All in one bottom
Edna Healey
THE SIXTH GREAT POWER: BARINGS 1762-1929 by Philip Ziegler Collins, .f17.50, pp. 430 In the second week of October 1890, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Viscount Goschen, returning from a visit to the Bank of England, noted in his diary 'Went to the Bank, things queer!' But it was nearly a month before it was realised that something not only 'queer' but alarm- ing was happening. Barings, 'the greatest House of all the world', according to the New York Times, 'whose signature has stood always and everywhere for an abso- lute guarantee', was on the verge of bankruptcy. As powerful merchant bank- ers, they had supplied vast loans to govern- ments all over the world, and had financed railway construction in America, Canada, Russia and Latin America. But for some months they had been too closely involved with the corrupt government in Argentina and now faced ruin. And the growing rumours brought fear, bordering on panic to the banking world. 'Had the Barings been allowed to collapse', Nathan Roth- schild wrote afterwards, 'most of the Lon- don Houses would have fallen with them.'
It was not allowed to happen. On 8 November, the unexpect,td sight of great bankers arriving in the City at eight on a Saturday morning signalled the start of a remarkable rescue operation. Lidderdale, Governor of the Bank of England, moved swiftly; with the help of Rothschild he imported gold from Russia and France to bolster reserves, and though Barings fell, the damage was limited. As Edward Bar- ing, 1st Baron Revelstoke, head of the House of Baring, put his pictures, his horses and his grand houses on the market, he must have reflected with chagrin that it was his great rival Rothschild who chaired the committee of bankers who made recov- ery possible. For decades Barings had written unpleasantly of the 'blasted Jew', but now it was through them that John Baring, 2nd Baron Revelstoke, could build a new. House of Baring, that in time would regain much of its old prestige.
Philip Ziegler traces the rise, fall and resurrection of the House of Baring from its foundation in 1762. He writes with clarity and humanity and from the first pithy and provocative sentence, 'The Bar- ings were not Jews,' lures the general reader into the dark world of banking history. There are thickets of statistics, but they never block the path.
We could wish the pace to slacken. We could happily sit longer with Elizabeth Baring, who, we suspect, was the true founder of the Baring dynasty. She was the Exeter wife of John Baring, the first of the German family to settle in Britain in 1717. He came to learn the woollen trade in the booming Devon town, exported cloth to his relations in Bremen and imported their linen in exchange. Doubtless John was, as his children record, an excellent man and built a prosperous business, but his portrait shows a softer face than Elizabeth's. Clear and direct, her eyes watch from the Gains- borough portrait. Do not be misled by the pearls, the lace fichu and the satin bows. This is the face of a powerful lady. During John's long illness and after his death she managed the business so successfully that she could inform her son, 'Our trade here is surprisingly great . . . our people work from five in the morning to nine at night.' And so, you may be sure, did she. Her industry, determination and self- confidence reappear again and again throughout the years in the family charac- ter. 'Our mother,' wrote her son Francis, 'when told she sang out of tune . . . said it was impossible, for she could not sing out of tune if she would.' Arrogance was to be a recurring trait in the Baring character. So too were the industry and intelligence that characterised her son, Francis. He left Exeter and the wool trade for London and international finance, laying the founda- tions of his bank's wealth and reputation. His aloof pride set the family image: successive Barings were expected to be cold and somewhat pompous earning their nickname `Overbearing'! In fact there were recurring strains of recklessness, as in his brother Charles, of indolence and extrava- gance, as in brother John.
Among the later Barings there are many curious characters so lightly drawn that one regrets the author's self-restraint. Lady Ashburton, strictly speaking, is off the path, but we should have liked to discover the secret of the formidable woman who so fascinated Thomas Carlyle. We should like to have met some of the bank's customers. One is grateful, however, for the shafts of light into the secret groves where ministers and bankers walk in grave conference. But we are just out of earshot and shall never know just what Francis Baring said to Lord Lansdowne or his successors to Palmer- ston, to Gladstone or to Lloyd George. We do know, however, that generations of Barings thought politicians totally ignorant of economics and of world affairs.
During the 1914-18 war Barings acted as a wing of government. John Baring, Lord Revelstoke, was close to Arthur Balfour but could also work with his opponents, for the Barings claimed to be above party. There were even times when Lord Revel- stoke felt, as his forebears had frequently done, that they were above national poli- tics. Even after the 1917 Revolution his long association with Russia made him reluctant to freeze their funds in Britain. He was totally opposed to their confisca- tion, 'which would be a blot on the past record of this country as the safest centre for banking funds'. Confidence and con- tacts had always been twin pillars of Baring policy.
At the time of his death in 1929, Barings was once again a national institution. The dynasty had survived, but not through nepotism. 'There can be no place', wrote John Revelstoke's brother Cecil, 'for one of our members unless he shows the requisite character and brains.' He might have added self-confidence, that Baring quality which itself creates the confidence on which the financial world depends. The arrogance remained. 'I am glad to think', wrote Cecil, 'that Barings' credits are not to be got as easily as Kleinworts' or Schroders', because I am vain enough to think that the goodwill represented by our name is in a different class. . .
Philip Ziegler's brilliant book makes their history not only immensely readable but relevant. The firm Devon voice, speak- ing to her son Francis, is still worth listening to. 'I see you have begun in the Exchange way (and) advise you to be careful you do not run out of your depth. I am satisfied this is attended with risks and many Houses . . . sometimes absolutely ruined those who have placed confidence in them. Let Mr Touchet's example of grasping at too much and not being con- tented with a handsome profit . . . be a warning to you.' Remember,' she advised them, and us, 'we are all in one bottom.'
Previous page
