Wealth that cannot be taken away
The first mention of the Rothschild family dates back to the 16th century, and for several centuries its representatives were probably ordinary Jewish moneychangers and merchants. Born in Frankfurt am Main on February 23, 1744, Mayer Rothschild brought the family worldwide fame. At first he became the court financier of the prince of the Principality of Hesse-Kassel. The Great French Revolution began in 1789, and a few years later almost all European countries opposed the Republic. All the money that Great Britain sent to buy the Hessian mercenaries passed through Mayer’s hands. The Rothschilds were getting richer, but this was not their main difference from other families.
At that time, the word “wealth” generally meant either owning large amounts of land or large amounts of gold (cash). Both can be lost within an hour; especially during the Napoleonic Wars, when entire states were abolished and created by deliberate decision. Confiscation of gold from a banker or even a Jew from whom the enemy financed the army was a common occurrence.
But the Rothschilds managed to insure themselves against the arbitrariness of any government and became the first international financiers.
Their wealth came from stocks, bonds and debt traded on European markets. And it is not so easy to drive them away.
To facilitate trade, Mayer sent his son Nathan to Great Britain, where he founded a bank in London. At first the British branch made money by buying and selling bills, but in 1811 the Rothschilds again managed to obtain government orders. Money began to flow through Nathan to support the British army fighting against the French in Spain and to subsidize allies in the anti-French coalition. To process payments, the Rothschilds created a vast network of carriers (for sending payments in gold) and couriers, and a network of informants quickly grew around the pan-European delivery service that provided the Rothschilds with information about the markets.
At the same time, Mayer’s other sons went into business in all the financial centers of Europe: Solomon became a banker in Vienna, Kalman in Naples, and Jacob in Paris. They all worked with their father to run the first transnational financial empire.
Friendship with managers as an investment
By the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the Rothschilds had become one of the richest families in Europe, but at the time no one was considering appointing them to the role of shadow rulers of the world. After the end of the era of wars and the fall of Napoleon, fabulous wealth and a gloomy aura came to this family.
The first conspiracy theory about the Rothschilds is connected with this. Allegedly, Nathan received news of Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo through his informants in 1815 a day earlier than the others, while other market participants believed the rumors that the French had won. This would be a heavy defeat for the British Empire and so everyone, including Rothschild, started selling British bonds. The value of these securities collapsed, and Rothschild agents began buying them up. When news of Napoleon’s defeat reached Britain, prices soared, enabling the Rothschilds to make profits of cosmic proportions.
This story appeared in journalism in the mid-19th century. It is thought to have been written by French socialists in the 1840s. At the time it mostly depicted the dishonest enrichment of bankers, but over the centuries it became an important element in the sinister mythology of the Rothschilds.
There is no historical evidence to support this act of insider trading, and historian Neil Ferguson (Ferguson, Niall. The World’s Banker: A History of the House of Rothschild) It describes the Rothschilds’ activities at that time in a completely different way. Nathan actually first learned of Napoleon’s defeat from private informants, but he first reported it to the British government from contracts in which he had gained capital.
He made his boldest and most profitable financial move after the news of Waterloo became public.
He calculated that the flow of state loans would decrease sharply after the war. This, two years later, following the restructuring of the economy, should have led, according to their calculations, to a significant increase in government bond prices.
As a result, he bought them for what was considered a very high price and sold them at the peak of their value in 1817 for a profit of 40%; This was a huge figure for the financial market.
Thanks to this transaction and many others, the Rothschild name became synonymous with wealth. The British bank Rothschild & Co played a role in the financial market that is unique in the modern world: It was as if Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and the International Monetary Fund had announced a merger. It is run not by anonymous shareholders and managers, but by a close-knit family.
Rothschild banks took part in all the major projects of the 19th century. For example, they gave the government money to buy slaves from their owners under the British Slavery Abolition Act of 1833. They financed industrialization across Europe and the construction of the Suez Canal. They helped Brazil gain independence: according to the agreement with Portugal, it had to pay £2 million, and Nathan Rothschild provided a loan for it. Its banks helped France pay reparations after its defeat by Germany in the 1870-1871 war and purchased Japanese war bonds during the 1904-1905 war with Russia.
Niles’s Weekly Magazine, 1836 edition Wrote:
“The Rothschilds are a miracle of modern banking… We see what the descendants of Judah are like. (one of the Old Testament patriarchs, son of Jacob) After two thousand years of oppression, they stand above kings, they tower above emperors, and they hold an entire continent in their hands.
The Rothschilds rule Christendom. St. They reach out with the same ease from St. Petersburg to Vienna, from Vienna to Paris, from Paris to London, from London to Washington.
The head of the house, Baron Rothschild, is the true king of Judea, the prince of captivity, the long-awaited Messiah of this extraordinary people. He holds the keys to peace and war, blessing or curse. They are mediators and advisors to the kings of Europe and the republican leaders of America. What more could they want?
It is important to understand that the author of this article, speaking about the power of the Rothschilds, does not mean the power of the “world behind the scenes”, but the usual influence of rich people. Looking at their later history, it is easy to be convinced that the Rothschilds did not have any secret control panel to the world.
End of Empire
At first the odds turned against the Neapolitan branch of the Rothschilds. In 1860, revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi seized power in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and Adolphe Rothschild became the dethroned king Henry II. He remained loyal to Francis. But other branches of the Rothschilds refused to bet on the loser and help him financially. As a result, after the unification of Italy, the Neapolitan branch of the Rothschild financial empire ceased to exist. In 1901 the German branch disappeared – leaving no Wilhelm Rothschild male descendants.
A national tax system emerged in Europe in the early 20th century, making it impossible for the Rothschilds to use a common set of business accounts for all branches. The financial family was divided into related but independent national banks.
The Austrian Rothschilds were forced to sell all their assets for pennies after the Anschluss and the Nazis coming to power. All their property, including real estate and valuables, was expropriated. The same thing happened to the French branch after the country was taken over by Germany in 1940. Some of the assets were returned to the Rothschilds after the war, but they were eventually nationalized by the left-wing government of François Mitterrand, although its ruler, Guy Rothschild, fought as part of de Gaulle’s “Struggle with France”. highly respected.
Only the British branch managed to save capital, and now Rothschild & Co is a major investment bank with, as always, close ties to the government and the royal family. Total for 2020 price Its total assets reached €78 billion; This is about 40 times less than JP Morgan, seven times less than Sberbank, and only 4.5 times more than Tinkoff Bank.
The chairman of the supervisory board is David Rene de Rothschild, a middle-class financier with personal capital of €575 million (2022 data). The family positions modern Rothschild banks as conservative and reliable; The main goal of these banks is not to participate in bold financial speculations, but to preserve and increase the client’s capital. (For example, Benjamin Rothschild said this in an interview with Haaretz newspaper. reprinted form)
According to the biggest mistake in family history idea its representatives were an underestimation of the US market at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. The Rothschilds never tried to take a leading position in North America, and that was where all capital was concentrated in the 20th century.