Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1743–1812) was a German Jewish banker. This founder of the 250-year-old Rothschild banking dynasty is a “founding father of international finance.”
Born in Frankfurt am Main, Rothschild trained as a rabbi. He founded a business as a moneylender and became the financial adviser to the Landgrave of Hesse. The house received a heavy commission for transmitting money from the English government to the Duke of Wellington in Spain, paid the British subsidies to Continental princes, and negotiated loans for Denmark 1804–12.
After his death, Rothschild’s five sons became barons of the Austrian Empire in 1822, negotiated many of the outstanding government loans of the 19th century, and fostered one of the central banking houses of the world.
Rothschild staked his fortunes on the success of Great Britain over Napoleon. Upon receiving the first news of the outcome at Waterloo, he sold and bought stock, which brought him over £1 million in profit. Rothschild was ranked seventh on the 2005 Forbes magazine’s list of “The Twenty Most Influential Businessmen of All Time.”
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Mayer Amschel Rothschild
Never have anything to do with an unlucky place, or an unlucky man. I have seen many clever men, very clever men, who had not shoes to their feet. I never act with them. Their advice sounds very well, but they cannot get on themselves; and if they cannot do good to themselves, how can they do good to me?
—Mayer Amschel Rothschild
Topics: Luck
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