History Bites #1

Short stories on money, alcohol, and other interesting stuff

Hello and welcome to all the new subscribers who have joined us in an attempt to learn and laugh a little more regularly in life. Today, I’m going to be starting a new segment, covering juicy little stories from our rich past. We typically think that history is boring, but that’s primarily because of the way the subject is taught. Nobody loves cramming details about a dozen Mughal kings’ plundering habits and writing kilometer-long exam answers about them. But if you dare to look beyond that dull curriculum, a rich world of insights and stories reveals itself.

With this section, my attempt is to share a bunch of really interesting historical vignettes that will pique your curiosity and showcase how much there is to learn from our long existence on this planet. I’ll promise to keep it short, entertaining, and share-worthy (so you can brag in front of your friends and show them how you totally love learning new shit). Let’s get going.

1. Origins of civil services exams: We all are aware of the highly-competitive civil services examinations that millions of people give, with dreams of becoming an IAS officer. But do you know when and where these examinations first began? It kinda blew my mind to know that merit-based civil services exams have been around for 2000 freaking years! They were first started in China under the Han dynasty (after the preceding king put in place an administrative bureaucracy) so smart folks could be chosen based on merit (instead of family ties) to carry out the work of the state. So these exams, contrary to what we’d think by default, aren’t a modern invention at all. They’ve been around for millennia! One of the fascinating things about history is that we realize how old most of our current ideas and institutions are.
   

2. Beer trivia: Do you know what was the best way for the ambitious folks to earn money and rise up the ladder in ancient Sumerian cities? (We’re talking about 4,500 years ago) It was to brew and sell beer! Now, before you think this was the case because all those wild people back in the day just loved getting sloshed all the time (which might have an element of truth to it), let me tell you one of the more interesting factors: it was because beer was a form of currency! Another reason was that the tavern-keepers gave loans to drunk farmers who’d end up agreeing to terms they’d never accept when sober. Imagine the money that could be made by owning a pub and giving shady loans. It’s no surprise that one of the first women rulers in history, Queen Kubaba, started as a lowly tavern owner before rising up and ultimately gaining power over the ancient city of Kish.
   
   

   

   Imagine getting paid with this

   
   

3. Christmas Truce: With a war raging around us, one can’t help but think how senseless these fights often are. Well, even the ones fighting on the frontlines often feel this deeply, even if they were initially all charged up to defend the motherland. During WW 1, English and German soldiers went through some similar emotions and saw through the utter futility of battling to their collective deaths. During the Christmas of 1914, soldiers on both sides dropped their weapons, socialized, and ended up playing a football match! There was no official truce- the soldiers did it on their own because they really didn’t hate the opponents and probably because football is so much better as an outlet for aggression than raining deadly bullets on fellow humans.
   
   

   
   

4. Money and scarcity: When the US bombed the Central Bank of Iraq into oblivion, the price of their currency (Iraqi Dinar) suddenly appreciated. The people realized that the CB would no longer be able to print more notes and increase supply and that led to a rise in the Dinar’s value. Something similar happened in Somalia- their shilling rose in value when its supply was restricted and it became scarce. History shows that anytime a currency can be debased by pumping up the supply, its value invariably goes down. It’s a particularly important lesson for the times we’re living in, in case you haven’t noticed what’s happening.
   
   

   

   Funny money everywhere

5. Smiling Buddha: When the ancient kingdom of Magadh attacked neighboring Vaishali, the latter lost badly because there was a lot of internal conflict and no consensus on their war policy: who should fight, how should they fight, etc. When news of the slaughter was brought to a meditating Buddha, he frowned in disapproval. A kingdom that cannot arm itself and be fully prepared for conflict will face a similar fate. For these reasons, the secret operation that resulted in India developing full-scale nuclear weapons was named ‘Operation Smiling Buddha’. (The tests were launched on Buddha Purnima). India has finally moved from being the Vaishali to China’s Magadh. The Buddha story might be apocryphal, but it’s amusing nevertheless.
   

I hope you enjoyed reading these crispy bites. If you have any feedback for me (like “Love this, I want more of it” or “Quit this shit and do something better”), please pour your heart out- it’ll help me do a better job with this newsletter. Until next time.