The House of Rothschild
The Rise of the House (Gollancz. 25s.)
of Rothschild. By Count Corti.
THE monographs on the Rothschild family have fallen, far the most part, into two -classes. There have been the pane- gyrics that the House of Rothschild commissioned for itself notable series beginning with the encyclopedia article by Friedrich von Genz, the secretary of Metternich, and his most trusted adviser ; and there have been bitter attacks written for political or commercial reasons. Between the two it has been hard to make a just estimate of the part the Rothschilds played in nineteenth-century Europe. For this reason' we welcome Count Corti's impartial story ; a strange and romantic tale, and an excellent piece of research: Even the wildest panegyrics have never overstated the of the Rotbschilds in world affairs. Their power was he power of money ; but it kept kings and emperors waiting upon thein ; dictated the internal and external policy of nations ; to a great extent decided whether there should be peace 'or war in Europe, and even where the victory should lie. It would not be absurd to try to show how the Rothschilds won the Peninsular War ; or how, by years of hard work and intrigue, they succeeded in overthrowing Napoleon. Their great position was won fOr them by the energy, dipin- Macy, and shrewdness of one man, Meyer Amschel Rothschild ; and, though it took equal talents to consolidate and extend his gains, the rise of the House to fame and influence rested Mainly upon hiiii.
In 1748, Meyer Amschel Rothschild was born in the ghetto pf Frankfort, a dark and dirty alley, twelVe feet wide, between the, city, walls and an outer ditch. The position of the JewS was miserable in the extreme. They were , forbidden to own_ land, to farm, or to practise handicrafts. They were Strictly confined- to their own quarter for trading, and were hot allowed beyond the ghetto walls at night, on Sundays, or on holidays. No more than twelve marriages might be celebrated in any year. If a street urchin passed a Jew he
would call out Do your duty, Jew," and the Jew was compelled to step out of the way and take off his bat.
At the age of ten Meyer was already engaged in the chang- ing of money. It was a profitable and very necessary trade When Gerniany was a chaos of small principalities, cities, and spiritual powers, and even a short journey might call for a large variety of currencies. It brought him, moreover, his first great opportunity. Sometimes he would get hold of curious and rare coins in the way of busing. He studied the subject of numismatics with eagerness and from time to time made offeringi to increase the collection of Wilhelm; Prince of Hesse.
He was happy in his Prince ; for Wilhelm was the keenest man of business, the greatest money-grubber and miser, of all the rulers of the world. In his private correspondence he called himself Herr von Goldstein, 'an appropriatename. And after Meyer had sacrificed a little profit in order to ingra- tiate himself, he managed, py slow degrees, to make himself indispensable in Wilhelm's issues of loans to his brother monarchs and the collection of his debts. Certainly he had need of tact and the ability to swallow insults ; for no one would trust a Jew who did not show himself both useful and abject. It was through his position as 'Crown Agent to Wilhelm that he began to expand his interests ; and soon he was making loans on his own behalf as far afield as Denmark and
England. It took him years of industrious penetration before he got a footing in the affairs of,the Emperor of Austria ; but persistence was one 'of his most remarkable traits, and his policy of " personal relations " was sure to succeed in the end. By putting clerks and secretaries and ministers in his debt he won himself influence at every Court. What man could fail to recommend him for his stability and integrity, when his own debts had been paid and he was hoping for a pleasant conver- sation with reference to his future needs ?
Another source of profit opened itself to him as he grew in, power. The Princes of Thurn and Taxis held the monopoly of the postal system in Central Europe. They. had a secret habit of unsealing, reading, and sealing up again the corre- spondence that passed through their hands ; and Meyer became one of the privileged few who gained the first news of events which would alter the prices of bonds and the rates of exchanger In later days the Rothschilds built up a courier system of their own, and carried ambassadorial letters, from one country to another. Their information ,could then be exclusive, and it often happened that they informed the Governments of Europe of events long before they knew of them from their own sources. Nathan Rothschild, for example, knew the result of the Battle . of Waterloo in London a day befog; official tidings came. But even a _share in the inside infpr- motion of the House of Thurn and Taxis was useful, and helped, to make Meyer one of the richest financiers. in Germany, .
During the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars there was a multitude of risks and difficulties. . Frankfort was taken by the French ;. but. Meyer, though he took good care to safeguard himself and make himself indispensable to the army of occupation, remained loyal to the Elector, Wilhelm. He sent off to him in exile his treasure boxes and bonds.; he made loans to the princes who opposed Napoleon; he was the prime mover in plots for his overthrow. Meanwhile there were new sources of profit for him. He traded in warsupplies —food, wine, and clothing ; he was an intermediary in war . subsidies from England ; and he ran great smuggling operations through Napoleon's continental blockade. Raids on his house gave little evidence to the French authorities ; he managed to obtain good warning and offered for their perusal a most innocent set of account books.
He died in 1812 ; and, though at his death the House of Rothschild was still to be reckoned among the second-class financial firms, he had raised it from, nothing against extra- ordinary odds, and all the opportunities for its further expan- sion were present. His son Nathan, the shrewdest and most brilliant of the second generation of Rothschilds, was a naturalized Englishman at the head of an autonomous branch in London, already a friend of Ministers and deep in the secrets of the Exchequer. Another son, James, was in Paris, pretending to the French that the exports of gold which Nathan was sending him from England, and which he was secretly conveying to Wellington, were sent in spite of the English Government and were driving :them to despair. Solomon, Amschel, and Carl were constantly passing from capital to capital. Wives and sisters were sitting at the cash desk in Frankfort. The whole family acted with unanimity and perfect understanding ; and formed a close block of international financiers which was soon to become unrivalled in wealth and influence. ThiS remarkable and at times extraordinary story is one that deserves and will certainly achieve a wide public.
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