Sam-di Ka

Sam-di Ka (Shinasthana: 三氐固, RF s.rum-ti-kah; Jan. 12, 1799 – Jul. 14, 1860) was a Themiclesian soldier and later businessmen.

Early and military life

Sam-di was born on Jan. 12, 1799 in Dah, a borough near Kien-k'ang. He travelled to the coastline in hope of finding a job as a dock worker, but, with no employer forthcoming, he enlisted with the Marines in 1819. He bounced from ship to ship, having earned the hatred of almost everyone he served with and started brawls; as a result, the Captain-general assigned him to peddle the Marines' surplus materials in Ning. In 1826, he was convicted of dishonest trading at port, for his part in a scheme to disguise the Marines' stock of damp planks with cured ones stolen from a private warehouse and then to sell the lot as cured planks to Admiralty shipwrights. Sam-di sweetened the deal for himself by using an rigged scale to weigh the wood, siphoning off the savings for private sale to a carpenter. He was sentenced to 100 lashes and prison for six months, which he served in the Exchequer's prison.

While in prison, he made a deal with the prison guards to move him from cell to cell and thus meet different prisoners. He assumed multiple identities and sold intelligence or the service of smuggling out goods and letters in exchange for cash, and prisoners remained unwary of his deceptions because he appeared to be leaving the prison when he was moved to another cell. As the Exchequer's jail was populated by counterfeiters, fraudsters, and tax evaders, he often pretended to be any of the previous or even a disgraced lawyer, offering to fight a fellow prisoner's case for a small fee. Much of these proceeds he pocketed without delivery, with the result that he was "$850 wealtier out of the slammer and now worth $850". With $245 he redeemed his service contract and left the army.

Commercial career

Having left the forces, Sam-di became an agent to several businessmen who desired to build rowhouses in Kien-k'ang suburbs but faced difficulty in persuading the locals to leave. Sam-di hired several of his former comrades and asked them to collect rents and debts from tenants who would not give up their leases, often employing tactics like nighttime screaming or breaking windows, which would then give grounds to the landlord to move for their eviction or at least pester the tenants. Sam-di never appeared in person to these hirelings but assumed a pseudonym, using a Marines officer still in communication with him as an intermediary. In 1833, he decided to leave this business and become an investor in real estate. In 1845, he received a contract from the Admiralty for the renovation of several buildings, and it seems this contract may have been won by bribery.

He became a co-investor in several large developments in Bjak Street in Kien-k'ang after the Fire of 1844, which destroyed over 4,000 houses. Upon the completion of the project, he received a $2,000 bonus from the controlling company. He then invested in worker dormintories for growing factories on the banks of the Kaung. He reportedly made $3,500 from this venture, but the houses he constructed were of a very poor quality even by 1840s standards, many with one unglazed window per unit. He invested in the export of wallpapers in 1849 with Charles Mrat, doubling his investment in four years. He lost a portion of his money in the Depression of 1855, but the Bjak development continued to provide him with an income of $600 a year until he died in 1860.

Personal life

He died in Kien-k'ang on Jul. 14, 1860.

In popular culture

Sam-di's story was filmed into the 1967 dark comedy One Man's War. The film depicts all officers in the Marines as crooks who routinely defrauded their men and embezzled public monies, and Sam-di was only "a small-time swindler with a sense of justice". He was shown as much a perpetrator as a victim. This portrayal, though not historically necessary, challenges the narrative that officers from wealthy backgrounds are less likely to treat their men badly, a prevalent belief in Sam-di's lifetime. When Sam-di was before the Exchequer, the judge questioned his morality when he sold substandard timber to naval shipwrights, quoting the oath that all marines swore since 1732 "to love the vessel as much as his home and the crew as his family." Sam-di then quoted his captain who routinely pocketed monies to repair hulls, "Where did you think the family money comes from?"

See also

• Themiclesia