WEBVTT NOTE A Man and His Family (Richard Cantillon) 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.000 I don't use PowerPoint. That's going to become obvious through the course of this lecture. 2 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:11.000 I also don't have any expertise on which to base this paper. 3 00:00:11.000 --> 00:00:15.000 I'm in a little bit of trouble, unlike Greg. 4 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:26.000 As some of you know, I've been researching and writing and publishing on the work of Richard Cantillon, 5 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:35.200 The first economic theorist, someone who basically created economic theory as we know it around 1730. 6 00:00:37.680 --> 00:00:43.200 Most of those articles that I've published have basically are there to support what Murray Rothbard 7 00:00:43.200 --> 00:00:48.560 wrote about or speculated about in terms of Richard Cantillon, in terms of his economics, 8 00:00:48.560 --> 00:00:54.880 his policies, his political outlook. Murray had to speculate a lot in his History of Economic Thought 9 00:00:54.880 --> 00:01:00.320 Book, and I basically went back and filled in the holes, provided the evidence, showed 10 00:01:00.320 --> 00:01:08.560 that basically Murray's hunches and beliefs in the absence of that information were correct. 11 00:01:08.560 --> 00:01:14.600 So I've been working on this about 15 years as one of my main research threads, and one 12 00:01:14.600 --> 00:01:20.420 of the things about Richard Cantillon is that he's a very mysterious character in the history 13 00:01:20.420 --> 00:01:27.180 of Economic Thought. We don't know when he was born. There are large gaps in his life 14 00:01:27.180 --> 00:01:33.540 where we don't really know much about what he was up to. He was supposedly murdered, 15 00:01:33.540 --> 00:01:42.260 but his biographer thinks that he staged the murder. I actually think he was assassinated. 16 00:01:42.260 --> 00:01:48.620 So there's a lot of mystery about this man. He was very secret, as most bankers would 17 00:01:48.620 --> 00:01:55.100 have been in that day. And one of the things that Richard Cantillon writers 18 00:01:55.100 --> 00:02:00.300 have in the back of their head is that there's no image of this man. There's no 19 00:02:00.300 --> 00:02:06.860 bust, there's no painting, there's no drawing of this man where, in fact, there 20 00:02:06.860 --> 00:02:14.100 should be. And so I took it upon myself as a hobby to see if I could track down 21 00:02:14.100 --> 00:02:20.780 down an image of Richard Cantillon and really got nowhere for a long period of time. 22 00:02:20.780 --> 00:02:27.220 And then one day, I walked into the Louvre, and I walked into one of the older sections 23 00:02:27.220 --> 00:02:32.260 of the Louvre called Le Lacrosse Collection. 24 00:02:32.260 --> 00:02:43.260 And the first thing I saw was this painting by a Parisian artist, Nicolas de Largier, and 25 00:02:43.260 --> 00:02:51.740 And I looked at it across the room and I got chills as a result. 26 00:02:51.740 --> 00:03:00.500 The reason I did was because Cantillon was married and had one child, a girl. 27 00:03:00.500 --> 00:03:06.060 And it would have been very unusual for a French-Parisian family to be limited to that 28 00:03:06.060 --> 00:03:07.660 sort of scenario. 29 00:03:07.660 --> 00:03:12.180 So the basic family construction was right. 30 00:03:12.180 --> 00:03:18.360 And then I walked over and saw the nameplate on the painting, the name of the artist, Nicolas 31 00:03:18.360 --> 00:03:26.760 Largier, and that was a key that set me off on this topic. 32 00:03:26.760 --> 00:03:33.140 So I'm going to go through a list of evidence that I used to try to reconstruct a case that 33 00:03:33.140 --> 00:03:37.820 that man right there on the left-hand side is actually Richard Cantio. 34 00:03:37.820 --> 00:03:43.300 Now when I first got to this question, I had absolutely no idea how to answer it. 35 00:03:43.300 --> 00:03:49.240 So I've been digging a lot of dry holes in this hobby, making a lot of mistakes, but making 36 00:03:49.240 --> 00:03:51.260 some progress as well. 37 00:03:51.260 --> 00:03:57.700 Now this artist that painted this painting was the most famous portrait artist in Paris 38 00:03:57.700 --> 00:03:59.780 at this time. 39 00:03:59.780 --> 00:04:05.060 Both Cantillon and Largier lived in Paris at the same time. 40 00:04:05.060 --> 00:04:10.980 actually lived pretty much in the same place. Cantillon's house was less than a 41 00:04:10.980 --> 00:04:18.820 mile from Largier's house. Cantillon worked in John Law's bank. Largier was a 42 00:04:18.820 --> 00:04:25.020 prominent customer in John Law's bank. Both had occasions to frequent the 43 00:04:25.020 --> 00:04:31.460 institution and I suggest that they probably knew one another. Cantillon's 44 00:04:31.460 --> 00:04:35.940 Mises' bibliographer claims that Cantillon had a taste for art. 45 00:04:35.940 --> 00:04:42.260 He put together art deals, and he had contacts in the world of art. 46 00:04:42.260 --> 00:04:47.260 And most prominent connection between Cantillon and Largier, which also gave me some more 47 00:04:47.260 --> 00:04:57.780 chills, was that this painting is the wedding portrait of Cantillon's wife, Marianne Cantillon. 48 00:04:57.780 --> 00:05:03.700 And this work was executed in around 1722. 49 00:05:03.700 --> 00:05:21.220 And so we have supposedly this person right here would have to be this person right here. 50 00:05:21.220 --> 00:05:26.460 The problem is they don't really look alike. 51 00:05:26.460 --> 00:05:33.140 The dating of the painting by the Louvre was originally 1710 or 1750. 52 00:05:33.140 --> 00:05:38.220 For this painting to be Richard Cantillon, his wife and his daughter, that wouldn't 53 00:05:38.220 --> 00:05:44.420 have been possible because Cantillon wasn't in Paris in 1710 and he wasn't even married 54 00:05:44.420 --> 00:05:46.380 in 1715. 55 00:05:46.380 --> 00:05:50.580 So that would rule out this portrait of the Cantillon. 56 00:05:50.580 --> 00:06:00.960 It would have to have been in the 1730s before he died in 1734. 57 00:06:00.960 --> 00:06:06.100 His daughter was born in 1726 or thereabouts. 58 00:06:06.100 --> 00:06:16.600 So by 1733, she would have been about five to seven years old, and a five to seven year 59 00:06:16.600 --> 00:06:24.600 The 30-year-old girl actually, looking up the statistics, is just slightly taller than an adult sitting down in a chair. 60 00:06:24.600 --> 00:06:30.600 So that would be perfect lining it up that she would have been five to seven years old. 61 00:06:30.600 --> 00:06:40.600 At that point in the early 1730s, Marianne would have been in her early to mid-30s, and Richard would have been in his upper 40s. 62 00:06:40.600 --> 00:06:48.400 Fortunately, looking through the art literature on this artist, I was able to find that three 63 00:06:48.400 --> 00:06:56.600 authors in 1974 rejected the traditional dating and identification of this painting, that 64 00:06:56.600 --> 00:07:02.800 it wasn't 1715, it wasn't the artist and his family, it was somebody else. 65 00:07:02.800 --> 00:07:12.920 And Rosenfeld in 1982 suggests that the time of this painting must have been after 1729 66 00:07:12.920 --> 00:07:19.760 because his style changed at that point and this painting reflects that new style. 67 00:07:19.760 --> 00:07:30.240 My contribution to that dating is rather bizarre, looking up French men's clothing trends. 68 00:07:30.240 --> 00:07:38.200 I found that after 1730 men started wearing a clasp around their stockings to hold them 69 00:07:38.200 --> 00:07:39.760 up. 70 00:07:39.760 --> 00:07:44.720 And so he's got that same clasp on his stocking so that the painting must have occurred after 71 00:07:44.720 --> 00:07:50.120 1730. 72 00:07:50.120 --> 00:07:57.420 Now as far another economic indicator is the expense of this painting. 73 00:07:57.420 --> 00:08:02.200 This was done by the most prominent portrait artist in Paris at the time he had actually 74 00:08:02.200 --> 00:08:07.800 painted the King and Queen of England and all the prominent officials in Paris and the 75 00:08:07.800 --> 00:08:10.380 church and so forth. 76 00:08:10.380 --> 00:08:12.600 This is a massive painting. 77 00:08:12.600 --> 00:08:17.660 It's two meters wide and one and a half meters high. 78 00:08:17.660 --> 00:08:20.640 That should be a question right there, question mark right there. 79 00:08:20.640 --> 00:08:23.300 So it's life-size painting. 80 00:08:23.300 --> 00:08:29.320 It's got three individuals in it, and every time you add an individual, it becomes progressively 81 00:08:29.320 --> 00:08:32.060 more and more expensive. 82 00:08:32.060 --> 00:08:37.360 So instead of a $100 one-person painting becoming a $200 two-person painting, it would actually 83 00:08:37.360 --> 00:08:39.920 be $300. 84 00:08:39.920 --> 00:08:46.280 So it's very expensive, and you can't see it necessarily, but all of the hands are revealed 85 00:08:46.280 --> 00:08:48.660 in this painting. 86 00:08:48.660 --> 00:08:51.480 And the hands were the most difficult things to paint. 87 00:08:51.480 --> 00:08:55.920 The actual artist himself had to paint the faces and the hands. 88 00:08:55.920 --> 00:09:00.280 The background could be done by other people in the studio. 89 00:09:00.280 --> 00:09:03.480 So this was an enormously expensive painting. 90 00:09:03.480 --> 00:09:07.800 But of course Cantillon, at the time, was one of the richest private individuals in 91 00:09:07.800 --> 00:09:08.800 the world. 92 00:09:08.800 --> 00:09:13.860 So he could easily afford the best, the biggest, and the most accurate portrait. 93 00:09:13.860 --> 00:09:19.380 Now Marianne, his wife, is the cause for doubt really here. 94 00:09:19.380 --> 00:09:24.940 There's no actual things in either portrait that would absolutely reject one from being 95 00:09:24.940 --> 00:09:26.500 the other. 96 00:09:26.500 --> 00:09:33.340 The hair color is different, but of course she's an Irish girl in this painting, she's 97 00:09:33.340 --> 00:09:41.440 a Parisian madam in this painting, and Parisian wealthy women grayed their hair, even the 98 00:09:41.440 --> 00:09:46.140 daughter has gray hair, and of course the men at the time wore those elaborate wool 99 00:09:46.140 --> 00:09:58.460 Wigs, and at the time it was the style in Paris was if you were wealthy married 100 00:09:58.460 --> 00:10:02.860 woman with children you were supposed to take on a very mature appearance 101 00:10:02.860 --> 00:10:10.980 therefore the gray hair the type of makeup that she uses in the pose. For 102 00:10:10.980 --> 00:10:19.140 For example, yeah, this is the artist's daughter when she got married at age 25. 103 00:10:19.140 --> 00:10:26.660 And notice the sort of the posture, the gray hair, and the makeup as well, make her look 104 00:10:26.660 --> 00:10:31.580 considerably older than her 24 and a half years of age. 105 00:10:31.580 --> 00:10:37.000 But again, the general appearance of this woman versus the general appearance of this 106 00:10:37.000 --> 00:10:38.000 This Woman. 107 00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:41.560 It's hard to believe that they could be the same person. 108 00:10:41.560 --> 00:10:46.240 As a matter of fact, Cantillon's biographer Murphy rejected the whole idea. 109 00:10:46.240 --> 00:10:53.160 He said, Mary Anne Cantillon was a beautiful woman and this lady is ugly. 110 00:10:53.160 --> 00:10:55.320 He wouldn't even read the paper. 111 00:10:55.320 --> 00:11:03.620 But of course, there's a period of time between 1722 and 1732, let's say, where she would 112 00:11:03.620 --> 00:11:05.920 have aged, she would have gained weight. 113 00:11:05.920 --> 00:11:12.920 Of course, if you're a wealthy person living in Paris at the time, and you don't have to do any work, you're going to gain a lot of weight. 114 00:11:12.920 --> 00:11:16.920 Believe me, I think I must have gained 10 pounds in Paris in two weeks. 115 00:11:16.920 --> 00:11:24.920 And her life was very stressful, too. Her husband was charged with crimes. 116 00:11:24.920 --> 00:11:29.920 She gave birth to two children, one of whom died. 117 00:11:29.920 --> 00:11:38.280 and so she had a very stressful life other than not having to do any house cleaning. 118 00:11:38.280 --> 00:11:43.600 So we took that original photograph and did some photoshopping on it. 119 00:11:43.600 --> 00:11:48.480 We gave her back her brown hair and we tightened up her chin. 120 00:11:48.480 --> 00:11:53.260 So she looks a little younger, a little better there and if you look up a close up on this 121 00:11:53.260 --> 00:11:54.820 This Person. 122 00:11:54.820 --> 00:12:01.820 You see that she actually does look young and relatively beautiful, much more so than 123 00:12:01.820 --> 00:12:04.860 that image that you're given from far back. 124 00:12:04.860 --> 00:12:13.940 And the reason this is, is that the position that she's in creates an optical illusion. 125 00:12:13.940 --> 00:12:18.780 When you're given a profile image of somebody, you're given, you're seeing a lot of distinctive 126 00:12:18.780 --> 00:12:22.140 features of that person's face. 127 00:12:22.140 --> 00:12:28.220 If you're given a front-on version, the only thing you really see is the eyeballs, really 128 00:12:28.220 --> 00:12:30.500 concentrating on the eyeballs. 129 00:12:30.500 --> 00:12:34.160 So the profile image is very rare. 130 00:12:34.160 --> 00:12:41.980 Only presidents and kings on coins and prisoners who are in jails are you given a profile image. 131 00:12:41.980 --> 00:12:46.260 So you can see the distinctive features of that person, okay? 132 00:12:46.260 --> 00:12:47.700 So that's very rare. 133 00:12:47.700 --> 00:12:51.300 It emphasizes differences. 134 00:12:51.300 --> 00:12:58.860 In the frontal view, beauty, the perception of beauty is based on symmetry, skin tone 135 00:12:58.860 --> 00:13:01.580 and averageness. 136 00:13:01.580 --> 00:13:06.460 Symmetry is the fact that your eyes are basically lined up with one another, that the shape 137 00:13:06.460 --> 00:13:10.900 of your head is lined up fairly well, that one side is pretty much the same as the other 138 00:13:10.900 --> 00:13:12.140 side. 139 00:13:12.140 --> 00:13:15.780 In profile, you don't see any symmetry. 140 00:13:15.780 --> 00:13:24.900 And if you don't see symmetry and you see distinctions instead, rather than averageness, 141 00:13:24.900 --> 00:13:29.380 for example, a small nose is not so beautiful, considered beautiful, a large nose is not 142 00:13:29.380 --> 00:13:36.200 considered beautiful, an average-sized nose is considered beautiful. 143 00:13:36.200 --> 00:13:42.380 But with the profile image that she's in right here, there's no symmetry, therefore our brain 144 00:13:42.380 --> 00:13:46.820 says there's no beauty and if our brain tells us there's no beauty it tells us 145 00:13:46.820 --> 00:13:51.100 other words that the person is not beautiful maybe ugly and to highlight 146 00:13:51.100 --> 00:14:02.060 this profile thing we can look at Ruben's Venus in a mirror in the top part 147 00:14:02.060 --> 00:14:10.660 of the frame please this person this this image is in profile this image is 148 00:14:10.660 --> 00:14:16.700 is frontal. I asked a dozen people which version they thought was more beautiful. They all 149 00:14:16.700 --> 00:14:24.260 picked that one. This is a portrait of Elizabeth Bonaparte, the tri-view image of Elizabeth 150 00:14:24.260 --> 00:14:30.220 Bonaparte. You have the profile, you have the frontal, and you have the slightly turned. 151 00:14:30.220 --> 00:14:35.660 Went to the same 12 people, 10 people picked this one, two people picked that one, nobody 152 00:14:35.660 --> 00:14:49.860 let me pick that one. So I believe this research that I've read, maturity. Okay, the makeup 153 00:14:49.860 --> 00:14:56.020 on this lady is designed to make her look mature. The lips are thin rather than thick, 154 00:14:56.020 --> 00:15:00.780 the eyebrows are straight and large rather than rounded, and the eyes are small rather 155 00:15:00.780 --> 00:15:11.140 than Large. Mature images are of thin lips, straight eyebrows and small eyes for females. 156 00:15:11.140 --> 00:15:17.500 Thick lips, rounded eyebrows and large eyes are considered beautiful or attractive in 157 00:15:17.500 --> 00:15:25.820 females. So maturity is not viewed as attractive in females and oddly enough maturity in men 158 00:15:25.820 --> 00:15:32.060 is viewed as more attractive using some of these testing procedures. 159 00:15:32.060 --> 00:15:36.980 The issue of facial recognition, the ability to recognize one person as another is affected 160 00:15:36.980 --> 00:15:44.100 by things like illumination, the pose, facial expression, occlusions which are hidden features 161 00:15:44.100 --> 00:15:51.020 and all four work against our ability to recognize one versus the other. 162 00:15:51.020 --> 00:15:55.080 In addition, expressiveness. 163 00:15:55.080 --> 00:16:01.100 Most people express their emotions physically from this side of your face. 164 00:16:01.100 --> 00:16:05.520 Most people do not express emotion, thought, interest with this side of the face. 165 00:16:05.520 --> 00:16:09.120 I know this is weird, but there's actual research about this. 166 00:16:09.120 --> 00:16:14.600 This person is facing the best way for being expressive. 167 00:16:14.600 --> 00:16:19.700 This person is facing the worst way to be progressive. 168 00:16:19.700 --> 00:16:24.680 Now, this research is obviously very speculative and it gets much worse than that as I go through 169 00:16:24.680 --> 00:16:27.220 here. 170 00:16:27.220 --> 00:16:31.300 But one thing that I did that finally opened the door at the Louvre for a little bit of 171 00:16:31.300 --> 00:16:38.320 assistance is I emailed the curator who's in charge of this area, who had never responded 172 00:16:38.320 --> 00:16:46.420 to me in inquiries in the past, and I said, could you please tell me what the color of 173 00:16:46.420 --> 00:16:48.820 all their eyes are? 174 00:16:48.820 --> 00:16:57.940 I said, I think that they should all be blue, and she wrote me back, because Parisian eyes 175 00:16:57.940 --> 00:17:02.820 are generally all brown. 176 00:17:02.820 --> 00:17:08.700 Irish eyes, where Richard Cantillon and Marianne Cantillon and their daughter were all from 177 00:17:08.700 --> 00:17:10.520 Ireland. 178 00:17:10.520 --> 00:17:15.780 As a matter of fact, they were from the southwest coast of Ireland, where blue eyes is entirely 179 00:17:15.780 --> 00:17:23.780 is really dominant, whereas blue eyes are not common in Parisians or French from central France. 180 00:17:23.780 --> 00:17:30.780 So, and again, the wig here on this man is also called a banker's wig. 181 00:17:30.780 --> 00:17:32.780 And of course Cantillon was a banker. 182 00:17:32.780 --> 00:17:36.780 So, the evidence gets rather bizarre after this point. 183 00:17:36.780 --> 00:17:39.780 I think I'll just stop here and let the next person take over. 184 00:17:39.780 --> 00:17:41.780 Thank you very much.