All language subtitles for The Real Masters of The World Unknown Trillionaires

Now let's take a look at the role of the
Rothschild family, the family said to

be the wealthiest in the world.

Money is the god of our time, and
Rothschild is his prophet,

Heinrich Heine.

The mythology surrounding the
Rothschilds' wealth and power is two

old.

The resulting mythology has proved
almost as long -lived as the firm of N

Rothschild and Sons itself.

Ever since the second decade of the 19th
century, there has been speculation

about the origins and extent of the
family's wealth, about their political

influence, not only in the five
countries where there were Rothschild

but throughout the world, about their
Judaism.

The five Rothschild houses constitute an
early version of what later became

known as the multinational.

Perhaps the most important point to
grasp about this multinational

is that for most of the century between
1815 and 1914, it was easily the biggest

bank in the world.

Strictly in terms of their combined
capital, the Rothschilds were in a

their own until, at the earliest, the
1880s.

The 20th century has no equivalent.

Because they were so rich, the
Rothschilds could plainly claim a

equivalence with the European
aristocracy.

They relished the sense that they were
sans pare.

In this sense, phrases like kings of the
Jews, which contemporaries applied to

them, contained an important element of
truth.

That was exactly the way the Rothschilds
saw and conducted themselves.

There are no fewer than 153 species or
subspecies of insect which bear the name

Rothschild, as well as 58 birds, 18
mammals, and 14 plants, including a rare

slipper orchid, Paphiopedilum
rothschildianum, to say nothing of three

three spiders, and two reptiles.

The family's almost equally recurrent
enthusiasm for the pleasures of the

has also bestowed the name on a souffle
and a savory, prawns, cognac, and

gruyere on toast.

There are towns and numerous streets
named after members of the family in

Israel, Rothschild -owned vineyards at
Mouton and Lafitte whose wines are drunk

the world over, numerous Rothschild
-built houses from the Vale of Aylesbury

the Riviera, and there is even a
Rothschild Island in the Antarctic.

At the same time, the Rothschilds
energetically pursued and acquired

decorations, titles, and other honors.

securing the ultimate prize, an English
peerage, in 1885.

The third generation also threw
themselves into hunting and horse

quintessentially aristocratic pastimes.

They also extended their patronage to
include writers, Benjamin Disraeli,

de Balzac, and Heinrich Heine,
musicians, notably Frédéric Chopin and

Rossini, as well as architects and
artists.

In more ways than one, they were the
19th century's Medici's.

From the very earliest days, the
Rothschilds appreciated the importance

proximity to politicians, the men who
determined not only the extent of budget

deficits, but also the domestic and
foreign policies which so influenced the

financial markets.

And politicians soon came to realize the
importance of proximity to the

Rothschilds. who at times seemed
indispensable to the solvency of the

politicians governed, and who could
always be relied upon to provide up -to

-minute political news.

When the former de Rothschild frère
director, Georges Pompidou, became prime

minister in April 1962, and later
president in 1969,

Le Canard Enchaîné commented simply, RF
equals République Française

equals Rothschild frère.

Similar echoes can be found in the
British press, too.

Inferences were sometimes drawn in the
1980s from the fact that a number of

conservative politicians had worked for
N .M. Rothschild and Sons Limited,

either before or after their political
careers, at a time when the firm was

handling a number of important
privatizations.

In the 1880s and 1890s, their advice on
imperial matters was sought by both the

Marquess of Salisbury and the Earl of
Rosebury.

Gladstone's successor as liberal prime
minister.

Indeed, Roseberry was married to a
Rothschild, Byers' daughter Hannah.

Rothschild influence extended to royalty
as well.

It is extraordinary to find that the
family's interests in the financial

of King George IV predated his accession
to the throne by as much as 15 years.

How did Meyer Amschel, then the father
of an obscure Manchester textile

merchant, come to acquire a bill on the
Prince Regent?

The likeliest answer is that he bought
it from the elector of Hesse Castle, who

had made a number of loans to the sons
of George III in the 1790s.

Ten years later, with Nathan firmly
established as a banker in London, the

of Meyer Amschel turned to these other
royal debts with the intention of making

Nathan

in Amschel's somewhat old -fashioned
phrase, court banker in England.

Nor was George IV the only member of the
British royal family to whom Nathan

lent money in the 1820s.

In 1824, for example, he lent 10 ,000
pounds to the Duke of York, as well as

giving him 100 complementary shares in
the Alliance Assurance Company.

The Rothschilds also looked ahead to the
next generation.

In 1816, the only child of the Prince
Regent, Princess Charlotte, was

to a minor German prince, Leopold of
Saxe -Coburg, the youngest son of Duke

Francis Frederick.

The brothers at once recognized
Leopold's potential importance.

Not for nothing did one Rothschild
writer of the 1840s point out the

between the house of Rothschild and the
house of Saxe -Coburg -Gotha.

Those two extended German families which
were to rise from obscurity to glory in

the course of the 19th century.

Indeed, theirs was to be an almost
symbiotic relationship.

The 3 .5 million gulden lent to the Saxe
-Coburgs by the Frankfurt House between

1837 and 1842 was only one aspect of the
connection.

Of greater importance was the support
which the Rothschilds gave to those

members of the family who left Coburg in
search of new thrones elsewhere.

Not that the Rothschilds lost interest
in the question of the British

following Princess Charlotte's death.

When the Prince Regent's brother, the
Duke of Kent, set off for Germany to

Victoria of Saxe -Coburg, he took with
him a letter of credit on the Frankfurt

Rothschilds. When the marriage produced
a daughter, Victoria, who at once became

next in line to the throne, Nathan
hastened to offer the proud father

advice and his exclusive messenger
service.

Nathan's sons continued to act as the
Duchess's banker after the Duke's death,

relaying money to her brother, Ferdinand
of Saxe -Coburg.

These tenuous links were enhanced by
careful cultivation of Leopold of Saxe

-Coburg. who later became King Leopold I
of the Belgians.

Nor was his nephew Albert above turning
to the Rothschilds for financial

assistance after he became Queen
Victoria's prince consort.

In turn, Victoria and Albert's eldest
son was on friendly terms with many

members of the family before and after
he succeeded his mother as Edward VII.

The list of Victorian politicians who
were close to the Rothschilds is a long

one. Lionel's campaign for admission to
the House of Commons in the late 1840s

and 1850s enjoyed support from Whigs
like Lord John Russell and Peelites like

Gladstone, but also protectionist Tories
like Disraeli and Lord George Bentinck.

They were attracted not only to
Disraeli, but also to Lord Randolph

Joseph Chamberlain, and Arthur Balfour.

Even as late as the first decade of the
20th century, the system of partnerships

continued to function in such a way that
English Rothschilds had a financial

stake in the Paris house and French
Rothschilds a stake in the London house.

The history of the Rothschilds also
helps to illuminate the long -running

differences between British, French, and
German banking, for the obvious reason

that the various Rothschild houses
worked in similar, though not identical,

in each country.

In addition to the inevitable web of
credits and debits with other firms

arose from these activities, the
Rothschilds also offered to a select

customers, usually royal and
aristocratic individuals whom they

cultivate, a range of personal banking
services, ranging from large personal

loans, as in the case of the Austrian
Chancellor Prince Metternich, to a first

-class private postal service, as in the
case of Queen Victoria.

And the Rothschilds were also major
industrial investors, an aspect of their

business which has often been
underestimated.

When the development of railways raised
the possibility of transforming Europe's

transport system in the 1830s and 1840s,
the Rothschilds were among the leading

financial backers of lines, beginning in
France, Austria, and Germany.

Indeed, by the 1860s, James de
Rothschild had built up something like a

-European railway network.

extending northwards from France to
Belgium, southwards to Spain, and

to Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and
Italy.

From an early stage, the Rothschilds
also had major mining interests,

in the 1830s with their acquisition of
the Spanish mercury mines of Almaden and

expanding dramatically in the 1880s and
1890s when they invested in mines

producing gold, copper, diamonds,
rubies, and oil.

Like their original financial business,
this was an authentically global

operation extending from South Africa to
Burma, from Montana to Baku.

Unlike modern multinationals, however,
this was always a family firm, with

executive decision -making strictly
monopolized by the partners, who, until

1960, were exclusively drawn from the
ranks of male Rothschilds.

There are numerous apocryphal business
maxims attributed to the Rothschilds.

For example, to hold a third of one's
wealth in securities, a third in real

estate, and a third in jewels and
artworks.

To treat the stock exchange like a cold
shower, quick in, quick out.

Or to leave the last 10 % to someone
else.

The economic history of capitalism is
therefore incomplete until some attempt

has been made to explain how the
Rothschilds became so phenomenally rich.

All 19th century states ran budget
deficits and some almost always did.

And it was war and the preparation for
war which generally precipitated the

biggest increases in expenditure.

For it was by lending to governments or
by speculating in existing government

bonds that the Rothschilds made a very
large part of their colossal fortune.

The answer lies in the way these
investments were carried out.

Only a few years previously, Meyer
Amschel had been arranging payments of

620 ,000 gulden from the elector to
Austria to pay for troops and horses in

1809 campaign against France.

Shortly after Meyer Amschel's death, his
son Amschel was advancing 255 ,000

gulden to purchase horses for the French
army.

He simply backed both sides.

Such a strategy has obvious attractions,
and it was to become a frequent

Rothschild gambit in the decades ahead.

Amschel was only half -joking when he
wrote, urging Solomon, Do your stuff.

Make the Frankfurt house richer by a
million francs, the Paris house richer

million louis d 'or, and the London
house richer by a million pounds, and

be awarded the Order of the Grande
Armée.

Such transactions probably accounted for
the lion's share of the profits the

Rothschilds made in this decisive
period.

In June 1814, Harris listed the payments
they had so far made to Prussia,

Austria, the French King, and the
British Army.

Including money that had not yet been
disbursed, the total was 12 .6 million

francs. More was to come.

By now, the markets were tending to
follow the Rothschild lead.

As Carl noted, When we buy, everybody
buys.

This reflected the widespread belief
that the Rothschilds were acting on

of the English government and that this
was being done in order to force the

rate of the pound sterling up and that
we succeeded very well in doing so.

But now, let's return to Napoleon.

Because nothing else in history more
aptly demonstrates the ingenuity of the

Rothschild family than their control of
the British stock market after Waterloo.

In 1815, a year after the end of the War
of 1812 in America, Napoleon escaped

his exile and returned to Paris.

Just as the brothers appeared to be
losing the peace, Bonaparte's Hundred

plunged Europe back into war.

restoring the financial conditions in
which the Rothschilds had hitherto

thrived.

This time, not only Russia and Prussia,
but the previously aloof Austrians found

they had little option but to accept
payment from the Rothschilds, as did a

gaggle of other states, including
Saxony, Baden, Württemberg, Bavaria, Sax

Weimar, Hesse, Denmark, and Sardinia.

Altogether, Harris' account with Nathan
in 1815.

amounted to £9 ,789 ,778.

In this, the Rothschilds had invaluable
accomplices in the Allied powers

themselves, who naturally wished to
pocket as much as they could before

was signed and the subsidies ceased.

As their father had taught them, the
brothers were always careful to make

terms attractive not only to
governments, but also to the individual

with whom they were negotiating.

That Nathan profited from the dramatic
events of 1815 is central to Rothschild

mythology.

By obtaining the first news of
Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, before

government itself, Nathan was able to
make a huge sum of money on the stock

exchange.

This is the Waterloo battlefield about
200 miles northeast of Paris in what

today is Belgium.

Here Napoleon suffered his final defeat.

but not before thousands of French and
Englishmen gave their lives on a steamy

summer day in July of 1815.

The outcome was certainly in doubt.

In fact, had Napoleon attacked a few
hours earlier, he would probably have

the battle.

Rothschild stationed a trusted agent, a
man named Rothworth, on the north side

of the battlefield, closer to the
English Channel.

Once the battle had been decided,
Rothworth took off for the challenge.

He delivered the news to Nathan
Rothschild a full 24 hours before

own courier.

If Wellington had been defeated and
Napoleon was loose on the continent

Britain's financial situation would
become grave indeed.

You've lost your luck.

Sir.

Sir.

Sir.

Look at Rothstein.

You think he was selling apples instead
of government bonds?

That's an hour fifty -three.

All right.

I'll keep on selling that kind of stuff.

You're creating something like a panic
on the exchange, sir.

I know.

Other nervous investors saw that
Rothschild was selling.

It could only mean one thing. Napoleon
must have won. Wellington must have

The market plummeted. Soon everyone was
selling their consoles, their British

government bonds, and prices dropped
sharply.

But then Rothschild started secretly
buying up the consoles to his agents for

only a fraction of their worth hours
before.

What's even more interesting about this
story is that some authors claim that

the day after the Battle of Waterloo, in
a matter of hours, Nathan Rothschild

came to dominate not only the bond
market, but the Bank of England as well.

Whether or not the Rothschild family
seized control of the Bank of England,

first privately owned central bank in a
major European nation and the

wealthiest, one thing is certain. By the
mid -1800s, the Rothschilds were the

richest family in the world, bar none.

They dominated the new government bond
markets and branched into other banks

industrial concerns.

Like France and Britain, the Central and
East European states emerged from the

war with dire financial problems which
could be addressed only with the

assistance of foreign capital.

As Disraeli later put it in his novel,
Coningsby, After the exhaustion of a war

of 25 years, Europe must require capital
to carry on peace.

France wanted some, Austria more, Russia
a little, Russia a few millions.

Moreover, the policy of the Holy
Alliance was bound to greed additional

financial needs from which the
Rothschilds could also profit.

For the principal aim of the Alliance
was to avert a recurrence of the

revolutionary epidemic which had caused
such upheaval in Europe between 1789 and

1815, if necessary by military
intervention.

That implied further expenditure.

The Rothschilds were notoriously the
chief ally of the Holy Alliance.

To the German writer Ludwig Werner, they
were the nation's worst enemies.

They have done more than any to
undermine the foundations of freedom,

unquestionable that most of the peoples
of Europe would by this time be in full

possession of liberty if such men as
Rothschild did not lend the autocrats

support of their capital.

Moreover, the Rothschilds were also, as
Berna said, lending money to establish

Greece as an independent monarchy, which
had been another liberal goal of the

1820s. Indeed, they even appeared to be
in a position to influence the decision

as to which prince would become the new
Greek king.

It therefore made more sense to argue
that the Rothschilds were beginning to

supplant rather than merely shore up the
European monarchies.

The first major post -war loan which the
brothers succeeded in making was to

Prussia, which had ended the Napoleonic
period with a debt burden of around 188

million thaler and continued to run
large deficits in 1815, 1816, and 1817.

The size of the floating debt reached 20
million thaler by the autumn, and the

government began to contemplate raising
a loan in London.

Banking, the third Lord Rothschild once
remarked, consists essentially of

facilitating the movement of money from
point A, where it is, to point B, where

it is needed.

All banks have histories, though not all
have their histories researched and

written. Only the Rothschilds, however,
have a mythology.

The world's bankers.

The Rothschilds are the wonders of
modern banking.

We see the descendants of Judah, under a
persecution of 2 ,000 years, peering

above kings, rising higher than
emperors, and holding a whole continent

hollow of their hands.

The Rothschilds govern a Christian
world.

Not a cabinet moves without their
advice.

They stretch their hand with equal ease
from Petersburg to Vienna, from Vienna

to Paris, from Paris to London, from
London to Washington.

Baron Rothschild, the head of the house,
is the true king of Judah, the prince

of the captivity, the messiah so long
looked for by this extraordinary people.

He holds the keys of peace or war,
blessing or cursing.

They are the brokers and counselors of
the kings of Europe and of the

chiefs of America.

What more can they desire?

Niles Weekly Register, 1835 -36.

Whatever its significance for Prussian
politics, the 1818 Prussian loan was

without question a watershed in the
history of the European capital market,

contemporaries came to recognize.

Firstly, the loan was not to be in
Toller, but in Sterling, with the

payable, half yearly, not in Berlin, but
in London.

Secondly, there was to be a British
-style sinking fund to ensure the

amortization of the loan.

This deliberate anglicization of a
foreign loan was a new departure for the

international capital market.

Now it was much easier to invest in
foreign funds.

The fact that throughout the century all
foreign government bonds paid higher

yields than British consoles meant that
people did.

The Times did not exaggerate when it
later described Nathan as the first

introducer of foreign loans into
Britain.

Moreover, the loan was issued not just
in London, but also in Frankfurt,

Hamburg, Amsterdam and Vienna.

In other words, it represented a major
step towards the creation of a

international bond market.

In stipulating these conditions, Nathan
not only succeeded in making the

Prussian loan attractive to British and
continental investors, he also

established a model for such
international bond issues, which would

become standard.

In his book, On the traffic in state
bonds, 1825, the German legal expert

Johann Heinrich Bender identified this
as one of the Rothschilds' principal

contributions to modern economic
development.

Any owner of government bonds can
collect the interest at his convenience

several different places without any
effort.

Henceforth, an investor could receive
the interest on Austrian metallic,

Neapolitan Ront or any other Rothschild
-issued bonds from any of the Rothschild

houses.

Although the terms of the loan were
heavily criticized in Berlin, not least

the bankers there, Humboldt and Rother
were impressed.

Rother went further.

The Rothschild in this country has an
incredible influence upon all financial

affairs here in London.

It is widely stated, and is indeed close
to the truth, that he entirely

regulates the rate of exchange in the
city.

His power as a banker is enormous.

In an unpublished passage of The Baths
of Lucca, Heine sought to analyze the

nature of the Rothschild's power more
precisely.

Here he acknowledges that in the short
term it served to shore up the

reactionary regimes.

Revolutions are generally triggered off
by deficiency of money.

By preventing such deficiencies, the
Rothschild system may serve to preserve

peace in Europe.

This system, or rather Nathan
Rothschild, its inventor, is still

foundations for such peace.

It does not inhibit one state from
making war on another exactly as before,

it does make it difficult for the people
to overthrow established authority.

Religion is no longer able to guarantee
the governments that the people will

remain peaceful.

The Rothschild system of loans can
perform the task much better.

It possesses the moral force or power
which religion has lost.

It can act as a surrogate for religion.

Indeed, it is a new religion. When the
old religion finally goes under, it will

provide substitutes for its practical
blessings.

Strangely enough, it is once again the
Jews who invented this new religion.

As early as 1828, Prince Udler -Muskow,
Referred to Rothschild, without whom no

power in Europe today seems able to make
war.

In a multipolar world in which five
powers with distinct interests sought to

resolve international crises without
resorting to war, the Rothschilds acted

so much to ensure peace as to underwrite
it once it had been made.

The case was put in a more sophisticated
form by the left -leaning liberal J .A.

Hobson. author of the classic
Imperialism, A Study, 1902.

Like many radical writers of the period,
Hobson regarded the Boer War as having

been engineered by a small group of
international financiers, chiefly German

origin and Jewish in race.

The Rothschilds, in his view, were
central to this group.

Does anyone seriously suppose, he asked
in Imperialism, That a great war could

be undertaken by any European state or
any great state loan subscribed if the

House of Rothschild and its connections
set their face against it?

Cherub had made much the same point from
a German nationalist perspective in his

history.

The House of Rothschild has arisen from
the quarrels between states, has become

great and mighty from wars, and the
misfortune of states and peoples has

its fortune.

English examples can also be found.

In refusing Gladstone's request to make
Lionel the Rothschild appear, Queen

Victoria explicitly questioned whether
one who owes his great wealth to

contracts with foreign governments for
loans or to successful speculations on

the stock exchange can fairly claim a
British peerage.

A good illustration is John Reeves'
book, The Rothschilds, The Financial

of Nations, which returns a typical
verdict.

The Rothschilds belonged to no one
nationality. They are cosmopolitan. They

belong to no party.

They were ready to grow rich at the
expense of friend and foe alike.

The central dilemma which confronted the
Rothschilds lay here.

Because of their wealth, other Jews
looked to them for leadership in their

pursuit of equal civil and political
rights.

They themselves had no desire to forsake
their palatial town and country

residences for barren Palestine.

Lionel's nephew Victor struck a similar
note of ambivalence when he addressed a

meeting of the Earl Baldwin Fund for
Refugees. The slow murder of 600 ,000

people, he told his audience, is an act
which has rarely happened in history.

Yet, he went on, in spite of
humanitarian feelings, we probably all

there is something unsatisfactory in
refugees encroaching on the privacy of

country. even for relatively short
periods of time.

Even in 1946, speaking in the House of
Lords, Victor defended the policy of

restricting immigration to Palestine.

The only logical solution was therefore
to find some alternative territory for

the Jews to go to.

The Nazis themselves thought of
Madagascar. At around the same time, the

House forwarded to Newcourt a proposal
to purchase 200 ,000 acres of Brazil's

Mata Grosso, and another to settle Jews
in Sudan's Apanal Valley.

Kenya, northern Rhodesia, and Guyana
were also considered.

Only at the 11th hour, it seems, did the
Rothschilds recognize the need to admit

refugees into Britain and France.

This was broadly the argument of the
early Zionists like Theodor Herzl, who

to believe that the only solution to the
Jewish question was indeed for the Jews

to leave Europe and found their own
Judenstadt.

Herzl made a succession of attempts to
win the support of the Rothschilds in

belief that they were about to liquidate
their vast capital as a response to

anti -Semitic attacks.

But his 66 -page address to the
Rothschild family council was never

concluded from an initial rebuff that
they were vulgar, contemptuous,

egotistical people.

The Rothschilds, he later declared, were
a national misfortune for the Jews.

He even threatened to liquidate them or
to wage a barbaric campaign against them

if they opposed him.

If a Zionist could use such language in
the 1890s, it is perhaps not surprising

that the radical anti -Semites who
flourished in the defeated states of

Europe after the First World War did so
too.

A good example is Dietrich Eckart's
address to all working people.

of 1919.

The House of Rothschild owns 40 billion.

They only need to administer their
wealth to see that it is nicely placed.

They do not need to work, at least not
what we understand by work.

But who provides them and their like
with such an enormous amount of money?

Who does this?

You do it. Nobody but you.

That's right, it is your money, hard
-earned through care and sorrow, which

drawn as if magnetically into the
coffers of these insatiable people.

Another early National Socialist who
cited the Rothschilds as examples of the

Jewish problem he pledged to solve was
Adolf Hitler.

In an article in the Nazi Völkischer
Beobachter in May 1921, for example, he

named them as one of a group of Jewish
capitalists who controlled the socialist

press.

On at least two occasions in 1922, he
gave speeches in which he referred to

significant difference between the
achievements of a man like Alfred Krupp,

has bequeathed an immense national
achievement through his indefatigable

an innovator, and the rapacity of a
Rothschild who financed wars and

and brought the peoples into interest
servitude through loans.

The television preacher and Republican
politician Pat Robertson's book, The New

World Order, published in 1991, states
that the Rothschilds were polluted by

occultism of illuminated Freemasonry,
and that Paul Warburg, architect of the

Federal Reserve System, was a Rothschild
agent.

From a completely different political
milieu, Khalid Muhammad, a former

assistant to Louis Farrakhan, the leader
of the radical African -American

organization Nation of Islam,

has repeated the suggestion that the
Rothschilds financed Hitler and aided

anti -Semitic policies.

A cursory search of the Internet reveals
a plethora of conspiracy theories.

The Rothschilds arranged the murder of
President Lincoln, as his post -war

policies would have wrecked their
commodity speculations.

The Rothschilds financed the rise of
Hitler as a bulwark against the Soviet

Union. The Rothschilds are interwoven
with the Catholic Church.

and jointly with the traditional mafia
and the American CIA, which was pro

-Nazi.

They are the hidden power which controls
other well -known banks, such as

Warburgs, Schroders, and Lazars, as well
as being behind American financiers,

such as J .P. Morgan, the Rockefellers,
Kuhn, Loeb & Company, the Spires, and

the Lehmans, not to mention the Bank of
England and the Federal Reserve System,

an obvious Rothschild front.

Through this network of global power,
they have been responsible for, among

other things, the Boer War, the creation
of Israel to control the oil of the

Middle East, the Russian Revolution, a
coup on Russia by the United States

financial arm largely controlled by the
Rothschilds, and even the floating of

the dollar by President Nixon.

Today, they and their associates in the
Conservative Party and the press are

plotting to monopolize the world's
energy supplies.

Hence their interest in electricity,
coal, and gas privatization.

It might be thought that a serious
banking history should scrupulously

reference to this kind of nonsense.

Yet it is impossible to appreciate the
need for a scholarly history of the

subject if one blithely pretends such
myths do not exist.

In 1823, the twelfth, thirteenth, and
fourteenth cantos of Byron's Don Juan

published in London at a time when their
author was embroiled, fatally as it

proved, in the Greek struggle for
independence.

Nevertheless, these late verses indicate
a keen awareness of the power of money,

and specifically of the new kind of
financial power personified by Nathan

Rothschild.

Who hold the balance of the world?

asked Byron in the twelfth canto.

Who reign o 'er Congress, whether
royalist or liberal, who rouse the

patriots of Spain?

Who keep the world both old and new in
pain or pleasure?

Who make politics run glibber all?

The shade of Bonaparte's noble daring,
Jew Rothschild and his fellow Christian

Baring.

To Byron, Rothschild and Baring were the
true lords of Europe.

whose every loan is not a merely
speculative hit, but seats a nation or

throne.

Republics also get involved a bit.

Columbia's stock hath holders not
unknown on change, and even thy silver

Peru, must get itself discounted by a
Jew.

That Byron could suggest, even
satirically, that Nathan Rothschild

with Alexander Baring, the balance of
the world, requires some explanation.

In April 1825, the market began to
slide.

The heaviest falls were experienced by
British industrial securities and Latin

American bonds.

Such a severe asset price deflation was
bound to bring a banking crisis in its

wake.

As it was, 73 out of 770 country banks
failed.

The country came within 48 hours of
putting stop to all dealings between man

man except by barter.

Much of the time, Nathan was a buyer or
borrower of gold and silver.

In December 1825, however, it was the
other way round. The Rothschilds gave

bank their gold, supplying the old lady
of Threadneedle Street with enough

specie from the continent to avert a
suspension of cash payments.

Of course, Nathan would not have made
such immense deliveries of gold without

asking for a generous commission in
return.

The operation has to be seen as part of
his campaign to establish himself as the

dominant force in the London bullion
market.

The rescue of the bank was a remarkable
achievement which owed everything to the

international nature of the Rothschilds'
operations.

In effect, the brothers were
establishing that system of

cooperation which would later be
performed routinely by central banks and

which the gold standard came to depend.

Increasingly, their position in the
international bullion market was

dominant as their position in the
international bond market.

Byron was therefore not far wide of the
mark when he suggested in Don Juan that

Baring and Rothschild reigned over both
royalists and liberals, and that their

loans could seat a nation or upset a
throne.

He erred only in regarding the two
bankers as financial equals.

In 1815, they had been.

By 1825, they were not.

If there was a sixth great power in the
1820s, it was no longer Barings, but

Rothschilds.

At the same time, by dint of their size,
the Rothschilds came to see themselves

as bearing a degree of responsibility
for the stability of the banking system

a whole.

This explains their reluctance to see
their rivals fail.

In all this, the Rothschilds were
increasingly beginning to think in a way

fundamentally similar to that
characteristic of central bankers.

The central banks of England and France
continued to be partly private

institutions.

In terms of their financial resources,
they were in fact the only banks

comparable with the Rothschilds, though
of course they were national, where the

Rothschilds were international.

The Rothschilds had no interest in
resisting their monopolization of note

The relationships between the
Rothschilds and the European central

thus almost always close and symbiotic.

Of growing importance as a non
-exclusive source of financial

misinformation in this period was, of
course, the press.

It might be thought that the
proliferation of newspapers in the 19th

tended to erode the advantages which the
Rothschilds were able to derive from

their private system of communications.

On the other hand, the existence of
financial pages in newspapers presented

opportunities for influencing the
markets, which the Rothschilds were not

to exploit.

Nathan responded to early press attacks
by establishing what was to be an

enduring relationship with the most
influential of all British papers, the

Times.

The Times correspondent reported from
St. Petersburg that the mere appearance

James Rothschild at the bourse was
expected to boost Russian bond prices.

By the summer of 1825, therefore, the
Rothschilds had succeeded triumphantly

establishing themselves as the leading
specialists in European public finance.

And not only European.

New fiscal needs quickly arose from the
political crises which beset the Spanish

and Ottoman empires in this period.

It was this need which Nathan and his
brothers successfully met.

The system they developed enabled
British investors and other rich

in Western Europe, to invest in the
debts of those states by purchasing

internationally tradable, fixed
-interest transferable bonds.

The significance of this system for 19th
century history cannot be

overemphasized, for this growing
international bond market brought

Europe's true capitalists.

that elite of people wealthy enough to
be able to tie up money in such assets

and shrewd enough to appreciate the
advantages of such assets as compared

traditional forms of holding wealth,
land, venal office, and so on.

Funds were liquid.

They could be bought and sold five and a
half days out of seven on the major

bourses of Europe and traded informally
at other times and in other places.

And they were capable of accruing large
capital gains.

If investors bid up the price of a
government's stock, that government

feel secure.

If they dumped its stock, that
government was quite possibly living on

time as well as money.

For this reason, bond prices had a
significance which historians have too

spelt out.

They were, it might be said, a kind of
daily opinion poll, an expression of

confidence in a given regime.

Of course, they were an opinion poll
based on a highly unrepresentative

by modern democratic standards.

Only the wealthy, the capitalists, got
to vote.

These capitalists were thus to a large
extent Europe's political class.

Indeed, the kind of people who held
government bonds were, very roughly

speaking, the people who were
represented politically.

And their opinions were the opinions
that mattered in a stratified,

society.

The singular beauty of the bond market
was that virtually every state,

including, as the century advanced, all
the new nation -states and colonies, had

sooner or later to come to it, and most
states had sizable amounts of tradable

debt in circulation.

The varying fortunes of government bonds
provide a vital insight into the

political history of the period.

They are also the key to understanding
the extent of the power of a bank like

Rothschild's, which for much of the 19th
century was the prime market maker for

such bonds.

What determined the ups and downs of the
19th century bond market?

The answer to this question is central
to any understanding of the history of

the Rothschild Bank.

Obviously, economic factors played an
important part, but the most important

factor was political confidence.

The confidence of investors, and
especially of big market -making

the Rothschilds, in the ability of the
bond -issuing states to continue to meet

their obligations, that is, to pay the
interest on their bonds.

There were only really two things which
might cause them not to do so.

War, which would increase their
expenditures and decrease their tax

and internal instability, ranging from a
change of ministry to full -blown

revolution.

It was for indications of either of
these possible crises

that the markets and the Rothschilds,
more than anybody, watched.

Three things would give an investor an
edge over his rival.

Closeness to the center of political
life, the source of news, the speed with

which he could receive news of events in
states far and near, and the ability to

manipulate the transmission of that news
to other investors.

This explains why the Rothschilds spent
so much time, energy, and money

maintaining the best possible relations
with the leading political figures of

the day.

It also explains why they carefully
developed a network of salaried agents

other key financial markets, whose job
it was not only to trade on their

but also to keep them supplied with the
latest financial and political news.

The Rothschilds' communications network
gave them an important advantage over

their competitors.

Even after they lost this edge, they
continued to exercise an influence over

financial press through which news
reached the wider public.

Indeed, it can be argued that by
modifying the existing system for

borrowing to make bonds more easily
tradable, the Rothschilds actually

the international bond market in its
modern form.

As early as August 1820, the Bremen
delegate to the German Confederation

in Frankfurt had a conversation with his
Austrian counterpart, Count Buhl, which

acutely identified the unrivaled extent
of the Rothschilds' political influence

in Europe.

This house has, through its enormous
financial transactions and its banking

credit connections, actually achieved
the position of a real power.

It has to such an extent acquired
control of the general money market that

in a position either to hinder or to
promote, as it feels inclined, the

movements and operations of potentates
and even of the greatest European

In fact, the rest of the 19th century
was known as the Age of the Rothschild.

They financed lethal roads.

making it possible for him to establish
a monopoly over the diamond and gold

fields of South Africa.

In America, they financed the Harrimans
in railroads, the Vanderbilts in

railroads and the press, and Carnegie in
the steel industry, among many others.

By 1850, James Rothschild, the heir of
the French branch of the family, was

to be worth 600 million French francs.
150 million more than all the other

bankers in France put together.

He built this mansion called Ferrier,
just east of Paris.

Wilhelm I, on seeing it, exclaimed,
Kings couldn't afford this. It could

belong to a Rothschild.

Another 19th century French commentator
put it this way, There is but one power

in Europe, and that is Rothschild.

By the end of the 19th century, One
expert estimated that the Rothschild

controlled half the wealth of the world.

Despite this overwhelming wealth, the
family has generally cultivated an aura

invisibility. Although the family
controlled scores of industrial,

mining, and tourist corporations, only a
handful bear the Rothschild name.

There is no evidence that their
predominant standing in European or

finance has changed.

A dynasty turns jet.

Things were getting back to normal in
1945, but what, in family terms, was

normalcy? The house at Hamilton Place,
built by Leo, became one of London's

luxurious pubs.

Another Rothschild residence in
Kensington Gardens now constitutes...

The Soviet -Russian embassy.

And in France, the Titanic manse at 2
Rue Florentin on the Place de la

has gone the way of all Titanic manses.

Talleyrand had lived there before
Edouard de Rothschild moved in.

When Edouard put it on the market, only
one customer could afford the price,

Uncle Sam.

It became the European headquarters of
the Marshall Plan.

and today is tenanted by the United
States Mission to NATO and to European

regional organizations.

Henri de Rossier's huge place at 33 Rue
de Faubourg Saint -Honoré now

houses the Cercle Interallier, a fancy
international diplomatic club.

On the same street, the United States
Embassy has taken over No. 41, built by

the first Baron Edmond.

The Rothschild monograms still crown the
great portal for both houses.

Last, not least, Ferriere, the crown
jewel among Rothschild possessions.

No one was rich enough to buy it, nor
did the French branch want to part with

such a symbol.

Initially, a great deal of labour went
into untangling the various pre -war

debts on which countries like Chile and
Hungary had defaulted.

New issues, like the 1951 offering of £5
million of stock for the International

Bank for Reconstruction and Development,
usually known as the World Bank, had to

be shared with other city houses.

The old Rothschild predominance in the
South African gold market had already

been reasserted three years previously,
when the international gold market

reopened. Once again, the world gold
price was formally set in Newcourt's

room. Through a string of holding
companies, Newcourt could now tap

lumber, power, mineral, particularly
uranium, resources.

And Winston Churchill, appreciative of
the scale of the thing, termed it a

imperial concept.

After Antony's death, his two nephews,
Edmund and Leopold, took over together

with Antony's son, Evelyn.

In addition, Evelyn sat on the boards of
Beaverbrook newspapers, The Economist,

and later the Telegraph PLC.

Edmund, the senior partner, struck out
in still other directions, as owner and

operator of the Royal Mint Refinery, as
gold agent to the Bank of England, and

as merchant banker extraordinary,
consolidating still further a new

position as a key bullion broker in the
English Commonwealth.

And laying the foundation for its
present preeminent position in the

natural resources market, Rothschild
Australia accounts for around a third of

the NM Rothschild Group's profits.

It retained its long -standing interest
in gold, even after the breakdown of the

gold pool as a consequence of the
pressures brought to bear on the dollar

Vietnam War.

Above all, it was to the countries of
the developing European economic

that the bank looked.

Most farsighted of all was the
Rothschild plan for a new currency

Euro, European Composite Unit, based on
the values of nine major European

currencies, forerunner of the later ECU
and Euro.

In September 1967, a channel study group
was formed, along with Morgan Grenfell,

Lazar and Barrings, in an effort to
revive the old Victorian dream of a

under the English Channel.

N .M. Rothschild maintained its interest
in the project and acted as advisor to

the European Channel Tunnel Group, which
initiated the present Channel in 1981.

It was at around this time that Guy, the
head of the Paris House, was being

touted in some quarters as EEC Banker
Rothschild.

The French Rothschilds are richer still,
and they have become richer faster.

Baron Guy assumed the reins at the death
of his father, Edouard.

With similar aggressiveness, Guy has
fortified the position of de Rothschild

-Prayer as the largest private bank in
France.

His main instrument here is the
Compagnie du Nord, the railroad network,

became family property after the diner
James financed it into existence.

Through its railroad -turned -investment
front, the family controlled, and after

the Nazi nightmare, controlled again,
mining corporations, metal plants, oil

interests, chemical industries, and many
others.

This sort of set -up requires a feudal
allegiance.

There are whole families that have been
on the Rothschild payroll for over a

century.

A first tentative step in this direction
was taken in 1960, when N .M.

Rothschild and Warburgs placed £340 ,000
shares in the August Thyssen Steel

Company on the London market.

the first German shares to be quoted in
London since the war.

Then there is Guy's cousin, Edmond.

He is faithful enough to family
discretion to keep the portals of No.

Faubourg Saint -Honoré, signless and
anonymous.

From this headquarters, he runs the
Compagnie Financière, a worldwide

organisation which builds villas,
hotels, pipelines in Israel.

throws up giant housing projects in
Paris, finances banks and car factories

Brazil.

He greatly enlarged the family holdings
on the slopes of Mont Blanc, complete

with ski lifts, swimming pools, tennis
courts and nightclubs.

He also underwrites and develops not
merely hotels, but entire new tourist

regions in Martinique and Guadeloupe in
the French Caribbean.

With Lord Rothschild as partner, He is
responsible for the flowering of

luxury golf resort at Siberia.

Edmund James Rothschild Memorial Group
contributed $1 million to the Weizmann

Scientific Institute in Tel Aviv, gave
$3 million towards the construction of

the Knesset, and puts the bill for many
of Israel's archaeological expeditions.

Pre -1914 links to Japan were also
renewed by Edmund.

who made several visits there between
1962 and 1969, arranging euro -dollar

issues in partnership with Nomura
Securities for a number of Japanese

including Hitachi and Pioneer.

The logical way of advancing Britain's
financial integration with the continent

was to establish some kind of cross
-channel institutional link.

The creation of Rothschild's
Continuation Holdings, AG, as the Swiss

parent company, was, in this sense,
pregnant with historical significance.

To recreate something like the system of
international partnership, which had

been the Rothschild's greatest strength
in the 19th century.

The NM Rothschild Group is thus a
multinational entity.

More than 50 % of its assets are now
held outside the UK, with a wide

geographical reach.

Again, reminiscent of the system of
houses which had been developed by my

sons after 1815.