WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.319 Welcome back to the deep dive. The place where 00:00:02.319 --> 00:00:04.839 we take massive stacks of sources and turn them 00:00:04.839 --> 00:00:07.299 into instant, well -contextualized expertise. 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:10.599 Today, we are opening the vault on one of history's 00:00:10.599 --> 00:00:14.619 most fascinating and notoriously slippery characters. 00:00:14.900 --> 00:00:17.739 A failed businessman, a convicted criminal, a 00:00:17.739 --> 00:00:20.359 double agent, and somehow the unlikely father 00:00:20.359 --> 00:00:22.539 of the English novel. We're moving far beyond 00:00:22.539 --> 00:00:25.140 the stereotype of the desert island author. Of 00:00:25.140 --> 00:00:27.519 course, the anchor point is Daniel Defoe, the 00:00:27.519 --> 00:00:30.320 man who gave us Robinson Crusoe in 1719. Yeah. 00:00:30.359 --> 00:00:32.520 And that's a... book of such monumental influence 00:00:32.520 --> 00:00:34.939 that, you know, our sources confirm it's allegedly 00:00:34.939 --> 00:00:37.219 the second most translated book globally right 00:00:37.219 --> 00:00:38.759 after the Bible. And that's where most people 00:00:38.759 --> 00:00:40.939 stop, isn't it? If you only know the man who 00:00:40.939 --> 00:00:43.380 wrote Crusoe, you are missing the man who invented 00:00:43.380 --> 00:00:46.200 himself. Because the deeper we dig into the material, 00:00:46.340 --> 00:00:48.759 the more we realize Defoe was an English writer, 00:00:48.820 --> 00:00:51.700 yes, but also a political operative, a revolutionary, 00:00:52.060 --> 00:00:55.280 a bankrupt merchant. A spy. And a spy who was 00:00:55.280 --> 00:00:57.399 constantly in motion, often running for his life. 00:00:57.840 --> 00:01:00.700 The sheer output is staggering. He penned well 00:01:00.700 --> 00:01:03.299 over 300 published works. And some scholars, 00:01:03.399 --> 00:01:05.840 like J .R. Moore, they pushed that total up to 00:01:05.840 --> 00:01:09.579 something like 545 attributed titles. Wow. That's 00:01:09.579 --> 00:01:11.700 just a staggering mountain of content, you know, 00:01:11.700 --> 00:01:14.019 covering everything from political polemics and 00:01:14.019 --> 00:01:17.760 economic theory to manuals on marriage and eventually 00:01:17.760 --> 00:01:20.359 this groundbreaking fiction. What's central to 00:01:20.359 --> 00:01:22.280 this story we're about to unpack here is that... 00:01:22.949 --> 00:01:25.310 constant, almost frightening tension in his life. 00:01:25.489 --> 00:01:28.269 He was a brilliant intellectual, a pioneer of 00:01:28.269 --> 00:01:30.689 modern journalism and economic thought. Yet he 00:01:30.689 --> 00:01:33.689 was perpetually navigating disaster. I mean, 00:01:33.709 --> 00:01:35.689 he spent time in prison. He stood in the public 00:01:35.689 --> 00:01:38.890 pillory. And he ended his life potentially hiding 00:01:38.890 --> 00:01:41.689 from creditors. The highs were monumental, but 00:01:41.689 --> 00:01:44.400 the lows were. Well, they were existential. It 00:01:44.400 --> 00:01:46.459 creates this fascinating contradiction, right? 00:01:46.519 --> 00:01:48.359 It really does. He was the ultimate insider, 00:01:48.620 --> 00:01:51.900 advising kings and shaping national policy. Yet 00:01:51.900 --> 00:01:54.340 he was always an outsider because of his religion, 00:01:54.459 --> 00:01:58.200 because of his debt and his willingness to constantly 00:01:58.200 --> 00:02:00.980 switch loyalties just to survive. Okay, let's 00:02:00.980 --> 00:02:03.719 unpack this. Let's trace the path of Daniel Faux, 00:02:03.879 --> 00:02:06.340 that was his original name, to the celebrated, 00:02:06.560 --> 00:02:09.539 slightly fraudulent, high society sounding Daniel 00:02:09.539 --> 00:02:13.099 Defoe. We want to understand how this relentlessly 00:02:13.099 --> 00:02:15.500 volatile life became the training ground for 00:02:15.500 --> 00:02:18.259 the realistic novel itself. So we have to begin 00:02:18.259 --> 00:02:21.539 with Daniel Faux. Born around 1660 near 4th Street 00:02:21.539 --> 00:02:24.419 in London, his father, James Faux, was a successful 00:02:24.419 --> 00:02:27.599 tradesman, a prosperous tallow chandler. A tallow 00:02:27.599 --> 00:02:29.729 chandler, which is... What exactly? A candle 00:02:29.729 --> 00:02:31.750 maker? A person who makes and sells candles and 00:02:31.750 --> 00:02:34.930 soaps, yeah. Importantly, he was also a member 00:02:34.930 --> 00:02:37.259 of the Worshipful Company of Butchers. one of 00:02:37.259 --> 00:02:39.919 the powerful London trade guilds. So that points 00:02:39.919 --> 00:02:42.659 to his solid, you know, respectable middle -class 00:02:42.659 --> 00:02:44.960 background. But respectable wasn't enough for 00:02:44.960 --> 00:02:47.439 Daniel, was it? We see this early sign of ambition, 00:02:47.699 --> 00:02:50.479 the name change. He adds the D to become Defoe. 00:02:50.580 --> 00:02:52.419 It's such an overt piece of personal branding. 00:02:52.639 --> 00:02:54.919 It absolutely is. He added that aristocratic 00:02:54.919 --> 00:02:57.699 -sounding prefix, D, much later in life, trying 00:02:57.699 --> 00:02:59.460 to elevate himself socially and politically. 00:02:59.780 --> 00:03:02.039 The material even suggests he occasionally spread 00:03:02.039 --> 00:03:04.259 this false claim that he was descended from a 00:03:04.259 --> 00:03:06.750 Norman family called Defoe -Foe. It was a conscious 00:03:06.750 --> 00:03:09.430 effort to adopt a better pedigree than the one 00:03:09.430 --> 00:03:11.530 his father's soap making provided. But there 00:03:11.530 --> 00:03:13.830 might have been a tiny kernel of truth in the 00:03:13.830 --> 00:03:16.990 change. Potentially. The sources do note that 00:03:16.990 --> 00:03:20.159 the prefix day is quite common in Flemish surnames. 00:03:20.439 --> 00:03:22.879 And given that his father likely had some Flemish 00:03:22.879 --> 00:03:25.360 descent, it wasn't a complete invention. It was 00:03:25.360 --> 00:03:27.500 more of a strategic enhancement, you could say, 00:03:27.580 --> 00:03:30.699 capitalizing on a subtle, foreign, maybe noble 00:03:30.699 --> 00:03:33.659 association. It really set the stage for a life 00:03:33.659 --> 00:03:36.240 of constant self -reinvention. What's extraordinary, 00:03:36.419 --> 00:03:39.099 though, is how immediately that promising start 00:03:39.099 --> 00:03:42.319 was tested by these monumental historical forces. 00:03:42.460 --> 00:03:45.180 He was born into an era of almost unimaginable 00:03:45.180 --> 00:03:48.039 trauma. His early childhood reads like a historical 00:03:48.039 --> 00:03:50.780 horror novel. I mean, he was born around 1660. 00:03:51.180 --> 00:03:54.939 Five years later, in 1665, comes a great plague 00:03:54.939 --> 00:03:58.199 of London. 70 ,000 people died. That was a quarter 00:03:58.199 --> 00:04:00.159 of London's population at the time. I can't even 00:04:00.159 --> 00:04:02.139 imagine the psychological imprint that leaves 00:04:02.139 --> 00:04:04.240 on a five -year -old. And that chaos was only 00:04:04.240 --> 00:04:08.080 getting started. The very next year, 1666, brought 00:04:08.080 --> 00:04:10.280 the Great Fire of London. And this wasn't just 00:04:10.280 --> 00:04:13.020 a large fire. It virtually incinerated the ancient 00:04:13.020 --> 00:04:16.740 city. The sources note that only Defoe's house 00:04:16.740 --> 00:04:18.899 and two others in his entire neighborhood were 00:04:18.899 --> 00:04:21.459 left standing. That's unbelievable, a child witnessing 00:04:21.459 --> 00:04:24.040 total destruction outside his door, but his own 00:04:24.040 --> 00:04:26.680 home survives. That must have instilled a profound 00:04:26.680 --> 00:04:30.279 sense of just how precarious life is. Precisely. 00:04:30.319 --> 00:04:32.939 So his first six years were defined by pestilence 00:04:32.939 --> 00:04:35.699 and fire. But the historical assault just continued. 00:04:35.860 --> 00:04:39.600 A year after the fire, in 1667, England suffered 00:04:39.600 --> 00:04:42.600 this catastrophic national humiliation, the Dutch 00:04:42.600 --> 00:04:45.160 raid on the Medway. The Dutch fleet sailed right 00:04:45.160 --> 00:04:47.379 up the River Thames and attacked Chatham, burning 00:04:47.379 --> 00:04:49.860 warships, seizing the flagship. Defoe was seven 00:04:49.860 --> 00:04:52.339 years old. Pestilence, fire, foreign invasion, 00:04:52.540 --> 00:04:54.800 all before the age of eight. It's no wonder he 00:04:54.800 --> 00:04:57.079 later became such an obsessive observer, a chronicler 00:04:57.079 --> 00:04:59.560 of his society. He was always looking for patterns 00:04:59.560 --> 00:05:01.920 and ways to survive chaos. He became the voice 00:05:01.920 --> 00:05:09.110 of the striving... That trauma absolutely explains 00:05:09.110 --> 00:05:13.089 his later focus on survival, on inventory, on 00:05:13.089 --> 00:05:15.990 the meticulous accounting of both material and 00:05:15.990 --> 00:05:19.709 spiritual goods. And finally, the last key to 00:05:19.709 --> 00:05:23.089 his early life is his unique education. His parents 00:05:23.089 --> 00:05:25.410 were Presbyterian dissenters. Meaning they refused 00:05:25.410 --> 00:05:27.810 to conform to the established Church of England, 00:05:27.990 --> 00:05:31.120 which led to, well... To government persecution. 00:05:31.600 --> 00:05:33.720 Right. And it also meant he was locked out of 00:05:33.720 --> 00:05:36.300 a traditional education, like Oxford or Cambridge. 00:05:36.560 --> 00:05:38.740 So where did he go? He was sent instead to a 00:05:38.740 --> 00:05:41.019 dissenting academy, specifically one run by a 00:05:41.019 --> 00:05:43.019 man named Charles Morton in Newington Green. 00:05:43.220 --> 00:05:45.879 And this was a critical divergence. Traditional 00:05:45.879 --> 00:05:48.139 universities were focused on classical learning, 00:05:48.300 --> 00:05:51.139 preparing young men for the clergy. Dissenting 00:05:51.139 --> 00:05:53.000 academies, on the other hand, offered a much 00:05:53.000 --> 00:05:55.399 more modern practical curriculum. They focused 00:05:55.399 --> 00:05:57.500 on subjects like mathematics, business management, 00:05:57.560 --> 00:06:00.220 and modern languages, exactly what a future merchant 00:06:00.220 --> 00:06:02.699 and political operative would need. So that practical 00:06:02.699 --> 00:06:04.879 education really sets the stage for the next 00:06:04.879 --> 00:06:07.240 volatile phase, his commercial life, the one 00:06:07.240 --> 00:06:09.720 where he aimed so high but just repeatedly crashed? 00:06:10.079 --> 00:06:13.360 Defoe was deeply ambitious. He launched himself 00:06:13.360 --> 00:06:15.699 into business as a general merchant, and he was 00:06:15.699 --> 00:06:19.029 trading aggressively. The sources detail his 00:06:19.029 --> 00:06:23.310 dealings in hosiery, woolen goods, tobacco, wine. 00:06:23.569 --> 00:06:26.250 He was the embodiment of the early modern capitalist, 00:06:26.410 --> 00:06:29.610 just seeing opportunity everywhere. And his ambitions 00:06:29.610 --> 00:06:32.430 went far beyond simple trade. He was pursuing 00:06:32.430 --> 00:06:35.490 projects that felt almost fantastical. Exactly. 00:06:35.629 --> 00:06:37.610 He bought a country estate, he purchased a ship, 00:06:37.649 --> 00:06:39.930 and perhaps most bizarrely, he tried to set up 00:06:39.930 --> 00:06:43.360 a perfume business by importing civet cats. A 00:06:43.360 --> 00:06:45.720 very high risk, high reward venture that depended 00:06:45.720 --> 00:06:48.759 entirely on fickle luxury trends. This shows 00:06:48.759 --> 00:06:51.379 not just ambition, but a profound and ultimately 00:06:51.379 --> 00:06:54.180 ruinous risk tolerance. He didn't start from 00:06:54.180 --> 00:06:56.660 nothing, though. He received a substantial capital 00:06:56.660 --> 00:06:58.439 injection when he got married, right? To marry 00:06:58.439 --> 00:07:01.300 toughly. He did. When they married in 1684, she 00:07:01.300 --> 00:07:04.540 brought a dowry of 3 ,700 pounds. Which, for 00:07:04.540 --> 00:07:07.560 context, was a fortune. An enormous sum. A prosperous 00:07:07.560 --> 00:07:09.860 London merchant might live comfortably on a few 00:07:09.860 --> 00:07:12.189 hundred pounds a year. Defoe started with a war 00:07:12.189 --> 00:07:14.089 chest that should have ensured lifelong stability. 00:07:14.449 --> 00:07:17.329 And yet, despite that massive starting capital, 00:07:17.470 --> 00:07:19.730 the financial reality for him was just constant 00:07:19.730 --> 00:07:23.149 chaos. He was chronically indebted. The sources 00:07:23.149 --> 00:07:26.329 paint a pretty dismal picture. By 1692, he was 00:07:26.329 --> 00:07:29.389 arrested for debts of 700 pounds, but his total 00:07:29.389 --> 00:07:32.310 liabilities across all his failed ventures, they 00:07:32.310 --> 00:07:35.689 may have been as high as 17 ,000 pounds. 17 ,000 00:07:35.689 --> 00:07:37.410 pounds. It forced him to declare bankruptcy. 00:07:38.120 --> 00:07:40.420 The scale of his failure was spectacular. It 00:07:40.420 --> 00:07:42.500 absolutely destroyed his reputation for years. 00:07:42.740 --> 00:07:45.879 So was he simply a terrible businessman or was 00:07:45.879 --> 00:07:48.779 his ambition so wildly ahead of 18th century 00:07:48.779 --> 00:07:51.300 finance that failure was just inevitable? It 00:07:51.300 --> 00:07:53.839 seems to be a combination of both. He was always 00:07:53.839 --> 00:07:56.100 chasing the next big project, the spring, not 00:07:56.100 --> 00:07:58.240 the pond, as he would later write. But he never 00:07:58.240 --> 00:08:00.759 mastered the necessary caution or diversification. 00:08:01.139 --> 00:08:03.639 His failure led to this constant, desperate game 00:08:03.639 --> 00:08:06.319 of recovery. He was arrested, imprisoned, and 00:08:06.319 --> 00:08:08.240 even after his release, he was constantly running. 00:08:08.379 --> 00:08:10.339 He traveled to Europe, trading wine in places 00:08:10.339 --> 00:08:13.180 like Cadiz, Porto, and Lisbon, essentially trying 00:08:13.180 --> 00:08:15.160 to outrun his creditors and rebuild his fortune 00:08:15.160 --> 00:08:18.420 on the fly. That constant, immediate threat of 00:08:18.420 --> 00:08:21.360 financial ruin must have been a powerful motivator 00:08:21.360 --> 00:08:24.120 for his political and literary life. The pen 00:08:24.120 --> 00:08:26.519 became his new and ultimately more successful 00:08:26.519 --> 00:08:30.139 trade. It became his lifeline, absolutely. But 00:08:30.139 --> 00:08:33.460 before he mastered the pen, he tried direct political 00:08:33.460 --> 00:08:37.179 action. In 1685, he committed what might have 00:08:37.179 --> 00:08:39.940 been his single most dangerous career move by 00:08:39.940 --> 00:08:42.179 joining the Monmouth Rebellion. That was the 00:08:42.179 --> 00:08:44.240 Protestant attempt to overthrow the Catholic 00:08:44.240 --> 00:08:47.200 King James II. If it failed, the penalty was 00:08:47.200 --> 00:08:50.220 treason and death. And it did fail, spectacularly. 00:08:50.220 --> 00:08:53.000 It led to the brutal crackdown known as the Bloody 00:08:53.000 --> 00:08:56.279 Assizes under Judge George Jeffries. Yet, through 00:08:56.279 --> 00:08:58.240 what must have been sheer luck or incredible 00:08:58.240 --> 00:09:00.720 political maneuvering, Defoe secured a pardon 00:09:00.720 --> 00:09:03.320 and escaped the mass executions. This moment 00:09:03.320 --> 00:09:05.870 really established a pattern for him. surviving 00:09:05.870 --> 00:09:08.649 existential threats through rapid political realignment. 00:09:08.809 --> 00:09:11.009 Which he immediately capitalized on. When William 00:09:11.009 --> 00:09:14.149 III and Mary were crowned in 1689, Defoe pivoted 00:09:14.149 --> 00:09:16.730 instantly. He became a close ally and a secret 00:09:16.730 --> 00:09:18.950 agent for the new king. He went from a pardoned, 00:09:18.950 --> 00:09:20.850 failed rebel to working directly for the crown's 00:09:20.850 --> 00:09:24.149 intelligence apparatus. A phenomenal pivot. But 00:09:24.149 --> 00:09:26.190 even after the king's death, when he was still 00:09:26.190 --> 00:09:28.889 struggling to pay off debts, he tried for bureaucratic 00:09:28.889 --> 00:09:31.690 stability again, didn't he? Yes. Between all 00:09:31.690 --> 00:09:33.350 the political writing and the commercial schemes, 00:09:33.610 --> 00:09:36.129 he took a very stable job as a commissioner of 00:09:36.129 --> 00:09:39.690 the glass duty around 1695, basically a tax collector. 00:09:40.029 --> 00:09:42.529 Then he ran a tile and brick factory in Essex 00:09:42.529 --> 00:09:45.470 in 1696. He was always trying to find a stable, 00:09:45.529 --> 00:09:48.950 legitimate footing, but his debt and his... radical 00:09:48.950 --> 00:09:51.029 political views always seem to pull him back 00:09:51.029 --> 00:09:52.990 into the chaos. OK, and here's where it gets 00:09:52.990 --> 00:09:55.389 really interesting, because when his commercial 00:09:55.389 --> 00:09:58.210 life failed and when tax collecting proved too 00:09:58.210 --> 00:10:02.049 dull, his writing became his currency. but also 00:10:02.049 --> 00:10:04.629 his downfall. The sheer volume of his output 00:10:04.629 --> 00:10:07.309 is astounding and reflects his need to constantly 00:10:07.309 --> 00:10:10.110 earn money and influence events. Our sources 00:10:10.110 --> 00:10:12.509 show his pen tackled everything from tracks on 00:10:12.509 --> 00:10:14.889 crime and marriage to detailed political theory. 00:10:15.129 --> 00:10:17.409 He was a professional writer in an age that was 00:10:17.409 --> 00:10:19.690 just beginning to recognize the profession. He 00:10:19.690 --> 00:10:21.710 started out with a great political success, though, 00:10:21.809 --> 00:10:24.169 defending the king he served. That was the true 00:10:24.169 --> 00:10:27.620 -born Englishman in 1701. King William III was 00:10:27.620 --> 00:10:30.600 Dutch, and he faced constant, ugly, xenophobic 00:10:30.600 --> 00:10:33.000 attacks from his political enemies and from the 00:10:33.000 --> 00:10:36.039 populace. Defoe used his poem to argue that pure 00:10:36.039 --> 00:10:38.820 Englishness was a myth, that the nation was a 00:10:38.820 --> 00:10:41.860 hybrid, a mongrel race strengthened by immigration 00:10:41.860 --> 00:10:45.559 and trade. That's a surprisingly modern and progressive 00:10:45.559 --> 00:10:48.399 argument for the early 18th century. It was wildly 00:10:48.399 --> 00:10:51.200 successful and politically very timely. It includes 00:10:51.200 --> 00:10:53.440 an incredibly profound couplet about the persistence 00:10:53.440 --> 00:10:56.279 of vice. Wherever God erects a house of prayer, 00:10:56.480 --> 00:10:59.240 the devil always builds a chapel there. It's 00:10:59.240 --> 00:11:01.240 a great example of his ability to weave sharp 00:11:01.240 --> 00:11:03.700 social insight into political necessity. But 00:11:03.700 --> 00:11:06.019 the political climate shifted violently when 00:11:06.019 --> 00:11:08.940 Queen Anne took the throne in 1702. Absolutely. 00:11:09.450 --> 00:11:12.250 Anne was hostile to nonconformists, pushing aggressively 00:11:12.250 --> 00:11:14.889 for the Anglican Church's dominance. Defoe, as 00:11:14.889 --> 00:11:16.809 a lifelong dissenter, was immediately defensive, 00:11:17.129 --> 00:11:19.309 so he decided to employ his most dangerous weapon, 00:11:19.610 --> 00:11:22.769 satire. This led to the infamous pamphlet, The 00:11:22.769 --> 00:11:25.190 Shortest Way with the Dissenters, published anonymously 00:11:25.190 --> 00:11:28.210 in December 1702. This is a masterclass in political 00:11:28.210 --> 00:11:30.809 trolling, but it backfired catastrophically. 00:11:30.970 --> 00:11:34.570 The pamphlet was a piece of extreme layered satire. 00:11:34.889 --> 00:11:37.330 It purported to be written by an extreme high 00:11:37.330 --> 00:11:40.070 church Tory, arguing that the only way to secure 00:11:40.070 --> 00:11:42.409 the Church of England was through the outright 00:11:42.409 --> 00:11:45.649 extermination of the dissenters. So he was mocking 00:11:45.649 --> 00:11:48.490 the extremist zealots by adopting their most 00:11:48.490 --> 00:11:51.230 frightening possible stance. Yes, but he was 00:11:51.230 --> 00:11:53.529 also satirizing the hypocrites on his own side. 00:11:53.950 --> 00:11:55.929 The dissenters who practiced what was called 00:11:55.929 --> 00:11:58.330 occasional conformity. Right. Can you unpack 00:11:58.330 --> 00:12:00.590 that for us? What was that? Occasional conformity 00:12:00.590 --> 00:12:03.649 was a, well, a cynical practice where dissenters 00:12:03.649 --> 00:12:05.909 would attend Anglican services just enough times 00:12:05.909 --> 00:12:08.690 a year to legally qualify for public office. 00:12:08.909 --> 00:12:11.809 It was a way to bypass discriminatory laws without 00:12:11.809 --> 00:12:14.610 genuinely conforming. And Defoe saw this as a 00:12:14.610 --> 00:12:17.289 moral and spiritual failure. So he wrote something 00:12:17.289 --> 00:12:20.009 so convincing and so extreme that people on both 00:12:20.009 --> 00:12:22.769 sides took it seriously. The Tories initially 00:12:22.769 --> 00:12:26.909 praised him. That's how powerful and deceptive 00:12:26.909 --> 00:12:29.389 the writing was. But once the true identity of 00:12:29.389 --> 00:12:31.470 the author was discovered, Daniel Defoe, the 00:12:31.470 --> 00:12:34.649 known dissenter, the outrage was explosive. He 00:12:34.649 --> 00:12:36.830 was immediately arrested for seditious libel. 00:12:36.950 --> 00:12:39.669 And the political establishment decided to make 00:12:39.669 --> 00:12:42.190 an example of him. They did. The trial was held 00:12:42.190 --> 00:12:44.490 at the Old Bailey in front of Judge Salathiel 00:12:44.490 --> 00:12:47.750 Lovell, who was notoriously harsh. The sentence 00:12:47.750 --> 00:12:50.299 was designed to crush him utterly. A putative 00:12:50.299 --> 00:12:53.639 fine of 200 marks, which for context was equivalent 00:12:53.639 --> 00:12:57.700 to about $71 ,883 in today's money. It was financial 00:12:57.700 --> 00:13:00.059 annihilation. And that wasn't even the worst 00:13:00.059 --> 00:13:02.559 part. No. On top of the fine, he was sentenced 00:13:02.559 --> 00:13:04.679 to stand in the public pillory for three days, 00:13:04.860 --> 00:13:07.360 followed by an indeterminate length of imprisonment 00:13:07.360 --> 00:13:09.679 in Newgate until that massive fine was paid. 00:13:09.940 --> 00:13:12.379 The pillory was a tool of public shaming and 00:13:12.379 --> 00:13:15.080 violence. People often threw stones, excrement, 00:13:15.200 --> 00:13:17.960 rotten food. It could easily result in severe 00:13:17.960 --> 00:13:20.529 injury or death. That sentence alone would have 00:13:20.529 --> 00:13:23.490 destroyed 99 % of people. The fact that he emerged 00:13:23.490 --> 00:13:25.889 from the pillory and immediately started pioneering 00:13:25.889 --> 00:13:28.990 modern journalism, it speaks to an almost frightening 00:13:28.990 --> 00:13:32.210 drive to survive. His survival instinct was legendary. 00:13:32.649 --> 00:13:35.210 While he was awaiting his fate in Newgate, he 00:13:35.210 --> 00:13:37.960 composed the hymn to the pillory. The famous 00:13:37.960 --> 00:13:40.179 legend is that when he stood in the pillory on 00:13:40.179 --> 00:13:44.960 July 31st, 1703, the crowd, moved by his poem, 00:13:45.179 --> 00:13:47.960 threw flowers and drank to his health, transforming 00:13:47.960 --> 00:13:50.779 the intended humiliation into a public celebration. 00:13:51.240 --> 00:13:53.440 Now, some scholars do question the extent of 00:13:53.440 --> 00:13:55.679 the flower throwing, but the resilience is undeniable. 00:13:55.840 --> 00:13:58.399 The great Defoe biographer John Robert Moore 00:13:58.399 --> 00:14:01.690 noted how unique the event was. He said, No man 00:14:01.690 --> 00:14:04.029 in England but Defoe ever stood in the pillory 00:14:04.029 --> 00:14:06.549 and later rose to eminence among his fellow men. 00:14:06.730 --> 00:14:08.830 That moment saved him reputationally, but it 00:14:08.830 --> 00:14:10.950 didn't solve the problem of Newgate prison or 00:14:10.950 --> 00:14:14.029 the massive debt. His way out was brokered by 00:14:14.029 --> 00:14:16.289 the very political faction he had just mocked. 00:14:16.289 --> 00:14:18.029 Wait, this sounds less like political agility 00:14:18.029 --> 00:14:20.830 and more like cynical opportunism. He went to 00:14:20.830 --> 00:14:22.470 work for the people who put him in the pillory. 00:14:22.570 --> 00:14:24.690 How did he rationalize that? The material suggests 00:14:24.690 --> 00:14:28.289 that pragmatism just won out over ideology. Robert 00:14:28.289 --> 00:14:31.129 Harley, the first Earl of Oxford, was the leading 00:14:31.129 --> 00:14:34.029 minister and spymaster for the Tories, the party 00:14:34.029 --> 00:14:36.370 of the high church. He needed a brilliant political 00:14:36.370 --> 00:14:39.730 writer. So Harley brokered Defoe's release, paid 00:14:39.730 --> 00:14:42.230 off some of his most pressing debts, and in exchange, 00:14:42.389 --> 00:14:44.690 Defoe became his intelligence agent, working 00:14:44.690 --> 00:14:47.379 for the Tory administration. The bankrupt dissenter 00:14:47.379 --> 00:14:50.000 turned public spectacle immediately turned spy 00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:52.580 for the rival government. That is the definition 00:14:52.580 --> 00:14:55.639 of a necessary moral compromise to survive. He 00:14:55.639 --> 00:14:58.120 had learned that survival required absolute flexibility. 00:14:58.519 --> 00:15:01.200 And he immediately proved his worth, not just 00:15:01.200 --> 00:15:03.320 as a covert operative, but as a groundbreaking 00:15:03.320 --> 00:15:06.919 writer. Within days of his release from Newgate 00:15:06.919 --> 00:15:09.860 in late 1703, Defoe witnessed one of the worst 00:15:09.860 --> 00:15:12.309 natural disasters in British history. The Great 00:15:12.309 --> 00:15:14.889 Storm of 1703. It caused catastrophic damage, 00:15:14.970 --> 00:15:17.350 killed thousands, and was treated almost as a 00:15:17.350 --> 00:15:20.090 biblical event. And he turned this chaos into 00:15:20.090 --> 00:15:23.379 a pioneering work of nonfiction. The Storm. published 00:15:23.379 --> 00:15:26.639 in 1704. He gathered eyewitness accounts, he 00:15:26.639 --> 00:15:29.279 compiled reports, and he attempted to chronologically 00:15:29.279 --> 00:15:32.480 sequence and verify the disaster's events. He 00:15:32.480 --> 00:15:34.879 gave the public a cohesive, factual narrative 00:15:34.879 --> 00:15:37.679 of a massive event, leading many scholars to 00:15:37.679 --> 00:15:39.899 regard this as one of the world's first examples 00:15:39.899 --> 00:15:43.100 of modern journalism. He was synthesizing disparate 00:15:43.100 --> 00:15:45.580 reports into compelling reality. That solidifies 00:15:45.580 --> 00:15:48.299 his role as a reporter. But to be a government 00:15:48.299 --> 00:15:51.179 spy, he needed a consistent platform to influence 00:15:51.179 --> 00:15:53.809 public opinion. That's when he launched his massive 00:15:53.809 --> 00:15:56.149 political operation, a review of the affairs 00:15:56.149 --> 00:15:59.470 of France, starting in 1704. It ran three times 00:15:59.470 --> 00:16:02.690 a week without interruption for nine years. This 00:16:02.690 --> 00:16:05.450 periodical became the main trusted mouthpiece 00:16:05.450 --> 00:16:07.789 for the English government, pushing their political 00:16:07.789 --> 00:16:10.509 and economic agenda, especially around the War 00:16:10.509 --> 00:16:12.870 of the Spanish Succession. And he was the ultimate 00:16:12.870 --> 00:16:15.210 political chameleon, demonstrating his loyalty 00:16:15.210 --> 00:16:18.029 only to his paycheck. When Harley was briefly 00:16:18.029 --> 00:16:20.850 ousted by the Whig Party, Defoe kept the review 00:16:20.850 --> 00:16:24.389 running, right? He did. He just supported the 00:16:24.389 --> 00:16:26.870 new minister, Godolphin, only to switch back 00:16:26.870 --> 00:16:29.009 to supporting Harley and the Tories when they 00:16:29.009 --> 00:16:32.370 returned to power. His ability to adopt and abandon 00:16:32.370 --> 00:16:35.649 positions was unparalleled. Our sources highlight 00:16:35.649 --> 00:16:38.269 a truly insightful observation he made to Harley 00:16:38.269 --> 00:16:41.960 about his own operation. Defoe warned the spymaster 00:16:41.960 --> 00:16:45.100 that he was amazed that Harley left vital state 00:16:45.100 --> 00:16:48.279 papers just lying around. Defoe, the professional 00:16:48.279 --> 00:16:50.919 spy, warned his employer that he was practically 00:16:50.919 --> 00:16:53.559 inviting an unscrupulous clerk to commit treason. 00:16:53.639 --> 00:16:55.399 Which was prophetic because that's exactly what 00:16:55.399 --> 00:16:57.320 happened with the William Gregg affair. Precisely. 00:16:57.379 --> 00:16:59.460 And even after the Tories finally fell with the 00:16:59.460 --> 00:17:01.919 death of Queen Anne, Defoe kept doing intelligence 00:17:01.919 --> 00:17:04.279 work for the incoming Whig government. He was 00:17:04.279 --> 00:17:06.259 literally tasked with writing what appeared to 00:17:06.259 --> 00:17:08.559 be Tory pamphlets, designed to undermine the 00:17:08.559 --> 00:17:10.779 Tory point of view from the inside by making 00:17:10.779 --> 00:17:12.940 their position seem ridiculous. He was the ultimate 00:17:12.940 --> 00:17:15.119 double agent, a man with no fixed allegiance 00:17:15.119 --> 00:17:17.680 except to political and financial self -preservation. 00:17:17.940 --> 00:17:20.200 This brings us to his most significant intelligence 00:17:20.200 --> 00:17:22.799 mission, securing the Anglo -Scottish Union of 00:17:22.799 --> 00:17:25.839 1707. This was the major political project of 00:17:25.839 --> 00:17:29.000 the era. Defoe, leveraging his deep economic 00:17:29.000 --> 00:17:31.700 knowledge, was put forward to manage the public 00:17:31.700 --> 00:17:34.680 relations campaign. His review became the engine 00:17:34.680 --> 00:17:37.339 promoting the necessity of the Union. What were 00:17:37.339 --> 00:17:39.539 his arguments to the English establishment for 00:17:39.539 --> 00:17:42.640 the Union? He argued it was a utilitarian and 00:17:42.640 --> 00:17:45.619 strategic necessity. It would end the constant 00:17:45.619 --> 00:17:47.900 political threat from the North, the possibility 00:17:47.900 --> 00:17:52.019 of a separate rival nation. Crucially, he argued 00:17:52.019 --> 00:17:54.339 it would give the Treasury an inexhaustible treasury 00:17:54.339 --> 00:17:57.700 of men and secure a valuable new market for English 00:17:57.700 --> 00:18:00.140 goods, massively increasing the power of Great 00:18:00.140 --> 00:18:02.880 Britain. So in 1706, he was sent to Edinburgh, 00:18:03.119 --> 00:18:05.759 directly into the lion's den, to secure what 00:18:05.759 --> 00:18:08.720 Harley called acquiescence using underhand methods. 00:18:09.039 --> 00:18:10.819 He was sent as a secret agent for Godolphin, 00:18:10.819 --> 00:18:12.859 and thanks to his detailed and often terrified 00:18:12.859 --> 00:18:15.619 letters, we have an unparalleled look at an 18th 00:18:15.619 --> 00:18:17.380 century spy mission. What was the atmosphere 00:18:17.380 --> 00:18:20.380 like when he arrived? It was explosive. The common 00:18:20.380 --> 00:18:22.960 people in Scotland were deeply resistant to losing 00:18:22.960 --> 00:18:25.440 their sovereignty, and Defoe's initial reports 00:18:25.440 --> 00:18:27.720 included vivid, frightening descriptions of the 00:18:27.720 --> 00:18:29.960 violent demonstrations. He wrote about his fear 00:18:29.960 --> 00:18:32.599 of being lynched, detailing the crowds surging 00:18:32.599 --> 00:18:35.039 up the high street shouting, no union, no English 00:18:35.039 --> 00:18:38.960 dogs. His assessment was blunt. A Scots rabble 00:18:38.960 --> 00:18:41.759 is the worst of its kind. So how did this English 00:18:41.759 --> 00:18:45.119 spy, who was hated on sight by the crowds, manage 00:18:45.119 --> 00:18:47.660 to infiltrate the decision -making process? He 00:18:47.660 --> 00:18:49.740 used his identity as a Presbyterian dissenter. 00:18:50.220 --> 00:18:52.519 In England, he had suffered for his convictions. 00:18:52.779 --> 00:18:55.700 In Scotland, the Presbyterian clergy saw him 00:18:55.700 --> 00:18:58.200 as a co -religionist. They accepted him as an 00:18:58.200 --> 00:18:59.799 advisor to the General Assembly of the Church 00:18:59.799 --> 00:19:01.920 of Scotland and several key committees of the 00:19:01.920 --> 00:19:04.299 Scottish Parliament. That placed him perfectly. 00:19:04.640 --> 00:19:06.720 He was inside the room where the key decisions 00:19:06.720 --> 00:19:09.640 were being made. He confessed to Harley that 00:19:09.640 --> 00:19:13.390 he was privy to all their folly, and perfectly 00:19:13.390 --> 00:19:16.049 unsuspected as with corresponding with anybody 00:19:16.049 --> 00:19:19.349 in England. This meant he could actively, though 00:19:19.349 --> 00:19:23.250 secretly, shape the legislation. He boasted about 00:19:23.250 --> 00:19:25.769 having the good fortune to break their measures 00:19:25.769 --> 00:19:28.750 in two particulars via the bounty on corn and 00:19:28.750 --> 00:19:31.660 proportion of the excise. And to contextualize 00:19:31.660 --> 00:19:34.200 that for you, the bounty on corn was a subsidy 00:19:34.200 --> 00:19:37.740 for Scottish farmers and the excise was the tax 00:19:37.740 --> 00:19:40.259 structure. These were critical issues. So Defoe 00:19:40.259 --> 00:19:42.859 was literally altering the financial terms of 00:19:42.859 --> 00:19:44.579 the union from within the Scottish legislative 00:19:44.579 --> 00:19:48.000 body. Exactly. He was editing the treaty process 00:19:48.000 --> 00:19:50.809 in London's favor. And the propaganda campaign 00:19:50.809 --> 00:19:54.470 he waged simultaneously was brilliantly deceptive. 00:19:54.509 --> 00:19:56.430 You mentioned he used completely contradictory 00:19:56.430 --> 00:19:58.349 arguments depending on his audience. For the 00:19:58.349 --> 00:20:00.789 Scots, he ignored the fundamental English doctrine 00:20:00.789 --> 00:20:02.789 of the sovereignty of Parliament, telling them 00:20:02.789 --> 00:20:04.410 they could trust the treaty's guarantees on their 00:20:04.410 --> 00:20:07.309 laws. Then he used the exact opposite legal logic 00:20:07.309 --> 00:20:10.009 when writing for an English audience. Even more 00:20:10.009 --> 00:20:12.390 cunningly, he published pamphlets purporting 00:20:12.390 --> 00:20:14.789 to be written by Scots defending the Union, which 00:20:14.789 --> 00:20:17.119 were entirely his own work. That is astonishing. 00:20:17.380 --> 00:20:19.980 He actively tried to corrupt the historical record 00:20:19.980 --> 00:20:22.339 to achieve a short -term political goal. And 00:20:22.339 --> 00:20:24.359 he succeeded. He later published The History 00:20:24.359 --> 00:20:27.700 of the Union of Great Britain in 1709, a massive 00:20:27.700 --> 00:20:30.720 and seemingly comprehensive volume. Even today, 00:20:30.880 --> 00:20:33.319 some historians still use it as a valuable contemporary 00:20:33.319 --> 00:20:36.819 source, despite Defoe's clear bias and his deliberate 00:20:36.819 --> 00:20:39.019 omissions. What were the biggest omissions in 00:20:39.019 --> 00:20:41.500 that so -called history? He essentially wrote 00:20:41.500 --> 00:20:43.900 out the main Union opponent, Andrew Fletcher 00:20:43.900 --> 00:20:47.200 of Salton, by just ignoring him entirely. He 00:20:47.200 --> 00:20:49.339 also failed to explain the sudden dramatic shift 00:20:49.339 --> 00:20:51.599 of the official leader of the opposition, the 00:20:51.599 --> 00:20:54.059 Duke of Hamilton, who unexpectedly switched to 00:20:54.059 --> 00:20:56.720 the Unionist side at the very end. Defoe gave 00:20:56.720 --> 00:20:59.279 his history an air of objectivity and finality, 00:20:59.380 --> 00:21:02.319 but always ensured his side had the last seemingly 00:21:02.319 --> 00:21:05.319 impartial word. Did he ever admit the economic 00:21:05.319 --> 00:21:07.920 reality of the Union didn't live up to his propaganda? 00:21:08.509 --> 00:21:10.769 Much later, in a tour through the whole island 00:21:10.769 --> 00:21:13.890 of Great Britain in 1726, when he was no longer 00:21:13.890 --> 00:21:16.710 an active government operative, he made a stunning 00:21:16.710 --> 00:21:19.289 admission. He confessed that the huge increase 00:21:19.289 --> 00:21:21.529 of trade and population in Scotland he had so 00:21:21.529 --> 00:21:25.470 confidently predicted was not the case, but rather 00:21:25.470 --> 00:21:28.029 the contrary. So even the great propagandist 00:21:28.029 --> 00:21:30.490 recognized that economic reality was harsher 00:21:30.490 --> 00:21:32.769 than his political promises. And that reality 00:21:32.769 --> 00:21:36.349 included profound, immediate local unrest, especially 00:21:36.349 --> 00:21:39.400 in Glasgow or Glasgow. Defoe's description of 00:21:39.400 --> 00:21:41.839 Glasgow as a deer -green place is often cited, 00:21:41.980 --> 00:21:44.400 though Glashue probably translates more accurately 00:21:44.400 --> 00:21:48.059 to Green Hollow. But regardless of the etymology, 00:21:48.259 --> 00:21:51.000 the city was a hotbed of anti -union sentiment. 00:21:51.180 --> 00:21:53.619 Requiring massive government force to suppress 00:21:53.619 --> 00:21:56.119 it. Exactly. Though local clergy were urging 00:21:56.119 --> 00:21:58.400 congregations to up in an end for the city of 00:21:58.400 --> 00:22:00.880 God, and rioters were tearing up copies of the 00:22:00.880 --> 00:22:03.460 treaty. Defoe noted that when he revisited Glasgow 00:22:03.460 --> 00:22:06.460 in the 1720s, the hostility was still palpable, 00:22:06.579 --> 00:22:08.779 entirely because of the union, which they were 00:22:08.779 --> 00:22:11.279 almost universally exclaimed against. The local 00:22:11.279 --> 00:22:13.589 resistance was persistent and enduring. This 00:22:13.589 --> 00:22:15.809 life of constant political maneuvering, debt, 00:22:15.970 --> 00:22:19.009 and survival, the need to adopt and shed identities, 00:22:19.329 --> 00:22:21.529 it was the perfect high -pressure environment 00:22:21.529 --> 00:22:24.150 for his next phase, the sudden and spectacular 00:22:24.150 --> 00:22:26.789 birth of the English novel. What's truly remarkable 00:22:26.789 --> 00:22:30.049 is the timeline. All of his most famous genre 00:22:30.049 --> 00:22:33.150 -defining novels, Robinson Crusoe, Maul Flanders, 00:22:33.210 --> 00:22:35.710 Colonel Jack, Roxanna, they were published very 00:22:35.710 --> 00:22:38.549 late in his life. It was between 1719 and about 00:22:38.549 --> 00:22:42.210 1724. He's in his late 50s when he finally found 00:22:42.210 --> 00:22:44.400 the literary form that made him immortal. Let's 00:22:44.400 --> 00:22:47.460 start with Robinson Crusoe from 1719. We all 00:22:47.460 --> 00:22:49.500 know the survival narrative, but what was the 00:22:49.500 --> 00:22:52.119 deeper Defoe pattern at work there? Robinson 00:22:52.119 --> 00:22:54.500 Crusoe is fundamentally a Presbyterian spiritual 00:22:54.500 --> 00:22:57.240 autobiography, but it's dressed up as an adventure 00:22:57.240 --> 00:23:00.190 story. The narrative details Crusoe's struggle 00:23:00.190 --> 00:23:02.349 with faith, his constant bargaining with God 00:23:02.349 --> 00:23:04.910 when disaster strikes, followed by backsliding 00:23:04.910 --> 00:23:07.630 once the danger passes. The core message is that 00:23:07.630 --> 00:23:09.690 he only finds contentment and true prosperity 00:23:09.690 --> 00:23:12.309 once he achieves a genuine conversion on his 00:23:12.309 --> 00:23:14.769 isolated island. It's a powerful narrative of 00:23:14.769 --> 00:23:16.710 economic reckoning and spiritual accounting, 00:23:16.930 --> 00:23:19.569 which makes so much sense given Defoe's own history 00:23:19.569 --> 00:23:22.200 with debt. It absolutely does. Every inventory 00:23:22.200 --> 00:23:24.700 Crusoe takes, every meticulous account of his 00:23:24.700 --> 00:23:26.940 possessions and his time, it all reflects the 00:23:26.940 --> 00:23:29.599 anxiety of a merchant who has repeatedly failed 00:23:29.599 --> 00:23:32.359 in the real world. And while it's often linked 00:23:32.359 --> 00:23:34.539 to the real -life castaway Alexander Selkirk, 00:23:34.680 --> 00:23:37.200 the novel may also barrow heavily from an earlier 00:23:37.200 --> 00:23:40.599 Arabic work, Philosophus Autodidactus, by Ibn 00:23:40.599 --> 00:23:43.799 Tufayl. A Muslim polymath potentially influencing 00:23:43.799 --> 00:23:46.180 the most foundational narrative of Christian 00:23:46.180 --> 00:23:49.299 conversion in English literature. That's a fascinating 00:23:49.299 --> 00:23:52.279 cross -cultural link. It highlights Defoe's wide 00:23:52.279 --> 00:23:55.119 reading and his willingness to steal or synthesize 00:23:55.119 --> 00:23:58.240 ideas for his own didactic purposes. And in the 00:23:58.240 --> 00:24:00.960 sequel, The Farther Adventures, he tries desperately 00:24:00.960 --> 00:24:03.240 to maintain the illusion of truth, describing 00:24:03.240 --> 00:24:05.720 Crusoe settling in Bedfordshire, implying that 00:24:05.720 --> 00:24:07.940 Defoe's own family had met Crusoe to gather the 00:24:07.940 --> 00:24:10.160 information. The deception is central to his 00:24:10.160 --> 00:24:12.839 craft. Then we get to Mall Flanders in 1722, 00:24:13.079 --> 00:24:15.579 a massive shift in social setting and gender 00:24:15.579 --> 00:24:18.880 roles. Mall Flanders is a spectacular, picaresque 00:24:18.880 --> 00:24:21.460 novel about a heroin mall who is, at different 00:24:21.460 --> 00:24:24.220 times, a whore, a bigamist, and a professional 00:24:24.220 --> 00:24:27.720 thief. She is entirely driven by economic viability. 00:24:27.960 --> 00:24:30.740 She manipulates men, she commits crimes, and 00:24:30.740 --> 00:24:33.200 she strives for material survival. Yet Defoe 00:24:33.200 --> 00:24:35.359 writes her with a narrative voice that somehow 00:24:35.359 --> 00:24:37.819 manages to retain the reader's sympathy. Defoe 00:24:37.819 --> 00:24:39.859 gave us a criminal protagonist whose primary 00:24:39.859 --> 00:24:43.559 moral compass was economic viability, not traditional 00:24:43.559 --> 00:24:46.299 virtue. That's why she keeps our sympathy. How 00:24:46.299 --> 00:24:48.539 revolutionary was that for the 18th century? 00:24:48.819 --> 00:24:51.500 Hugely revolutionary. It challenged the conventional 00:24:51.500 --> 00:24:54.460 18th century views on femininity, which dictated... 00:25:07.079 --> 00:25:09.940 He used a similar trajectory with his other major 00:25:09.940 --> 00:25:13.029 novel of that year, Colonel Jack. Yes, Colonel 00:25:13.029 --> 00:25:15.349 Jack follows an orphan from extreme poverty in 00:25:15.349 --> 00:25:17.569 a life of petty crime in London to prosperity 00:25:17.569 --> 00:25:20.210 in the colonies. His journey is driven by this 00:25:20.210 --> 00:25:22.730 flawed, yet quintessentially English, notion 00:25:22.730 --> 00:25:26.269 of striving to become a gentleman. And he, too, 00:25:26.430 --> 00:25:29.470 undergoes a religious conversion only after securing 00:25:29.470 --> 00:25:32.809 his material success. Defoe was clearly mapping 00:25:32.809 --> 00:25:36.430 out a structure, poverty, crime, material achievement, 00:25:36.690 --> 00:25:39.329 and then a retrospective spiritual justification. 00:25:39.960 --> 00:25:42.500 But his final major novel breaks that mold, which 00:25:42.500 --> 00:25:44.640 is why it feels more psychologically complex. 00:25:45.259 --> 00:25:48.559 Roxanna. The Fortunate Mistress from 1724 is 00:25:48.559 --> 00:25:51.339 the anti -conversion novel. Roxanna is a high 00:25:51.339 --> 00:25:53.880 society courtesan whose story narrates a complete 00:25:53.880 --> 00:25:56.759 moral and spiritual decline. Unlike Crusoe and 00:25:56.759 --> 00:25:59.400 Moll, Roxanna, despite her claims of penitence 00:25:59.400 --> 00:26:01.599 at the end, never exhibits a genuine spiritual 00:26:01.599 --> 00:26:03.660 conversion. Her pursuit of wealth is ruthless 00:26:03.660 --> 00:26:06.099 and leads only to further moral decline. It's 00:26:06.099 --> 00:26:08.339 a much darker, more cynical view of human motivation. 00:26:08.579 --> 00:26:10.839 And finally, the hybrid work that perfectly embodies 00:26:10.839 --> 00:26:13.460 his background as a spy and journalist, A Journal 00:26:13.460 --> 00:26:16.140 of the Plague Year. This is a masterpiece of 00:26:16.140 --> 00:26:18.480 realism that deliberately blurs the line between 00:26:18.480 --> 00:26:21.160 novel and nonfiction. It's an account of the 00:26:21.160 --> 00:26:24.759 1665 plague, written as if by an eyewitness using 00:26:24.759 --> 00:26:27.619 the initials HF. This was probably a reference 00:26:27.619 --> 00:26:30.539 to his uncle, Henry Faux. But Daniel Defoe himself 00:26:30.539 --> 00:26:32.619 was only about five years old during the actual 00:26:32.619 --> 00:26:34.900 event. Yeah, the detail is so compelling, it 00:26:34.900 --> 00:26:37.460 reads like a firsthand history. That's the genius 00:26:37.460 --> 00:26:40.420 of his research. He meticulously poured through 00:26:40.420 --> 00:26:43.400 primary sources, parish death registers, historical 00:26:43.400 --> 00:26:45.839 accounts, government documents, and filtered 00:26:45.839 --> 00:26:48.440 them through a constructed, plausible, immediate 00:26:48.440 --> 00:26:51.799 narrative voice. It's historical fiction masquerading 00:26:51.799 --> 00:26:54.750 as a true memoir. It proves that his experience 00:26:54.750 --> 00:26:57.089 as a government operative who had to write propaganda 00:26:57.089 --> 00:26:59.950 that felt absolutely authentic made him the perfect 00:26:59.950 --> 00:27:02.069 early novelist. We should briefly mention Captain 00:27:02.069 --> 00:27:04.869 Singleton from 1720 as well. What stands out 00:27:04.869 --> 00:27:06.849 about that adventure novel? Captain Singleton 00:27:06.849 --> 00:27:09.049 is notable for its incredible geographical detail. 00:27:09.480 --> 00:27:11.900 The first half covers a traversal of Africa that 00:27:11.900 --> 00:27:14.259 was so remarkably detailed, it seemed to anticipate 00:27:14.259 --> 00:27:16.720 discoveries made much later by explorers like 00:27:16.720 --> 00:27:19.180 David Livingstone. The description of the geography 00:27:19.180 --> 00:27:22.920 and fauna suggests deep, specific research, far 00:27:22.920 --> 00:27:26.019 beyond typical 18th century fiction. It also 00:27:26.019 --> 00:27:28.480 features a sensitive depiction of piracy and 00:27:28.480 --> 00:27:30.680 the central moralizing relationship between the 00:27:30.680 --> 00:27:33.420 hero and his Quaker mentor, William Walters. 00:27:33.900 --> 00:27:36.259 What's fascinating here is how much of Defoe's 00:27:36.259 --> 00:27:38.920 professional writing wasn't dedicated to swashbuckling 00:27:38.920 --> 00:27:41.339 or conversion narratives, but to hard economics, 00:27:41.539 --> 00:27:44.240 business instruction, and national policy. He 00:27:44.240 --> 00:27:46.779 was a true pioneer of business literature, making 00:27:46.779 --> 00:27:49.319 him far more than just a literary figure. Exactly. 00:27:49.480 --> 00:27:52.480 The Complete English Tradesman from 1726 is the 00:27:52.480 --> 00:27:54.819 prime example. It's framed as a conduct manual. 00:27:55.259 --> 00:27:57.420 offering religious and practical advice for merchants, 00:27:57.660 --> 00:28:00.180 distilling the lessons, often the hard -won lessons, 00:28:00.380 --> 00:28:02.940 from his own tumultuous career. And he used this 00:28:02.940 --> 00:28:05.299 book to make a profound argument for British 00:28:05.299 --> 00:28:08.460 economic superiority. He argued forcefully that 00:28:08.460 --> 00:28:10.440 the British system was superior to all others 00:28:10.440 --> 00:28:13.519 because it put trade mercantile capitalism at 00:28:13.519 --> 00:28:16.140 the center of national life. This is where we 00:28:16.140 --> 00:28:18.500 get that iconic piece of philosophy, which really 00:28:18.500 --> 00:28:21.299 underpins modern risk -taking. An estate's a 00:28:21.299 --> 00:28:24.279 pond, but a trade's a spring. That distinction 00:28:24.279 --> 00:28:27.720 is so powerful. An inherited estate is stagnant, 00:28:27.720 --> 00:28:30.960 finite, it can be drained. But a trade actively 00:28:30.960 --> 00:28:33.940 pursued is an endless source of wealth, creation, 00:28:34.200 --> 00:28:37.480 and renewal. It elevates the risk -taker. And 00:28:37.480 --> 00:28:39.819 that philosophy led directly to his views on 00:28:39.819 --> 00:28:42.299 social mobility, which resonated deeply with 00:28:42.299 --> 00:28:44.380 his own journey from a Tallow Chandler's son. 00:28:45.160 --> 00:28:47.819 Defoe praised trade explicitly for elevating 00:28:47.819 --> 00:28:50.460 individuals to the level of gentlemen. He argued 00:28:50.460 --> 00:28:52.640 that the British gentry was not some pure landowning 00:28:52.640 --> 00:28:55.579 caste, but was inextricably linked to trade through 00:28:55.579 --> 00:28:57.920 generations of marriage, genealogy and commercial 00:28:57.920 --> 00:29:00.420 investment. So he was arguing that trade, not 00:29:00.420 --> 00:29:02.859 land or lineage, was the new engine of national 00:29:02.859 --> 00:29:06.519 identity. It was an economic manifesto masquerading 00:29:06.519 --> 00:29:10.000 as a manual. Defoe explicitly argued that trade, 00:29:10.220 --> 00:29:13.079 not war or military conquest, was the superior 00:29:13.079 --> 00:29:16.660 catalyst for social and economic change. He believed 00:29:16.660 --> 00:29:18.819 the expansion of the British Empire's mercantile 00:29:18.819 --> 00:29:21.700 influence would increase commerce at home through 00:29:21.700 --> 00:29:24.299 job creation and increased consumption. And how 00:29:24.299 --> 00:29:27.220 did he connect that growth to lifting the general 00:29:27.220 --> 00:29:30.140 population out of poverty? Following the laws 00:29:30.140 --> 00:29:32.119 of supply and demand, he reasoned that increased 00:29:32.119 --> 00:29:34.319 consumption necessitated boosted production, 00:29:34.500 --> 00:29:38.079 which, in turn, raised wages for the poor. He 00:29:38.079 --> 00:29:40.339 saw trade as the ultimate mechanism for general 00:29:40.339 --> 00:29:43.460 societal improvement. His ideas feel very much 00:29:43.460 --> 00:29:46.119 like a pre -Adam Smith blueprint for modern capitalist 00:29:46.119 --> 00:29:48.640 theory. He even extended this into sophisticated 00:29:48.640 --> 00:29:51.400 historical economic analysis, looking backward 00:29:51.400 --> 00:29:54.059 to justify his contemporary views. In his Plan 00:29:54.059 --> 00:29:56.799 of the English Commerce from 1728, he provided 00:29:56.799 --> 00:29:59.099 a detailed history of the English wool and textile 00:29:59.099 --> 00:30:02.160 industry. This was a critical sector. He credited 00:30:02.160 --> 00:30:04.400 the Tudor monarchs, particularly Henry VII and 00:30:04.400 --> 00:30:06.940 Elizabeth I, for developing the sector using 00:30:06.940 --> 00:30:09.059 what we now call classic protectionist measures. 00:30:09.319 --> 00:30:11.640 Give us an example of that protectionism. He 00:30:11.640 --> 00:30:13.880 detailed how the Tudors imposed high tariffs 00:30:13.880 --> 00:30:15.740 on finished wool and imports from the continent. 00:30:15.960 --> 00:30:18.660 They placed high taxes on raw English wool leaving 00:30:18.660 --> 00:30:20.920 the country. They actively brought in skilled 00:30:20.920 --> 00:30:23.779 artisans. And they even sponsored early forms 00:30:23.779 --> 00:30:26.759 of industrial espionage to steal foreign manufacturing 00:30:26.759 --> 00:30:30.200 secrets. So he was advocating for state -sponsored 00:30:30.200 --> 00:30:33.039 development and protectionism based on two centuries 00:30:33.039 --> 00:30:36.579 of successful historical precedent. He was synthesizing 00:30:36.579 --> 00:30:39.519 history, morality, commerce, and national strategy 00:30:39.519 --> 00:30:42.599 into a cohesive whole, making him a true economic 00:30:42.599 --> 00:30:46.339 analyst of the first rank. So what does this 00:30:46.339 --> 00:30:48.539 all mean for a man who wrote so much, worked 00:30:48.539 --> 00:30:51.279 for so many sides, and used nearly 200 identities? 00:30:51.680 --> 00:30:54.140 It brings us to the central difficulty facing 00:30:54.140 --> 00:30:57.539 Defoe scholars, the massive, unstable, and often 00:30:57.539 --> 00:31:00.000 unknowable canon. It is an absolute nightmare 00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:02.539 for attribution. We have to reiterate the astonishing 00:31:02.539 --> 00:31:06.920 number of pen names he used, at least 198. Anonymity 00:31:06.920 --> 00:31:08.740 was standard in the 18th century for political 00:31:08.740 --> 00:31:11.460 survival, but Defoe mastered it because his own 00:31:11.460 --> 00:31:13.700 survival depended on constantly changing masks 00:31:13.700 --> 00:31:17.420 based on the political... And that disguise means 00:31:17.420 --> 00:31:19.500 we can't definitively say what he wrote even 00:31:19.500 --> 00:31:22.240 today. Exactly. If you only count works published 00:31:22.240 --> 00:31:24.799 under his few known names, you get only about 00:31:24.799 --> 00:31:28.339 75 titles. But scholars have vastly divergent 00:31:28.339 --> 00:31:32.299 lists. George Chalmers first attributed 174 works. 00:31:32.680 --> 00:31:35.900 William P. Trent pushed that to 370. And the 00:31:35.900 --> 00:31:38.359 most aggressive tally, compiled by J .R. Moore, 00:31:38.619 --> 00:31:42.720 attributed approximately 550 works. 550 works. 00:31:43.259 --> 00:31:45.140 The potential scope of his influence, touching 00:31:45.140 --> 00:31:46.920 everything from children's manuals to religious 00:31:46.920 --> 00:31:49.160 tracts and deep politics, is just staggering 00:31:49.160 --> 00:31:51.339 if that high number is accurate. And think about 00:31:51.339 --> 00:31:54.220 the most famous novels. Moll Flanders and Roxanna 00:31:54.220 --> 00:31:56.539 were published anonymously for over 50 years. 00:31:57.000 --> 00:31:59.339 Publishers only finally put Daniel Defoe on the 00:31:59.339 --> 00:32:02.440 title pages in the 1770s. The man was so prolific 00:32:02.440 --> 00:32:05.000 and so adept at disguise that his own enduring 00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:07.980 literary legacy was fragmented for decades. When 00:32:07.980 --> 00:32:10.220 scholars attempt to analyze this vast, messy 00:32:10.220 --> 00:32:15.849 body of work, what are the core The material 00:32:15.849 --> 00:32:18.690 identifies three key traits seen consistently 00:32:18.690 --> 00:32:23.309 across his works. First is didacticism, the underlying 00:32:23.309 --> 00:32:26.769 aim to always convey a moral message or a practical 00:32:26.769 --> 00:32:30.549 lesson. This stems directly from his deeply ingrained 00:32:30.549 --> 00:32:33.630 religious dissenting background. Every story 00:32:33.630 --> 00:32:35.829 is a lesson in spiritual or material survival. 00:32:36.190 --> 00:32:37.970 Which flows naturally into the second trait, 00:32:38.130 --> 00:32:40.950 the spiritual autobiography. Precisely. We see 00:32:40.950 --> 00:32:43.250 this most powerfully in Robinson Crusoe, the 00:32:43.250 --> 00:32:45.130 narrative of the individual's journey toward 00:32:45.130 --> 00:32:47.589 finding faith through hardship, that moment of 00:32:47.589 --> 00:32:50.349 individual reckoning with God. Even his criminals, 00:32:50.410 --> 00:32:53.289 like Maul Flanders, are eventually forced into 00:32:53.289 --> 00:32:55.730 that individual reckoning. And finally, the trait 00:32:55.730 --> 00:32:58.109 that ties his spy work and his journalism directly 00:32:58.109 --> 00:33:00.990 to his fiction writing. That is the pattern of 00:33:00.990 --> 00:33:03.829 claiming truth. Across his fictional works, a 00:33:03.829 --> 00:33:06.109 common and essential feature is his insistence 00:33:06.109 --> 00:33:07.910 that they were true stories of their subjects, 00:33:08.109 --> 00:33:10.690 whether it was an isolated castaway, a career 00:33:10.690 --> 00:33:13.529 criminal, or an eyewitness to a plague. He was 00:33:13.529 --> 00:33:15.569 an expert in fictionalizing reality to make it 00:33:15.569 --> 00:33:18.109 feel absolutely authentic and immediate. The 00:33:18.109 --> 00:33:20.329 political operative became the novelist by perfecting 00:33:20.329 --> 00:33:25.230 the art of the convincing lie. We see a man whose 00:33:25.230 --> 00:33:28.529 life was defined by extreme instability, from 00:33:28.529 --> 00:33:30.869 the plague and fire of his childhood to the debtor's 00:33:30.869 --> 00:33:33.609 prison and the pillory. His career spanned every 00:33:33.609 --> 00:33:36.109 major political and social upheaval of the late 00:33:36.109 --> 00:33:39.430 17th and early 18th centuries, forcing him to 00:33:39.430 --> 00:33:42.190 a state of perpetual maneuver. And his end was 00:33:42.190 --> 00:33:44.549 sadly fitting for a man who spent his life running 00:33:44.549 --> 00:33:47.470 from his balance sheet. Daniel Defoe died on 00:33:47.470 --> 00:33:50.970 the 24th of April, 1731, in Ropemaker's Alley, 00:33:51.009 --> 00:33:53.970 London, not far from where he was born. The sources 00:33:53.970 --> 00:33:56.150 strongly suggest he was hiding from creditors 00:33:56.150 --> 00:33:58.690 at the time of his death. The ultimate fate he 00:33:58.690 --> 00:34:01.329 had spent decades trying to avoid finally caught 00:34:01.329 --> 00:34:03.690 up with him. The official cause of death was 00:34:03.690 --> 00:34:05.930 listed as lethargy, though it was likely a stroke. 00:34:06.279 --> 00:34:08.659 He was interred in Bunhill Fields, a cemetery 00:34:08.659 --> 00:34:10.800 just outside the medieval boundaries of the city 00:34:10.800 --> 00:34:13.820 of London, a final gesture fitting for a lifelong 00:34:13.820 --> 00:34:16.460 dissenter who operated just outside the establishment. 00:34:16.719 --> 00:34:19.119 He was a failed businessman, a pardoned rebel, 00:34:19.340 --> 00:34:21.699 a brilliant intelligence agent who undermined 00:34:21.699 --> 00:34:24.480 an entire national union, a pioneering journalist, 00:34:24.760 --> 00:34:27.239 and a master satirist who stood in the pillory 00:34:27.239 --> 00:34:30.280 for his art. And out of that instability... That 00:34:30.280 --> 00:34:33.079 constant need to observe society truthfully enough 00:34:33.079 --> 00:34:35.780 to convince his handlers, to lie convincingly 00:34:35.780 --> 00:34:38.219 enough to sell a fictional memoir, and to write 00:34:38.219 --> 00:34:40.880 anonymously to survive politically, came the 00:34:40.880 --> 00:34:42.900 narrative realism that defined the modern novel. 00:34:43.079 --> 00:34:45.119 His life as a political and social observer, 00:34:45.340 --> 00:34:47.539 always maneuvering between factions and classes, 00:34:47.800 --> 00:34:50.880 forced him to adopt the nuanced, often immoral, 00:34:50.940 --> 00:34:53.539 pragmatic perspective of his characters, Moll 00:34:53.539 --> 00:34:57.119 Flanders, Roxanna, Colonel Jack. Their narratives 00:34:57.119 --> 00:34:59.239 are all defined by a practical striving that 00:34:59.239 --> 00:35:01.480 mirrors his own lifelong struggle to maintain 00:35:01.480 --> 00:35:03.920 his status and avoid the ultimate humiliation 00:35:03.920 --> 00:35:06.280 of the debtor's prison. The ability to write 00:35:06.280 --> 00:35:08.280 compelling fiction requires profound empathy 00:35:08.280 --> 00:35:11.139 and insight into motivation. But Defoe had more 00:35:11.139 --> 00:35:12.880 than empathy. He had operational experience. 00:35:13.239 --> 00:35:15.440 He knew exactly what motivated people to cheat, 00:35:15.500 --> 00:35:17.739 to survive, and to reinvent themselves because 00:35:17.739 --> 00:35:20.300 he had to do it nearly 200 times. So here's the 00:35:20.300 --> 00:35:22.039 final provocative thought for you to consider. 00:35:22.750 --> 00:35:25.989 What unique, perhaps cynical, perspective did 00:35:25.989 --> 00:35:28.429 Defoe gain about the true nature of human motivation 00:35:28.429 --> 00:35:31.309 by constantly having to reinvent himself, adopting 00:35:31.309 --> 00:35:33.809 nearly 200 different disguises and identities 00:35:33.809 --> 00:35:36.429 just to survive the vicious political and financial 00:35:36.429 --> 00:35:39.130 landscape of early 18th century England? Did 00:35:39.130 --> 00:35:41.309 his requirement for political and financial survival 00:35:41.309 --> 00:35:43.329 essentially force him to become the world's first 00:35:43.329 --> 00:35:44.809 truly realistic novelist?