The Prince afterwards told the Baron that Rothschild was as good a chess player as Frederic the Great, and that a man of such capacity must be able to take good care of money. The forty millions which were obtained on deposit remained with the house of Rothschild for nine years, and when Napoleon invaded Germany in the interim, the money, together with other valuables, was hidden in wine casks in Rothschild’s cellar, but the Conqueror never thought of tapping the casks. After peace was proclaimed, and William, who had been obliged to seek safety in flight, returned home, old Rothschild was dead, but his son Anselm handed over to the Prince every dollar of the forty millions, and tendered him in addition two per cent. interest for the entire time of the deposit. The Prince made him a present of the interest.
The elder Rothschild had five sons, namely: Anselm, who succeeded his father in Frankfort; Solomon, of Vienna; Nathan Mayer, of London; Charles, of Naples; and James, of Paris. According to their father’s will, the five sons were to constitute but one firm, in which they were to enjoy equal profits, and never divide the fortune. The business was to be managed at Frankfort as headquarters, to which great money centre all the profits from the other moneyed capitals were to be raked in. The intention of the old man was to make these five money kings dominate Europe by the power of their wealth, so that the ordinary kings would become their subjects, and in many instances the hopes of the great old chess player have been realized. All the annual settlements were made at Frankfort, and the brothers met there at least once a year for a general conference. This system continues, and though the original five brothers have all passed over to the majority, the last of them, James, having died in Paris in 1868, at the ripe age of 76, yet the representatives of the house in the large cities of Europe sustain the principles of union, harmony and consolidation laid down by old Anselm Mayer Rothschild. Although this union has been the great source of the Rothschilds’ success, it would be hopeless, however, for any other parent outside the Hebrew race to imitate the injunction of old Rothschild. The idea of an equal division of the profits could not be entertained for a moment by an American. The socialistic family tie that enjoined such an arrangement could only be rendered binding through the power of the Hebrew religion. Just imagine how an American would feel if by some lucky turn of fortune, like that of Nathan Rothschild in London, after the battle of Waterloo, he should make six millions in a day, and be requested to divide it with his four brothers! He would sooner spend a million of it to try and break the old man’s will, and employ several of the best sophistical lawyers he could find to prove that his father was demented.
It is supposed that the elder Rothschild died worth 15 or 20 millions, but this is in a great measure merely conjecture, as nobody outside the family ever knew what their real wealth was, this fact having always been kept an inviolate family secret. It must be said, to the credit of the old man, that in his latter days, instead of becoming stingy, as many do, he was quite liberal, and, according to the scriptural injunction, distributed his alms in secret, without even permitting his sons to know anything about the matter. He contributed largely to various charities in the same way. It is said he would go through the poverty-stricken districts of the city after night, giving money to the needy, from whom he would retreat before giving them time to thank him for his beneficence. He had a notion that those who gave without receiving thanks were greater favorites with the Divine Being, who rules the destinies of man.
From Harper’s Magazine. Copyright, 1873, by Harper & Brothers.
NATHAN MAYER ROTHSCHILD.
(The Financial Hero of Waterloo.)
The greatest speculator of the five brothers was Nathan Mayer Rothschild, the third son of the great old man. He made the grand hit of his life after the battle of Waterloo. He kept watching the movements of the opposing armies on the Continent, and followed Wellington very closely as he approached the famous field. It seems that the Iron Duke was not at all pleased with Nathan’s attention to him, as he took him for either a spy or an assassin, and was on the point of having him arrested several times. But Nathan kept his purpose steadily in view, in spite of the fact that bullets were whizzing around his ears in showers. He sat on his horse on the hill of Hougomont with perfect composure in the teeming rain the whole afternoon, looking upon that terrible struggle that was to decide the destiny of nations, until Blucher arrived and the French were put to route.
As soon as Nathan saw this he put spurs to his steed and made all possible haste to Brussels, where a carriage with swift horses was in waiting to carry him to Ostend. At day light next morning he arrived on the Belgian coast, where he found it exceedingly difficult to obtain a boat, the sea being very rough. At length he obtained a boatman as courageous as himself, who undertook the task for 2,500 francs, and landed him at Dover in the evening. He lost no time, but with relays of the swiftest horses pushed forward to London, and was on the Exchange next morning ready for business, long before the opening of the market. That was the morning of the 20th, only a day and two nights after the battle that decided the fate of nations. Nathan had performed a great feat. He acted his role well. Like the great hero whose political history had just closed, Nathan was “grand, gloomy and peculiar,” in the financial sense of the phrase. He was an embodiment of the latest information from the Continent. In defiance of winds and waves he had, at the risk of his life, outstripped the swiftest couriers and the best special correspondents of that day. The great operators flocked around him asking, “What is the news?” Nathan sighed heavily and seemed reluctant to tell. Eventually, this important piece of information was extorted from him, in strict confidence: “Blucher, at the head of his vast army of veterans, was defeated by Napoleon at Ligny, on the 16th and 17th (of June), and there can be no hope for Wellington with his comparatively small and undisciplined force.” This statement was substantially true, and it forcibly reminds one of Tennyson’s poetic remarks:
“A lie which is all a lie
May be met and fought with outright,
But a lie which is half a truth,