Dear friends,
The single most bloody civil war in human history is a conflict that most us have never heard of. It was not the French Revolution, it was not the US Civil War, not even the Bolshevik Revolution. It was a conflict that claimed more than 20 million lives and lasted 14 years between 1850-1864. If you haven’t figured it by now, we can help you. It was the War of the Heavenly Kingdom or also known as the Taiping Rebellion that took place in China.
The story is quite wild. A peasant called Hong Huoxiu from a poor village in South China sat the Civil Service exams, which were costly to prepare for, but guaranteed a lucrative government salary. He failed 4 consecutive attempts. This was a financial disaster for him, as he had no assets in his name and the costs to prepare for the exam had ruined his family’s finances. He had a nervous breakdown and in one of his dreams he saw God, Jesus Christ, and Confucius who all ordered him to fix China’s problems.
He immediately started preaching that he is the brother of Jesus Christ and gained many followers. One of his followers founded the God Worshipping Society, a syncretic movement of Christianity, Daoism, Confucianism and indigenous millenarianism. The movement grew quickly and when imperial authorities tried to suppress it the believers resorted to guerrilla warfare. From there it escalated into full scale civil war, feeding from the dissatisfaction against the imperial Qing government of the time. It was easy to find volunteers who were equally ruined as Hong Huoxiu and had nothing to lose; China had just lost the first Opium War, the economy was terrible, there were many natural disasters, and high youth unemployment.
So how is this story related to Spanish Real Estate? At Artemis Assets we stressed in a previous newsletter how owning Real Estate is the ultimate protection against poverty. This month the Spanish government passed a new Housing Law, which supports young people buying their first home. The government seems to agree with us that young people without access to housing is a social problem. It wants to avoid a situation where youngsters are angry and feeling they are left behind. Hong Huoxiu would not have gone batshit crazy over his exams if he owned property! At Artemis we see this, and other support measures of the Housing Law, as beneficial for Real Estate prices, because they will increase demand in the medium and long horizon.
If you also believe that people will always need to buy a house, get in touch with us. We can help you build your wealth and make sure you will not worry about exam failure ever again.
Until the next one!
