ROTHSCHILD, the name of a Jewish family which has acquired an unexampled position from the magnitude of its fi nancial transactions. The original name was Bauer, the founder of the house being Mayer Anselm (1743-1812), the son of Anselm Moses Bauer, a Jewish merchant of Frankfort-on-the Main. He set up as a money-lender at the sign of the "Red Shield" (Rothschild) in the Frankfort Judengasse, became agent to William, ninth landgrave, afterwards elector of Hesse Cassel, in 18or, and in the following year negotiated his first govern ment loan for the Danish government. When the landgrave was compelled to flee from his capital on the entry of the French, he placed his treasure in the hands of Rothschild, who buried it, it is said, in a corner of his garden, whence he dug it up as opportunity arose for disposing of it. This he did to such advantage as to be able to return its value to the elector at 5% interest. He died at Frankfort on Sept. 19, 1812, leaving ten children, five sons and five daughters. Branches of the business were established at Vienna, London, Paris and Naples, each being in charge of one of the sons, who received the privilege of hered itary landowners from Austria in 1815, and were created barons in 1822.
The charge of the Frankfort house devolved on the eldest, Anselm Mayer (1773-1855), born on June 12, 1773, who was a member of the royal Prussian privy council of commerce, and, in 1820, Bavarian consul and court banker. The Vienna branch was undertaken by Solomon (1774-1826), born on Dec. 9, 1774, whose intimate relations with Metternich contributed to bring about the connection of the firm with the allied powers.
The third brother, Nathan Mayer (1777-1836), born on Sept. 16, 1777, has, however, generally been regarded as the financial genius of the family, and the chief originator of the transactions which have created for the house its unexampled position in the financial world. He went to Manchester about 1800 to act as a purchaser for his father of manufactured goods; but at the end of five years he removed to London. The boldness and skill of his financial transactions, which caused him at first to be re garded as unsafe by the leading banking firms and financial mer chants, later awakened their admiration. By the employment of carrier-pigeons and of fast-sailing boats of his own, he was able to utilize to the best advantage his special sources of information, while no one was a greater adept in the art of promoting the rise and fall of the stocks. The great influence of the house dates
from his successful negotiation of some drafts made by Wel lington on the English government, which the latter was unable to meet. From this time the allied powers negotiated loans chiefly through the house of Rothschild, who never lost faith in the ulti mate overthrow of Napoleon on which he staked his all.
Rothschild was the first to popularize foreign loans in Britain by fixing the rate in sterling money and making the dividends payable in London and not in foreign capitals. Latterly he became the financial agent of nearly every civilized government, although persistently declining contracts for Spain or the American States. He did not confine himself to operations on a large scale, but took every opportunity of transacting business in all quarters of the globe. He died on July 28, 1836, and was succeeded in the management of the London house by his son Lionel (1808-1879), born on Nov. 22, 1808, whose name is associated with the removal of the civil disabilities of the Jews. He was elected a member for the City of London in 1847, and again in 1849 and 1852, but it was not till 1858 that the joint operation of an act of parliament and a resolution of the House of Commons, allowing the omis sion from the oath of the words objectionable to Jews, rendered it possible for him to take his seat. He continued to represent the City of London till 1874.
His eldest son, Nathaniel (184o-1915), became Baron Rothschild in 1885. Jacob (1792-1868), the youngest of the original brothers, started business in Paris after the restoration of the Bourbons, for whom he negotiated large loans. At the Revolution of 1848 he was a heavy loser, and had to be protected for a time by a special guard. It was by his capital that the earliest railways were constructed in France; the profits he ob tained from the speculation were very large. He died on Nov. 15, 1868. The Naples branch was superintended by another of the brothers, Karl (1780-1855). It was always the least important of the five, and after the annexation of Naples to Italy in 1860 it was discontinued.
See Des Haus Rothschild (1858) ; Picciotto, Sketches of Anglo Jewish History (1875) ; Francis, Chronicles and Characters of the Stock Exchange (1853) ; Treskow, Biographische Notizen fiber Nathan Meyer Rothschild nebst seinem Testament (1837) ; Roqueplan, Le Baron James de Rothschild (1868) ; Count Corti, The Rise of the House of Rothschild (Eng. trans. by Brian and Beatrix Lunn, 1928).