Nathan Mayer Rothschild
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is not about Nathan Mayer Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild (1840-1915)
Nathan Mayer Rothschild (September 16, 1777 - July 28, 1836) was a London financier and one of the founders of the international Rothschild banking dynasty. He was born in the Frankfurt-am-Main ghetto, the fourth child of Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744-1812) and Gutle Schnapper (1753-1849).
Contents |
[edit] Life
In 1798, at the age of 21, he settled in Manchester and established a business in textile trading and finance, later moving to London, England and making a fortune in trading bills of exchange through a banking enterprise begun in 1805.
In 1816, his two elder brothers were granted noble status (Freiherr or Baron) by the Emperor of Austria. They were now permitted to prefix the Rothschild name with 'von' or 'de'. Their device of four arrows became five when in 1818 Nathan too was elevated. Nathan rather disliked the whole business of aristocratic titles. Some have suggested that he felt a foreign title set him apart too much from his English neighbors.
[edit] Family
On October 22, 1806 in London, he married Hanna Barent Cohen (1783-1850). Their children were:
- Charlotte Rothschild (1807-1859) married Anselm Salomon von Rothschild
- Lionel Nathan (1808-1879)
- Anthony Nathan (1810-1876)
- Nathaniel (1812-1870)
- Hannah Mayer (1815-1864) married Hon. Henry FitzRoy (1807-1859)
- Mayer Amschel (1818-1874)
- Louise (1820-1894) married Mayer Karl von Rothschild
[edit] Business
Through establishing a network of agents, couriers and shippers he was able to provide funds to the armies of the Duke of Wellington in Spain and Portugal. In 1818 he arranged a £5 million loan to the Prussian government and the issuing of bonds for government loans formed a mainstay of his bank’s business. He gained a position of such power in the City of London that by 1825-6 he was able to supply enough coin to the Bank of England to enable it to avert a liquidity crisis.
He set up his London business, N. M. Rothschild and Sons at New Court in St Swithin's Lane, City of London, where it trades today. He also purchased a country house at Gunnersbury Park near Acton in western London.
[edit] Legend
A widely-told story, which is apparently without foundation, describes a financial coup by Nathan Meyer Rothschild at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. It seems that the Rothschild family had a network of informants throughout Europe, who could communicate more quickly. than the intelligence agencies of most governments. It was believed that they used semaphores to communicate across the English Channel.
The story tells how Nathan Meyer Rothschild entered the London Stock Exchange on the day of the Battle of Waterloo and started selling British consols, or consolidated annuities, which were fixed-rate bonds with no maturity date: they would pay interest as long as the British Government was solvent. As the day elapsed, he sold at lower and lower prices, finally dumping them for a pittance.
Meanwhile, Rothschild's agents, very quietly, were buying consols at the ever-declining market price. By the end of the day, they had bought more than their employer had sold.
The next day, Wellington's victory was well known. Rothschid had increased his holding of British consols, which were now backed by the strongest government in Europe, and Rothschild had made a fortune.
This story has been printed in several books, but it appears to be an urban legend.
[edit] Death
By the time of his death in 1836 due to an infected abscess he had secured the position of the Rothschilds as the preeminent investment bankers in Britain and Europe. His son, Lionel Nathan Rothschild (1808-1879), continued the family business in England.
Nathan Mayer Rothschild and his wife Hannah are buried in the Brady Street Ashkenazi Cemetery, in Whitechapel.
[edit] References
- See the list of references at: Rothschild banking family of England
