 the radicals who founded Actuarial Science and the United States of America. It's the 18th century, American independence, French Revolution and the formalization of Actuarial Science. Yes, this is a story of politics, science, economics and religion. Speaking of religion, a bishop called William Talbot founded the very first insurance company known as the Amacle Society. Now its logo had a dove and a serpent, which links to the bible verse of Matthew 10 verse 16, but then it also had the Auroboros, which is an alchemical symbol. Anyway, this accountant called James Dodson wants to join the Amacle Society, but he gets rejected because he is too old. Now Dodson believed that premiums should be based on age, but unfortunately dies before he can start his own life insurance company called Equitable Life. So Equitable Life needs someone new to do the calculations. And that's when its other founder, Edward Rosemurs, creates the position of Actuary. Now, Edward was obsessed with the Romans and only spoke Latin to his daughter. So he would use the term Actus Cenatus, basically a fancy term for secretary and narrow it down to Acturus, Actuari and finally get the term Actuary. But who would take on this role? Well, turns out a person called William Morgan would formalize the profession and become the first modern Actuary. Now, he wasn't the first to do actuarial things, we'll discuss that in another video, but he was the first to record invisible light using an x-ray tube and his brother was the first to report the news of the storming of the Bastille to England. Now, William also got a warning in 1794 in the treason trials for being a radical. Now, to understand why William the Actuary was involved in scientific experiments and political activities, we need to look at his two mentors, Joseph Priestley and Richard Price. Now, both of these men would become good friends with Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson and kind of the rest of the founding fathers of America. Now, Priestley wrote to old Benjamin Franklin, asking if he should stay a minister or become a scientist. And Franklin wrote back in a celebrated letter outlining how he makes decisions, the pro and cons list. So Priestley used the pro and con list and decided to become a scientist. Now, Priestley conducted the famous experiment of putting a mouse in a jar and observed that they lived longer if a plant was with them, thus becoming the first to discover oxygen. He discovered many gases and developed a way to make carbonated water. Now, JJ Sweps thought that he could make a business out of selling the sparkling water. And JJ would actually go on and credit Priestley as the father of the soft drink. So yeah, in a weird way, actuarial science is connected to Coca-Cola. Anyway, Joseph gets invited to travel to Paris with his new employer. Although, this is like a hundred years before the Eiffel Tower was built, so they weren't there for sightseeing. Now, his boss was Lord Shelburne, the British prime minister who helped negotiate peace with America and England. Now, the Paris treaty was seen as very generous to America, but Benjamin Franklin pushed for more. Now, it was complicated because for Britain to do a deal with the Americans, the Americans first had to get permission from France. And France had a treaty with Spain, which meant that they needed permission from Spain. But Spain was currently besieging the British territory of Gibraltar. Anyway, back in Paris, Joseph would meet Antoine Lavassier, the father of chemistry, although they were always arguing because Priestley would say, I have discovered de-velocitated air and Antoine will be, let's rather call it oxygen. Or Priestley would say, I found vatrolic acid air and Antoine was, let's call it sulfur dioxide. Or Priestley would say, I found the vapor of spirit of salt. And Antoine would be, you mean hydrochloric acid. And the two disagreed because Priestley was very much for this theory known as Philosticon theory, whatever that is, where Antoine was for chemistry, which is kind of what we use today. Although a shame, poor Antoine would lose his head in the French Revolution. And look who is suffering now. That joke's gonna get a bad reaction. I'm sorry about that. Priestley wasn't a fan of chemistry and decided to pursue another topic in science. He wrote a book on electricity, which would go into inspire some of the biggest names in science, such as Henry Cavendish, who waved the world and discovered hydrogen, which he called in flammable air. Alessandro Volta, the father of the battery. He went on to discover methane, which he called flammable air. And Michael Faraday, the father of electromagnetism, who also went on to discover his own chemical called benzene, but he called it bicarbonated hydrogen or something like that. Yeah, Priestley students were no better than him at naming the things that they discovered. However, Priestley's fame would spread and he was invited to join the lunar society, where he made friends with a guy who was improving the steam engine. Yes, good old James Watt, the father of the industrial revolution. Now a fellow lunatic was Charles Darwin's grandfather. This guy called Erasmus Darwin, who was a doctor, a poet and an inventor. Now he's one poem even hinted at the theory of evolution. And he drew one of the very first rocket engines, although it kind of looked something. Yeah, it didn't really look like a rocket engine. Erasmus was a big fan of carbonated water and he helped to popularize it. His experiments helped inspire the story of Frankenstein and everybody wanted him as their doctor, but he even turned down George. Yes, he turned down King George III, probably because he was friends with Priestley and King George hates it Priestley, because Priestley had some rather strange religious ideas that would make him very, very controversial. Most people thought he was crazy, but Thomas Jefferson absolutely loved them. The problem was Jefferson was too far away and when the people close by decided to mock and burn down Priestley's house, he was in a bit of trouble and the king wasn't in too much of a hurry to break up the mob. Now Priestley went to America and the first thing he did was insult John Adams. Yes, the second president of the United States of America and rival to Thomas Jefferson. So of course, Jefferson and Priestley would become great friends and together they planned the University of Virginia. Think of Priestley as adding the science to actuarial science, but he was only one of William Morgan's mentors. The other was Richard Price. Now Richard Price can be thought of as the grandfather of actuarial science. Now both Priestley and Price were dissenters, meaning that they had alternative views about Christianity. Now this freaked out politicians like Edmund Burke because back then political authority derived from religious beliefs and thus politicians got nervous when ministers deviated from dogma. The solution therefore was to discriminate those who were not Anglican. Dissenters were banned from Oxford, Cambridge and government positions. So Priestley and Price would create their own club where another minister, Thomas Bayes, joined them. Now Thomas Bayes is the father of Bayesian statistics which is needed in credibility theory as well as machine learning. Unfortunately, Bayes died before he could publish his work, but Richard Price came to the rescue and published it for him and the Royal Society made him a fellow for this and equitable life offered him a job. Price then wrote observations on revisionary payments which looks very much like my actuarial exams. He also created the Northampton live table and did a bit of work on demography. So he wrote to Benjamin Franklin explaining how to do actuarial calculations and old Benny Boy was very impressed. So much so that Benjamin Franklin called their group The Club of Honest Wigs, which is kind of code for Illuma, no I'm just joking. No this was an open group that met in coffee houses and got the who's who of the world to come visit them. People like Adam Smith, the father of capitalism who recommended division of labour, self-interest and competition in the wealth of nations. French financial minister Anne Togo, the father of economics who identified diminishing marginal returns and whose fair tax system might have avoided the French Revolution had they not kicked him out. Then there was also the English philosopher Mary Wollstonecroft, the father I mean founder of feminism who argued for gender equality and whose daughter actually went on to write the book of Frankenstein. So you had all these intellectuals meeting and debating some of the biggest ideas in history over a cup of coffee. Now Price wrote a political pamphlet that when I was going through I couldn't help but notice some of these actuarial phrases like probability of succeeding and ruin and according to one historian Price rapidly became one of the best known men in England. He was presented with the freedom of the city of London and it is said that his pamphlet had a part in determining the Americans to declare their independence and we'll see that both the Americans and the British government regularly asked him for help with regards to financial matters and Yale College only gave out two Doctor of Law degrees in 1781. One to Richard Price and the other to someone who you may have heard of George Washington. In another pamphlet Price argued that the Americans need to centralize their power and it is an idea that Alexander Hamilton would embrace and you should all know who Alexander Hamilton is because of that amazing musical so go and check it out. Price would also cause a stir back home when one of his sermons kick started the great debate in Britain. Essentially Price and Priestley argued that the French Revolution was good. Edmund Burke was like the French Revolution was bad but he made some sexist comments so Mary Wollstonecroft joined the debate and told Burke to get back into his lane. Thomas Payne then wrote The Rights of Man which basically says it's your moral duty to overthrow a bad government. Thus the prime minister at the time William Pitt was like we need to put these people on trial for treason. Now there are some good books on the debate and at the time there was a lot of propaganda cartoons against Price and fun fact William Pitt was the youngest prime minister he took office when he was just 24 years old. Now Thomas Payne and William Morgan were like best friends and so our first modern actuary got caught up in the politics. Fortunately he was led off with just a warning probably because the government needed his help with financial affairs but it's fascinating to note that all these people would regularly meet and their conversation would shape each other's ideas. The founding fathers influenced actuarial science and the actuaries influenced the founding fathers of America. So when we think of actuarial science we shouldn't just be thinking of the applied mathematical subjects like demography, statistics and finance but we should see that politics, science, economics and even religion have influenced this amazing subject. So hit that like button if you want me to make another actuarial history video check the link to a free Udemy course in the description if you want to start your journey as an actuary and yeah share this video with your friends so that they too can learn more about the most powerful subject in the world.