Hello! Lord Jacob Rothschild, a British financier and businessman, died yesterday at the age of 87. This article is aimed at dispelling all the rumors about this dynasty, as well as telling where the same temschik as you and I once started.
Baruch Dayan ha-Emet!
Lord Rothschild was an excellent financier, a champion of the arts and culture, a dedicated public servant, a supporter of charity in Israel, where he also helped buy up land and form a state, a passionate environmentalist, and a beloved friend, father, and grandfather.
Lord Rothschild was born on April 29, 1936 in the United Kingdom. He was educated at Eton College, and then continued his studies at one of the colleges of Oxford — Christ Church.
Lord Rothschild began his career in the family bank in 1963, after which he became one of the founders of the Group of Insurance Companies. In 2002, he was awarded the Order of Merit by the late Queen Elizabeth II.
In 2019, Lord Rothschild resigned as Chairman of the Board of directors of the large investment trust Rothschild Investment Trust, which he founded in 1961. His eldest daughter, Hannah Mary Rothschild, has remained on the company's board of directors, where she controls a stake of at least 10%, which is now worth more than£250,000,000.
The exact cause of death, unfortunately, is unknown.
Anyway, it was in this house that 20-year-old Mayer Amschel Rothschild returned in 1764. His parents sent him to study rabbinic studies at a yeshiva in Nuremberg, but they died before the term was up. There was no money to pay, but the young man was lucky enough to find a job as a clerk in a trading company in Hanover. Where he could have stayed — and he had prospects for growth, and the Jews in Hanover were treated with tolerance. But Mayer Amschel is back.
His brothers sold worn-out clothing. Mayer joined in, but soon discovered his main talent. Mayer Amschel Rothschild loved money. And this love was the most sublime of all. In the rag chests that he and his brothers sorted out, there were sometimes coins hidden in the lining of the torn pockets of their worn clothes. Overseas, ancient, they fascinated Mayer. Their names — dinars and guilders, crowns and florins, thalers and rubles-were music to him. The young man became a numismatist.
Some of the noble nobles deigned to show interest. And soon Mayer Rothschild became familiar with castles and palaces. Their inhabitants were amused by a strange Jew with handwritten catalogues, ready to recite and even sing, just to attract attention to his product. In a sense, Mayer Amschel's visits were a kind of show — you can't always listen to orchestras. But they also bought coins from him. About five years after his return to Frankfurt, Rothschild was firmly on his feet. He bought a money-changer's shop, which he managed extremely well, and began ordering the printing of his catalogues (carefully choosing the most intricate font with the greatest number of flourishes). And soon he got married. This was not easy: a strictly limited number of marriages were allowed per year in the ghetto.
The Principality of Hesse was not one of the leading European powers, but Duke William was known as one of the wealthiest European monarchs. First, he maintained a well-trained and equipped army, which he willingly rented out. Europe at that time loved to fight, the service was in great demand. It got to the point that Hessian mercenaries fought against each other in the ranks of opposing armies. Nothing personal, just business — especially since the ducal treasury also received compensation for each person killed or wounded.
And secondly, Duke Wilhelm was just as willing to lend money, and to everyone in a row — from relatives of monarchs to middle-class industrialists and merchants, if only they agreed on a decent percentage. Most of these operations were handled by long-established court bankers and financiers. But Mayer Amschel Rothschild also managed to get a little trickle for himself. And year after year, I deepened and expanded its channel.
Gutle gave birth to a dozen children. Ten survived, half of them boys. The father of the family, who often invited the rebbe to dinner and spent the evenings with him talking about the structure of life, dreamed that at least one of his sons would become a rabbi. But the boys had inherited another paternal trait — a love of money. And purified from any romantic impurities. The boys seem to have learned to count before they could speak. By the time they started talking, they already knew the assortment of all the shops in the entire ghetto by heart. And they vied with each other to advise my father what to buy, so that they could immediately resell it at a profit. Mayer Amschel humbled himself and made his sons first assistants, and then partners.
When the chicks were fully fledged, the father released them from the nest. Nathan had settled in England and was doing an excellent job with the cloth supply from Manchester. The rest of them went to Europe, servicing Duke Wilhelm's loans, since more and more of them passed through the hands of Rothschild. And then Napoleon decided to become the ruler of the world.
The Hessian army, which was so useful commercially, did not help in any way militarily. Duke Wilhelm fled to relatives in Denmark, and then to Prague. The next day, Napoleon's troops occupied his palace. Almost the first thing Napoleon did was issue a decree, according to which all payments on the duke's debts went to the French treasury.
The Hessian court bankers partly fled, partly swore allegiance to the usurper. On the eve of his hasty departure, the Ducal Treasurer entrusted the servicing of all loans to Mayer Amschel Rothschild. Then, for several years, the impossible happened. His four sons-Amschel, Solomon, Kalman, and Jacob-traveled all over Europe, almost completely captured by Napoleon, and stole Duke Wilhelm's money from under the noses of Napoleon's tax authorities.
After settling in England, Nathan organized — with the help of his brothers on the continent, of course-a wide network of contraband trade. Shipments of coffee, tobacco, cotton, and other goods needed by Europe during the Napoleonic Wars were regularly sent across the English Channel. And in the accounting books of the house on Jewish Street in the Frankfurt ghetto, new columns of figures were carefully entered. Both the father and five sons risked their heads to cheat Napoleon, but they continued to do their job brilliantly. The police visited the Jewish Street more than once or twice. The agents were met by a respectable elderly couple, who were happy to have guests and lamented their loneliness: their daughters had married, their sons had left for Europe. The house was decent, but modest enough. The ledgers were kept in perfect order and showed a thriving trade, but without any hint of anything else. Agents searched the rooms, tapped the basement walls, and nothing happened. Not even all the family members knew about the existence of another basement, where all the secret accounting was stored — and in encrypted form, too.
By the end of the first decade of the nineteenth century, the Rothschilds were already very rich. They are rich enough to realize that they are able to interfere in big politics and influence its course. It remained to be decided in which direction it would be more profitable to turn it. The Rothschilds turned against Napoleon. In 1811, they carried out one of their most daring operations. The Duke of Wellington's army — England's main land force in Europe-fought heroically against the French in Spain and Portugal. But a big war required a lot of money, and moving large sums of money was a terrible headache at that time. It is a long and dangerous journey to carry gold across Europe, which is controlled by the enemy. And there were no more convenient methods of money transfers yet.
The Rothschild brothers started a rumor that Nathan (by then a major London financier) wanted to move huge reserves of gold from England to France, because he felt that Napoleon would win. French officials took the bait and ordered not to put any obstacles in the way of the Rothschilds ' actions. In a matter of days, gold worth 800 thousand pounds sterling was delivered from London to France. The cargo was handled by the youngest of the brothers, Jacob (by this time already James). In Paris, he converted gold into French bank cheques. Which almost the next day, thanks to the efforts of Brother Kalman (now Karl), were being turned back into gold in the banks of Spain, occupied by Napoleon. The French treasury did not receive a penny from the gold of the Rothschilds, the Duke of Wellington received gold for 800 thousand pounds for his army, and the central transit point of the entire operation was the capital of Napoleon — Paris.
On the evening of June 18, 1815, the Duke of Wellington and his allies won the Battle of Waterloo, deciding the fate of Napoleon, England, and all of Europe. On the morning of June 20, Nathan Rothschild received the news in London. His couriers were almost a day ahead of the Duke's. Rothschild went to the stock exchange and took his usual place at one of the columns (which later became known as the "Rothschild column").
He just stood there for a while, his expression unreadable. Then, with the same stony face, he began selling and dumping British government bonds and other British securities. All the bigger packages and all the cheaper ones. An hour was enough to start a panic on the stock exchange. Everyone understood: Rothschild doesn't do anything for nothing. If he gets rid of the English papers, then England has lost the battle. By evening, the British securities were being sold almost for nothing. At that very moment, they were all bought up at once — by Rothschild agents, of course. The next morning, when Wellington's courier finally reached London and announced the victory, the course skyrocketed. According to some estimates, this day Nathan Rothschild became richer by 40 million pounds.
Mayer Amschel did not live to see his triumph. He died on September 19, 1812, at his home, leaving a very remarkable will. The management of the firm passed into the hands of his sons, who were instructed to always act together, protecting each other's interests. In the future, only male heirs could manage the company. Daughters and their husbands were not allowed to become partners or have access to documents. The publication of data on the size of the state was prohibited. The phrase "there will be no forgiveness for those of my descendants who go against my will" boomed with the thunderous intonation of the Old Testament prophets.
Old Rothschild was wise. In his will, he essentially ordered the creation of a dynasty in the manner of a monarch. The choice is clear: there were no better symbols of wealth and power. And the descendants accepted this covenant and developed it. In July 1824, James, the youngest of Mayer Amschel's sons, married his own niece, Betty, the daughter of his older brother, Solomon. What could be more useful for strengthening a dynasty than a dynastic marriage? And the money again does not go anywhere from the family. It is estimated that by the mid-twentieth century, Mayer Amschel's male descendants had married about 60 times. And in almost half of the cases-with their cousins or nieces.
While Gutle was alive-and she lived for 95 years-her sons and grandsons brought their chosen ones to her "to bow down", in the very house on the Jewish Street. Mayer Amschel's widow flatly refused to move. Perhaps she just couldn't believe that her sons could buy her any of the royal palaces at any moment? Oh, no, she knew all about her boys. They say that one day an alarmed neighbor came to old Gutla. Her son was about to be taken away as a soldier, and the woman was worried that there would be some war.
Not to say that the Rothschilds ' entry into high society was smooth. After the victory over Napoleon, the European nobility pretended that now everything would be as before, before the war. And before the war, no one had ever heard of any Rothschilds! The brothers were not honored with invitations to important receptions. They were forced to wait for weeks for audiences with monarchs and prime ministers. They were laughed at behind their backs for their harsh manners, ill-fitting suits, even the most expensive ones, and Jewish accents. The brothers shrugged their shoulders and used weapons against which there was no defense. They had enough money, for example, to buy up almost all the bonds of the French government loan and bring them down, putting the country's financial system on the verge of collapse. (Later, a similar trick was performed with Austrian papers.) After that, both the monarch and top officials immediately became more compliant, and invitations to receptions began to pour in bundles.
Solomon Rothschild, who established the Austrian representative office of the family business, as a Jew had to get a special residence permit in Vienna. They gave him a permit, but he didn't have the right to own his own apartment. Solomon sighed and rented a room in the most expensive and popular among the aristocrats of the capital, the Romisher Kaiser Hotel. Then I thought for a while and rented the entire hotel for myself.
In 1817, Austria granted the brothers the nobility (and soon followed by the barony). The draft of the noble coat of arms, submitted on this occasion by the Rothschilds, horrified the Austrian Heraldic Chamber. In addition to the fist holding five arrows-a symbol of the unity of the five brothers-the coat of arms assumed the presence of a crown, lion, eagle, unicorn and other attributes of the royal families and the highest aristocracy. Angry officials began methodically "shooting" the entire heraldic menagerie. In return, the Rothschilds provided several invaluable financial services to the Austrian treasury and a couple of ministers personally. The Heraldic Chamber was advised to moderate their fervor and not offend the animals on the coat of arms.
Mayer Amschel Rothschild worked his way up, cringing. His sons defended the right to be at the top, remaining themselves. And defended. By the mid-19th century, they were the elite in every sense of the word. The salon in the Paris palace of James Rothschild (sorry, de Rothschild) hosted all the color of European aristocracy and culture. And his wife, the same Betty, drove the poet Heine and King Louis-Philippe crazy, played four-handed music with Chopin, posed for a portrait of Ingres and liked to chat with Balzac over a cup of coffee.
Describing the history of a family in the twentieth century is a long task, if only because the number of descendants is too large. If the fist on the coat of arms held five arrows, today they would be enough for several quivers. The Rothschilds were scientists and bon vivants, racers and nerds, burned out their lives, died in war and committed suicide. Ostriches, butterflies, and planets discovered through their funding are named after them. The Countess of Carnarvon funded the expedition that found the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun (the greatest archaeological find in history). She received the money in the will of Alfred de Rothschild. He died childless, but apparently the Countess was his illegitimate daughter.
The century was harsh on the state of the family. Inheritance taxes skyrocketed, and the practice of keeping money in the family went sideways: each death of the Rothschild put a huge burden on the living. The family was forced to abandon many palaces, transfer precious collections of works of art to museums. The Vienna Rothschilds, for example, ordered the dismantling of their mansion, donating marble for the restoration of St. Stephen's Cathedral. And they moved to the United States.
However, the business survived, and even expanded. The Rothschilds began investing in metallurgy, oil, and even tourism. So, the remote alpine village of Megev became a world-famous ski resort thanks to their efforts. It's funny, but the Rothschilds were also involved in the development of Russian tourism, albeit indirectly. In the 1960s, Baron Evelyn de Rothschild visited the USSR. The dear guest was also taken to Suzdal. After the ride, the baron said with his usual bluntness::
Today, the Rothschilds run financial groups in England, France, Switzerland, and the United States. True, the precepts of Mayer Amschel are no longer so sacredly observed. The Swiss group is led by Ariane de Rothschild, the wife of Baron Benjamin, who also did not convert to Judaism. Yes, and the Rothschilds sometimes conflict with each other, although there is very little accurate information on this subject.
And yet, in the main, they are true to themselves. First, they are still on good terms with the powerful. And secondly, they still solve problems in a proven way. An example is the Rothschild villa on the island of Corfu in Greece. At one time, Princess Diana loved to relax here. Then Prince Charles and his Camilla came more than once. Even now, the villa is often visited by the most famous and titled guests. Local residents say that some time ago the owner of the plot on the cape next to the villa started building either a barn or some other utility building. The owner of the villa, Lord Jacob de Rothschild, absolutely did not like it: the unpretentious building spoiled the view from the windows. The lord bought the entire cape and immediately ordered the building to be demolished.
Corfu is very close to Albania, the Rothschild villa looks across the narrow strait to the Albanian coast. Albanian migrant workers-builders, vendors, waiters-are plentiful on the island. They like to talk about the fact that the fastest way to raise the welfare of their native country is simple and obvious. You just need to start building something ugly in front of the Rothschild villa. The family will probably decide to buy Albania. And then everything will definitely get better.
Mayer Amschel Rothschild, the founder of the dynasty, was born in the Jewish ghetto of Frankfurt.
1815
Nathan Rothschild is the first in England to receive news of the victory at the Battle of Waterloo and makes a lot of money on the stock exchange.
1816
Four of Mayer Amschel's five sons were granted the Austrian nobility and barony. The fifth, Nathan, becomes a noble two years later.
1858
Lionel de Rothschild becomes the first Jew to be elected to the British Parliament. He was elected 11 years in a row, but each time he was forbidden to take the oath not on the Bible, but on the Old Testament. Since the 11th time allowed.
1875
The Rothschild Bank allocates money to England for the purchase of the Suez Canal.
1882
Edmond de Rothschild finances the creation and development of the first Jewish settlements in Palestine, effectively beginning the creation of the State of Israel.
1922
An expedition funded by Alfred Rothschild discovers the tomb of Tutankhamun — the greatest archaeological discovery in history.
2010
Benjamin de Rothschild says the global financial crisis has not harmed the family. Explains that the Rothschilds adhere to the conservative strategy of "small family business".
The article was first published in the July 2018 issue of GQ.
Baruch Dayan ha-Emet!
Who is he and what did he die of?
Businessman, entrepreneur, philanthropist and cultural leader.Lord Rothschild was an excellent financier, a champion of the arts and culture, a dedicated public servant, a supporter of charity in Israel, where he also helped buy up land and form a state, a passionate environmentalist, and a beloved friend, father, and grandfather.
Lord Rothschild was born on April 29, 1936 in the United Kingdom. He was educated at Eton College, and then continued his studies at one of the colleges of Oxford — Christ Church.
Lord Rothschild began his career in the family bank in 1963, after which he became one of the founders of the Group of Insurance Companies. In 2002, he was awarded the Order of Merit by the late Queen Elizabeth II.
In 2019, Lord Rothschild resigned as Chairman of the Board of directors of the large investment trust Rothschild Investment Trust, which he founded in 1961. His eldest daughter, Hannah Mary Rothschild, has remained on the company's board of directors, where she controls a stake of at least 10%, which is now worth more than£250,000,000.
The exact cause of death, unfortunately, is unknown.
Biography of the family-clan
Legends start with the last name. Some associate it with the red shop sign on the house where the family lived, others-with the red roof of this house, others-with the coat of arms of the nobility, although the founder of the dynasty was further away from the nobility than to the Moon. The most acceptable version: in the middle of the XVIII century, when the numbering system was not yet invented, houses were marked with multi-colored icons. And that-same-house was marked with a red sign. rot — "red", schild — "shield"). But who would have thought to paint a sign on a small merchant's house in the Jewish ghetto in Frankfurt?Anyway, it was in this house that 20-year-old Mayer Amschel Rothschild returned in 1764. His parents sent him to study rabbinic studies at a yeshiva in Nuremberg, but they died before the term was up. There was no money to pay, but the young man was lucky enough to find a job as a clerk in a trading company in Hanover. Where he could have stayed — and he had prospects for growth, and the Jews in Hanover were treated with tolerance. But Mayer Amschel is back.
His brothers sold worn-out clothing. Mayer joined in, but soon discovered his main talent. Mayer Amschel Rothschild loved money. And this love was the most sublime of all. In the rag chests that he and his brothers sorted out, there were sometimes coins hidden in the lining of the torn pockets of their worn clothes. Overseas, ancient, they fascinated Mayer. Their names — dinars and guilders, crowns and florins, thalers and rubles-were music to him. The young man became a numismatist.
But this was the kind of love that, obviously, it is impossible not to reciprocate. At night, Mayer pored over the collection, writing descriptions and histories of coins in calligraphy. He spent his days selling clothes, and spent part of his small earnings at money changers, buying up new numismatic curiosities. So it went on for several years, until the pragmatist and the romantic did not think to meet. Mayer Amschel Rothschild sent letters to several noble nobles, in which he offered to get acquainted with the collection — and buy something from rare and ancient coins. "Humbly falling at my feet, "" thank you for the greatest honor," "my lucky lot" — he was not shy in his expressions.
Some of the noble nobles deigned to show interest. And soon Mayer Rothschild became familiar with castles and palaces. Their inhabitants were amused by a strange Jew with handwritten catalogues, ready to recite and even sing, just to attract attention to his product. In a sense, Mayer Amschel's visits were a kind of show — you can't always listen to orchestras. But they also bought coins from him. About five years after his return to Frankfurt, Rothschild was firmly on his feet. He bought a money-changer's shop, which he managed extremely well, and began ordering the printing of his catalogues (carefully choosing the most intricate font with the greatest number of flourishes). And soon he got married. This was not easy: a strictly limited number of marriages were allowed per year in the ghetto.
The advantage was given to the most affluent. Mayer Amschel received double approval — both from the authorities and from the bride's family, the charming Gutle. By this point, Rothschild was already dealing with serious money. He was granted access to manage a small portion of the financial flows of Duke William's court.
The Principality of Hesse was not one of the leading European powers, but Duke William was known as one of the wealthiest European monarchs. First, he maintained a well-trained and equipped army, which he willingly rented out. Europe at that time loved to fight, the service was in great demand. It got to the point that Hessian mercenaries fought against each other in the ranks of opposing armies. Nothing personal, just business — especially since the ducal treasury also received compensation for each person killed or wounded.
And secondly, Duke Wilhelm was just as willing to lend money, and to everyone in a row — from relatives of monarchs to middle-class industrialists and merchants, if only they agreed on a decent percentage. Most of these operations were handled by long-established court bankers and financiers. But Mayer Amschel Rothschild also managed to get a little trickle for himself. And year after year, I deepened and expanded its channel.
Gutle gave birth to a dozen children. Ten survived, half of them boys. The father of the family, who often invited the rebbe to dinner and spent the evenings with him talking about the structure of life, dreamed that at least one of his sons would become a rabbi. But the boys had inherited another paternal trait — a love of money. And purified from any romantic impurities. The boys seem to have learned to count before they could speak. By the time they started talking, they already knew the assortment of all the shops in the entire ghetto by heart. And they vied with each other to advise my father what to buy, so that they could immediately resell it at a profit. Mayer Amschel humbled himself and made his sons first assistants, and then partners.
When the chicks were fully fledged, the father released them from the nest. Nathan had settled in England and was doing an excellent job with the cloth supply from Manchester. The rest of them went to Europe, servicing Duke Wilhelm's loans, since more and more of them passed through the hands of Rothschild. And then Napoleon decided to become the ruler of the world.
The Hessian army, which was so useful commercially, did not help in any way militarily. Duke Wilhelm fled to relatives in Denmark, and then to Prague. The next day, Napoleon's troops occupied his palace. Almost the first thing Napoleon did was issue a decree, according to which all payments on the duke's debts went to the French treasury.
The Hessian court bankers partly fled, partly swore allegiance to the usurper. On the eve of his hasty departure, the Ducal Treasurer entrusted the servicing of all loans to Mayer Amschel Rothschild. Then, for several years, the impossible happened. His four sons-Amschel, Solomon, Kalman, and Jacob-traveled all over Europe, almost completely captured by Napoleon, and stole Duke Wilhelm's money from under the noses of Napoleon's tax authorities.
However, the brothers were not in a hurry, having also managed to put this very gold into growth — for short-term loans or to buy goods that were immediately resold at excellent prices. To His Highness, delays in payments were attributed to the hardships and dangers of wartime. His Highness understood.
After settling in England, Nathan organized — with the help of his brothers on the continent, of course-a wide network of contraband trade. Shipments of coffee, tobacco, cotton, and other goods needed by Europe during the Napoleonic Wars were regularly sent across the English Channel. And in the accounting books of the house on Jewish Street in the Frankfurt ghetto, new columns of figures were carefully entered. Both the father and five sons risked their heads to cheat Napoleon, but they continued to do their job brilliantly. The police visited the Jewish Street more than once or twice. The agents were met by a respectable elderly couple, who were happy to have guests and lamented their loneliness: their daughters had married, their sons had left for Europe. The house was decent, but modest enough. The ledgers were kept in perfect order and showed a thriving trade, but without any hint of anything else. Agents searched the rooms, tapped the basement walls, and nothing happened. Not even all the family members knew about the existence of another basement, where all the secret accounting was stored — and in encrypted form, too.
By the end of the first decade of the nineteenth century, the Rothschilds were already very rich. They are rich enough to realize that they are able to interfere in big politics and influence its course. It remained to be decided in which direction it would be more profitable to turn it. The Rothschilds turned against Napoleon. In 1811, they carried out one of their most daring operations. The Duke of Wellington's army — England's main land force in Europe-fought heroically against the French in Spain and Portugal. But a big war required a lot of money, and moving large sums of money was a terrible headache at that time. It is a long and dangerous journey to carry gold across Europe, which is controlled by the enemy. And there were no more convenient methods of money transfers yet.
The Rothschild brothers started a rumor that Nathan (by then a major London financier) wanted to move huge reserves of gold from England to France, because he felt that Napoleon would win. French officials took the bait and ordered not to put any obstacles in the way of the Rothschilds ' actions. In a matter of days, gold worth 800 thousand pounds sterling was delivered from London to France. The cargo was handled by the youngest of the brothers, Jacob (by this time already James). In Paris, he converted gold into French bank cheques. Which almost the next day, thanks to the efforts of Brother Kalman (now Karl), were being turned back into gold in the banks of Spain, occupied by Napoleon. The French treasury did not receive a penny from the gold of the Rothschilds, the Duke of Wellington received gold for 800 thousand pounds for his army, and the central transit point of the entire operation was the capital of Napoleon — Paris.
Until the invention of the telephone, they were the first to learn all the important news. There are even legends that this was possible thanks to hundreds of carrier pigeons, trained in some magical way. And this is not quite a legend: the Rothschild brothers really used pigeon mail. But in addition to the birds, they had hundreds of dashing horsemen ready to ride their horses all night long, experienced guides who knew the secret mountain paths, and desperate captains who went out in their small boats in any weather and at any time of the day. They were well paid, of course. And of course, these expenses paid off a thousandfold. A well-known fact: in the middle of the XIX century, many European monarchs repeatedly turned to the Rothschilds with a request to deliver some important diplomatic messages. They knew that bankers ' mail was faster and more reliable than their own, even if it was three times royal.
On the evening of June 18, 1815, the Duke of Wellington and his allies won the Battle of Waterloo, deciding the fate of Napoleon, England, and all of Europe. On the morning of June 20, Nathan Rothschild received the news in London. His couriers were almost a day ahead of the Duke's. Rothschild went to the stock exchange and took his usual place at one of the columns (which later became known as the "Rothschild column").
He just stood there for a while, his expression unreadable. Then, with the same stony face, he began selling and dumping British government bonds and other British securities. All the bigger packages and all the cheaper ones. An hour was enough to start a panic on the stock exchange. Everyone understood: Rothschild doesn't do anything for nothing. If he gets rid of the English papers, then England has lost the battle. By evening, the British securities were being sold almost for nothing. At that very moment, they were all bought up at once — by Rothschild agents, of course. The next morning, when Wellington's courier finally reached London and announced the victory, the course skyrocketed. According to some estimates, this day Nathan Rothschild became richer by 40 million pounds.
Mayer Amschel did not live to see his triumph. He died on September 19, 1812, at his home, leaving a very remarkable will. The management of the firm passed into the hands of his sons, who were instructed to always act together, protecting each other's interests. In the future, only male heirs could manage the company. Daughters and their husbands were not allowed to become partners or have access to documents. The publication of data on the size of the state was prohibited. The phrase "there will be no forgiveness for those of my descendants who go against my will" boomed with the thunderous intonation of the Old Testament prophets.
Old Rothschild was wise. In his will, he essentially ordered the creation of a dynasty in the manner of a monarch. The choice is clear: there were no better symbols of wealth and power. And the descendants accepted this covenant and developed it. In July 1824, James, the youngest of Mayer Amschel's sons, married his own niece, Betty, the daughter of his older brother, Solomon. What could be more useful for strengthening a dynasty than a dynastic marriage? And the money again does not go anywhere from the family. It is estimated that by the mid-twentieth century, Mayer Amschel's male descendants had married about 60 times. And in almost half of the cases-with their cousins or nieces.
While Gutle was alive-and she lived for 95 years-her sons and grandsons brought their chosen ones to her "to bow down", in the very house on the Jewish Street. Mayer Amschel's widow flatly refused to move. Perhaps she just couldn't believe that her sons could buy her any of the royal palaces at any moment? Oh, no, she knew all about her boys. They say that one day an alarmed neighbor came to old Gutla. Her son was about to be taken away as a soldier, and the woman was worried that there would be some war.
And the boys didn't allow it. Even at the time of the struggle against Napoleon, they abandoned trade, deciding to focus on the most important commodity: money. At the same time, they calculated that any major war reduces the value of their assets by almost half, and came to the conclusion that humanity should live peacefully. After that, Europe did without major wars for several decades.
Not to say that the Rothschilds ' entry into high society was smooth. After the victory over Napoleon, the European nobility pretended that now everything would be as before, before the war. And before the war, no one had ever heard of any Rothschilds! The brothers were not honored with invitations to important receptions. They were forced to wait for weeks for audiences with monarchs and prime ministers. They were laughed at behind their backs for their harsh manners, ill-fitting suits, even the most expensive ones, and Jewish accents. The brothers shrugged their shoulders and used weapons against which there was no defense. They had enough money, for example, to buy up almost all the bonds of the French government loan and bring them down, putting the country's financial system on the verge of collapse. (Later, a similar trick was performed with Austrian papers.) After that, both the monarch and top officials immediately became more compliant, and invitations to receptions began to pour in bundles.
Solomon Rothschild, who established the Austrian representative office of the family business, as a Jew had to get a special residence permit in Vienna. They gave him a permit, but he didn't have the right to own his own apartment. Solomon sighed and rented a room in the most expensive and popular among the aristocrats of the capital, the Romisher Kaiser Hotel. Then I thought for a while and rented the entire hotel for myself.
In 1817, Austria granted the brothers the nobility (and soon followed by the barony). The draft of the noble coat of arms, submitted on this occasion by the Rothschilds, horrified the Austrian Heraldic Chamber. In addition to the fist holding five arrows-a symbol of the unity of the five brothers-the coat of arms assumed the presence of a crown, lion, eagle, unicorn and other attributes of the royal families and the highest aristocracy. Angry officials began methodically "shooting" the entire heraldic menagerie. In return, the Rothschilds provided several invaluable financial services to the Austrian treasury and a couple of ministers personally. The Heraldic Chamber was advised to moderate their fervor and not offend the animals on the coat of arms.
Mayer Amschel Rothschild worked his way up, cringing. His sons defended the right to be at the top, remaining themselves. And defended. By the mid-19th century, they were the elite in every sense of the word. The salon in the Paris palace of James Rothschild (sorry, de Rothschild) hosted all the color of European aristocracy and culture. And his wife, the same Betty, drove the poet Heine and King Louis-Philippe crazy, played four-handed music with Chopin, posed for a portrait of Ingres and liked to chat with Balzac over a cup of coffee.
Describing the history of a family in the twentieth century is a long task, if only because the number of descendants is too large. If the fist on the coat of arms held five arrows, today they would be enough for several quivers. The Rothschilds were scientists and bon vivants, racers and nerds, burned out their lives, died in war and committed suicide. Ostriches, butterflies, and planets discovered through their funding are named after them. The Countess of Carnarvon funded the expedition that found the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun (the greatest archaeological find in history). She received the money in the will of Alfred de Rothschild. He died childless, but apparently the Countess was his illegitimate daughter.
The century was harsh on the state of the family. Inheritance taxes skyrocketed, and the practice of keeping money in the family went sideways: each death of the Rothschild put a huge burden on the living. The family was forced to abandon many palaces, transfer precious collections of works of art to museums. The Vienna Rothschilds, for example, ordered the dismantling of their mansion, donating marble for the restoration of St. Stephen's Cathedral. And they moved to the United States.
However, the business survived, and even expanded. The Rothschilds began investing in metallurgy, oil, and even tourism. So, the remote alpine village of Megev became a world-famous ski resort thanks to their efforts. It's funny, but the Rothschilds were also involved in the development of Russian tourism, albeit indirectly. In the 1960s, Baron Evelyn de Rothschild visited the USSR. The dear guest was also taken to Suzdal. After the ride, the baron said with his usual bluntness::
Of course, no one gave him Suzdal, but the Soviet leaders listened to the words of the English banker. Soon the first state museum and tourist complex in the USSR was created in Suzdal.
Today, the Rothschilds run financial groups in England, France, Switzerland, and the United States. True, the precepts of Mayer Amschel are no longer so sacredly observed. The Swiss group is led by Ariane de Rothschild, the wife of Baron Benjamin, who also did not convert to Judaism. Yes, and the Rothschilds sometimes conflict with each other, although there is very little accurate information on this subject.
And yet, in the main, they are true to themselves. First, they are still on good terms with the powerful. And secondly, they still solve problems in a proven way. An example is the Rothschild villa on the island of Corfu in Greece. At one time, Princess Diana loved to relax here. Then Prince Charles and his Camilla came more than once. Even now, the villa is often visited by the most famous and titled guests. Local residents say that some time ago the owner of the plot on the cape next to the villa started building either a barn or some other utility building. The owner of the villa, Lord Jacob de Rothschild, absolutely did not like it: the unpretentious building spoiled the view from the windows. The lord bought the entire cape and immediately ordered the building to be demolished.
Corfu is very close to Albania, the Rothschild villa looks across the narrow strait to the Albanian coast. Albanian migrant workers-builders, vendors, waiters-are plentiful on the island. They like to talk about the fact that the fastest way to raise the welfare of their native country is simple and obvious. You just need to start building something ugly in front of the Rothschild villa. The family will probably decide to buy Albania. And then everything will definitely get better.
Time, money
1744
Mayer Amschel Rothschild, the founder of the dynasty, was born in the Jewish ghetto of Frankfurt.
1815
Nathan Rothschild is the first in England to receive news of the victory at the Battle of Waterloo and makes a lot of money on the stock exchange.
1816
Four of Mayer Amschel's five sons were granted the Austrian nobility and barony. The fifth, Nathan, becomes a noble two years later.
1858
Lionel de Rothschild becomes the first Jew to be elected to the British Parliament. He was elected 11 years in a row, but each time he was forbidden to take the oath not on the Bible, but on the Old Testament. Since the 11th time allowed.
1875
The Rothschild Bank allocates money to England for the purchase of the Suez Canal.
1882
Edmond de Rothschild finances the creation and development of the first Jewish settlements in Palestine, effectively beginning the creation of the State of Israel.
1922
An expedition funded by Alfred Rothschild discovers the tomb of Tutankhamun — the greatest archaeological discovery in history.
2010
Benjamin de Rothschild says the global financial crisis has not harmed the family. Explains that the Rothschilds adhere to the conservative strategy of "small family business".
The article was first published in the July 2018 issue of GQ.