Just say the name 'Rothschild' and you'll open any conversation up to a world of wealth, power, and dynastic conspiracy theories.
And there is no doubt — the family pioneered international finance as we know it.
This is the story of how the generations that started the dynasty managed such a feat.
Mayer Amschel Rothschild, the first of the family to open a bank, was honored by Forbes as the seventh most influential businessman of all time and the inventor of modern banking who introduced "concepts such as diversification, rapid communication, confidentiality and high volume."
Simply, Mayer understood and was willing to spend money in order to make money.
But it wasn't all that simple. Some elements of the family's history are indeed unsettling enough to pique mass interest. For instance, Mayer's primary manner of hoarding the dynasty's wealth was to institute a policy of keeping friends close...and family even closer.
But, as William Langley notes, one question looms large:
How did a down-on-its-luck brood of German street traders emerge, seemingly overnight, to become the prime facilitators of modern capitalism, the wielders of immense political power and, as the historian Niall Ferguson puts it in The House of Rothschild, “the richest family in all of history”?
Here's the answer; the tale of how Mayer and his sons established an international banking dynasty.
The Rothchilds come from humble beginnings: the Jewish ghetto in Frankfurt known as the Judengasse.
Mayer Amschel Rothschild, original architect of the family fortune, was born in 1744. He lived above the family shop with up to 30 relatives in extremely cramped conditions.
Source: The House of Rothschild
Mayer Rothchild's father was a trader and money changer.
Mayer's father, Amschel Moses, worked as a money changer and silk cloth trader, and had Prince William of Hesse on his client list.
However, Amschel wasn't a rich man by any stretch of the imagination, as his meager dwelling suggests.
Source: The House of Rothschild
After his parents passed away at the age of 12, Mayer went to Hanover to learn finance.
Mayer left rabbinical school in Furth, and honed the craft he had dabbled in as a child. In a letter, he wrote "in my youth I was...a very active merchant, but I was disorganized, because I had been a student [of the Talmud] and learnt nothing [about business]." He worked as an apprentice at the firm of Wolf Jakob Oppenheimer, who provided credit to royalty and engaged in international trade, especially in bullion.
Source: The House of Rothschild
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
