Introduction
Rothschild has been one of the leading players in the world of finance for many years especially in Europe. According to Rothschild website (2009), the institution is one of the largest privately-owned banks in the world and controls portfolios such as investment banking, corporate banking, and private banking. Founded in the 1760s by Mayer Rothschild, the bank has grown from a small outlet that dealt with trading in rare coins to its current status of a financial powerhouse. Over the years, the bank has revolved around the family circle who have all the time shown commitment, vitality, and enterprising influence to ensure its unprecedented growth – it is a rare case to find a family business growing to such a level amid the ever-changing economic, political, social and technological climate.
The success of the bank may be based on its motto of unity, integrity, and industry as well as its connection to the high and mighty in the major European countries. However, as Vallely (2004) points out, the bank has been involved in all sorts of moneymaking deals including gambling (use of tricks and propaganda to enrich itself), financing of the Waterloo Battle, financing of the Napoleonic wars, financing of the Austro-Prussian war and engaging in speculative business in the stock market. Two Rothschilds, Mayer, and son Nathan have been the key figures behind the immense growth of the financial dynasty, with Nathan specializing in underwriting and speculating during the Battle of Waterloo and Mayer (his father) creating a culture of secrecy through his specialization in accounting. Mayer, Rothschild was a very clever man and would never allow an opportunity to pass by without utilizing it. During the rise of capitalism and the era of revolution of international trade, the Rothschilds were quick to take the opportunity and spread across major cities of Europe including London, Paris, Vienna, and Naples, with the London base becoming the pillar of the business and the Paris unit gaining a competitive edge in philanthropy and winemaking – France was the leader in wine production.
Rothschild’s current status tends to portray a picture of dedication in financial solutions to its clients for over two hundred years and taking a leading role in transforming the lives of people through its community activities that involve supporting education, healthcare, research and development, housing, and boosting the cultural growth among others (Rothschild Web, 2009). The bank has invested heavily in creating a unique corporate culture that fosters growth, creating intelligence solutions, and enabling a proactive approach that ensures that the bank is always ahead of other players in terms of communication, technology, new market information, and new industry approaches. In the succeeding discussion, this paper will focus on pertinent information and the operation of the Rothschild business empire.
A brief history of Rothschilds
The first unit of the bank was opened in Frankfurt, Germany by Mayer Rothschild who before then worked in a bank in Hanover, Germany where he gained the skills of banking. The Jewish family, Rothschild, embanked on a mission to create the most powerful financial outfit in the world by spreading the bank across major European cities with each of the sons of Mayer controlling at least one unit. Over the years, the bank which started humbly has been able to broker power through both clean and unclean deals in the financial market. According to Hitchcock (n.d), the Rothschilds have been able to amass so much wealth as a family unit through deception, manipulation, and to some extent murder. One example of deception can be proven by the propaganda by Nathan Rothschild over the defeat of the British in the Battle of Waterloo where he influenced the drop of stock prices to cash on that – this is despite the business motto of unity, integrity, and industry. Despite this, the business gives a vivid example of success through a family succession plan and a culture of concerted action and commitment while at the same time investing in entrepreneurial skills that make the bank to be ahead of the pack at all times.
The spread of the Rothschilds Empire
Since its inception, Rothschild’s empire has spread to almost all continents of the world including Europe, Asia, America and Australia. The success of this rapid growth can be based on tradition of unity among the family members and a well protected culture. Indeed, during his rule of the business, Mayer Rothschild established a custom of secrecy that made the bank amass a lot of finances through deceiving the taxman and the auditor (Vallely, 2004). In addition, the Rothschilds have employed one of their principles of industry to concur even the unconquerable in the political economic and social circles, making them to become very influential. Over the years they have used various means to consolidate their empire among them being investing heavily in Bank of England, involvement in World War I, associating with the Opium of Trade and brokering the First City Properties deal in America. All these involvements contributed heavily in empowering the Rothschilds Empire.
Rothschilds have invested heavily in the financial sector and more so in the high end financial giants. In 1812, Nathan Rothschild pulled the deadliest propaganda that England had lost in the Waterloo battle, the result of which was the destabilization of the stock market where he took the advantage to increase his investment in the Bank of England up to 6500 times (Mullins, 1984). This gave him an opportunity to interact with the loyal family and other prominent leaders in England and Europe. Through the Bank of England which had a great influence in the development of not only the European community, but also the United States of America, the Rothschilds were able to manipulate their way to power by creating panic whenever policies did not go their way. For instance when the Rothschild bank in America was denied renewal of charter by the American authorities, Nathan Rothschild threatened the Americans with war by claiming “either the application of renewal of the charter is granted or the United States will find itself involved in the most disastrous war” (Hitchcock, n.d). They sought to employ the immense power they had in Britain to influence British initiate war on America.
The Rothschilds history of trickery is interesting and intriguing since they made use of every opportunity available to make money. For instance, in the 1930s they made a lot of money by pretending to be agents of disarmament, yet their idea was to disarm the nations and sell them new weapons through the armament companies they owned; this made them to be referred to as the merchants of war.
During the World War I, the Rothschilds were blamed for orchestrating the war through giving bribes in order to have influence their way in gaining from the war. Indeed, this habit had been witnessed earlier in the 1895 when they influenced the colonization of countries like South Africa by declaring that the British were supposed to be the powerhouse in the controlling the war. The Rothschilds were also involved in the opium trades that involved the British, China and India in the 1840s, where they brokered the deals and gained a lot. Their dealings were also influential to the growth of America. More over, the Rothschilds also brokered various investment dealings in the American stock market using their influential “City” business groups.
Underhand dealings by the Rothschild
Although the Rothschilds may be claimed to have earned their wealth through hard work and innovative plans that bore fruit, they at the same time had very canning ways of getting their wealth: they used lies, bribery, threats and even manipulation. They are known to protect their power through family unity and secrecy. For instance, Hitchcock (n.d) claims that they are known to sire secret children who they can place in the positions of power whenever the situation demands thus protecting the fortunes of the family. In addition, the founder, Mayer, made a secret will that denied any publicity on the inventory of the Rothschild’s estate and that all the important positions in the empire should be occupied by the family members. In addition, the will indicated that inheritance should go to the eldest son unless the family decides otherwise and that, in order to protect the fortunes of the family, intermarriage should be between first or second cousins and not outsiders, while the succession plan should be perpetual (Griffin, 2009). Indeed, the trend of intermarrying with the family has been witnessed up to today (Livingstone, 2005)
The rise of the freemason has been claimed to be financed and operated under the watchful eye of the Rothschilds, in which case, it was aimed at dividing the non-Jews along social, political and economic fronts, thus causing infightings that weakened them (Springmeier, n.d). One successful venture into this freemason plans was the French revolution that created laws forbidding the Roman church from levying taxes. The motives of the Rothschilds were to control the nation’s money as emphasized by the words of Mayer Rothschild thus “let me issue and control nation’s money and I care not who writes the law” (Hitchcock, n.d). This was also witnessed in England, where the Rothschilds had the most power: they claimed that controlling the money in the nation was like controlling the empire and therefore pushed for the control of the British Empire.
The secret dealings of the Rothschild had enabled them to amass enormous wealth from all nations they had operations. In Germany, they had hidden some huge amounts of money stolen during the Napoleon war in wine casks, which they used to make huge profits in a deal with in the Wellington Peninsula campaign. (Hitchcock, n.d). They had an avid interest in financing wars due to the huge risk free debts that came along with wars. They used their power to influence the outcome of war and to intimidate the governments that did tend to curtail their power.
Modern Age of Rothschild
Today, the Rothschild Empire controls one of the largest family owned banks in the world operating in about 34 countries around the world. The family unity notion is still the driving force behind the bank’s success with industriousness and innovation strengthening the foundation that was laid by the former Rothschilds. The company’s core business is to provide financial solutions through its wide range of products that include corporate banking, retail banking, investment banking and asset management. In addition, the company has been able to diversify its operations to include non-bank related activities such as wine making and philanthropy.
Although the bank has in the recent years given up on gold trading, the foundation that was created by the founding fathers is over whelming strong. The culture of the bank dictates that it should foster innovation and seek to always being ahead of the game in all areas affecting the industry and financial environment. The bank can be claimed to be the pioneer of modern banking of credit and debit cards that they founded when controlling communication between its major units in Europe and the Bank of England.
Conclusion
Rothschilds, despite some criticism of being arrogant in pursuit of their wealth, are indeed the epitome of modern banking. The revolution of Europe and America was by far influenced by the dealings of the Rothschild Empire, who wanted to reap from the regulating the money market, although to some extent they used underhand means. From a humble beginning, the bank amassed enormous power through clear-cut family business culture that required innovation, industriousness and unity in pursuit of wealth.
Although the will of Mayer Rothschild provided ground rules for the survival of the dynasty, the family formed a strong tradition of creating wealth that involved uncompromised secrecy in business, unrelenting quest for wealth and power and unfetter brutality in all business initiatives. They never turned back from their mission and to some extent used deceit, manipulation and even threats to gain power. They preferred financing power to rake in the huge financial rewards that came along with wars.
Reference
Griffin D. (2009) The Rothschild Dynasty. (Online). Web.
Hitchcock, A. (N.d) The French Connection: The History of the House of Rothschild. (Online). Web.
Livingstone, D. (2005). Rothschilds and the Grail Bloodline. (Online). Web.
Mullins, E. (1984) Secrets of the Federal Reserve. Ezra Pound Institute of Civilization. (Online). Web.
Rothschild. (2009) Rothschild Website. (Online).
Springmeier, F. (N.d). Financial Wizards and Wealthy Cults: The Rothschild Bloodline. (Online). Web.
Vallely, P. (2004) The Rothschild story: A golden era ends for a secretive dynasty (Online). Web.