Talk:Nathan Mayer Rothschild
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Is this the grandfather of hitler? Or am i just reading into conspiracy lies. I wanted to find out about nathan mayer rothschilds earlier childhood, but its not here.
- THat is most defantly an urban legend. The link to hitler comes later one bacause of the problems with the great depression before world war 2. The US goverment stock piled gold to pay the banks, which used it to loan to Germany. This is why there is a link between Rothschild's and Hitler. Anything further is just another myth.--Dacium 09:59, 6 April 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Legend
Rothschild developed a system of communication that was faster than those of most governments at the time. It is believed he used carrier pigeons and semaphore to communicate across the English Channel. Following the Battle of Waterloo he used this system to stunning effect. Through a clever stratagem, and foreknowledge of the outcome at Waterloo, Rothschild made an immense fortune by manipulating the London stock market.
British consols were non-term, government issued bonds that paid interest as long as the government remained solvent. The morning after the battle, a nervous looking Rothschild entered the London Stock Exchange, took his usual place at the Rothschild Pillar, and began quietly dumping his huge portfolio of consols. The word quickly spread: "Wellington lost...! Rothschild knows!" The decline soon turned into a rout, with desperate consol holders selling off in the free falling market. At the nadir of this collapse, upon a silent command, Rothschild agents quickly began buying back consols at a mere fraction of their former value. By closing time he'd bought back many, many more than he'd sold.
Later in the day, news of Wellington's great victory arrived. Backed by the now strongest government in Europe, the cost of British consols soared. "In that one day, he (Rothschild) increased his already immense fortune many times over." John Reeves, 1887, The Rothschilds: the Financial Rulers of Nations.[1]
--- This para was removed because it is fiction; see revised version. --mervyn 17:51, 2 June 2007 (UTC)
- I wouldn't say that it's an open-and-shut case that this is total legend. Here's a review of another Rothschild book in Business Week:
- "The most widespread Rothschild myth was that Nathan, after receiving news by carrier pigeon of Wellington's victory at Waterloo, made a vast fortune speculating on the rise in British government securities. The reality, says Ferguson, was quite different. The Rothschilds' couriers did alert them first to Napoleon's defeat, but since they had bet big on a protracted military campaign, any quick gains in bonds after Waterloo were too small to offset the disruption to their business.
- Rothschild capital did soar--but over a much longer period. Nathan's breakthrough was a deal to supply cash to Wellington's army in 1814. Waging a high-risk campaign of exchange-rate transactions, bond-price speculations, and commissions, the family garnered huge profits from this governmental financing. Then, from 500,000 pounds in 1818, Rothschild capital rose to 4,330,333 pounds in 1828--about 14 times the resources of their nearest competitor, Baring Brothers, which had been a close second."
- So, it seems that he did have advance knowledge via carrier pigeon, he did perhaps act on that advance knowledge, and he did finance the war, which he benefited from later. Whether the bonds the family previously had taken out expecting a long war offset the massive gains that he could have gotten from advance knowledge that day is what's causing the difference in stories, it seems. It doesn't seem that it was totally made up from nothing, though, as the article now implies.--Gloriamarie 15:06, 3 June 2007 (UTC)
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- Note that "The reality, says Ferguson, was quite different" and also note that "the family garnered huge profits from this governmental financing" -- the role in supplying cash to Wellington is well documented and is quite different from the legend about speculating on news of battle. Note also that the large increase in capital was between 1818 and 1828, well after Waterloo. I don't think that an encyclopedia should be perpetuating a legend, but perhaps there can be some rephrasing. --mervyn 15:42, 3 June 2007 (UTC)
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- Have now added an accurate quote of the "legend" and put it into context, plus other expanded info and removal of speculation. --mervyn 11:04, 16 June 2007 (UTC)
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[edit] Biassed quotes
I removed a section of quotes added by an anon -- they are highly POV and from dubious sources, not suitable for an encyclopedia article:
[edit] Quotes
- "I care not what puppet is placed upon the throne of England to rule the Empire on which the sun never sets. The man who controls Britain's money supply controls the British Empire, and I control the British money supply." Nathan Mayer Rothschild[not specific enough to verify]
- "One cause of his [Nathan's] success was the secrecy with which he shrouded, and the tortuous policy with which he misled those who watched him the keenest." John Reeves, The Rothschilds, Financial Rulers of the Nations, 1887, page 167.
- Nathan is described by the historian John Reeves as being a very shrewd, unscrupulous and uncouth man, and exceedingly close fisted. He says that, "He never paid his employees a farthing more than was necessary for their bare subsistence, or at least not a farthing more than they could compel him to pay." George Armstrong, "The Rothschild Money Trust", 1940, pg. 26
--mervyn 15:01, 10 July 2007 (UTC)
