Part 1. Red sign
Five golden arrows.
RED SIGN. AGAINST NAPOLEON. ON THE TOP OF POWER. SUETSK LOAN. CREDITANSTALT CRASH. AVANTURE WITH HIMMLER. CLAN REVIVAL.
Rothschild banking house.
It existed for a century and a half before opening its branch in Switzerland, in this, so to speak, the financial center of the world. However, in the history of the Rothschild dynasty, this fact does not play any noticeable role: it simply symbolizes that in the 70s of the XX century. The Rothschilds again embarked on the path of expanding their financial influence in the world. But already in the early 1950s, it became obvious that the banking clan surrounded by legends had recovered from the turmoil caused by the Second World War, and again took its place among the most influential banking houses in the world. Once upon a time there was a saying about the descendants of the first Rothschilds that babies in this family are born immediately at the age of 150 and 150 times millionaires. These numbers may not be very accurate, but they symbolize one thing - and this is true,- that the "financial style" of the Rothschilds is traditional and aristocratic. After all, it is known that the Zurich branch of the company, for example, agrees to accept as its clients only persons with a capital of at least 1 million Swiss. francs. From the family "balance" of the clan, in any case, it is safe to say that this style has withstood all the tests of economic and political disasters and upheavals. And to this day, the largest bank in France is in the hands of the Rothschilds. The English branch of the Rothschild clan also owns the UK's most powerful private bank.that this style has withstood all the tests of economic and political disasters and shocks. And to this day, the largest bank in France is in the hands of the Rothschilds. The English branch of the Rothschild clan also owns the UK's most powerful private bank.that this style has withstood all the tests of economic and political disasters and shocks. And to this day, the largest bank in France is in the hands of the Rothschilds. The English branch of the Rothschild clan also owns the UK's most powerful private bank.
The French branch of the Rothschild dynasty also owned the largest railway complex in France, the Company du Nord, after the nationalization of which the Rothschild bank received 270 thousand French state shares in compensation. In addition, many enterprises remained in the ownership of the clan even after nationalization. In the hands of the Rothschilds, the largest mining concern Le Nickel and the equally wealthy company Peñarroya remained. The Rothschilds have significant financial interests in the Royal Dutch Shell oil trust, in the Rio Tinto mining monopoly and in the De Beers trust, which is engaged in diamond mining. Over the past 20 years, the Rothschilds have funded several major economic projects. They are united by the "Company Finance", which is under the control of the dynasty. Among the largest of them are nickel mining enterprises in the Sahara, and the Antar oil refinery trust, which was later sold by the Rothschilds to the French state, and equity participation in the creation of mining enterprises for the extraction of gold, uranium, iron, magnesite in a number of African countries, and investment in the construction and operation of a tourism center throughout the south of France - from Chamonix to the Mediterranean coast.
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Last but not least, all this means the active influence of the Rothschilds on the country's politics. So, Rene Meyer in 1938, being the CEO of Rothschild, negotiated with the French government regarding the nationalization of the railways belonging to Rothschild, and after the Second World War he headed several times first the government of France, and later the European Coal and Steel Community, which subsequently outgrew to the Western European Common Market.
He was one of the advisers to de Gaulle and Pompidou, who at one time moved to the general's entourage from the post of general director of the Rothschild firm. Later, he also stood at the head of the first French government, and then the French state.
The Rothschild clan traces its ancestry to Frankfurt am Main in Germany. The ancestors of the founder of the Rothschild dynasty, Mayer Rothschild, lived for many generations in a squalid house on the Judengasse (Jewish street) fenced off on both sides, where guards stood near the heavy chains that blocked the entrance and exit. At the corner of the house, a red plaque * (in German - Rothschild) dangled on a chain, from the name of which the family who lived in this house got their nickname and surname. Young Mayer Rothschild studied the craft in the city of Hanover (Northern Germany), because in this city the authorities were more lenient than in Frankfurt towards the inhabitants of the Jewish ghetto. And when, after several years as an apprentice in the Oppenheimer's banking house, Mayer Rothschild returned home to Frankfurt in 1764, he was immediately reminded that,according to Frankfurt law, every boy on the street can shout to him: "Jew, know your place!" And he had to, pulling his head into his shoulders, make his way down the street, timidly pressing himself against the wall and removing the pointed cap from his head. During the time he studied in Hanover, his family in Frankfurt finally became impoverished and lived no longer at the "rich end" of the Judengasse and not in a house under a red sign, but in a dilapidated damp shack, where, according to the custom of the time, a frying pan hung from the eaves on a chain, and this house was called “the house under the pan”.his family in Frankfurt finally became impoverished and lived no longer at the “rich end” of the Judengasse and not in a house under a red sign, but in a dilapidated damp shack, where, according to the custom of those times, a frying pan hung from the cornice on a chain, and this house was called “house under the frying pan. "his family in Frankfurt finally became impoverished and lived no longer at the “rich end” of the Judengasse and not in a house under a red sign, but in a dilapidated damp shack, where, according to the custom of those times, a frying pan hung from the cornice on a chain, and this house was called “house under the frying pan."
It was in this house, dark and pathetic, that Mayer Rothschild opened his little company. At first, he held a trade in ancient coins, compiled catalogs himself and delivered these coins by order from one Germanic principality to another. So he had connections with aristocrats, who were then en masse interested in collecting old money, including with Duke Wilhelm, the ruler of the Duchy of Hanau. The Duke bought several coins from him at once. It was Rothschild's first "gesheft" with a foreign head of state.
Soon, in the "house under the pan" Mayer Rothschild already equipped a kind of money changer's shop, where passing merchants could exchange money from some German principalities for the currency of others. This is how the first bank of the Rothschild firm appeared - in a small room of 4 square meters. m. Income from foreign exchange Mayer Rothschild used to expand his trade in antique coins. He bought up several shops that belonged to the troubled money changers, along with a supply of coins. With the "trade reserve" obtained in this way, he again traveled all the small German principalities and duchies. Once, during a voyage to Weimar, he was lucky enough to conclude a deal with the patron saint of Goethe himself - with the Duke Karl-August.
The expansion of Rothschild's business ties eventually led to the fact that a new sign was nailed to the wall of the "house under the pan" in 1769. It already bore the coat of arms of the ducal house of Hesse-Hanau and the inscription in golden letters below: "Mayer Rothschild, manager of the affairs of Duke Wilhelm, His Highness Prince Hanau."
The duke's management was a lucrative business, and Wilhelm himself was also a rather colorful figure. He was the grandson of King George II of England, cousin to George III, brother-in-law to the King of Sweden, and was also the nephew of the King of Denmark. But that was not the most important thing. Much more important was another circumstance: he was the first of the German princes to combine his belonging to the aristocracy with the provision of loans at usurious interest rates, with rude and arrogant money-grubbing.
Soon, more than half of the sovereigns of Europe turned out to be Wilhelm's debtors. In addition, he learned to turn even the blood of the Hessians themselves into gold. His non-commissioned officers, who did not know mercy and mercy, knew how to train disciplined and ready for anything mercenaries. And as soon as the new company of the Landsknechts finished training, the Duke immediately sold it to the British for big money - to maintain order in the overseas colonies, the British Empire was expanding at that time. Whenever a Hessian mercenary was killed in a distant English colony, Duke William received a large monetary compensation for him. And very soon the ruler of the tiny duchy became the richest feudal lord in Europe, a kind of usurer banker, creditor to many European princes and kings. Gradually, Mayer Rothschild joined this business. Along with other money changers and bankers, from time to time he received orders from Duke William to collect this or that foreign debt (of course, for the appropriate remuneration).
And then the hour came when the wealthy Rothschild family was able to move into a new house - already "under a green sign" - and instead of the Rothschilds began to be called Grunschilds (grun in German means green). For some time, the Rothschilds even seriously considered taking this their new street nickname as a surname, but then they decided to stay with the old surname. With her, they went down in history.
But this gradual increase in their wealth did not mean anything yet. For nearly 20 years, Mayer Rothschild paid income tax of only 2,000 florins a year. Only in 1795, the captious city financial inspectors increased the size of taxes from Rothschild to 15 thousand. And this, according to the concepts of the Frankfurt ghetto, meant the highest level of wealth. In the ghetto, but not in the financial world of the German principalities.
The real "financial explosion" was no longer prepared by Mayer Rothschild himself, but by his five sons, who became the financial tycoons of Germany, England, Austria, Italy and France.
One biographer of the dynasty, the German Count Caesar Corti, wrote in his book "The Rise of the House of the Rothschilds": "Each time the collapse of a state brought new riches to the Rothschilds." As we will see later, the matter, of course, was much more complicated. However, the fact remains: the first "international gesheft" was a success for the five Rothschilds in 1804 precisely due to the fact that the Danish kingdom was completely ruined. The king of Denmark was an uncle by that time, the already fabulously rich Duke Wilhelm. And Wilhelm decided to lend money to his uncle. But he wanted to arrange all this so that his name did not appear in a deal in which huge usurious interest is charged from the debtor: after all, even a fabulously wealthy duke-nephew should not rip off his own uncle-king, who was on the brink of financial collapse. And the duke entrusted this matter to the five Rothschild brothers. For them it was a kind of international debut, but at the same time a great success at home. This was the first time that the Rothschild family "by a whole corps" bypassed the bankers of Frankfurt, who came from old patrician families, and they were furious at the very news that "ghetto millionaires" were lending at high interest rates to the Danish king himself.
Part 2. Against Napoleon
After the trick with Denmark, the Rothschild house, it seemed, was already on the right path to the title of "court banker of Duke William", who was considered one of the richest European sovereigns. And suddenly Napoleon's appearance on the European arena overwhelms this favorable "business"! In 1806, the French army captured half of Europe and occupied Hesse. Duke William was also put to flight. And he was the most important of the Rothschild patrons. In addition, one of the five Rothschild brothers, Nathan, was stuck in London, and thus was completely cut off from the continent.
However, Napoleon's finance ministry was still unable to defeat the Rothschild family. The debtors of Duke Wilhelm, who had lost his throne, were formally obliged to pay the debts collected from all over Europe to the French treasury. However, four young Rothschilds rushed like a whirlwind through the German principalities and duchies in double-bottomed carriages and managed to collect gold from debtors for Duke Wilhelm under the noses of the French authorities. The French police, however, soon appeared in the Frankfurt ghetto and ransacked the entire house "under a green sign." But there the police found only an old, hunched over, with shaking hands "banker", who was engaged in accounting for bills of small creditors. The promissory notes issued by the debtors to Duke William were hidden under the double sex of the carriages of the sons of this "banker".
It is clear that Duke Wilhelm did not demand that the Rothschild gold collected from the debtors for him be immediately transferred to him. And the sons of old Rothschild began to look for where it would be more profitable to invest this money that was still idle. The continental blockade of England, which was desperately fighting against Napoleon, turned out to be such an advantageous "place for capital investment". During the years of the blockade, Europe could only receive from the East colonial goods, spices and all kinds of industrial raw materials through smuggling. And from the point of view of organizing such a regular smuggling trade, the fact that the fifth son of the Rothschilds, Nathan, was stuck in London, was even very useful for the common cause. It was Nathan who created a reliable network: smugglers who passed through any cordons of the Napoleonic blockade of England and transported cotton, silk, tobacco, sugar to the continent,coffee and fabric dye - indigo. A real flow of these goods, essential for factories and consumers in Europe, poured into the continent - of course at fantastic blockade prices. Thus, the Napoleonic blockade benefited the Rothschild family, triggering the birth of the smuggling trade organized to break it.
The money obtained during the war years and the established business contacts were now enough for the Rothschilds to take up their main and now officially recognized activities after the collapse of Napoleon. This new turn in the activities of the Rothschild clan was organized again by Nathan, now deliberately settled in London. He also gave a description of the new course: "The Rothschilds have left contraband and are selling the only worthwhile commodity - money."
Since the main capital for organizing the smuggling trade was the funds that they secretly collected for Duke William from his debtors, now a new question arose of what else to invest the huge money accumulated from the bankers under the blockade. Nathan Rothschild and his four brothers who remained on the continent established a secret correspondence between themselves, with the help of which the brothers decided that they would play to defeat Napoleon. We must pay tribute to their perspicacity: after all, this decision was made by them in the days of the military triumphs of the French emperor, when nothing foreshadowed his impending fall.
The practical significance of this decision was that the Rothschilds persuaded Duke William to invest their entire fortune (about $ 20 million at the current exchange rate, which at that time was considered almost unthinkable great wealth) to invest in the bonds of the British government loan. This decision was entrusted to Nathan Rothschild, to whom the brothers, using their smuggling connections, were able to smuggle this gigantic amount to England. Nathan has taken another "round" in this race for profit. Initially, they instructed him, with all the money of Duke William, to purchase the bonds of the English government loan at the rate of 72 pounds per bond. The English Rothschild, having waited until, as a result of the temporary successes of Napoleon, the bonds of the British government loan fell in price, bought them much cheaper. Of course, he put the difference in his pocket.
By that time, the Rothschild Bank of London had already become such a powerful "financial power" that operations with Duke William's money no longer suited him. And Nathan Rothschild began to look out for a larger "fish". And this "big fish" swam off the coast of India and was called the East India Company. The task of the Rothschilds was only to transfer the gold reserves of this company to the Duke of Wellington, whose army at that time was fighting in the Iberian Peninsula. It was not an easy matter. First, Nathan Rothschild, worth 800 thousand pounds (then pounds!), Bought gold from the East India Company, because he knew that the English government badly needed gold for the Duke of Wellington. And he sold this gold to the government of England at a huge profit. However, the British did not know how now to transfer this gold to Wellington. The only possible way, of course, was through the territory of France. Recklessness? But the Rothschilds took up the execution of this order of the British government, and in an instant Nathan Rothschild became a banker of the British army.
The Rothschild brothers, who were on the continent, solved this problem wittily, subtly and with great cunning, which was also characteristic of them in the future. The youngest of the Rothschilds, Jacob, who later told to call himself James, unexpectedly appeared in Paris. He was not yet in his 20s, and he did not know a word of French. However, he brilliantly carried out the strategic plan of his brothers, cleverly deceiving the French authorities. I must say, the way he resorted to was surprisingly simple. The other four Rothschilds wrote letters to James, to his Paris address, at number five on rue Napoleon. In these letters, the Rothschilds feigned complaints to their Parisian brother that they were going to export gold from England to Spain, but the British government flatly refused them, because they were afraid of such a leak of gold to weaken the state. The Rothschilds made sure that their messages to their brother in Paris fell into the hands of the French secret police. And the French finance ministry took the bait. If the British are against the idea of gold sailing out of England, decided in the French Ministry, it is necessary to help these brave Rothschilds so that they can still take out this pitiful gold of theirs …
The feigned letter trick succeeded: Napoleon's government did indeed help the Rothschilds so that English gold would eventually end up first in Spain and then in Wellington's hands. Gold was transported freely across the English Channel, from there James Rothschild brought it to Paris, and Karl Rothschild, later a millionaire in Naples, with the help of French bankers, transported it further through the Pyrenees.
Of course, the case was not without risk. At some point, the chief of police of the city of Calais in France even suspected unkindness. But he was "greased". Then he began to demand from his government a warrant for the arrest of a certain James Rothschild, already the chief of police in Paris. However, the Treasury Department continued to blindly believe the feigned letters to the Parisian Rothschild, and gold continued to flow freely into Wellington's army.
By the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the Rothschilds practically held in their hands the financial ties not only of the British government with Wellington, but also between England and her allies - Austria, Prussia and tsarist Russia.
The final chord of the Napoleonic era - the Battle of Waterloo - gave the Rothschilds an even greater chance. The Battle of Waterloo is known to have made England the first power in Europe and the Rothschilds the first bankers of the continent. The Rothschilds managed to seize the fat "kush of Waterloo" because during the Napoleonic wars, five brothers-bankers to carry out their risky financial transactions organized an information and courier service unprecedented in history. (This service continued to exist in its original form for the London branch of the Rothschilds and after the victory over Napoleon, until the Second World War!)
Information costs money in general, and what could be more valuable than information about the outcome of the Battle of Waterloo? The connection is, I hope, clear here, and the London Stock Exchange followed its outcome with fear. If Napoleon wins at Waterloo, the prices of British government bonds will begin to fall. If he loses the battle, his empire will instantly collapse, and the paper will jump in price to heaven.
On June 19, 1815, late in the evening, the Rothschild courier boarded a high-speed Rothschild courier service ship in the port of Ostend, which, according to the laws of the banking house, had no right to transport any of the "outsiders." Nathan Rothschild spent the night of June 19 on the English coast of the English Channel in one of the ports in Folkestone, and at dawn on June 20 already knew from his courier that Napoleon had lost the Battle of Waterloo. The Rothschild courier was eight hours ahead of everyone else, even the Duke of Wellington's own courier.
And Nathan Rothschild first announced the defeat of Napoleon to the English government, after which he went to the stock exchange. Any average banker, with such information in his hands, would start buying up the debt securities of the British government loan with all his money. Everyone, but not Nathan Rothschild! On the contrary, he sold the bonds of the British government loan. In huge numbers. Without saying a word. He simply stood in his usual place on the stock exchange near the column, which has since been called the "Rothschild Column", and sold, sold … A rumor spread through the exchange: "Rothschild is selling!" So he knows something! So the Battle of Waterloo is lost ?! And the London Rothschild continued to throw all new packages of British government securities onto the stock market. And only then, having waited for the right moment,when government securities fell to the lowest level, but the stock exchange had not yet woken up, he bought back everything he had just sold in one fell swoop. But already for a tiny fraction of their face value. A few hours later, the stock exchange received an official message about Napoleon's defeat. And the price of England's government bonds soared up again. To an unattainable height. The Rothschild banking house raked in literally countless profits.
Frederick Morton, one of the chroniclers of the dynasty, commented on these events 140 years later: "It is impossible to count how many castles, racing stables, paintings by Watteau, Rembrandt he earned for his descendants on this day."
Part 3. At the height of power
After the fall of Napoleon, the Rothschild banking house made payments to London, Vienna and Berlin of French reparations in the amount of 120 million pounds. Art., of course, for fat interest. Through their hands flowed financial resources that the British government provided Vienna as material compensation for losses in the war against Napoleon. Therefore, in 1817, the Viennese imperial court graciously made it clear to the Rothschilds that they deserve an award. Court councilor von Lederer, who was in charge of the presentation of imperial awards and incentives, made an offer to welcome to Folkestone, and at dawn on June 20, he already knew from his courier that Napoleon had lost the Battle of Waterloo. The Rothschild courier was eight hours ahead of everyone else, even the Duke of Wellington's own courier.
And Nathan Rothschild first announced the defeat of Napoleon to the English government, after which he went to the stock exchange. Any average banker, with such information in his hands, would start buying up the debt securities of the British government loan with all his money. Everyone, but not Nathan Rothschild! On the contrary, he sold the bonds of the British government loan. In huge numbers. Without saying a word. He simply stood in his usual place on the stock exchange near the column, which has since been called the "Rothschild Column", and sold, sold … A rumor spread through the exchange: "Rothschild is selling!" So he knows something! So the Battle of Waterloo is lost ?! And the London Rothschild continued to throw all new packages of British government securities onto the stock market. And only then, having waited for the right moment,when government securities fell to the lowest level, but the stock exchange had not yet woken up, he bought back everything he had just sold in one fell swoop. But already for a tiny fraction of their face value. A few hours later, the stock exchange received an official message about Napoleon's defeat. And the price of England's government bonds soared up again. To an unattainable height. The Rothschild banking house raked in literally countless profits.
Frederick Morton, one of the chroniclers of the dynasty, commented on these events 140 years later: "It is impossible to count how many castles, racing stables, paintings by Watteau, Rembrandt he earned for his descendants on this day."
After the fall of Napoleon, the Rothschild banking house made payments to London, Vienna and Berlin of French reparations in the amount of 120 million pounds. Art., of course, for fat interest. Through their hands flowed financial resources that the British government provided Vienna as material compensation for losses in the war against Napoleon. Therefore, in 1817, the Viennese imperial court graciously made it clear to the Rothschilds that they deserve an award. Court councilor von Lederer, who was in charge of the presentation of imperial awards and incentives, proposed to the Rothschilds a snuffbox made of gold with the emperor's diamond monogram on the lid. In response, the Rothschilds delicately informed the court that they had enough diamonds of their own, it would be better to let them be granted the nobility. The government gasped, but von Lederer advised the emperor: “Considering,that the Rothschild brothers are Jews, let us define them at the lowest level of nobility”. So the Rothschilds received from Vienna the right to write their last name with the prefix von.
The brothers were invited to submit to the court a draft of their family coat of arms. The brothers were brave people and sent such a draft of the noble coat of arms to the imperial chancellery that the crown princes could envy. This coat of arms had everything in the world - from an eagle to a leopard, from a lion to a bundle of five golden arrows clutched in the hand, which symbolized the unanimity of the five brothers. In addition, they designed around the coat of arms to draw warriors with crowns on their heads and in armor. The frightened "heraldic office" wrote to the Minister of Finance that the Rothschilds' draft coat of arms could not be approved, because, according to the laws of heraldry, no crown, lion or eagle should be depicted on the coat of arms of ordinary nobles. Then the officials of the chancellery took up the pens and drew a new coat of arms, made by order of the Rothschilds for such a lot of money.
A little later, on September 23, 1822, the Rothschild banking house granted Metternich a personal loan of 900 thousand gold florins for a period of seven years at very preferential interest. And immediately, after some five days, by an imperial decree, all five Rothschild brothers were elevated to the rank of barons, and the bureaucrats from the "heraldic office", gnashing their teeth, allowed to depict on the coat of arms everything that the Rothschilds had previously depicted on their coat of arms project: and an eagle, and a lion, and a battle helmet.
So to this day, the coat of arms, received by the grace of Metternich, flaunts on paper for the personal correspondence of members of the Rothschild banking house.
In London, in the first decades after the fall of Napoleon and for many generations to come, the interests of the English state were closely intertwined with the interests of the Rothschilds. (The Bank of England and now part of its operations with gold is carried out through the Rothschild banking house. In the London office of the state bank on the third floor, representatives of the five largest banking houses, including a representative of the Rothschild Bank. They determine the gold rate on the British stock exchange every day.)
One of the Rothschild brothers, James, who settled in France, the protagonist of the gold smuggling stunt for Wellington, now served as Consul General of the Austrian Empire in Paris. In 1828 he bought the palace of the Minister of Police Napoleon Fouche on the rue Laffitte, amazing in beauty and wealth. (When asked why he chose this particular palace, James Rothschild replied: “Because this same Fouche sniffed my tracks in the Wellington case and almost even arrested me.”) To this day, this palace is the highest headquarters of the Rothschilds in France.
The poet Heine was a guest several times in the house on the Rue Laffite, but his freedom-loving disposition did not really bear the general kneeling before the golden calf, and Heine wrote: “I watched how people bowed and humiliated themselves before him. Bend their spines like no other outstanding acrobat could. Moses, finding himself on the holy ground, took off his shoes. And I am sure that these business agents would also have run to the palace barefoot, if they were not afraid that the smell of their feet would not please the baron … Today I saw a footman dressed in gold livery walking down the corridor with the baron's chamber pot. Some stock speculator at that time was standing in the corridor. He even took off his hat in front of such an important vessel. I remembered the name of this man, because in time he will certainly become a millionaire …"
Heine did not bow before the golden calf. Once James Rothschild hosted a dinner party for several of his friends, also bankers. After supper, he invited Heine for coffee and cognac, no doubt to amuse the bankers with the brilliance of his wit. But the poet returned the invitation with the following note: "Dear Mr. Baron, I am in the habit of drinking coffee after supper where I dined …"
Well, Vienna was, of course, a special case, given that here the Rothschilds faced stricter anti-Jewish laws and regulations than in England or France. Jews in Austria were not allowed to own land holdings, hold public office, or carry out political assignments.
The dominance of the Austrian police was so strong that the Rothschilds, in order to avoid possible troubles, did not even try to send their representative to the famous Congress of Vienna, convened by the Allies to discuss issues related to the victory over Napoleon. In London and Paris, they were already "kings", and in Vienna they did not dare even approach a simple minister.
And yet the Viennese Rothschilds also made their way through the networks of bureaucratic slingshots of the Austrian monarchy, found their way to the all-powerful Metternich and to the baron's coat of arms decorated with a crown and eagles.
On behalf of the Rothschild brothers, Solomon Rothschild came to Vienna in 1819. Due to the “restrictive law”, he could not own his own house here, and therefore first rented a room in the “Roman Emperor” hotel. First, he arranged for the Austrian government a state loan of 50 million florins. This loan with Rothschild as a guarantor was a tremendous success, its initiator himself earned 6 million on it. The Viennese court also earned several million. After this state loan, Solomon Rothschild began to rent a whole floor in the "Roman Emperor", then - a few months later - another, and so on, until finally the entire hotel was rented to him. Although, legally, he still had no right to be a home owner.
The success of the government loan was followed by the clever management of subsidies given to Vienna by British bankers. And finally, Rothschild is "doing" another rather delicate "family affair". The heroine of this story was Marie-Louise, the daughter of the Austrian emperor, the rejected wife of Napoleon I. The Congress of Vienna recognized Marie-Louise as a "victim of Napoleon" and presented the Duchy of Parma to the Austrian princess abandoned by her husband, and Metternich - the aristocratic lover in the court von Neupperg. Soon, the princess was married in a secret marriage with Neupperg, so secret that the children from this marriage were not even registered for a long time. Nevertheless, the children were nevertheless the grandchildren of the Austrian emperor, and therefore Metternich instructed Solomon Rothschild to slowly sell part of the Duchy of Parma, and then invest in something more profitable.so that the illegitimate grandchildren gradually formed a pretty inheritance.
Rothschild fulfilled this assignment, and from that day on, he ruled Austria together with Metternich, as his ally. Well, from here there was only one step to the aforementioned gold loan of 900 thousand florins and to the baron's coat of arms decorated with a crown, eagle and lion.
Emperor Franz died in 1835, and Metternich, fearing that the panic on the stock exchange would shake the very foundations of the Austrian economy and his personal positions, again turned to Solomon Rothschild for help. And he, together with his Parisian brother James Rothschild, made an official offer for all to hear: if someone wanted to sell the bonds of the Austrian state loan, the banking houses of the Viennese and Parisian Rothschilds are ready to buy them for any, the highest price. European exchanges have calmed down. Rothschild once again helped Metternich, who was experiencing temporary difficulties. (Here are a few lines from a letter from the Austrian ambassador in Paris to Metternich: “I must confess to you, Herr Chancellor, that as a result of the amazingly strong influence of the Rothschild banking house, financial panic was nipped in the bud.which has already begun to take over some of the nervous investors.”) Together, shoulder to shoulder, Metternich and Rothschild stood in the revolutionary storm of 1848. (Metternich wrote then to Solomon Rothschild: "If the devil takes me, he will take you away with him.")
On the evening of March 13, the devil came to "take" Metternich: the revolutionary crowd publicly burned his portraits in Vienna's streets. Twenty hours later, Metternich fled to Frankfurt. Here he put in his pocket a thousand gold florins, which the Austrian Rothschild presented to him with the help of a check issued to the Rothschild banking house in Frankfurt. A few months later, an angry crowd also broke into Rothschild's apartment in the Hotel Roman Emperor, and Rothschild also - at least temporarily - fled to Frankfurt.
He was "the absolute banker of the absolute chancellor", a symbol of the oppression of the Habsburg dynasty. Well, such connections are extremely strong. The now living descendant of the legendary Chancellor Metternich, Prince Metternich sends a box of Rhine wine to Paris every year to Baron Eli Rothschild, who, in turn, answers him with a box of Chateau Laffite from the cellars of world-famous vineyards. And it's not just wine that travels. Western magazines under the heading "Public Chronicle" every year note that members of the Rothschild and Metternich families visit each other in their family castles.
In Rome in 1832, even a caustic pamphlet appeared, which was distributed on the streets of the city. Its text read: “Rothschild has just kissed the hand of the Pope, and, saying goodbye, in the most refined way expressed his satisfaction with the deeds of the governor of St. Peter on earth. Not the shoe of the Holy Father was given to Rothschild for a kiss, but a whole little finger on his hand, so that the moneybag would not have to bow too low."
The evil pamphlet was preceded by such an event: the fourth (Italian) of the Rothschild brothers, Karl, at that time was still the owner of the largest banking house in Naples. Karl convinced Metternich through his brothers that the Austrians should withdraw their troops from the Kingdom of Naples. Carl Rothschild gave money to a Tuscan duke to drain the giant swamps. He also provided the Pope with a loan for the modernization of agriculture in his domain. And Pope George XVI, taking a loan, not only gave Rothschild an opportunity to avoid too deep bows, but also granted the Italian Rothschild the Grand Cross of the Order of St. George.
In Germany, meanwhile, the fifth of the brothers, Amschel Rothschild, was considered the head of the dynasty. He was the herald of the entire clan and turned to the rulers of European countries for orders and positions of consuls. The Frankfurt House coordinated the entire international strategy of the dynasty. There was not a single investment on the land between the Rhine and the Danube that Amschel did not have a hand in. Hundreds of German factories, railways and highways in projects were born first in the rooms of the Rothschild house in Frankfurt. And in the garden of this house, a young Prussian, who was later destined to become Chancellor of the German Empire, Otto von Bismarck, had long been a frequent guest of choice. In 1851, when Prussia sent Bismarck as its representative to the all-German conference, Amschel became treasurer of the "federation of German states"and this (as one of his biographers, Markus Elie Ravage, writes in his book Five Men from Frankfurt)
meant, in a sense, that he became Minister of Finance later born out of the "federation" of the German Empire.
The dynastic "policy of marriage" of the Rothschild clan was also directed from Frankfurt. According to the "constitution of the clan", the sons of the Rothschild house were supposed to marry girls from the distant branches of the Rothschilds, and the girls from the Rothschild house were to marry aristocrats whenever possible. In London, Nathan Rothschild's daughter became the wife of Lord Southampton. One of his nieces, also from the house of the French Rothschilds, is the wife of the Earl of Rosebery. Her husband later became Prime Minister of the British Empire. A girl from the house of the Neapolitan Rothschilds married the Duke de Gramont, and her sister married the Duke of Wagram.
The third marriage law of the House of Rothschild prescribed that all weddings were to be played in a Frankfurt house. And the aristocrats, who took maidens from the Rothschild house as wives, had to obey these inconvenient rules. Luxurious carriages, as a rule, did not fit in the narrow streets of the Jewish ghetto, and guests trudged along the cobbled streets on foot, and ladies' trains swept the dusty pavement. This law remained in effect until the very time when Amschel Rothschild died at the age of 80.
The fact that the history of the House of Rothschild is so intertwined with the history of Europe in its most important turns was played by the ability of the Rothschilds to quickly gather information. And if necessary - and spread disinformation. This is best illustrated by the example of a courier reporting the outcome of the Battle of Waterloo.
In February 1820, the Rothschilds were the first to learn that the only heir to the French King Louis XVIII had been killed in front of the Paris Opera. With him died the hopes of the Bourbons to return to the throne. James Rothschild's messengers were the first to rush to London, Vienna, Frankfurt and Naples, and the Rothschilds were able to usefully play out on the stock exchanges the collapse of the Bourbon succession even before the government or competitors of the Rothschilds received information about what happened.
Ten years later, the Parisian Rothschilds, with the help of specially grown carrier pigeons, were the fastest in communicating the news of the beginning of the July Revolution in France to their brothers - owners of banking houses in different countries. In England, the London banking house of the Rothschilds learned before the British government that Louis Philippe had assumed the French throne. Talleyrand, a major figure in European diplomacy, wrote about this in a letter he sent to Louis-Philippe's sister: “The Rothschilds always inform the British government about events 10-12 hours before the royal ambassadors. This is because the Rothschild couriers use special seagoing vessels that are not allowed to transport anyone other than these couriers, and travel across the English Channel regardless of the weather."
In the book "The Rothschilds: A Family Portrait" the historian F. Morton writes that the courier connection of the Rothschilds was more reliable than that of any great power. Therefore, it often happened that the ambassadors of England, France, Spain, accredited in various European countries, entrusted them with their embassy mail. The Austrian secret police reported to Chancellor Metternich (who noted for himself) that couriers from Naples to Paris followed through the city of Piacenza. "There is an Austrian garrison here, and therefore," the police report said, "maybe we should try to persuade the couriers to show us the letters they are transporting for viewing."
The friendship of Metternich with the Rothschilds, of course, did not prevent the Austrian Chancellor from ordering the search of the couriers, and the Rothschilds, on their part, from deceiving the Chancellor. Metternich instructed the Austrian garrisons in Italy to consider Rothschild's couriers "official Austrian couriers" only if they were carrying letters sealed with the imperial seal. In other cases, print and censor all letters. The Rothschilds responded to this order of the chancellor by creating a second, parallel courier network. The couriers of this network had no other task than to allow themselves to be detained and to have their mail checked. Letters were opened before their very eyes, but they, of course, contained misinformation. The Austrian police, however, diligently sent this disinformation to Metternich.
Is it any wonder, after all this, that in 1870 Napoleon III, with the help of the French and English Rothschilds, tried to find out whether the British government agreed to provide assistance to France in the event of an attack by Prussia? The Rothschild of London, together with the British Prime Minister Gladstone, appeared at an audience with the British Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle. After this audience, the British government decided not to provide assistance to France. So the French Rothschilds, earlier than Napoleon III himself, learned that the Franco-Prussian war would begin in 1870. And, of course, they directed their financial policy in accordance with this.
After the collapse of France, Emperor Wilhelm I, Moltke and Bismarck placed their high command headquarters in one of the Rothschild castles in France, in Ferry. The emperor walked around the entire castle, garden, stables, greenhouses and concluded: “The king cannot pay for such wealth. Only Rothschild is capable of this."
Part 4. Suet loan
The Rothschilds also stood at the cradle of the British Empire. By 1860, the Rothschilds had erected their city palace in London, adjacent to the Duke of Wellington's, at 148 Piccadilly Circus. On November 14, 1875, Disraeli, the Prime Minister of England, dined here. During dinner, a servant on a silver tray handed Sir Lionel Rothschild, then head of the Rothschild banking house in London, a message sent by one of the secret agents of the Paris Rothschilds. Lionel read it to his guest.
The essence of the message was that the Khedive, the ruler of Egypt, entangled in debt, offered the French the shares of the Suez Canal that belonged to Egypt. But the Khedive is unhappy with the price the government in Paris is willing to pay for these shares. The Suez Canal was, of course, and at that time one of the most important strategic, trade and political world routes. And the British have long dreamed of laying their hands on him, but they could not manage to force the Khedive to negotiate. The spy messages to the Parisian Rothschilds meant that now such an opportunity presented itself. As contemporaries wrote, Disraeli only asked Lionel Rothschild: "And how much do the Egyptians want?" After that both got up from the table and went to wire to Paris. While cognac was served in the library, the answer has already arrived from the Parisian Rothschilds: the Khedive is asking for 4 million.pounds (at the then exchange rate - $ 44 million). On the next day, the political machine, although not without a squeak, began to move. Parliament was just on vacation, and the law prohibited the Bank of England from providing loans between parliamentary sessions. In general, the leaders of the bank told Lord Disraeli: such a large loan - 4 million pounds - they will not be able to issue at once, in one amount, without shaking the London money exchange. Disraeli knew that everything now depends on the speed, almost lightning speed of action. First, he asked for an audience with Queen Victoria, then called a meeting of the Council of Ministers. After a half-hour meeting, the prime minister emerged from the conference room and said to his secretary who was waiting in the hall: "Yes." The secretary knew: we are talking aboutthat the Cabinet had authorized Disraeli to ask for a loan to buy the Suez Canal not from the Bank of England, but from the Rothschilds. “When the Prime Minister’s secretary entered the room,” writes Rothschild biographer F. Morton, “Lionel Rothschild was sitting in an armchair and eating nutmeg. He continued to feast on grapes, and when the messenger of Disraeli told him that the British government would very much like to receive a loan of 4 million pounds by tomorrow morning. Lionel chewed the grapes for two seconds in silence, and then, spitting out the grains, said: "Well, he will get it." Two days later, the London Times announced that the Rothschild banking house had transferred £ 4 million to the account of the Egyptian Khedive, thereby enabling Her Majesty's government to acquire 177,000 shares previously held by the rulers of Egypt. And this gave Great Britain the right to control the Suez Canal. On November 24, 1875, Disraeli sent an enthusiastic letter to Queen Victoria: “He is yours, madam, yours! We have outplayed the French government. Four million pounds, and more immediately! Only one firm in the world could do it - the Rothschilds! " Dozens of other similar episodes adorn the history of the Rothschilds. Statistics published before World War I indicated that the Rothschild banking house of London funded 18 heads of government around the world. The amount of loans provided to them at the current rate was $ 30 billion. The wife of the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph, Elizabeth spent the last days of her life at the Rothschild villa near Lake Geneva, where she was struck by an anarchist dagger. Queen Victoria of England was a regular visitor to the Rothschild palaces,and every summer her family rested for several weeks in their castles in the south of France. (The diaries of one of the Rothschild brothers contain a record of how Baroness Alice Rothschild once even shouted at the Queen of England: “Get off the lawn immediately, you are trampling my flowers!” Victoria obediently walked away from the unfortunate flowers.) This was the peak - and here even the fact that over time only three of the five Rothschild banking houses survived did not change much. The unification of Italy took place, and the Rothschild banking house associated with the Neapolitan royal court closed its doors. With the death of the last man in the family in Frankfurt in 1901, the German branch of the family tree died out, and the banking house there ceased to exist. (However, on the female side, until Hitler came to power, the Frankfurt banking house of the Rothschilds was still functioning,although it has not acquired its former significance. The daughter of the last Frankfurt Rothschild married the banker Goldschmidt, and the bank became known as the Rothschild-Goldschmidt Banking House.)
Part 5. Collapse of "Creditanstalt"
The First World War meant for the Rothschilds a relative decline in their influence in the financial world. Biographers of the dynasty believe that the main economic and political reason for this is that since the First World War the United States of America, and hence the American financial tycoons, capitalists and bankers, have won the world political role. It is a fact that during the First World War, each of the Rothschilds supported exactly the government in whose capital his "headquarters" was located. In this new type of war, there was no longer the possibility of coordinating actions between different houses of the Rothschilds, and even more so for the "romantic" activities of their espionage and courier services. But even in this peculiar period of history, events sometimes had a comic connotation. The wife of Baron Maurice de Rothschild, head of the French banking house,went to rest from the military hardships in Switzerland, in St. Moritz. The banker stayed at the legendary and to this day "Palace" hotel, the management of which assured the baroness that there were no Germans in the hotel. And suddenly, at dinner, Madame Rothschild caught the eye of the wife of a German champagne factory owner, who was also taking a break from the hardships of the war in the same fashionable hotel. Rothschild's wife, forgetting that her family was from Frankfurt, in other words, from Germany, cried out indignantly: "I can't see these Germans!" - and left the hotel, vowing that she would never again get to St. Moritz. And suddenly, at dinner, Madame Rothschild caught the eye of the wife of a German champagne factory owner, who was also taking a break from the hardships of the war in the same fashionable hotel. Rothschild's wife, forgetting that her family was from Frankfurt, in other words, from Germany, cried out indignantly: "I can't see these Germans!" - and left the hotel, vowing that she would never again get to St. Moritz. And suddenly, at dinner, Madame Rothschild caught the eye of the wife of a German champagne factory owner, who was also taking a break from the hardships of the war in the same fashionable hotel. Rothschild's wife, forgetting that her family was from Frankfurt, in other words, from Germany, cried out indignantly: "I can't see these Germans!" - and left the hotel, vowing that she would never again get to St. Moritz.
But for the Rothschilds, even resentment is also a business: burning with a desire for revenge, the baroness persuaded her husband to build a new, her own fashionable resort in the picturesque French Alps, near the town of Megève. Today it is one of the most expensive French winter resorts and a diamond among the holdings of the Rothschild Bank. F. Morton says about it this way: “When in 1918 the guns fell silent, nothing remained the same as it was at the beginning of the war. Even the Rothschilds have changed."
In the history of the dynasty, this, of course, did not mean anything else, except that the Rothschilds became a little more modest. But the banking house, as before, operated at full capacity. Its wealth remained untouched, enterprises continued to bring fantastic profits, and the whole difference compared to pre-war times could perhaps be summed up as follows: at the new stage, the monopoly capital of the Rothschilds no longer exerted such a decisive influence on the turning points of world politics as, say, in the time of the Battle of Waterloo or the loan for the purchase of the Suez Canal.
The scope of the activities of the Austrian house of the Rothschilds, of course, was hampered by the fact that if in 1914 the Viennese Rothschilds were still the dominant bankers of a powerful great power, in 1918, with the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, their activities were limited only to small Austria.
Now, first of all, everything depended on the close cooperation of all the Rothschilds - English, French and Austrian - in the field of mainly financial speculation. The leader in these maneuvers was and remains to this day, one might say, an extremely influential representative of the French house of Rothschilds, Baron Edouard Rothschild, a board member of the French National Bank.
Now the Rothschilds decided to create an international banking syndicate, whose tentacles stretched from Louis Rothschild with his Viennese Bank Creditanstalt to the Morgan banking house in New York. International currency speculation brought huge profits to the entire Rothschild clan all the time - until the onset of the global crisis of 1929. The crisis particularly affected the position of the Austrian Rothschilds. In 1930, Austria's most significant agricultural credit bank, Boden-Kreditanstalt, was on the verge of collapse, and the Austrian chancellor personally went to Louis Rothschild to ask him to take on his balance sheet the debts of the faltering bank. Rothschild heeded the Chancellor's request, but in the conditions of the global crisis, this rescue action burdened the balance of a private bank so much that a year later he himself was forced to stop payments. The collapse of the Creditanstalt bank meant, in fact, an avalanche of the great economic depression in Central Europe, which began in 1929. The collapse cost the Austrian Rothschilds 30 million gold shillings, and the Austrian government, which provided the bank with subsidies, at least double!
But Louis Rothschild remained the richest man in Austria even after the collapse of the Creditanstalt Bank. The bank of the Rothschilds of Vienna was not shaken by this collapse. After all, the Austrian Rothschilds were also the largest landowners in Central Europe.
Part 6. Adventure with Himmler
Dangers for them were approaching from a completely different direction: to the west of the Austrian border in those years, the boots of Nazi assault troops were already stomping louder and louder, and it was clear that the Viennese Rothschilds would face certain tests, not because they were bankers, but because they are Jews.
However, the legendary apparatus of Rothschild couriers in family matters continued to exist and function, and the banking house of the French Rothschilds literally a day before the upcoming Anschluss (accession to Germany) of a now small country - Austria notified Louis Rothschild of this. French relatives advised Louis Rothschild to leave Austria immediately. But the baron was a great sybarite and appeared (of course, accompanied by a footman) with a plane ticket to the Vienna airfield only the next day.
However, before he was able to board a plane to Zurich, 2 Nazi guards identified him and took away both his ticket and passport. And two later SS men appeared in the palace of Baron Rothschild to offer to "follow them."
From that moment on, the tragicomedy of relations between the Nazis and the Viennese Rothschilds began - a characteristic example of Hitler's deep reverence and respect for the capitalist aces.
Baron Louis Rothschild replied to the SS that he would happily follow them, but first he would like to have dinner. The stormtroopers, who were not very accustomed to such wishes, this time, apparently, received special instructions, because they stood patiently near a table covered with a white damask tablecloth and waited for three footmen to serve dinner to the Baron, and then he did not hastily wash his fingers with fragrant water, smoke his usual cigar after supper, take the medication prescribed for him. Only after that did the baron, accompanied by SS men, leave his palace.
Louis Rothschild was brought before the head of the new Austrian police, now led by the Nazis. Here, as the biographers say, the following dialogue took place between them: “In short, you are Rothschild? Well, how rich are you, to be precise? " Baron Louis replied to this that it would take several days until his accountants, based on the reports of world stock exchanges and raw material warehouses, could determine the true size of his state at the moment. “Okay,” said the chief of police, “then tell me at least what is the cost of your Vienna palace, together with the treasures of art located there?” To this Rothschild replied: "How much is the Vienna Cathedral of St. Stephen?"
At this point, the chief of police stopped the interrogation and ordered to put the baron in the cell. But the baron did not stay there long. Soon he was taken to the Vienna office of the Gestapo, where he was placed in a closet next to the former Austrian Chancellor Schuschnigg who had been deprived of his post.
From now on, there could be no question of any physical danger threatening Baron Rothschild. The almighty Hermann Goering himself sent a special commissioner to Switzerland, a certain Otto Weber, to inform the Zurich representative of the Rothschilds about the conditions of the Nazis. Baron Louis would be released, Weber said, if Marshal Goering received $ 200,000 for this courtesy (of course, not in marks, but in dollars deposited in his name in one of the safes of a Swiss bank). And the Hitlerite empire will receive all the property of the Austrian Rothschilds, including the steel plant in Vitkovice, in Czechoslovakia. The Rothschild commissioners in Zurich bargained hard. They told the astonished Goering representative that the Rothschilds had secretly sold most of the shares of the Vitkovice plant to the British two years earlier. However, they are ready to transfer to Berlin in exchange for granting freedom to Baron Louis the property of the Austrian house of the Rothschilds. Goering can receive the plant in Vitkovice only after Baron Louis arrives abroad, and the Nazis pay the British Rothschilds 3 million pounds. Art. The bargaining dragged on. True, in the meantime the Nazis had already occupied Czechoslovakia, but the plant in Vitkovice, now owned by the British, had not yet passed into the hands of the Germans.
In the midst of bargaining, the bloody executioner Heinrich Himmler, the formidable Reichsfuehrer SS, once appeared at the headquarters of the Gestapo in the Rothschild room. They bargained for an hour about the terms, but Baron Rothschild did not give in. Himmler left without sleep, and an hour later the loaders sent by the SS leadership appeared. They brought into the room a grandfather clock from the times of Louis XIV and a huge Chinese vase that did not harmonize with them, and the bed in the prisoner's little room was covered with orange velvet. Thus, Himmler made it clear to the Baron that he would have to remain a hostage at the headquarters of the Vienna Gestapo for a long time to come. However, Baron Louis Rothschild, who knew for sure that he was not an ordinary prisoner for the fascist murderers either, yelled at the SS: "Get this heap of bad taste out of here!"
The next day, Himmler's men informed the Baron that Himmler accepted Rothschild's conditions and that he could immediately go abroad. And then Louis Rothschild surprised the Viennese Gestapo even more. He declared that it was already evening, 11 o'clock, and he could not force his Viennese friends to do it so late, and therefore he wanted to spend that night at the headquarters of the Gestapo. There have never been such examples in the history of the Gestapo, so the jailers had to request special instructions from Berlin by phone.
Baron Louis Rothschild spent his last night in the Vienna Gestapo as a guest. And two days later, he crossed the Swiss border. In July 1939, the Germans announced that they agreed to transfer £ 3 million to the Rothschild Bank of London. Art. for the shares of the plant in Vitkovice. However, the British government entered the war before the Nazi money reached London …
In Paris, the Viennese tragicomedy did not repeat itself, because the French Rothschilds left beforehand, some to London, some to the United States. However, in London, they continued to weave the same golden web that was the source of the current power and connections of the modern French Rothschilds. One of the young members of the French Rothschild family, Guy de Rothschild, in London joined General de Gaulle and carried out several secret assignments in his service. By the end of the war he was aide-de-camp of the military commandant of Paris. (By the way, house number 107 on Piccadilly, where the "Club of Officers of Free France" was located during the war, was the property of the British Rothschilds.)
But if the Rothschilds themselves were not captured by the Nazis in Paris, they still took possession of their property. True, the Rothschilds managed to transport part of the paintings and other works of art to the Spanish and Argentine embassies, many valuables were hidden in the Louvre so that they would be there under appropriate protection as a "national treasure of France." But the Louvre turned out to be a poor defense, because at the insistence of Goering, Hitler issued a special order, which annulled the documents on the transfer of the property of the Rothschilds to the Louvre and reserved the right to dispose of the Rothschild treasures.
After the war, it was established that in France, the Nazis plundered 203 private collections throughout the country, numbering about 16 thousand objects of art. Of this number, more than 4 thousand belonged to the Rothschilds. After the war, the Rothschild treasures were taken back to Paris on special trains. At the freight stations, trusted emissaries of the family awaited the arrival of the trains and sorted paintings, sculptures and tapestries, determining which family member they belonged to, from which palace they had been taken out in due time.
After the end of the Second World War, in the new political and economic conditions, the Rothschilds could no longer restore their former, unparalleled positions. However, the two surviving pillars - the Rothschild banking houses of London and Paris - are still considered great powers in the financial world.
After the restoration work that lasted a whole decade, the symbol of the greatness and power of the Rothschilds - the Ferry Castle, which was admired at one time by the German Emperor Wilhelm II, again shines in its former glory. The biographer of the Rothschild dynasty F. Morton wrote several phrases in connection with this castle, which best reflected the contradictions between the myths and the reality of the Rothschild history: “Enfilade of salons worthy of an emperor; crystal vases and hanging gardens; paintings, tapestries, ivory and turtle inlays; swans on the surface of ponds; cast silver taps in bathrooms. Seeing all this, one may ask: did Robespierre ever live in the world, was there ever the French Revolution?"