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The following article comes from Entrepreneur Finance Hui, the author Jiayun
创业金融汇
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Probably there is no other top rich family in the world like them, who is plagued by legends, conspiracy theories, and crooks.
They succeeded in breaking the curse of being rich but not three generations. They are now "rich for eight generations", founded the world's first multinational family bank, founded the world's first generation insurance company, and are the world's first "king." The owner of Lafite Winery, the largest art collector in Europe, was even horribly sealed as the sixth empire over Britain, France, Germany, Russia and Austria... It is the Rothschild family ( Rothschild Family), one of the most prestigious financial families in Europe and the world.
Most of our audience in China was familiar with this family through a best-selling book "Currency War". People who praise them will praise them for their cleverness, great abilities, and good at seizing business opportunities, thus accumulating huge amounts of wealth. Those who criticize this family say that they are treacherous, cunning, long-sleeved dancing, manipulating currency, and making a fortune through disasters and wars. A more exaggerated statement is to accuse the Rothschild family of conspiracy to manipulate the world. Behind the major global conflicts, there are their families.
The most sensational claim is that this family has accumulated a wealth of 50 trillion yuan, and the total GDP of the United States is only 19.39 trillion yuan. They are firmly on the throne of the World Bank and have been involved in many. In the political and diplomatic events of China, it has left a significant influence.
Probably there is no top rich family in the world like them, who is plagued by legends, conspiracy theories, and crooks. But even today with such advanced information, people still don't know the amount of wealth of the Rothschild family. only knows that they are invincible and rich. The most famous red wine Lafite group in the world was opened by their family. His family lent money to buy the Suez Canal to England. 80% of the railways in India were built by their family. The diamond company De Beers, which is "diamonds forever", was invested by his family...
What kind of mysterious family is the Rothschild family? I understand this family, and Read a part of the history of world business and finance.
How rich is the Rothschild family?#Rothschild family originated in the early 19th century, and its founder was Mayer Amschel Rothschild (Mayer Amschel Rothschild). He and his five sons, the "Roche Five Tigers" successively opened banks in famous European cities such as London, Paris, Vienna, Austria, Frankfurt, Germany, and Naples, Italy.
Today's Rothschild family is just one of the top 20 investment banks in the world. Even in the best year of family profits, it was only $100 million, less than 1/100 of Goldman Sachs. According to the annual report data of Paris Orléans (parent company of the Rothschild Group) from 2010 to 2011, the total assets of the Rothschild family are 9.65 billion euros. The Chinese people's pursuit of Rothschild is largely due to Song Hongbing's "Currency War". And before that, many news and online posts have taken the trouble to explain many times. The "Currency War" said that Rothschild was wrong-Rothschild neither controlled the Federal Reserve nor had 50 trillion yuan. niceMeta assets. Probably there is no top rich family in the world like them, plagued by legends, conspiracy theories, and crooks.
One of the family mottos of the Rothschild family is: Never publicize property status. So no one knows the specific wealth of the Rothschild family, only that 80% of the Indian railways were built by his family, and the Suez Canal was bought by his family lent money to England, the "diamonds forever" diamond company De Beers was also invested by his family, and the prestigious Lafite wine belongs to his family... But today it is difficult to estimate its total wealth. Most estimates that the total assets they control are between 300 billion and 400 billion US dollars.
"Rothschild" (Rothschild), a name equivalent to money and power, was a house called "Red Shield" in the Jewish Quarter of Frankfurt, Germany 270 years ago Alias. It is located in the ghetto ghetto, where Mayer Amschel Rothschild (Mayer Amschel Rothschild) was born.
Banker born in a slum
In 18th-century Europe, Jews were discriminated against when working, and traditional industrial and commercial means of livelihood were used. Unable to participate. At that time, there were many European Principalities (300), and each Principality had its own currency system. This gave rise to a large number of currency exchange and borrowing needs. In addition, Judaism allowed the collection of interest, so they engaged in currency exchange and lending for this family. The business has opened the way.
family founder Meyer Rothschild, when he was 12 years old, his parents died one after another because of smallpox. Since then, he has become an orphan and went to the bank with the help of relatives. Be an apprentice.
During his apprenticeship days, Meyer Rothschild learned various ways of banking and foreign exchange transactions. After completing his studies, he did not stay in the bank but chose to pick up and trade. Second-hand goods business. He found that the European aristocracy was keen to collect ancient coins, so he did his best to attract Prince William of the Principality of Kassel in Hessen, Europe at a low price. Because of his business with the royal family, he was promoted to a "court Jew" in 1769. Responsible for managing accounts, buying British government bonds, etc., originally relied on charging 2%-6% of brokerage commissions for a living. During the Napoleonic Wars in 1806, the European continent was blocked, Prince William fled, and Meyer embezzled Prince William’s funds for smuggling. Trade and lending, get the first pot of gold, and gradually embark on the road of bankers.
is not only engaged in the transaction of ancient coins and antiques, but also engaged in the exchange of gold, silver and banknotes, making him a banker.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the Industrial Revolution brought the prosperity of commodity trade and capital business, and Meyer separated his five sons Sent to Frankfurt, Germany (eldest son Amslow 1773-1855), Vienna, Austria (second son Salomon 1774-1855), London, England (third son Nathan 1777-1836), Naples, Italy (fourth son Karl 1788- 1855), Paris, France (the fifth son James 1792-1868) opened up the market.
The method of making money is very simple and rude. They buy when the currency is the lowest and sell when the foreign exchange is the highest. This is their main source of profit.
With the expansion of business territory, the Rothschild family established a huge intelligence network to make profits through exchange rate arbitrage, speculation in gold, and smuggling of goods among countries. The third son, Nathan, is the most respected. He founded N. in London in 1810.M. Rothschild & Sons (NMRothschild & Sons), between 1814 and 1815, they raised funds for the British government's anti-French war, purchased British government bonds, and successfully helped the British General Wellington to supply gold, and finally after the Battle of Waterloo Established the family's financial dominance in Europe, and then monopolized the international payment business, profiting through commissions, exchange rate control, and speculative bonds. As of 1815, the family capital reached 500,000 pounds, which was more than 50 times more than less than 10,000 pounds in 1797, 67% of which came from the British branch.
The career peak of the Rothschild family was in the mid-nineteenth century (1815-1870). The Rothschild family was in full swing, and the influence of capital penetrated the major European governments. There was a money shortage in the United Kingdom in 1825, Nathan took out gold to rescue the Bank of England; in France, James manipulated the price of French government bonds in 1818 to crowd out rival Bahrain Bank; in Austria, Salomon created the "sacred" for Austrian Foreign Minister Metternich The Alliance", sending troops to suppress the revolution to provide funds.
They have close ties with governments of various countries and are always ready to obtain profitable industrial and commercial projects for their families. For example, winning the French railway contract in 1845, acquiring the Spanish Almaden mercury supply right in 1843, acquiring Witkowit Union Mining Company, Austria-Hungarian Smelting Company in 1843, becoming a shareholder of Rio Tinto in 1873, and acquiring rights in the Suez Canal in 1875. The family business reached peak.
In less than 100 years, the Rothschild family controlled the financial lifeline of the entire Europe. In its heyday, its sphere of influence spread all over Europe and America.
The way the Rothschild family made money throughout the 19th century also included the wealth management of the royal family and politicians, engaged in gold and currency transactions, and investment in industry and mining. According to Youssef Cassis and others, when Nathan died in 1836, he was the richest person in Britain and almost the richest person in the world. Counting several brothers of Nathan, the Rothschild family was indeed on top of the world at the time, with assets of £6 million. By 1852, the Rothschild family assets reached 9.53 million pounds. And Nathan’s descendants are not bad. In 1870, Nathan’s four sons’ estate totaled 8.4 million pounds, more than any family in England at the same time.
In the heyday of the Victorian era, even the Queen of England sent people to learn how to cook with the Rothschild cooks. The heads of state who have visited in modern times include Reagan, Clinton, and Mitterrand. The wife of cousin David Rothschild, a good friend of Hillary Clinton, spent the first day of their honeymoon at the White House. "Former German Chancellor Schroeder, he has always been a very important adviser to our company; and the current French President Nicolas Sarkozy (retired). Before he became president, we were good friends and we have always maintained Nice personal relationship."
said David Rothschild, the sixth-generation head of the Rothschild family.
測開連United States
The end of the Franco-Prussian War and the outbreak of the First World War, the Rothschild family has a great scenery For centuries, but after the end of the First World War (1918), Rothschild quickly disappeared. As Mika Arola (Mika Arola) said, "They failed to gain a foothold in the American financial market, which proved to be the main reason for their decline."
part of it is Because of the weakness of the family business, they have been constrained. Since the 1830s began to do business with the United States, the Rothschild family has been unable to establish a branch in New York. Nathan and his brother James Rothschild see U.S. state government debtThe business opportunities of securities and commercial finance, hoping to fully enter the United States.
Chateau Lafite owned by the Rothschild family
After the death of Nathan in 1836, he was in charge of the Paris branch. James also hopes to send members of the Rothschild family to the United States for gold. But James' nephews are not only loyal to the United States, they are also trying to reduce investment in the United States. The other is that the Rothschild family took the Bank of America's bad debts by mistake.
1836-1837 coincided with the financial crisis in the United States. The Rothschild family replaced the Bahrain brothers and became the agent of the Bank of America in Europe. At that time, James Rothschild was enthusiastic and accepted state government bonds from New York State and other states through the Bank of America. However, he did not know that the Bank of America was in danger at that time. As a result, Bank of America went bankrupt in 1841. This incident left a bad impression on the Rothschild family, and James annoyed that he "never set foot in the United States."
In the first few decades of the 20th century, the investment of the Rothschild family suffered several turmoil.
In the First World War, despite the huge wartime financing needs of various countries, the war caused the Rothschild family to be hit hard. The initial advancement of Germany threatened Paris, France, forcing the Paris Stock Exchange, the Bank of France and the Rothschild family in Paris to move to Bordeaux, France, which seriously affected the business of the Rothschild family. What's more terrible is that the wartime financing of the Allies relies entirely on the New York Financial Center (with J.P. Morgan as the core), and the Rothschild family has not established a branch there. In addition, after several generations of reproduction, the descendants of Nathan Rothschild are completely devoid of entrepreneurial spirit. It is really embarrassing to face London's eye-catching competitors, let alone compare with their ancestors. After the war, the Rothschild family essentially gave up the leading role of European government financing.
After 1931, the international gold standard system gradually collapsed. The Rothschild family, whose original business was based on the gold standard, struggled with every attempt to revitalize the role of government financing. With the rise of Nazi Germany in the 1930s, Rothschild as a Jewish family inevitably became a victim. The members of the Rothschild family in Austria could not foresee Hitler's cruelty (not to blame these members), and watched the family heritage looted and confiscated by Nazi Germany. Nazi Germany forcibly bought a steel plant in the Czech Republic in Rothschild for 2.9 million pounds and did not pay any cash on the grounds of war. After the demise of Nazi Germany, Rothschild's assets in Eastern Europe were confiscated by the former Soviet Union.
After the end of World War II, the Rothschild family remained in a state of restlessness.
Wall Street in New York, a large number of banks and investment companies have adopted the method of dividing shares and transferring rights to allow companies to obtain the motivation for sustainable development, that is, the company boss will allocate part of the equity to well-done The manager made him a partner, but the Rothschild family remained indifferent. Until the 20th century, they maintained the partnership system and did not use foreigners as managers. By the third and fourth generations, most members enjoyed a comfortable and aristocratic life. In 1901, the Frankfurt branch closed one after another due to lack of male heirs. It also missed the development opportunity in the United States because there were no qualified family members willing to go to the United States to open up territory.
When Dr. Wu Jun casually spread the rumors of "Currency War" in "Top of the Tide", he also mentioned in passing that major European and American banks, including Swiss Union Bank, Credit Zurich, and Deutsche Banks, as well as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley in the United States have all gone public and raised a lot of development funds, but the Rothschild family still stayed in the business model of a family workshop in the 19th century.
Important is, The two world wars caused huge persecution of Jews. The Bank of Austria was nationalized in 1931, and the Vienna branch was closed in 1938. The French government confiscated part of Rothschild's property during the war.
"If you have experienced that kind of tragedy, you will know that the world is very fragile. A country and a nation are also very fragile in that era. So we usually The way we walk is just one step away from the cliff." The families who have experienced war and persecution have always upheld the concepts of caution, unity, hard work, and integrity. These concepts have allowed us to save us from all crises. "This is the answer of David Rothschild, the sixth-generation head of the Rothschild family, in an interview with CCTV in 2009.
大Wei Rothschild
But with the change of times, in 1960, the traditional influence of the Rothschild family began to decline, and the family finally ushered in the first partnership of non-family members The limit on the number of partners gradually increased to 20 in 1967. Some male members of the Rothschild family in France and the United Kingdom no longer abide by the family rules of intermarriage of relatives and married non-Jews. But the overall situation is still like Neil · Ferguson concluded that, compared with most financial companies, the ownership and leadership of the Rothschild Group is still shared by the main family members.
With the growth of wealth, Rothschild today is Members of the Childe family are getting more and more educated. Although the financial industry is still the cornerstone, more and more children and grandchildren are no longer interested in business. Instead, they devote themselves to the fields of culture, science and art, and they have also achieved good results. Achievements, it also has a large number of business layouts in China.
The true figure of the total family assets is still unknown. The early generations of the family heads all left behind a wealth of wealth and heritage. After 250 Although the annual inheritance has become increasingly low-key, by 2019, there were still two family members on the Forbes rich list. This family has already written a strong mark in global business history.
