Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1861-12-21
Rothschild.


fort who did not dream of ever having
anything to do, personally, with the
sovcreigns of Europe. He was in the
first stages of training for the Jewish
priesthood. His name was Meyer An
sclm Rothschild. For some reason or
other he was placed in counting-house
at Hanover, and he soon discovered
what he was fit for. He began hum
bly, as an exchange broker, and went
or to be the banker of the Landgrave
of Hesse, whose private fortune he
saved by his shrewdness, when Napole-
on overran Germany. How he left
large fortune and commercial char
acter of the highest order, and how his
five sons settled in five of the great cit
les of Europe, and have had moro au-
thority over war and peace, and the des-
TIMES of nations than the sovercigns
themselves, the world pretty we'll
knows.
Despotic monarchs must be depend
ent on money-lcnders, unless they arc
free from debt, and can command un-
limited revenues for untold purposes
which is never true of dcspotic sovcr-
eigns. Constitutional rulers are free
from the responsibility and diff
Guilty, and British sovereigns are sup
Piled by parliamentary vote. and need
not stoop to borrow. Yet there is room
for a Rothschild in London; where
loans are negotiated for all countries,
and which is kind Of a central Office
for the financial news of all the world.
In London, then, one of the sons-Na-
than-settled. Anselm remained at
Frankfort, Solomon went to Vienna,
Charles to Naples, and James to Paris.
Nathan was the leader. to whom the
others looked up with reverence and
confidence. He had assisted his father
by his admirable ways of investing the
moneys lodged in his fathers hands |;
and he enriched his brothers by his
wise guidance, and his generous extern
sion to them of his knowledge and op-
portunities. He paid and provisioned
the soldiers in the peninsular war, and
reaped the large profits which were his
due for such service; and from that
time his fortune became colossal. He
will be remembered in the history
of the financial empire by his having in
troduced foreign loans into this country
as q financial feature, as Gresham
opened to our sovereigns the resources
Of domestic loans. Before the days of
the Rothschilds, an Englishman
here and there had invested his money
abroad; but the difficulty of RECEIVING
the dividends, aud the uncertainties
caused by fluctuations in the exchange
had confined the speculation to q very
small number.
Nathan Rothschild made the arrange
ments perfectly easy and regular, to the
convenience If borrowers and lenders
alike. Sovereigns and Emperor COM
peted for his countenance, - his opin-
ion decided their credit; and Spain has
not yet got over the effects of his quiet,
steady refusal to enter into any money
contracts with her or her dependencies,
He was ennobled in Austria, but he
preferred his personal consideration to
any adventitious rank, and never used
his title of Baron. The Member of
London is his eldest son. Everywhere
in Europe the Rothschilds arc regard
ed ~ exemplars of the commercial
character in it, loftiest phase, in IN ad-
vanced state ofcivilixation. Their honor
isproverbial, like the word Of . king, or
the gage of soldier; their intellectual
range Is wide; their faculties are keen
aad sound: and their charities are
equal to their wealth. Such are the
results Of German boy having left the
rriestly calling to be engaged in trade.