking aspersage in Monaco. Yeah,
so we'll get to that sect. But like, okay, in
nineteen eleven, our buddy Prince Albert one who was most
famous for the old school telephone prank? Do you have
(33:07):
Prince Albert in a can?
Speaker 3 (33:09):
I don't think it was more famous for the piercing.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
Well he did.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
He did invent several canned goods and piercings. No one
fact checked that. I can't believe Special Prince Albert he
had the lip penile, didn't invent that. And also a
big thank you again to all the all the cool
teachers who play this show as part of their curriculum.
(33:37):
Thank you, folks.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
No, it was hold on, it was uh, let's see,
let's go to MythBuster. I just I gotta know, just
to make case. Yeah, this is educational for everyone. In
case anyone's interested, we're talking about a very strategically located piercing.
It was Prince Albert of the United Kingdom. Too many
princes of the same name.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Not to malign the Monicas. Prince Albert he is the
one who adopts the first Constitution for Monaco, and he separates,
He makes a separation of power executive, legislative, judiciary. This
can sound boring, but the thing is it's incredibly important
(34:23):
because otherwise they could be ruling as absolute monarchs, which
would be pretty dangerous for the people of Monaco. Another
important political development the Treaty of Versailles in July nineteen eighteen.
A lot of people have heard about the Treaty Versailles,
but one thing you may not know about it is
(34:44):
that it gave limited French protection over Monaco and said, basically,
you run your indoors, your internal affairs, and we will
take care of your outdoor votes the wider world vote
Monico gets a vote in the United Nations, it just
(35:04):
pretty much is always what France wants.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Right, and that's you know, not exactly mandated, you know,
I mean there's the illusion of autonomy there, right, ben
But it's just more like, yeah, you know, if you
know what's good for you, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
And the rubber hits the road. In World War Two,
when Monaco is trying to remain neutral in the Italian
Army invades and occupies occupies the country. The leader of
Italy at the time, Benito Mussolini, one of the only
(35:42):
bad bins in history. Yeah, he spoiler. Things do not
go well for him, thankfully, and.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
When is anything like dragged behind a vehicle or something
like that the streets.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
It did not end well. It was not dignified. After
his regime topples and Italy, Monico is occupied by Nazi Germany.
Maybe they just heard about the casinos. Prince Louis did
something really cool and the people of Monaco deserve a
lot of credit for this. Prince Louis the Second used
(36:16):
the police of Monaco to warn Jewish inhabitants if they
were being marked for arrest by the Gestapo and allowed
them invaluable time to escape with their lives. And they
were many people who lived there of a Jewish descent
were able to escape due to the assistance of the
(36:37):
king and the police. Eventually the Americans came and liberated
the principality. So even in the even in these very
opulent places, World War two hit hard, and I just
wanted to take some time and shout that action out because,
you know, as a person who is against the absolutely
(37:01):
terrible idea of monarchies and royal rule, it's so incredibly commendable.
Dare I say noble to see a positive action taken.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Yeah, And you know, I mean, obviously there are tons
of problems inherent in monarchies, but I would argue better
than fascism most of the time. I guess that you
can't have fascist monarchies though let's not get it twisted,
but like if you have a monarchy that is more
or less operating with the benefit of the people in mind,
which you know, there were certainly those, and there were
obviously certainly those that were completely self serving and did
(37:34):
not give to shakes about the people. But it's cool
to see folks that are part of that often maligned
fairly system of government taking one for the team and
putting themselves at great risk because actually talking with my
partner the other day about like, how does something like
Hitler happen and how were people able to just go
(37:56):
along with it? And the short answer is, sure, some
some people went along with it, maybe out of fear,
maybe out of true belief in the ideology that he
was putting forth, out of just hate and ignorance. But
then there were certainly folks that, at great risk to themselves,
you know, did not go along with it. But they
had to do so very carefully in order to be successful,
(38:17):
or else they'd be snuffed out instantly. And we proceed
to the modern day. Right, the new Constitution comes out
in nineteen sixty two. It gives women the vote.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
Case just note that there was not women's suffrage until
the early nineteen sixties, abolishes capital punishment, establishes a Supreme Court.
So people are getting some fundamental liberties. And our buddy
prints R III during this is during his reign, he
makes Monaco what you could optimistically call a thriving center
(38:57):
of international finance. That's what monch Co officially calls itself.
There's a lot there's a lot in between the lines
of those words. But the guy does a huge number
of improvements. There are a lot of major projects like
renovating that port we mentioned so that they could get
more and more ships to dock there, including cruise ships.
(39:19):
Monico is very popular with cruises and then creating cultural centers.
I think maybe to the best way for us to
end just to just explore some fun facts about Monaco
in the modern day, with the hope that the tourism
board of Monaco will want to take three plucky podcasters
(39:41):
on a trip. Yeah, it's true, I guess no, you
want to do it? Come on, I will I will
gamble if we're in Monaco. It's a win in Rome
situation for me.
Speaker 3 (39:51):
We will learn all these pronunciations.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
We promise come on, win in Rome or losing Monica.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
So right, so Monaco has to get said at the top.
A huge industry and tours and gambling. But also they're
deep in banking because that lack of income tax attracted
very wealthy people, not just from Europe but across the world.
Sixteen percent of revenue comes from the banking industry and
(40:18):
money management. So like you know, a state managers those
wealth offices, like a lot of people don't have this
but if you're from a very wealthy family, you may
be familiar with the idea of the family office. Sure,
that's when you have so much money that you have
a dedicated team of people employed privately by your family
(40:41):
just to manage all that's, all that revenue from your
interest and all your tax liability and so on and
so on. At that point, your money, your horde of treasure,
becomes kind of like a thinking institution all its own.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
Unless do you think, ooh, this sounds great. I hate
paying taxes. You probably can't afford to live in Monaco, right, like, yeah,
sure you don't. You don't pay income taxes. But the
cost of living there and the cost of real estate
and the you know again it's densely populated but tiny land,
you know, very limited availability. Uh, probably prohibitively expensive for
(41:22):
the average folks. You can maybe afford to go there
on vacation. That's how most people do it. You can also, uh,
you can also sleep in Nice, France and then just
take a half hour ride into Monico. That's a lot
of people will live outside of it. It's funny because
a few years back, you case, no, I've been obsessed
(41:44):
with micronations for a while, I started looking up apartments
for rent in Monaco because way before we ever did
ridiculous history, and the prices aren't uh, they're not super affordable,
but there are there are a couple of deals that
are there are deals where you could maybe make it work.
(42:07):
But the issue is.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
Why would you when you could just commute in from France.
Right The people who are living there, part of the
reason they're paying that premium is to get out of
the income tax liability.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
And it's really interesting too. We talked at the top
of the show how we're both fascinated by the title
or the name. I guess that gets established. They get
associated with people who are residents of whether it be
a certain country or a certain state like Michigander is
one of my favorites here in the US. People who
were born in Monaco, we talked about this earlier, are
known as Monegasque. But there's also a name for someone
(42:44):
who's born in another country but has a residence in Monaco.
They're called Monacoean. And it kind of makes sense. Because
of the limited availability of resources in land, the Natives
are actually in the minority. They're only about a fifth
of the population.
Speaker 1 (43:01):
Yeah, and that population, by the way, I'm sure a
lot of people were wondering, it's only like thirty eight
thousand people. It is very very small, it's very densely populated.
It's a huge conurbation. It also has the highest life
expectancy in the world so far as we know as
a country, eighty five and a half years old for men,
(43:23):
ninety three point five years old for women.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
Because of the climate, maybe because there's some fountain of
youth situations.
Speaker 1 (43:32):
There's just a lot of people who can afford the
world's best healthcare.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
That's good, That's exactly what it is. Yeah, And if
you're interested in the makeup, I guess of nationalities that
occupy Monaco, we are looking at French nationals filling up
the largest portion of this pie at twenty eight point
four percent. Then we've got the native Montagasques at twenty
(43:56):
one point six percent, Italians at eighteen point seven percent,
British seven point five percent, Belgian two point eight, German
at two point five, Swiss two point five, and US
nationals only one point two. Because that's you know, that's
like new money, man. You know, you got to be like, oh,
legacy money, to be able to afford to rocket in Monica.
(44:18):
I mean, I'm just kind of joking, but it's also
like these are this is legacy wealth we're talking about, right,
a lot of it.
Speaker 1 (44:26):
Yeah. And also the the current Prince and Princess of Monaco,
they are Olympians. Albert Cool, Yeah, you'll Max, you'll you'll
dig this right. Albert was in the bob sleigh at
five different Winter Olympics. Uh, did not walk away with medals.
But Princess Charlie has won three gold medals and a
(44:50):
silver medal in multiple different swimming competitions. Unfortunately, she did
not get the gold for Monaco. Competed for South Africa,
where she grew up. Because you know, if I'm assuming empathy,
which I always tried to do that, I could see
(45:11):
how growing up in Monaco, even if you're amidst all
this immense wealth and privilege, you might feel like Ariel
in The Little Mermaid, right, you know, there's a wider
world out there, you want to go explore it, sore.
So that's why she's probably raised in South Africa and
trotted the globe. Of course, these people do travel freely.
Speaker 2 (45:32):
Isn't that interesting though? Because now I guess the law
is no longer that you know, the agreement's been changed
where you no longer have to be a legacy member
of the Grimaldi family.
Speaker 3 (45:46):
I'm guessing she married into the family.
Speaker 2 (45:48):
I would assume so for sure. But I'm just saying, like,
now the future is wide open. I wonder how how
is that determined? If so, I guess that just means
there wouldn't be a prince or princess. If there's no
heir that family, then is someone installed, but it is
still going to be an independent nation. They just would
no longer be a prince or princess.
Speaker 4 (46:07):
Right, That's a good point, Like, look, what is a
hierarchy asterist? I mean, granted, Grimaldi's are very good at
having more children, as we've learned through the story, but yeah,
that is that is an interesting thing. Like what happens
does the monarch position?
Speaker 2 (46:19):
Just see it's the prime minister.
Speaker 1 (46:22):
Maybe, well, they have a Council of Regency and it
takes power. This is not super great for anti monarchists
in the crowd. They have a Council of Regency that
takes sort of temporary or interim power until something called
the Crown Council sort of like the fixers that you
see in the TV series Secession, until they elect a
(46:45):
new monarch from the more distant descendants of the House
of Grimaldi. So they'll just have to see how far
they need to go back in the genealogy and say,
you know, well, this guy was a fourth cousin in
the sixteen hundred, so surely he's up on the policy
of Monaco. He's got to be the best guy for
(47:06):
the job, because that's how monarchies work.
Speaker 3 (47:09):
It sounds like the urals trying to get together and
call him moot.
Speaker 1 (47:14):
Yes, yes, Skyriel. Uh so yeah, if you want to
buy land at Monaco, you can. It is going to
be it can, Yes, yes, it is. It is possible
in this universe for you to do so. A square
meter of land is going to run you between fifty
(47:35):
thousand and one hundred thousand euros.
Speaker 2 (47:38):
You your whole house, right, No, that's.
Speaker 1 (47:40):
The again, that's you heard you heard it right, ridiculous historians.
That's one meter of land. If you want to go
to apartments for rent in Monaco, just this is the
old website I was going to. Uh, you'll see that
you can rent stuff like a studio apartment for just
five thousand, five hundred.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
Euro, which is what with the with the old not inflation,
but just do the conversion. I think it's roughly one
to one right now with the dollar, or it's not
far off, but I think it's it's like a one
euro is like a dollar ten. Yeah, right exactly. But
still that's that's that's wild five thousand.
Speaker 1 (48:18):
So think of it like five five hundred bucks for
studio apartment.
Speaker 2 (48:22):
I mean that's like way more than in New York City,
you know, are some of the most expensive places in
our country. That's insane. Wow, Okay, must be really nice.
Must be nice. But let's say maybe maybe you're not.
Maybe you're not looking to rent or buy, but you're
looking to be incarcerated. Maybe not looking to be but
you find yourself to be incarcerated, well, you would be
(48:42):
in a very small group of the chosen few, with
Monico's jail holding only around twenty prisoners with the seaside
view by the way.
Speaker 1 (48:54):
From those cells, I wonder what their crimes are too,
You thinking white collar? Yeah, money laundring and financial scams.
And this is a neat little twist of the ways
described in Europe. They are jailed for money laundry, not laundry,
just laundry. If you are a citizen of Monaco, bad luck.
(49:18):
You cannot work in the casino. You cannot gamble in
the casino. A lot of people work in the casino
as are coming from France, and this is so weird
to me because they're kind of doing drug dealer rules right.
Don't dip into the product right for sure.
Speaker 2 (49:36):
And if you're thinking to yourself, man, this place sounds
like you'd be a really great setting for like a
heist movie or you know, some sort of spy thriller,
well you would be absolutely correct. GoldenEye has seen set
in Monaco films like the nineteen twenty The Black Spider,
(49:56):
nineteen thirty one's bombs on Monte Carlo, the Red Shoes.
Speaker 1 (50:01):
Which is not a heist, but still Monico is now.
I think there's a great website called TV Tropes which
everyone should check out. Monaco is essentially a trope now
for visual shorthand to show that there are global shenanigans
of foot. If something starts in Monaco, then we're talking
(50:23):
a high dollar spine or a heisting or so on.
At least that's how it's often featured in the United States.
You know, Ocean's Twelve has scenes in Monico. Iron Man
two has scenes in Monaco, and Monico gets a cut
of the film.
Speaker 2 (50:41):
Oh, I'm sure they get something for sure. Yeah, definitely.
And also when one last one, one that I actually
haven't seen, would have been meaning to it's on my list.
The Alfred Hitchcock directed Rebecca, which won a Best Picture.
Speaker 1 (50:54):
Oh, yeah, I remember that one.
Speaker 2 (50:55):
Yeah, forty. I think it's based on a novel that
was very, very hugely successful. I haven't read the novel, Yeah,
but I've really not mention It also doesn't seem quite
like a typical Hitchcock that you think of. I mean,
it's definitely Gothic.
Speaker 1 (51:11):
If I remember, I have to rewatch it. Hopefully. It's
on the Criterion Channel, which didn't pay me to say this,
but their subscription service is awesome.
Speaker 2 (51:20):
Unbelievable, And then they have such cool rotating kind of
curated collections. Also, you know another one that's good. I'm
sure you're familiar with. Ben is a movie which I
know sounds silly but just the name, but it has
a I believe, monthly rotating kind of curated selection of
really interesting films and they're constantly kind of moving through,
(51:40):
so it's a cool way to just see what's there
and check it out because there's always going to be
something of interest. And of course I once again recommend
the very imperfect but immensely fascinating Wiki travel site. If
you want to learn more in a very strange way
about a different country, go to their wiki travel articles.
(52:03):
Exactly what it sounds like.
Speaker 1 (52:04):
It's meant to be a primer for people considering traveling
to a place. And the funny thing is it contradicts
itself often because it's crowdsourced, and sometimes you can tell
when the guy who owns the restaurant is writing about
his own restaurant, and sometimes you can tell when the
informations actually pulled from the un But the wiki travel
(52:24):
article on Monaco, love it, love it. It's it's pretty interesting,
tells you all the different ways to get in to
get around. You can also see some great amateur travel
documentaries on Monaco. You're just a YouTube search away. YouTube,
by the way, is the world's second largest search engine
after Google, which is weird because Google owns YouTube. Anyway,
(52:49):
that's a story for another day. Another roll of the dice,
but I think we should go to Monico once we
get it in the budget.
Speaker 2 (53:00):
I would love to.
Speaker 3 (53:01):
I would look.
Speaker 2 (53:01):
I mean, I've never been to the south of France
in general. Like you said, Niece is another adjacent location,
and there's that whole area just seems kind of magical.
So let's put it on our to do list.
Speaker 1 (53:11):
Yeah, I'm heading to you know, I think I have
the circumstances are going to find me in Italy later
in a few so maybe I.
Speaker 2 (53:19):
Can try to.
Speaker 1 (53:20):
Maybe I can see how tough it is to get
into Monico. What do you have to do, Rennick, cruise ship.
I'll probably just take the train. Who knows.
Speaker 4 (53:28):
I might be a distant relative of the Grimaldi family,
so we might be there soon because I might be
running the country.
Speaker 1 (53:35):
I love it. We might all be. You guys remember
the the cinematic masterpiece King Ralph from nineteen ninety one, where.
Speaker 2 (53:44):
I remember he's something called spotted Dick and I thought
that was hilarious.
Speaker 1 (53:48):
John Goodman, I want to say, yeah, John Ridman. Due
to a royal mishap, as the distant illegitimate descendant of
the royal family, he'd be the King of the United Kingdom.
I remember liking that as a kid, and I think
it's one of those that I'm not going to rewatch
because I want to keep the memory as it is.
Speaker 2 (54:09):
I have a feeling it did not age well if
I if I'm a mistake.
Speaker 1 (54:16):
Anyway, So big, big, big thanks to big big things
to our super producer, uh the Possible Royal Uh, mister
Max Williams. Max, It's hard to get in there, but
you have citizenship in the Monaco that is my heart,
my friends.
Speaker 2 (54:31):
Huge thanks to Alex Williams who composed our theme. Christo
frasciotis here in spirit, Eve's Jeff Coates wherever she may
find herself. And you Ben for being my prince, the
prince of my heart.
Speaker 1 (54:46):
Also also with you, you know what, we can start
our own Monaco with black wait, they already have a casino.
Shout out to anyone who got that Futurama reference.
Speaker 2 (54:57):
Who would shuppen We'll see next time, folks. For more
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