“We're definitely in the manic phase. 1871 was maybe the point at which you could have said this is perfectly rational and it's reasonable. By the end of 1872, we'd exceeded all bounds. So I'm sure that we have entered the manic phase.”

When you look back at the railroad boom, presumably there was a moment where it made sense and then things started to get out of control. There was too much debt. There was too much speculation. Whereabouts in that cycle do you believe we are in this moment? Or is it too hard to tell?

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Let's turn the clock back to 1870. The world has been through a 20-year boom. And it's a boom that is the first era of globalization. GDP doubled in those 20 years. Trade went up five times. And fueling the boom was a new technology, the railroads. And that was a truly global phenomenon. There was…

Just some of the players who feature in this story, two names that I'd like for you to tell us about. One, the Rothschilds, who feature prominently in your book, and also Jay Cook. Who were these people and what roles did they play in these investment booms?