WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.319 Okay, let's unpack this. I want you to picture 00:00:02.319 --> 00:00:08.220 the scene. It is the year 1298. Right. And we 00:00:08.220 --> 00:00:10.820 are not in a palace. We are not on some grand 00:00:10.820 --> 00:00:13.179 ship. We are definitely not in a library. We 00:00:13.179 --> 00:00:16.699 are in a damp, probably rat infested prison cell. 00:00:16.820 --> 00:00:20.120 In Genoa, Italy. And it's grim. Totally grim. 00:00:20.320 --> 00:00:23.039 I mean, Genoa and Venice are the two great maritime 00:00:23.039 --> 00:00:25.079 superpowers of the Mediterranean, and they are 00:00:25.079 --> 00:00:27.800 constantly at each other's throats. And there's 00:00:27.800 --> 00:00:29.640 just been this massive naval battle, the Battle 00:00:29.640 --> 00:00:32.600 of Cursola, and thousands of Venetians are now 00:00:32.600 --> 00:00:36.640 prisoners of war, rotting in Genoese jails. And 00:00:36.640 --> 00:00:39.259 sitting there in one of those cells is this one 00:00:39.259 --> 00:00:42.020 specific prisoner. He's 44 years old. He's a 00:00:42.020 --> 00:00:44.259 Venetian commander. But more than anything else. 00:00:45.079 --> 00:00:47.740 he's just bored out of his mind. Completely miserable, 00:00:47.979 --> 00:00:50.619 stuck in this box. So he starts talking. He starts 00:00:50.619 --> 00:00:52.579 telling stories to his cellmate just to pass 00:00:52.579 --> 00:00:54.640 the time. And this isn't just any cellmate. This 00:00:54.640 --> 00:00:57.060 is, I mean, it's a stroke of absolute literary 00:00:57.060 --> 00:01:00.060 destiny or maybe just the weirdest luck in history. 00:01:00.280 --> 00:01:03.200 The man sharing his cell is Ristichella da Pisa. 00:01:03.579 --> 00:01:06.019 And Ristichella isn't a soldier or a merchant. 00:01:06.120 --> 00:01:08.969 He's a professional writer. A novelist, basically. 00:01:09.030 --> 00:01:11.629 A writer of romances, specifically. We're talking 00:01:11.629 --> 00:01:13.930 King Arthur, Lancelot, you know, knights and 00:01:13.930 --> 00:01:16.090 damsels in distress. That's his whole thing. 00:01:16.290 --> 00:01:18.810 It is the ultimate odd couple. You've got this 00:01:18.810 --> 00:01:23.549 gritty, world -weary adventurer who has seen 00:01:23.549 --> 00:01:27.900 the literal edge of... the known world. And you've 00:01:27.900 --> 00:01:29.799 got the fantasy novelist who is always looking 00:01:29.799 --> 00:01:32.519 for his next bestseller. Exactly. So the adventurer 00:01:32.519 --> 00:01:35.099 starts spinning these wild yarns about a golden 00:01:35.099 --> 00:01:37.420 empire on the other side of the planet, about 00:01:37.420 --> 00:01:40.680 black stones that burn like wood, about money 00:01:40.680 --> 00:01:43.540 made from paper. About unicorns, which were probably 00:01:43.540 --> 00:01:45.780 rhinoceroses, but still. Right. And the writer 00:01:45.780 --> 00:01:47.379 just goes, wait, wait, hold on. Let me get a 00:01:47.379 --> 00:01:49.680 quill. I need to write this down. And that collaboration, 00:01:49.879 --> 00:01:53.540 that prison cell brainstorming session, it creates 00:01:53.540 --> 00:01:55.819 arguably the most famous and certainly the most 00:01:55.819 --> 00:01:58.439 controversial travelogue in human history. We 00:01:58.439 --> 00:02:00.680 are talking, of course, about Marco Polo. The 00:02:00.680 --> 00:02:03.079 man himself. But here's the thing, and this is 00:02:03.079 --> 00:02:06.280 why I'm so excited for today's deep dive. When 00:02:06.280 --> 00:02:09.599 most people hear Marco Polo, what do they even 00:02:09.599 --> 00:02:12.740 think of? A pool game? A children's pool game. 00:02:13.569 --> 00:02:15.469 Marco? You close your eyes and you splash around. 00:02:15.889 --> 00:02:17.590 Or, you know, if they're a bit more informed, 00:02:17.669 --> 00:02:20.289 they think, oh, that's the guy who brought pasta 00:02:20.289 --> 00:02:23.289 to Italy. Ugh, the pasta myth. We will definitely 00:02:23.289 --> 00:02:24.810 have to have a serious talk about that later. 00:02:24.849 --> 00:02:27.870 Oh, we will. Spoiler alert. He didn't. But the 00:02:27.870 --> 00:02:31.409 real story is so much more... I don't know, Indiana 00:02:31.409 --> 00:02:33.750 Jones than that. He really is. It's a story about 00:02:33.750 --> 00:02:36.310 a 17 -year -old kid crossing the Gobi Desert, 00:02:36.469 --> 00:02:39.009 becoming a spy and a trusted advisor for the 00:02:39.009 --> 00:02:41.469 most powerful emperor on Earth, Kublai Khan, 00:02:41.770 --> 00:02:45.669 and then coming home to a Europe... that basically 00:02:45.669 --> 00:02:48.550 didn't believe a single word he said. And that 00:02:48.550 --> 00:02:50.650 disbelief, that's really the core of our mission 00:02:50.650 --> 00:02:52.710 today, isn't it? It is. We aren't just here to 00:02:52.710 --> 00:02:54.990 retell the adventure story. We're here to investigate 00:02:54.990 --> 00:02:57.689 it. We're looking at the primary source, the 00:02:57.689 --> 00:03:00.789 manuscript we call Il Milione or The Travels 00:03:00.789 --> 00:03:02.889 of Marco Polo, and we're stacking it up against 00:03:02.889 --> 00:03:05.810 modern archaeology, Chinese economic records, 00:03:05.889 --> 00:03:08.469 and all the historical context to answer that 00:03:08.469 --> 00:03:11.750 one huge question. Did he actually go? Did he 00:03:11.750 --> 00:03:14.050 actually go? Because for centuries, people have 00:03:14.050 --> 00:03:17.900 called... him a liar. The million lies. Exactly. 00:03:18.199 --> 00:03:20.180 They've said he never made it past, you know, 00:03:20.199 --> 00:03:22.699 Constantinople or the Black Sea, that he just 00:03:22.699 --> 00:03:25.620 sat in a trading post drinking wine and copying 00:03:25.620 --> 00:03:27.740 stories from Persian guidebooks he bought off 00:03:27.740 --> 00:03:30.699 some other merchant. Which is such a wild accusation. 00:03:30.759 --> 00:03:33.919 I mean, imagine faking a 24 year road trip. That 00:03:33.919 --> 00:03:36.830 is a long con. It's a very long con, but the 00:03:36.830 --> 00:03:39.370 skepticism is understandable. You know, he was 00:03:39.370 --> 00:03:41.909 describing a civilization that was in many ways 00:03:41.909 --> 00:03:44.990 centuries ahead of 13th century Europe. It sounded 00:03:44.990 --> 00:03:48.710 impossible. Paper money, a postal service that 00:03:48.710 --> 00:03:51.689 could cross a continent in days. It was science 00:03:51.689 --> 00:03:54.050 fiction to them. So for this deep dive, we're 00:03:54.050 --> 00:03:55.949 going to look at the skeptics case because there 00:03:55.949 --> 00:03:58.509 are some legitimate questions. But we're also 00:03:58.509 --> 00:04:00.629 going to look at the hard data. The boring stuff. 00:04:00.710 --> 00:04:03.229 The really boring stuff. Yeah. The details about 00:04:03.229 --> 00:04:05.949 salt taxes. And currency exchange rates that, 00:04:06.009 --> 00:04:08.590 it turns out, might be the smoking gun that proves 00:04:08.590 --> 00:04:10.750 he was telling the truth all along. It's a detective 00:04:10.750 --> 00:04:13.409 story as much as it is a travel story. Absolutely. 00:04:13.889 --> 00:04:16.850 But to really get it, to understand Marco and 00:04:16.850 --> 00:04:18.889 why he was even in a position to take this incredible 00:04:18.889 --> 00:04:21.750 journey, you have to go back a generation. This 00:04:21.750 --> 00:04:24.129 wasn't a solo mission. Not at all. This was a 00:04:24.129 --> 00:04:26.670 family business. So let's get into section one, 00:04:26.870 --> 00:04:29.769 the origin story. Because Marco wasn't even the 00:04:29.769 --> 00:04:32.529 first polo to meet the great Khan. His dad and 00:04:32.529 --> 00:04:35.470 his uncle were the OGs here. Niccolo and Maffeo 00:04:35.470 --> 00:04:38.649 Polo. And these guys were the real deal. When 00:04:38.649 --> 00:04:41.730 we say merchants in the 13th century, we don't 00:04:41.730 --> 00:04:43.990 mean guys running a little corner store. No. 00:04:44.129 --> 00:04:47.129 We mean... High stakes venture capitalists. We 00:04:47.129 --> 00:04:50.670 mean geopolitical analysts. We mean explorers. 00:04:50.850 --> 00:04:54.629 Before Marco was even born, around 1254, these 00:04:54.629 --> 00:04:56.910 two are already operating out of Constantinople. 00:04:57.029 --> 00:04:59.329 And they were incredibly savvy, right? I read 00:04:59.329 --> 00:05:01.110 somewhere that they made a brilliant business 00:05:01.110 --> 00:05:04.129 move just before everything went south. Extremely 00:05:04.129 --> 00:05:06.209 savvy. So they were living in the Latin Quarter 00:05:06.209 --> 00:05:08.550 of Constantinople, but they had their ear to 00:05:08.550 --> 00:05:10.410 the ground. They could feel the political winds 00:05:10.410 --> 00:05:13.550 shifting. A regime change was coming. The Greeks 00:05:13.550 --> 00:05:15.550 were about to retake. Take the city. And if that 00:05:15.550 --> 00:05:17.370 happened, being a Venetian there would be a very 00:05:17.370 --> 00:05:19.730 bad thing. A very bad thing. You'd likely be 00:05:19.730 --> 00:05:23.089 blinded, imprisoned, or killed. So in 1260, they 00:05:23.089 --> 00:05:24.910 do something brilliant. They liquidate all their 00:05:24.910 --> 00:05:27.209 assets, houses, warehouses, stock, everything, 00:05:27.370 --> 00:05:29.810 and they convert it all into jewels. Affordable 00:05:29.810 --> 00:05:32.560 wealth. That's so smart. You can't run with a 00:05:32.560 --> 00:05:34.519 warehouse full of timber, but you can definitely 00:05:34.519 --> 00:05:36.920 sew a fortune in rubies into the lining of your 00:05:36.920 --> 00:05:40.560 coat. Exactly. High value, low volume. They take 00:05:40.560 --> 00:05:43.120 these jewels and head east, deeper into the Mongol 00:05:43.120 --> 00:05:47.160 territories, to trade. But then local wars break 00:05:47.160 --> 00:05:49.279 out behind them, cutting off their return route. 00:05:49.399 --> 00:05:51.360 So they're stuck. They're stuck. So they just... 00:05:51.560 --> 00:05:53.560 Keep going east. The only way out is through. 00:05:53.819 --> 00:05:56.720 They end up in Bukhara in modern day Uzbekistan 00:05:56.720 --> 00:05:59.139 and just stay there for three years, learning 00:05:59.139 --> 00:06:01.800 the local languages, doing business. And that's 00:06:01.800 --> 00:06:03.360 where they get an invitation they can't refuse. 00:06:03.660 --> 00:06:06.839 An envoy from Kublai Khan finds them and says, 00:06:06.959 --> 00:06:09.300 the great Khan has never met any Latins before. 00:06:09.399 --> 00:06:12.060 He wants to see you. So they travel with this 00:06:12.060 --> 00:06:14.759 envoy all the way to the Khan's court. And Kublai 00:06:14.759 --> 00:06:17.300 is just fascinated by them. Absolutely fascinating. 00:06:17.519 --> 00:06:19.279 Remember, he's the grandson of Genghis Khan. 00:06:19.459 --> 00:06:22.180 He's ruling this immense empire. He's curious 00:06:22.180 --> 00:06:24.660 about everything. He asks them about their kings, 00:06:24.899 --> 00:06:27.959 their legal systems, how they fight wars, and 00:06:27.959 --> 00:06:31.139 most importantly, about their religion, about 00:06:31.139 --> 00:06:33.199 the pope. This is the part that always gets me. 00:06:33.579 --> 00:06:35.980 The Mongols were so pragmatic about religion, 00:06:36.120 --> 00:06:38.360 weren't they? It wasn't about faith. It was about, 00:06:38.360 --> 00:06:41.860 like, collecting sources of power. It was. Kublai 00:06:41.860 --> 00:06:44.180 basically wanted to know if the Christian God 00:06:44.180 --> 00:06:47.079 had any juice he could tap into. So he gives 00:06:47.079 --> 00:06:49.800 Niccolo and Maffeo a mission. He sends them back 00:06:49.800 --> 00:06:52.500 to Europe as his ambassadors. And he has a very 00:06:52.500 --> 00:06:55.639 specific... shopping list. A very specific one. 00:06:55.680 --> 00:06:57.959 He says, go back to your pope and bring me 100 00:06:57.959 --> 00:07:02.060 educated Christians. 100. He wanted a whole academic 00:07:02.060 --> 00:07:04.860 exchange program. He wanted men acquainted with 00:07:04.860 --> 00:07:07.519 the seven arts who could argue logically that 00:07:07.519 --> 00:07:09.879 Christianity was the best religion. He wanted 00:07:09.879 --> 00:07:12.879 scientists, theologians, engineers. And as a 00:07:12.879 --> 00:07:15.459 bonus, he asked for a vial of oil from the lamp 00:07:15.459 --> 00:07:17.740 of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. So Niccolo 00:07:17.740 --> 00:07:20.120 Maffeo, being good merchants who want to keep 00:07:20.120 --> 00:07:22.540 the most powerful man in the world happy, they 00:07:22.540 --> 00:07:24.649 say, sure. thing, boss, and they trek all the 00:07:24.649 --> 00:07:27.430 way back. They get back to Venice around 1269, 00:07:27.550 --> 00:07:30.649 and Niccolo finds out his wife has died in his 00:07:30.649 --> 00:07:33.509 absence. But he also finds out he has a son he 00:07:33.509 --> 00:07:36.230 has never met, a 15 -year -old kid named Marco. 00:07:36.589 --> 00:07:39.410 Imagine that first meeting. Hi, son. I'm your 00:07:39.410 --> 00:07:41.910 dad. I've been in Mongolia for your entire life. 00:07:41.970 --> 00:07:44.319 Now pack a bag, kid. We're going back. But they 00:07:44.319 --> 00:07:48.019 hit a huge, huge snag almost immediately. What 00:07:48.019 --> 00:07:50.939 historians call the Pope problem. Oh, right. 00:07:51.100 --> 00:07:54.100 The longest game of musical chairs in the history 00:07:54.100 --> 00:07:56.620 of the Vatican. Pretty much. Pope Clement the 00:07:56.620 --> 00:08:00.269 Firth had died in 1268. The Polos arrive back 00:08:00.269 --> 00:08:02.569 in Europe in 69, expecting to meet the pope, 00:08:02.709 --> 00:08:04.990 get the letters, get the hundred men, and go. 00:08:05.370 --> 00:08:07.990 But the cardinals can't agree on a successor. 00:08:08.389 --> 00:08:11.290 There's this massive political infighting. And 00:08:11.290 --> 00:08:14.230 it drags on. This becomes the longest sede vicante, 00:08:14.329 --> 00:08:16.410 the longest period without a pope in the history 00:08:16.410 --> 00:08:19.230 of the church. The Polos are stuck in Italy just 00:08:19.230 --> 00:08:22.569 waiting. For two years. Can you imagine the frustration? 00:08:22.649 --> 00:08:24.370 They're holding the golden ticket to the biggest 00:08:24.370 --> 00:08:26.410 market in the world, and they're stuck in a waiting 00:08:26.410 --> 00:08:28.829 room because of Vatican politics. Finally, in 00:08:28.829 --> 00:08:31.430 1271, they just give up. They say, we can't wait 00:08:31.430 --> 00:08:34.090 anymore. The Khan will think we're liars. So 00:08:34.090 --> 00:08:35.870 they decide to head back on their own. And they 00:08:35.870 --> 00:08:38.440 take 17 -year -old Marco with them. They do manage 00:08:38.440 --> 00:08:40.919 to get some official letters from a papal legate 00:08:40.919 --> 00:08:44.240 in Acre named Teobaldo Visconti, who wishes them 00:08:44.240 --> 00:08:47.460 well, and they even convince two Dominican friars 00:08:47.460 --> 00:08:49.820 to come along as a sort of down payment on the 00:08:49.820 --> 00:08:52.179 hundred men Kublai asked for. Yeah, this is a 00:08:52.179 --> 00:08:54.279 bit of a downgrade, isn't it? Yeah. We couldn't 00:08:54.279 --> 00:08:57.139 get you 100 PhDs, but here are two friars. And 00:08:57.139 --> 00:08:59.500 it gets even worse. As soon as their little caravan 00:08:59.500 --> 00:09:01.580 hits a war zone in the Near East, there was a 00:09:01.580 --> 00:09:04.539 Mamluk invasion going on. The two friars get 00:09:04.539 --> 00:09:07.100 terrified. They bail? They completely bail. They 00:09:07.100 --> 00:09:08.980 hand the papal letters back to the polos and 00:09:08.980 --> 00:09:10.940 say, nope, we're out. They just run back to the 00:09:10.940 --> 00:09:13.240 coast. So much for the great missionary expedition. 00:09:13.679 --> 00:09:15.960 So now it's just the three of them, Niccolo, 00:09:16.059 --> 00:09:19.019 Maffeo, and teenage Marco, setting out on this 00:09:19.019 --> 00:09:21.620 insane journey. And it is insane. It's not a 00:09:21.620 --> 00:09:24.799 luxury cruise. They sail to Acre, then they ride 00:09:24.799 --> 00:09:27.299 camels down to Hormuz on the Persian Gulf. The 00:09:27.299 --> 00:09:29.080 plan was to sail to China from there, right? 00:09:29.159 --> 00:09:31.600 That was the plan. But when they get to Hormuz 00:09:31.600 --> 00:09:35.840 and they actually see the ships, Marco is horrified. 00:09:36.039 --> 00:09:38.019 He calls them wretched. He says they were built 00:09:38.019 --> 00:09:40.240 without nails, just stitched together with coconut 00:09:40.240 --> 00:09:42.919 fiber tine. And they were covered in pitch, but 00:09:42.919 --> 00:09:45.879 they had no decks. They were just open to the 00:09:45.879 --> 00:09:47.779 elements. He looks at these things and basically 00:09:47.779 --> 00:09:49.919 says, there is no way I'm getting on one of those 00:09:49.919 --> 00:09:52.299 death traps. So they decide to walk. They decide 00:09:52.299 --> 00:09:55.440 to take the overland route, the Silk Road, through 00:09:55.440 --> 00:09:58.519 Persia, Afghanistan, over the Pamir Mountains, 00:09:58.820 --> 00:10:01.700 the roof of the world, and across the Gobi Desert. 00:10:02.059 --> 00:10:04.080 And this is incredibly dangerous. I mean, we're 00:10:04.080 --> 00:10:06.960 talking about bandit country. Oh, yeah. Marco 00:10:06.960 --> 00:10:09.590 himself writes about an attack. They were in 00:10:09.590 --> 00:10:12.950 a sandstorm, and a band of robbers, he calls 00:10:12.950 --> 00:10:15.769 them marauders, attacked their caravan in the 00:10:15.769 --> 00:10:18.370 confusion. And he says they only escaped because 00:10:18.370 --> 00:10:21.070 of the dust and the dark. They managed to get 00:10:21.070 --> 00:10:23.730 away to a nearby town, but many of the people 00:10:23.730 --> 00:10:25.649 traveling with them were killed or enslaved. 00:10:26.090 --> 00:10:28.909 This is his education. He's a young man, barely 00:10:28.909 --> 00:10:31.590 out of his teens, and he's seeing people murdered 00:10:31.590 --> 00:10:33.309 and sold into slavery right in front of him. 00:10:33.509 --> 00:10:35.529 This is what forges him. It takes them three 00:10:35.529 --> 00:10:37.269 and a half years to get to Kublai Khan's court. 00:10:37.370 --> 00:10:39.970 Three and a half years. He leaves Venice a boy 00:10:39.970 --> 00:10:43.809 of 17. He arrives in China, a man of 21. He has 00:10:43.809 --> 00:10:46.399 grown up on the road. And when they finally arrive 00:10:46.399 --> 00:10:48.960 at the Summer Palace in Chengdu, the legendary 00:10:48.960 --> 00:10:51.960 Xanadu Marco isn't just some merchant's kid anymore. 00:10:52.100 --> 00:10:55.659 He's a survivor. He's worldly. Which is the perfect 00:10:55.659 --> 00:10:59.100 lead -in to Section 2, life in the court of the 00:10:59.100 --> 00:11:01.139 Khan. This is where the story really takes off. 00:11:01.259 --> 00:11:03.980 Because Kublai Khan seems to just immediately 00:11:03.980 --> 00:11:06.600 take a shine to Marco, right? There's this incredible 00:11:06.600 --> 00:11:11.110 bromance that develops. Why? What did the Khan 00:11:11.110 --> 00:11:14.769 see in this Venetian kid? I think it's a combination 00:11:14.769 --> 00:11:16.669 of things. First, you have to understand the 00:11:16.669 --> 00:11:19.129 political context. Kublai was a Mongol ruler 00:11:19.129 --> 00:11:22.330 trying to govern a massive ancient Chinese civilization. 00:11:22.830 --> 00:11:24.350 And he didn't really trust the local Chinese 00:11:24.350 --> 00:11:26.690 officials. Not entirely. The Chinese scholar 00:11:26.690 --> 00:11:29.669 bureaucrats, their loyalty was always complicated. 00:11:30.029 --> 00:11:32.389 Their first loyalty was to Chinese culture, not 00:11:32.389 --> 00:11:35.190 necessarily to their Mongol conquerors. So Kublai 00:11:35.190 --> 00:11:37.190 had a policy of appointing foreigners to high 00:11:37.190 --> 00:11:39.289 positions. The perfect independent contract. 00:11:39.370 --> 00:11:42.389 No local ties, no family allegiances. Exactly. 00:11:42.549 --> 00:11:45.250 Their only loyalty was to him, the man who gave 00:11:45.250 --> 00:11:48.009 them their power. And Marco fit that bill perfectly. 00:11:48.330 --> 00:11:51.049 But he also had a specific skill set. Languages. 00:11:51.049 --> 00:11:53.629 The text says he knew four of them. We're not 00:11:53.629 --> 00:11:55.870 sure which ones, but probably Persian, which 00:11:55.870 --> 00:11:59.649 was the lingua franca of the Silk Road, and Mongolian, 00:11:59.649 --> 00:12:02.789 maybe some Turkic languages. Interestingly, not 00:12:02.789 --> 00:12:05.860 much Latin. And it's debated if he ever really 00:12:05.860 --> 00:12:08.279 learned to read Chinese characters. Right. But 00:12:08.279 --> 00:12:10.580 he could communicate verbally with almost anyone 00:12:10.580 --> 00:12:13.679 in the vast multicultural empire. And this made 00:12:13.679 --> 00:12:16.779 him incredibly useful to the Khan. So Kublai 00:12:16.779 --> 00:12:19.080 starts sending him out as his personal emissary, 00:12:19.100 --> 00:12:21.559 his special envoy. He does. But there's another 00:12:21.559 --> 00:12:24.120 reason Kublai liked him so much. It was Marco's 00:12:24.120 --> 00:12:26.179 personality. He wasn't boring. He wasn't boring. 00:12:26.500 --> 00:12:28.919 Marco noticed that when other officials returned 00:12:28.919 --> 00:12:31.639 from missions, they'd give these dry bureaucratic 00:12:31.639 --> 00:12:34.720 reports. The tax revenue from this province is 00:12:34.720 --> 00:12:37.940 X. The rice harvest was Y. Smuse fest. Kublai 00:12:37.940 --> 00:12:39.820 was bored stiff. He wanted to know about his 00:12:39.820 --> 00:12:41.740 empire. What do the people do? What are their 00:12:41.740 --> 00:12:44.200 strange customs? What weird animals live there? 00:12:44.379 --> 00:12:46.659 So Marco becomes a storyteller. He becomes a 00:12:46.659 --> 00:12:48.740 journalist. He goes on these missions to what 00:12:48.740 --> 00:12:52.000 is now Myanmar, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, 00:12:52.120 --> 00:12:54.960 Vietnam. And he comes back with fascinating details. 00:12:55.220 --> 00:12:58.080 He comes back with stories. He entertained the 00:12:58.080 --> 00:13:01.149 Khan. He made himself indispensable not just 00:13:01.149 --> 00:13:04.730 as an administrator, but as the emperor's eyes 00:13:04.730 --> 00:13:07.470 and ears on the strange and wonderful fringes 00:13:07.470 --> 00:13:09.809 of his own domain. And this brings us to the 00:13:09.809 --> 00:13:12.669 marvels. The stuff he saw that just must have 00:13:12.669 --> 00:13:15.549 blown his European mind. It's like a 13th century 00:13:15.549 --> 00:13:18.549 man visiting the 21st century. The technological 00:13:18.549 --> 00:13:22.169 and social gap was immense. Let's start with 00:13:22.169 --> 00:13:25.330 the big one. Paper money. This is huge. For a 00:13:25.330 --> 00:13:28.690 European, money was gold or silver. It had to 00:13:28.690 --> 00:13:30.850 have intrinsic value. A coin was worth the metal 00:13:30.850 --> 00:13:33.269 it was made from. Right. Marco gets to China 00:13:33.269 --> 00:13:36.409 and sees people using pieces of paper made from 00:13:36.409 --> 00:13:39.669 the bark of the mulberry tree as currency. He 00:13:39.669 --> 00:13:41.590 describes the whole process in incredible detail. 00:13:41.789 --> 00:13:43.629 Like how they stamp it with a cons vermilion 00:13:43.629 --> 00:13:46.370 seal. Exactly. And how if it gets worn out, you 00:13:46.370 --> 00:13:48.669 can trade it in for a new one. To him, it was 00:13:48.669 --> 00:13:51.389 like alchemy. He understood that the Khan's authority 00:13:51.389 --> 00:13:54.049 was so absolute that he could literally create 00:13:54.049 --> 00:13:57.269 value out of thin air. It was a level of centralized 00:13:57.269 --> 00:13:59.529 economic control that Europe wouldn't see for 00:13:59.529 --> 00:14:01.169 centuries. And then there's the black stones 00:14:01.169 --> 00:14:03.950 that burn. He sees people digging these black 00:14:03.950 --> 00:14:06.629 rocks out of the ground and using them for fuel. 00:14:07.009 --> 00:14:09.929 He writes they burn better than wood and hold 00:14:09.929 --> 00:14:12.419 a heat all night. And again, you have to put 00:14:12.419 --> 00:14:15.320 yourself in his shoes. Venice was powered by 00:14:15.320 --> 00:14:18.120 wood. China had such a large population that 00:14:18.120 --> 00:14:20.539 they had a deforestation problem even back then. 00:14:20.919 --> 00:14:23.799 Coal was the solution. It powered their public 00:14:23.799 --> 00:14:27.460 bathhouses, their industries. Marco saw it as 00:14:27.460 --> 00:14:29.799 a miracle. He also marveled at the postal system. 00:14:30.080 --> 00:14:32.360 The Yam. It was basically the Mongol Pony Express, 00:14:32.559 --> 00:14:35.000 but on a continental scale. Relay stations every 00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:37.820 25 or 30 miles with fresh horses ready to go. 00:14:37.960 --> 00:14:40.700 He said there was something like 200 ,000 horses 00:14:40.700 --> 00:14:43.559 dedicated to the system. A message could travel 00:14:43.559 --> 00:14:46.519 hundreds of miles in a single day. For a merchant 00:14:46.519 --> 00:14:48.740 like Marco, who was used to information traveling 00:14:48.740 --> 00:14:51.580 at the speed of a donkey, this was revolutionary. 00:14:52.039 --> 00:14:54.419 Okay, so he's describing all this amazing and 00:14:54.419 --> 00:14:56.899 accurate stuff, but we have to address the elephants 00:14:56.899 --> 00:14:59.389 in the room. Or maybe the Mongols in the room. 00:14:59.509 --> 00:15:02.629 The errors and exaggerations, yes. This is where 00:15:02.629 --> 00:15:04.950 the skeptics start to sharpen their knives. The 00:15:04.950 --> 00:15:07.809 big one is the siege of Shangyang. It is. In 00:15:07.809 --> 00:15:11.149 the book, Marco, or Rusticello, claims that the 00:15:11.149 --> 00:15:13.789 Polos were instrumental in helping the Mongols 00:15:13.789 --> 00:15:17.440 win this long, drawn -out siege. The story is 00:15:17.440 --> 00:15:19.419 that they introduced the Mongols to European 00:15:19.419 --> 00:15:22.559 -style catapults, these giant mangonels that 00:15:22.559 --> 00:15:24.700 could throw huge stones and break down the city 00:15:24.700 --> 00:15:27.080 walls. It's a great story. It makes the Polos 00:15:27.080 --> 00:15:29.539 look like war heroes, like military geniuses. 00:15:29.580 --> 00:15:32.519 But the timeline is completely wrong. The siege 00:15:32.519 --> 00:15:36.100 of Xianyang ended in 1273. And we know Marco 00:15:36.100 --> 00:15:39.039 and his family didn't arrive in China until 1274 00:15:39.039 --> 00:15:42.539 or 1275. He missed it by at least a year. And 00:15:42.539 --> 00:15:45.279 we know from... very specific Chinese and Persian 00:15:45.279 --> 00:15:48.320 records that the engineers who built those siege 00:15:48.320 --> 00:15:50.399 engines for the Mongols were actually Persians 00:15:50.399 --> 00:15:54.100 named Ismail and Ala al -Din, not Niccolo, Mafeo, 00:15:54.240 --> 00:15:58.029 and Marco Polo. Was he just lying? Oh. Or was 00:15:58.029 --> 00:15:59.529 it, you know, an embellishment? It's probably 00:15:59.529 --> 00:16:01.289 an embellishment. Maybe his father and uncle 00:16:01.289 --> 00:16:03.309 had offered some advice during their first trip, 00:16:03.350 --> 00:16:05.590 or maybe it was a story he heard and just inserted 00:16:05.590 --> 00:16:07.629 his family into it to make them sound more important. 00:16:08.129 --> 00:16:10.750 This kind of self -aggrandizement is pretty common 00:16:10.750 --> 00:16:12.769 in medieval travel writing. Then there's the 00:16:12.769 --> 00:16:15.769 other big claim, that he was the governor of 00:16:15.769 --> 00:16:18.769 the city of Yangzhou for three years. Yeah, that 00:16:18.769 --> 00:16:20.950 one's almost certainly a mistranslation or an 00:16:20.950 --> 00:16:24.590 exaggeration. The text says he ruled the city. 00:16:25.039 --> 00:16:28.080 But there is absolutely no record of a foreigner 00:16:28.080 --> 00:16:31.259 named Polo in the very detailed Chinese administrative 00:16:31.259 --> 00:16:33.960 lists of governors for that period. So what was 00:16:33.960 --> 00:16:36.639 he doing there? He was probably there and he 00:16:36.639 --> 00:16:39.419 likely held a position of some importance. The 00:16:39.419 --> 00:16:40.879 current theory is that he worked in the salt 00:16:40.879 --> 00:16:43.779 monopoly. The salt tax. A huge source of revenue 00:16:43.779 --> 00:16:48.000 for the empire. So a significant job, yes. A 00:16:48.000 --> 00:16:51.139 powerful official, maybe. But the actual governor 00:16:51.139 --> 00:16:54.179 of a major Chinese city. Almost certainly not. 00:16:54.320 --> 00:16:56.379 OK, so he's maybe puffing up his resume a little 00:16:56.379 --> 00:16:58.480 bit. We've all done that. But he did stay for 00:16:58.480 --> 00:17:00.919 17 years. That's a huge chunk of his life. It's 00:17:00.919 --> 00:17:02.840 a lifetime. And eventually they start to getting 00:17:02.840 --> 00:17:04.960 nervous. Kublai Khan is getting old. He's in 00:17:04.960 --> 00:17:07.279 his late 70s. He's suffering from gout. He's 00:17:07.279 --> 00:17:10.019 drinking heavily. His health is failing. And 00:17:10.019 --> 00:17:12.339 the polis know that their special protected status 00:17:12.339 --> 00:17:15.660 comes from him personally. Right. If he dies, 00:17:15.759 --> 00:17:18.390 his enemies at court. The ones who resent these 00:17:18.390 --> 00:17:21.670 privileged foreigners might turn on them. They 00:17:21.670 --> 00:17:23.869 could lose their fortune or even their lives. 00:17:24.269 --> 00:17:27.170 They need an exit strategy. But Kublai won't 00:17:27.170 --> 00:17:29.950 let them go. He likes them too much. He's like 00:17:29.950 --> 00:17:32.069 that boss who won't let you quit because you're 00:17:32.069 --> 00:17:33.710 the only one who knows how to fix the printer. 00:17:34.009 --> 00:17:36.650 He keeps saying no until a perfect opportunity 00:17:36.650 --> 00:17:40.130 arises. And this brings us to Section 3, The 00:17:40.130 --> 00:17:42.970 Long Way Home. This is such a great setup. It's 00:17:42.970 --> 00:17:45.589 like something out of a movie. A Mongol princess, 00:17:45.950 --> 00:17:48.920 Kukuchin, Needs an escort. She needs to be sent 00:17:48.920 --> 00:17:52.420 from China to Persia to marry the ruler there, 00:17:52.519 --> 00:17:55.519 the Ilkhan Argun. But the overland route, the 00:17:55.519 --> 00:17:58.140 Silk Road, is blocked by wars between different 00:17:58.140 --> 00:18:00.380 Mongol factions. It's too dangerous. So they 00:18:00.380 --> 00:18:02.579 have to go by sea. And who are the most experienced 00:18:02.579 --> 00:18:05.160 sailors in the Mongol court? The Venetians. The 00:18:05.160 --> 00:18:07.960 Venetians. Kublai finally relents. He realizes 00:18:07.960 --> 00:18:10.319 this is the safest way to get the princess to 00:18:10.319 --> 00:18:12.519 her destination. And it's a way to grant the 00:18:12.519 --> 00:18:15.539 Polo's wish. So he gives them a fleet of 14 massive 00:18:15.539 --> 00:18:18.839 Chinese junks. This is around 1291. They set 00:18:18.839 --> 00:18:21.579 off on this epic sea voyage. And it is absolutely 00:18:21.579 --> 00:18:24.440 terrifying. The journey takes two years. They 00:18:24.440 --> 00:18:26.880 sail through the South China Sea. They get held 00:18:26.880 --> 00:18:29.339 up in Sumatra for months waiting for the monsoons 00:18:29.339 --> 00:18:31.859 to change. They cross the Indian Ocean. The death 00:18:31.859 --> 00:18:34.930 toll is just staggering. Marco says that 600 00:18:34.930 --> 00:18:37.170 people started the voyage, not including the 00:18:37.170 --> 00:18:39.329 regular crew. This is the princess's entourage, 00:18:39.609 --> 00:18:42.109 the ambassadors, the servants. And by the time 00:18:42.109 --> 00:18:44.369 the fleet finally reaches Hormuz in Persia two 00:18:44.369 --> 00:18:47.569 years later, only 18 of those passengers are 00:18:47.569 --> 00:18:50.869 still alive. 18 out of 600. It's a horror story 00:18:50.869 --> 00:18:55.970 at sea. Disease, storms, scurvy, maybe pirate 00:18:55.970 --> 00:18:58.609 attacks. We don't know the details. But the three, 00:18:58.730 --> 00:19:02.970 Polos Niccolo, Maffeo, and Marco. They all survive. 00:19:03.210 --> 00:19:05.769 They are just indestructible. They deliver the 00:19:05.769 --> 00:19:08.250 princess. Fun fact, the guy she was supposed 00:19:08.250 --> 00:19:09.990 to marry had actually died while they were at 00:19:09.990 --> 00:19:11.970 sea, so she ends up marrying his son instead. 00:19:12.309 --> 00:19:14.289 And then the Polos finally make their way back 00:19:14.289 --> 00:19:17.450 to Venice. They arrive in 1295. They've been 00:19:17.450 --> 00:19:19.950 gone for 24 years. And there's this fantastic 00:19:19.950 --> 00:19:22.730 legend about their return, isn't there? Oh, it's 00:19:22.730 --> 00:19:25.109 a great story. They show up at the family home 00:19:25.109 --> 00:19:27.809 and they look like hobos. They're dressed in 00:19:27.809 --> 00:19:30.470 these ragged Mongol clothes. They speak Venetian 00:19:30.470 --> 00:19:33.069 with a funny accent. Their own relatives don't 00:19:33.069 --> 00:19:35.190 recognize them. They think they're imposters. 00:19:35.289 --> 00:19:38.430 They do. So the Polos, to prove who they are, 00:19:38.509 --> 00:19:41.170 throw this huge banquet. And at the end of the 00:19:41.170 --> 00:19:43.170 meal, they bring out their tattered traveling 00:19:43.170 --> 00:19:46.390 coats, take knives, and rip open the seams. And 00:19:46.390 --> 00:19:50.210 out pours a river of gemstones. Rubies, sapphires, 00:19:50.250 --> 00:19:53.269 diamonds, emeralds. The fortune they'd sewn into 00:19:53.269 --> 00:19:55.049 their clothes before they left China. It's the 00:19:55.049 --> 00:19:58.069 most Venetian way to prove your identity imaginable. 00:19:58.210 --> 00:20:01.869 Look at my net worth! We're back, baby! But Marco's 00:20:01.869 --> 00:20:04.609 adventure isn't over, because just a few years 00:20:04.609 --> 00:20:07.329 after he gets home, he's back in trouble. Vaness 00:20:07.329 --> 00:20:10.210 goes to war with Genoa again. Marco, now a wealthy 00:20:10.210 --> 00:20:12.349 and experienced man, commands a galley in the 00:20:12.349 --> 00:20:14.309 Venetian fleet. He probably paid for it himself 00:20:14.309 --> 00:20:16.650 with those gems. Very likely. And he gets captured. 00:20:17.150 --> 00:20:19.390 And he ends up right back where we started our 00:20:19.390 --> 00:20:22.130 story in that Genoese prison cell. With Rasticello 00:20:22.130 --> 00:20:25.329 di Pisa. And we really have to talk about Rasticello 00:20:25.329 --> 00:20:27.589 because he is the filter through which we get 00:20:27.589 --> 00:20:30.049 this entire story. He's the co -author. Romance 00:20:30.049 --> 00:20:33.529 novelist. Romance novelist who writes in a sort 00:20:33.529 --> 00:20:36.930 of Franco -Italian dialect, the language of chivalry 00:20:36.930 --> 00:20:39.529 and courtly literature. So you have Marco, the 00:20:39.529 --> 00:20:42.250 pragmatic merchant, dictating his story. Probably 00:20:42.250 --> 00:20:45.809 in very dry terms. The city of Suzu has 6 ,000 00:20:45.809 --> 00:20:49.289 bridges. They produce much silk. And Rusticello's 00:20:49.289 --> 00:20:51.630 sitting there thinking, this needs more flair. 00:20:51.670 --> 00:20:54.190 This needs more drama. Exactly. He's spicing 00:20:54.190 --> 00:20:57.190 it up. The opening of the book, the prologue, 00:20:57.190 --> 00:20:59.849 is lifted almost directly from one of Rusticello's 00:20:59.849 --> 00:21:03.450 King Arthur novels. He addresses emperors and 00:21:03.450 --> 00:21:06.990 kings, dukes and marquises. He's setting a very 00:21:06.990 --> 00:21:09.869 specific romantic tone. It's a marketing tactic. 00:21:09.950 --> 00:21:12.049 He's packaging Marco's travelogue like a bestseller. 00:21:12.170 --> 00:21:15.230 He is. And it worked. The book became a sensation. 00:21:15.369 --> 00:21:17.670 It was copied by hand and translated into numerous 00:21:17.670 --> 00:21:19.930 languages. It was the most influential account 00:21:19.930 --> 00:21:23.950 of the East for centuries. But because of Rusticello's 00:21:23.950 --> 00:21:26.190 style and because the content was so unbelievable, 00:21:26.569 --> 00:21:28.769 many people just assumed it was fiction. They 00:21:28.769 --> 00:21:31.990 called it Il Milione. Which brings us right to 00:21:31.990 --> 00:21:34.869 the heart of it. Section four, the deep dive. 00:21:35.609 --> 00:21:38.789 Did he actually go? Because even today, there 00:21:38.789 --> 00:21:40.730 are respected scholars like Francis Wood, who 00:21:40.730 --> 00:21:43.369 wrote a whole book arguing that he probably didn't. 00:21:43.369 --> 00:21:45.609 Right. So let's lay out the skeptics case. It's 00:21:45.609 --> 00:21:48.069 compelling and it relies heavily on emissions. 00:21:48.170 --> 00:21:50.829 The things Marco didn't mention. OK, what's exhibit 00:21:50.829 --> 00:21:53.789 A? The Great Wall of China. I mean, that's a 00:21:53.789 --> 00:21:55.390 big one. It's the most famous landmark in the 00:21:55.390 --> 00:21:58.849 country. How do you spend 17 years in China and 00:21:58.849 --> 00:22:01.359 not notice the Great Wall? A very fair question. 00:22:01.539 --> 00:22:04.079 Then there's tea. He's there for nearly two decades 00:22:04.079 --> 00:22:07.200 and never once mentions the national drink. Or 00:22:07.200 --> 00:22:09.940 chopsticks, how people eat. Or foot binding, 00:22:10.220 --> 00:22:12.400 the custom of binding women's feet to keep them 00:22:12.400 --> 00:22:15.559 small. Or even in Chinese writing. He talks about 00:22:15.559 --> 00:22:17.900 languages, but he never describes the character 00:22:17.900 --> 00:22:20.279 -based writing system. The skeptics say these 00:22:20.279 --> 00:22:22.599 omissions are just too glaring. So what's their 00:22:22.599 --> 00:22:25.160 theory? That he just got as far as a trading 00:22:25.160 --> 00:22:27.720 post on the Black Sea and cobbled the rest together 00:22:27.720 --> 00:22:29.839 from stories he heard from Persian merchants. 00:22:30.160 --> 00:22:32.940 That is precisely the theory. That he was a great 00:22:32.940 --> 00:22:35.759 listener, but not a great traveler. Okay, so 00:22:35.759 --> 00:22:38.099 let's hear the rebuttal. Because this is where 00:22:38.099 --> 00:22:40.640 it gets really, really interesting, the aha moments. 00:22:40.880 --> 00:22:43.980 Let's start with the wall. The Great Wall, the 00:22:43.980 --> 00:22:47.019 massive stone fortification that we see on postcards 00:22:47.019 --> 00:22:49.799 today snaking over the mountains, that was built 00:22:49.799 --> 00:22:52.720 by the Ming Dynasty. Which came after the Mongols 00:22:52.720 --> 00:22:55.640 were kicked out. Centuries after Marco Polo, 00:22:55.640 --> 00:22:57.740 in Marco's time during the Mongol Yuan Dynasty. 00:22:58.380 --> 00:23:01.319 The wall was mostly a collection of much older 00:23:01.319 --> 00:23:04.779 dilapidated earthworks, mounds of dirt. And more 00:23:04.779 --> 00:23:07.160 importantly, the Mongols controlled the territory 00:23:07.160 --> 00:23:10.119 on both sides of it. Exactly. It had no military 00:23:10.119 --> 00:23:12.359 or strategic purpose anymore. It was a ruin. 00:23:12.460 --> 00:23:14.480 So he didn't mention it because it wasn't the 00:23:14.480 --> 00:23:16.660 Great Wall yet. It just wasn't that impressive. 00:23:16.980 --> 00:23:18.940 Okay, that makes a lot of sense. One point for 00:23:18.940 --> 00:23:21.500 Marco. What about foot binding? Two things on 00:23:21.500 --> 00:23:24.319 that. First, foot binding was a custom primarily 00:23:24.319 --> 00:23:27.440 of the Han Chinese elite. Marco spent most of 00:23:27.440 --> 00:23:29.619 his time in the Mongol court and with other foreigners. 00:23:29.900 --> 00:23:32.380 The Mongols did not practice foot binding. In 00:23:32.380 --> 00:23:34.900 fact, they thought it was grotesque. So he was 00:23:34.900 --> 00:23:37.140 kind of in a social bubble. He was hanging with 00:23:37.140 --> 00:23:39.700 the ruling class, not necessarily observing all 00:23:39.700 --> 00:23:41.420 the customs of the conquered people. He was. 00:23:41.819 --> 00:23:44.940 But here's the crucial part. In one of the alternate 00:23:44.940 --> 00:23:47.240 manuscripts of his book, the Toledo Manuscript, 00:23:47.420 --> 00:23:50.200 he does make a comment about the dainty walk 00:23:50.200 --> 00:23:53.599 of Chinese women, noting how they take very tiny, 00:23:53.720 --> 00:23:56.839 mincing steps. So he saw the result, even if 00:23:56.839 --> 00:23:59.220 he didn't understand or describe the cause. Precisely. 00:23:59.220 --> 00:24:01.680 He noticed the effect. Okay, what's next? Tea. 00:24:01.839 --> 00:24:04.359 Tea. That one's a bit trickier. Tea was certainly 00:24:04.359 --> 00:24:06.680 popular in southern China, but in the north, 00:24:06.819 --> 00:24:09.579 in the Mongol court, their preferred drink was 00:24:09.579 --> 00:24:13.170 kumis, which is fermented mare's milk. It's an 00:24:13.170 --> 00:24:16.069 acquired taste. And interestingly, other European 00:24:16.069 --> 00:24:18.289 travelers of that era who definitely went to 00:24:18.289 --> 00:24:20.509 China, like the missionary Oduric of Cordonone, 00:24:20.630 --> 00:24:24.430 also fail to mention tea. It's a weird omission 00:24:24.430 --> 00:24:27.069 for all of them, but it's not a smoking gun against 00:24:27.069 --> 00:24:29.849 Polo specifically. Okay, so we've defended against 00:24:29.849 --> 00:24:32.049 the omissions, but you mentioned there's killer 00:24:32.049 --> 00:24:34.710 evidence, positive proof that he was there. Yes. 00:24:35.240 --> 00:24:37.599 And this comes from the work of the German sinologist 00:24:37.599 --> 00:24:40.839 Hans Ulrich Vogel, who decided to ignore the 00:24:40.839 --> 00:24:42.839 adventure stories and focus on the boring stuff. 00:24:43.000 --> 00:24:46.279 The numbers, the economics. Exactly. The stuff 00:24:46.279 --> 00:24:48.559 Rusticello probably wanted to cut out of the 00:24:48.559 --> 00:24:52.019 book. Marco describes, in painstaking detail, 00:24:52.339 --> 00:24:54.779 the production of salt in various parts of China. 00:24:55.420 --> 00:24:58.319 Salt was a state monopoly and a massive source 00:24:58.319 --> 00:25:01.599 of revenue for the Khan. Okay. He provides specific 00:25:01.599 --> 00:25:04.099 figures on the revenues from the salt tax in 00:25:04.099 --> 00:25:07.160 cities like Changlu and Yangzhou. He describes 00:25:07.160 --> 00:25:09.660 the specific shapes and sizes of the paper money 00:25:09.660 --> 00:25:12.480 and the official seals used on them. He talks 00:25:12.480 --> 00:25:14.660 about the exchange rates between paper money 00:25:14.660 --> 00:25:17.619 and cowrie shells used as currency in the province 00:25:17.619 --> 00:25:20.119 of Yunnan. These are very, very specific details. 00:25:20.339 --> 00:25:22.079 Incredibly specific. And here's the bombshell. 00:25:22.240 --> 00:25:25.029 When Vogel compared Marco's figures and descriptions 00:25:25.029 --> 00:25:27.849 to internal Yuan dynasty administrative documents, 00:25:28.069 --> 00:25:29.910 Chinese government records that were unknown 00:25:29.910 --> 00:25:32.769 in the West until the 20th century, they matched. 00:25:32.930 --> 00:25:35.630 The numbers lined up. He knew things about the 00:25:35.630 --> 00:25:37.410 internal administration of the salt monopoly 00:25:37.410 --> 00:25:40.009 that no foreign merchant just passing through 00:25:40.009 --> 00:25:43.009 could possibly have known. You couldn't get this 00:25:43.009 --> 00:25:45.910 information from a Persian guidebook. You had 00:25:45.910 --> 00:25:48.829 to have been there, on the inside, talking to 00:25:48.829 --> 00:25:50.940 the officials who ran the system. That gives 00:25:50.940 --> 00:25:52.940 me chills. That's the receipt. That's the proof 00:25:52.940 --> 00:25:55.339 of purchase for the whole trip. It is the strongest 00:25:55.339 --> 00:25:58.180 piece of evidence we have. It's what has convinced 00:25:58.180 --> 00:26:01.420 most modern historians. Is there anything else, 00:26:01.480 --> 00:26:04.900 any mention of him in the Chinese records? There 00:26:04.900 --> 00:26:07.640 is a tantalizing clue. The official history of 00:26:07.640 --> 00:26:10.059 the Yuan dynasty mentions a court official by 00:26:10.059 --> 00:26:13.630 the name of Boluo. Polo? Boluo. Close enough. 00:26:13.809 --> 00:26:16.450 It's a plausible Chinese transliteration. For 00:26:16.450 --> 00:26:18.750 a long time, scholars dismissed it as a common 00:26:18.750 --> 00:26:21.589 Mongol name. But recently, research has shown 00:26:21.589 --> 00:26:23.650 that this particular Balua was involved in an 00:26:23.650 --> 00:26:25.450 incident and was moved to different posts at 00:26:25.450 --> 00:26:27.549 dates that align surprisingly well with Marco 00:26:27.549 --> 00:26:30.230 Polo's own accounts of his movements. So it could 00:26:30.230 --> 00:26:32.750 be him. It could be him. It's not definitive 00:26:32.750 --> 00:26:35.309 proof, but it's another piece of the puzzle that 00:26:35.309 --> 00:26:37.970 fits. Okay. So the verdict from the historical 00:26:37.970 --> 00:26:41.650 community today is he went. Overwhelmingly, yes. 00:26:42.299 --> 00:26:45.259 The consensus is that he went. He may have exaggerated 00:26:45.259 --> 00:26:47.900 his own importance and his storyteller may have 00:26:47.900 --> 00:26:50.440 added some flair, but the core of the journey 00:26:50.440 --> 00:26:53.640 is true. He was there. Which brings us to our 00:26:53.640 --> 00:26:57.160 last section. Legacy, myths, and Il Milione. 00:26:58.000 --> 00:27:00.779 We've established he went, but we still need 00:27:00.779 --> 00:27:03.099 to bust that big myth we mentioned at the start. 00:27:03.140 --> 00:27:05.680 The pasta myth. Let's do it. I feel like we're 00:27:05.680 --> 00:27:07.279 about to break a lot of Italian grandmothers' 00:27:07.319 --> 00:27:10.420 hearts. Marco Polo did not bring pasta to Italy. 00:27:10.720 --> 00:27:13.480 He did not. Not even close. We have legal documents 00:27:13.480 --> 00:27:16.119 from Italy from the 12th and early 13th centuries 00:27:16.119 --> 00:27:18.680 before Marco was even born that mentioned pasta. 00:27:19.019 --> 00:27:22.079 The Arabs introduced durum wheat and the technique 00:27:22.079 --> 00:27:25.579 of making dried pasta to Sicily centuries earlier. 00:27:25.819 --> 00:27:28.680 And in his own book, when Marco describes a noodle 00:27:28.680 --> 00:27:31.359 like food he saw in China, he compares it to 00:27:31.359 --> 00:27:34.160 lasagna, which shows he already knew what that 00:27:34.160 --> 00:27:35.900 was. He knew what it was. He wasn't introducing 00:27:35.900 --> 00:27:38.490 a new concept. So where did this story come from? 00:27:38.509 --> 00:27:40.349 Why does literally everyone believe it? You're 00:27:40.349 --> 00:27:41.690 not going to believe this. It was an advertisement. 00:27:42.170 --> 00:27:46.069 Yes. In the 1920s, a trade publication in Canada 00:27:46.069 --> 00:27:48.789 called the Macaroni Journal ran a feature story 00:27:48.789 --> 00:27:51.930 to popularize pasta. They invented the story 00:27:51.930 --> 00:27:54.349 of Marco Polo discovering noodles and bringing 00:27:54.349 --> 00:27:57.210 them back to Italy. It was pure marketing. That 00:27:57.210 --> 00:28:00.130 is incredible. A piece of 1920s ad copy became 00:28:00.130 --> 00:28:02.650 one of the most famous facts in food history. 00:28:02.809 --> 00:28:06.829 And it stuck. But his real legacy, his real impact 00:28:06.829 --> 00:28:09.910 is so much bigger than noodles. It's about exploration. 00:28:10.430 --> 00:28:13.490 It's the maps. It's the maps. Before Polo, European 00:28:13.490 --> 00:28:16.589 maps of Asia were filled with fantasy. Here be 00:28:16.589 --> 00:28:19.309 dragons, the Garden of Eden, the lands of Gog 00:28:19.309 --> 00:28:22.130 and Magog. Biblical stuff. Right. Marker provided 00:28:22.130 --> 00:28:24.869 data. He gave place names, distances, descriptions 00:28:24.869 --> 00:28:27.410 of trade routes. This information was incorporated 00:28:27.410 --> 00:28:30.170 into world maps like the Fra Mauro map, which 00:28:30.170 --> 00:28:32.329 fundamentally changed how Europeans saw the world. 00:28:32.450 --> 00:28:34.569 And it directly... inspired a certain Genoese 00:28:34.569 --> 00:28:37.170 sailor about 200 years later. Christopher Columbus. 00:28:37.390 --> 00:28:40.269 Yeah. Columbus owned a personal, heavily annotated 00:28:40.269 --> 00:28:42.769 copy of Marco Polo's book. We still have it. 00:28:42.869 --> 00:28:45.230 It's in a museum in Seville, and the margins 00:28:45.230 --> 00:28:47.390 are filled with his handwritten notes. He was 00:28:47.390 --> 00:28:49.569 obsessed. He wasn't looking for a new world. 00:28:49.690 --> 00:28:53.170 He was looking for cafe. He was looking for the 00:28:53.170 --> 00:28:55.650 land of the great con that Marco described. He 00:28:55.650 --> 00:28:58.410 was. When Columbus landed in Cuba, he thought 00:28:58.410 --> 00:29:00.970 he was in Japan. He was carrying a letter from 00:29:00.970 --> 00:29:03.130 the king and queen of Spain. addressed to the 00:29:03.130 --> 00:29:06.009 Great Khan. He was asking the native people where 00:29:06.009 --> 00:29:08.890 he could find the golden -roofed palaces of Quinzai. 00:29:09.170 --> 00:29:11.210 He thought he was walking into Marco Polo's book. 00:29:11.410 --> 00:29:15.369 He did. So you can draw a direct line. A prisoner's 00:29:15.369 --> 00:29:17.690 stories, written down by a romance novelist, 00:29:17.730 --> 00:29:20.150 inspire the voyage that leads to the European 00:29:20.150 --> 00:29:23.150 discovery of the Americas. Without Polo, the 00:29:23.150 --> 00:29:24.809 Age of Discovery would have looked very, very 00:29:24.809 --> 00:29:26.930 different. That is a massive butterfly effect. 00:29:27.049 --> 00:29:29.589 It connects the whole world. So as we wrap up 00:29:29.589 --> 00:29:31.549 this deep dive, what's the big takeaway here? 00:29:31.869 --> 00:29:33.930 I think it's about how we understand truth and 00:29:33.930 --> 00:29:37.279 history. Marco Polo was a merchant. not a historian. 00:29:37.640 --> 00:29:40.359 He was pragmatic. He saw the world in terms of 00:29:40.359 --> 00:29:42.920 products, logistics and profit. But his story 00:29:42.920 --> 00:29:45.039 was told by a writer who was looking for flair, 00:29:45.200 --> 00:29:48.440 for romance, for a good yarn. And you get this 00:29:48.440 --> 00:29:51.180 hybrid of hard fact and fantastic storytelling. 00:29:51.519 --> 00:29:54.420 For centuries, people focused on the flair and 00:29:54.420 --> 00:29:57.359 called him a liar. But now with modern tools, 00:29:57.519 --> 00:30:00.559 we can dig underneath the story and see the bedrock 00:30:00.559 --> 00:30:03.680 of truth. He really was a witness to a world 00:30:03.680 --> 00:30:06.019 that Europe couldn't even comprehend. I have 00:30:06.019 --> 00:30:07.680 one final thought, a final piece of evidence 00:30:07.680 --> 00:30:10.279 I found that I think is just the coolest, most 00:30:10.279 --> 00:30:13.000 poetic proof that he was there. What for? The 00:30:13.000 --> 00:30:16.619 sack -shaped star. Ah, yes. Pietro de Bono. Exactly. 00:30:16.880 --> 00:30:19.180 So after Marco gets back to Venice, he has a 00:30:19.180 --> 00:30:20.799 conversation with this well -known philosopher 00:30:20.799 --> 00:30:23.980 and astrologer, Pietro de Bono. And in this conversation, 00:30:24.160 --> 00:30:27.220 Marco describes the sky as he saw it from the 00:30:27.220 --> 00:30:29.180 southern hemisphere, probably when his ship was 00:30:29.180 --> 00:30:31.480 near Sumatra. A sky that is completely invisible 00:30:31.480 --> 00:30:34.119 from Europe. Totally invisible from Venice. And 00:30:34.119 --> 00:30:36.759 he draws a picture for Pietro of something he 00:30:36.759 --> 00:30:39.980 saw. He describes it as being shaped like a sack 00:30:39.980 --> 00:30:42.259 with a large tail. And astronomers have looked 00:30:42.259 --> 00:30:45.460 at this. And they've realized he was almost certainly 00:30:45.460 --> 00:30:48.579 describing a comet that was seen in China and 00:30:48.579 --> 00:30:52.920 Indonesia in 1293. A comet that was not visible 00:30:52.920 --> 00:30:56.230 from Europe. He also describes what we now call 00:30:56.230 --> 00:30:59.349 the Magellanic Clouds, those dwarf galaxies you 00:30:59.349 --> 00:31:01.630 can only see from the south. And this detail 00:31:01.630 --> 00:31:04.349 is not in his book. That's the key. It's not 00:31:04.349 --> 00:31:06.210 in the book. He wasn't bragging about it to sell 00:31:06.210 --> 00:31:08.569 copies. It was just a quiet conversation he had 00:31:08.569 --> 00:31:10.750 with a scientist. Hey, you know, the sky looks 00:31:10.750 --> 00:31:14.029 different down there. It's the casual, unsensationalized 00:31:14.029 --> 00:31:16.750 detail that rings the most true. For me, that's 00:31:16.750 --> 00:31:20.309 the final proof. It's the detail he didn't embellish 00:31:20.309 --> 00:31:22.690 that proves he went the distance. He didn't just 00:31:22.690 --> 00:31:24.809 see a different part of the Earth. He saw a different 00:31:24.809 --> 00:31:27.069 part of the sky. And that is the perfect place 00:31:27.069 --> 00:31:29.549 to leave it. History is a puzzle. It's about 00:31:29.549 --> 00:31:32.710 sources and translation and perspective. And 00:31:32.710 --> 00:31:34.309 sometimes you have to look at the star charts 00:31:34.309 --> 00:31:36.410 to find the truth. Thanks for listening to this 00:31:36.410 --> 00:31:37.950 deep dive. We'll catch you on the next one.