Bethmanns and Rothschilds
Encyclopedia
The House of Bethmann
and the House of Rothschild were the two great banking dynasties of Frankfurt am Main. For several decades their affairs were closely intertwined while they carried on a vigorous rivalry. On occasion they would cooperate-–as business partners but also, not least thanks to the pro-emancipation outlook of Simon Moritz von Bethmann, with the shared goal of enfranchising the Jews of Frankfurt.
in the High Middle Ages
, Jews in the Holy Roman Empire
had led a precarious existence, condemned to a status of perpetual servitude by Church doctrine and imperial decree, confined to narrow, unhealthy ghetto
s, and threatened by outbreaks of mob violence when the Jews came in handy as scapegoats. At long last this began to change towards the end of the 18th century. Besides the French revolution
and its call for equality and freedom, liberalizing influences came from the changes agreed by the Vienna Congress. In Frankfurt, these were augmented by the 1820 constitution for the Grand Duchy of Hesse
, and from the specific provisions concerning Jews in the supplement to the Frankfurt constitution and the Frankfurt council decree of 1824.
and the Rothschilds could be said to "come from money". The Bethmanns had been tax collectors and involved in minting
or managing money since their origins in 15th-century northern Germany. Mayer Amschel
's father had been a moneychanger and pawnbroker and he first gained access to the Prince of Hesse
by catering to his penchant for rare coins.
The rapid rise of the banking firm of Gebrüder (= Brothers) Bethmann after its founding in 1748 made the Bethmann family gulden millionaires – one of the richest families in Frankfurt during the second half of the 18th century. In a sense the brothers Bethmann – Johann Philipp, Simon Moritz and Johann Jakob
– prefigured the model of "brothers co-operating internationally" perfected half a century later by the five sons of Mayer Amschel. The Rothschilds made up for their later start by becoming even richer and more powerful during the first half of the 19th century than the Bethmanns had ever been.
Together the two families provided the second major push of three that occurred over four centuries in Frankfurt's commercial history. The first – two centuries earlier – had been the influx of Calvinist refugees from the counter-reformation
in the southern Netherlands, the third came after World War II when Germany's three biggest banks moved their headquarters to Frankfurt.
The second, from 1820, shows what a difference a few decades make.
The shock of the bigoted burgomaster
was shared by many of his contemporaries, who were unhappy with the advances minorities in Germany were making.
and his sons for their achievements. The occasion was Hans Sarkowicz' book Die großen Frankfurter, in which well-known Frankfurt personages were invited to describe notable citizens of Frankfurt and their achievements.
In his essay for the book, Bethmann notes the initial rivalry between the two Houses as bankers to the Landgrave and Elector of Hesse
, which however soon gave way to preferment of Rothschild. Simon Moritz von Bethmann at first found this setback hard to take and complained about the aggressive style of doing business exhibited by the Rothschilds.
Eventually, however, he came to express respect for Mayer Amschel's five sons:
On occasion the fierce rivals would cooperate, for example in raising the tax commutation payments demanded as the price of freedom for Frankfurt's Jews. In 1812 Grand Duke Karl Theodor von Dalberg appointed Simon Moritz von Bethmann and Mayer Amschel Rothschild as members of the electoral body (Wahlkollegium) for the district of Frankfurt. Bethmann supported the Philantropin, the secondary school of Frankfurt's Israelite Community, both in words and in deed in the form of a several thousand gulden grant. Amschel Mayer von Rothschild, Mayer Amschel's eldest son, and the Staatsrat Simon Moritz were among the bankers arguing for the establishment of a reserve bank that would issue its own currency in 1824. Both banks co-promoted the construction of the first railroad in the Rhine Main Region in 1836.
At the time of Mayer Amschel's birth, Frankfurt's Jews were still "serfs" in "slavery", as Ludwig Börne
said, not mincing his words. Since the reign of Frederick II
in the 13th century, they were "servants of the Imperial treasury". In spite of being restricted to a narrowly circumscribed range of retail, moneylending or pawnbrokerage businesses, a number of families managed to become prosperous by the end of the 18th century, foremost the Speyer family. Rothschilds had been small-scale peddlers, and Mayer Amschel himself had been a moderately successful retailer, a dealer in bills of exchange as well as a more traditional court Jew
. When Mayer Amschel died in 1812 he was a fully enfranchised citizen of Frankfurt. The walls of the ghetto had come down and he had laid the groundwork for the rise of his family to world renown.
The speed and breadth of the Rothschilds' rapid rise is something that even historians today find difficult to explain.
Börne described Mayer Amschel thus:
When Prince William
became the sovereign in 1785, Mayer Amschel reinforced his activities in his direction, aided by his ally Buderus, the man who held the Landgrave's purse strings. Mayer Amschel's young sons supported him increasingly, aiding the House of Rothschild's rise to fortune. The two older sons Amschel Mayer
and Salomon Mayer probably made partner in 1796. In 1800 they and their father, at the latter's request, became imperial court factors, based on their deliveries to the army. In 1802 Mayer Amschel attained the appointment of his sons as masters of the war payroll, and in 1803 he himself rose to the post of court agent in Kassel
where he maintained a branch office.
The Landgrave (since 1803 Elector
) was one of the richest rulers of the age thanks to the "English subsidies", i.e., the sale of his subjects as soldiers. He invested the profits by turning them into loans, for which he accepted interest from creditors in the form of bills of exchange. From 1801 Rothschild took an ever greater part in the dealings of the Landgrave. Trade in government bonds had now gained in importance; there were bond issues for Denmark, Hessen-Darmstadt, Kurbaden, and the Johanniterorden. But Mayer Rothschild also entered into financial transactions with the Princes of Ysenburg, Büdingen and Thurn und Taxis.
What boosted Rothschild's fortunes, however, was the managing of the exiled Elector's assets. Mayer Amschel transferred liquidity to Nathan in England who advised that the Elector's "getaway money" be invested in English government bonds. In 1807 finally Mayer Amschel was the sole banker to the Elector. In 1806 Karl Theodor von Dalberg became Prince primate
of the Rheinbund and lord of Frankfurt, from 1810 as Grand Duke. Mayer Amschel quickly adapted and entered into a relationship with Dalberg. He lent him money for his extravagant lifestyle and financed his journey to Paris in 1810 to attend the wedding of Napolean and Marie Louise. This earned his youngest son Jacob (James) a residency permit for Paris. In addition Dalberg warned Rothschild when his connection to the absconded Elector became a threat for Rothschild. At the same time Simon Moritz von Bethmann also maintained a most cordial relationship with Dahlberg.
Frankfurt's Jews had greeted Dalberg's instatement in 1806 with high hopes but at first they were disappointed. It was only in 1811 that they received the legal status of citizens. However, as Paul Arnsberg writes in his book, Geschichte der Frankfurter Juden,
For the Grand Duchy, emancipation meant that it would lose the annual protection money from the Jews, which it could ill afford. Therefore a "tax commutation payment" was determined, and the Jews of Frankfurt had to purchase their freedom with 440,000 gulden. The Israelitic Community nominated a committee of five men to handle the matter, one of them being Mayer Amschel. In addition Rothschild procured the cash amounts that the Community was unable to raise through the discounting of bills of exchange, including the second installment in the form of debentures with a term of ten years, a major tranche
of which was handled by the Gebrüder Bethmann bank.
Rothschilds profited from the upheavals and political developments from 1792 onward. Economic policy, the needs of the military, societal reforms and the development of private capitalism all led to a need for more money, so that the function of a banker as debt intermediary and money procurer became more pronounced. In addition religious tensions decreased, and thus also prejudice against the Jews. However, the major advantage of Mayer Amschel and his sons was that they perceived new business areas quickly and were informed quickly, accurately and comprehensively. This could only be done based on joint action in a framework of mutual trust, which required joint deliberations before each operation. Moreover Mayer Amschel himself had always been very mobile, traveling great distances in postal carriages with secret compartments.
The Freiherr
rounds out his account noting the charity of Mayer Amschel Rothschild, who gave to the needy regardless of their creed and was prepared at any time to travel and walk on behalf of those requiring his assistance.
Five years later, Bethmann expressed his thoughts in a less passionate manner in another letter.
Bethmann family
The Bethmann family has been remarkable for the high proportion of its males who succeeded at mercantile or financial endeavors. This family trait began in medieval northern Germany and continued with the Bethmann bank which Johann Philipp Bethmann and Simon Moritz Bethmann founded in 1748 and...
and the House of Rothschild were the two great banking dynasties of Frankfurt am Main. For several decades their affairs were closely intertwined while they carried on a vigorous rivalry. On occasion they would cooperate-–as business partners but also, not least thanks to the pro-emancipation outlook of Simon Moritz von Bethmann, with the shared goal of enfranchising the Jews of Frankfurt.
Historical background
Ever since the discriminatory Decretals of Pope Gregory IXPope Gregory IX
Pope Gregory IX, born Ugolino di Conti, was pope from March 19, 1227 to August 22, 1241.The successor of Pope Honorius III , he fully inherited the traditions of Pope Gregory VII and of his uncle Pope Innocent III , and zealously continued their policy of Papal supremacy.-Early life:Ugolino was...
in the High Middle Ages
High Middle Ages
The High Middle Ages was the period of European history around the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries . The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which by convention end around 1500....
, Jews in the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
had led a precarious existence, condemned to a status of perpetual servitude by Church doctrine and imperial decree, confined to narrow, unhealthy ghetto
Ghetto
A ghetto is a section of a city predominantly occupied by a group who live there, especially because of social, economic, or legal issues.The term was originally used in Venice to describe the area where Jews were compelled to live. The term now refers to an overcrowded urban area often associated...
s, and threatened by outbreaks of mob violence when the Jews came in handy as scapegoats. At long last this began to change towards the end of the 18th century. Besides the French revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
and its call for equality and freedom, liberalizing influences came from the changes agreed by the Vienna Congress. In Frankfurt, these were augmented by the 1820 constitution for the Grand Duchy of Hesse
Grand Duchy of Hesse
The Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine , or, between 1806 and 1816, Grand Duchy of Hesse —as it was also known after 1816—was a member state of the German Confederation from 1806, when the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt was elevated to a Grand Duchy, until 1918, when all the German...
, and from the specific provisions concerning Jews in the supplement to the Frankfurt constitution and the Frankfurt council decree of 1824.
Similar traditions
Both the Bethmann familyBethmann family
The Bethmann family has been remarkable for the high proportion of its males who succeeded at mercantile or financial endeavors. This family trait began in medieval northern Germany and continued with the Bethmann bank which Johann Philipp Bethmann and Simon Moritz Bethmann founded in 1748 and...
and the Rothschilds could be said to "come from money". The Bethmanns had been tax collectors and involved in minting
Mint (coin)
A mint is an industrial facility which manufactures coins for currency.The history of mints correlates closely with the history of coins. One difference is that the history of the mint is usually closely tied to the political situation of an era...
or managing money since their origins in 15th-century northern Germany. Mayer Amschel
Mayer Amschel Rothschild
Mayer Amschel Rothschild was the founder of the Rothschild family international banking dynasty that became the most successful business family in history. In 2005, he was ranked 7th on the Forbes magazine list of "The Twenty Most Influential Businessmen Of All Time"...
's father had been a moneychanger and pawnbroker and he first gained access to the Prince of Hesse
William I, Elector of Hesse
William I, Elector of Hesse was the eldest surviving son of Frederick II, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel and Princess Mary of Great Britain, the daughter of George II.-Early life:...
by catering to his penchant for rare coins.
The rapid rise of the banking firm of Gebrüder (= Brothers) Bethmann after its founding in 1748 made the Bethmann family gulden millionaires – one of the richest families in Frankfurt during the second half of the 18th century. In a sense the brothers Bethmann – Johann Philipp, Simon Moritz and Johann Jakob
Johann Jakob Bethmann
thumbJohann Jakob Bethmann was a German merchant and shipowner.- Life :...
– prefigured the model of "brothers co-operating internationally" perfected half a century later by the five sons of Mayer Amschel. The Rothschilds made up for their later start by becoming even richer and more powerful during the first half of the 19th century than the Bethmanns had ever been.
Together the two families provided the second major push of three that occurred over four centuries in Frankfurt's commercial history. The first – two centuries earlier – had been the influx of Calvinist refugees from the counter-reformation
Counter-Reformation
The Counter-Reformation was the period of Catholic revival beginning with the Council of Trent and ending at the close of the Thirty Years' War, 1648 as a response to the Protestant Reformation.The Counter-Reformation was a comprehensive effort, composed of four major elements:#Ecclesiastical or...
in the southern Netherlands, the third came after World War II when Germany's three biggest banks moved their headquarters to Frankfurt.
Frankfurt's richest families
| Estates in Frankfurt worth at least 800,000 gulden between 1700 and 1816 |
|||
| Year | Name | Occupation | Estate in gulden |
| 1780 | Jakob Bolongaro | Snuff tobacco manufacturer | 2,000,000 |
| 1793 | Johann Philipp Bethmann | Banker | 2,000,000 |
| 1800 | Peter Heinrich Bethmann-Metzler | Banker | 2,000,000 |
| 1808 | Johann Jakob Bethmann-Hollweg | Banker | 1,500,000 |
| 1816 | Johann Friedrich Städel | Merchant | 1,414,472 |
| 1782 | Simon Moritz Bethmann | Banker | 1,370,000 |
| 1797 | Brothers Bernard | Snuff tobacco producers | 1,250,000 |
| 1783 | Peter Anton Bolongaro-Crevenna | Tobacco manufacturer | 1,110,000 |
| 1780 | Johann Jakob Casimir Leonhardi | Raw materials for pharmacies | 1,107,203 |
| 1812 | Franz Maria Schweitzer | Merchant | 1,042,748 |
| 1802 | Viktor Bolongaro-Simonetta | Banker and tobacco producer | 1,000,000 |
| 1797 | Peter Anton Brentano | Spices and foodstuffs | 934,766 |
| 1719 | Heinrich Bernus | Banker | 800,000 |
| 1719 | Johann Bernus | Banker | 800,000 |
| 1724 | Jakob Bernus-Peltzer | Banker | 800,000 |
| 1783 | Viktor Bolongaro-Simonetta | Tobacco producer | 800,000 |
| 1800 | Johann Peter von Leonhardi | Raw materials for pharmacies | 800,000 |
| 1810 | Harnier | Court banker | 800,000 |
| 1810 | Mayer Amschel Rothschild Mayer Amschel Rothschild Mayer Amschel Rothschild was the founder of the Rothschild family international banking dynasty that became the most successful business family in history. In 2005, he was ranked 7th on the Forbes magazine list of "The Twenty Most Influential Businessmen Of All Time"... |
Banker | 800,000 |
| 1810 | Rüppel | Court banker | 800,000 |
Egon Caesar Conte Corti
Like snapshots, two quotes from Egon Caesar Conte Corti highlight the great strides made by the Rothschilds in a very short timespan. The first is a glimpse at the beginnings of the Rothschilds' rise. The year is 1794, but as yet Gebrüder Bethmann are too powerful for the upstart to break into the game.The second, from 1820, shows what a difference a few decades make.
The shock of the bigoted burgomaster
Burgomaster
Burgomaster is the English form of various terms in or derived from Germanic languages for the chief magistrate or chairman of the executive council of a sub-national level of administration...
was shared by many of his contemporaries, who were unhappy with the advances minorities in Germany were making.
Johann Philipp Freiherr von Bethmann
Following in the footsteps of his famous ancestor Simon Moritz, Johann Philipp Freiherr von Bethmann in 1994 praised Mayer Amschel RothschildMayer Amschel Rothschild
Mayer Amschel Rothschild was the founder of the Rothschild family international banking dynasty that became the most successful business family in history. In 2005, he was ranked 7th on the Forbes magazine list of "The Twenty Most Influential Businessmen Of All Time"...
and his sons for their achievements. The occasion was Hans Sarkowicz' book Die großen Frankfurter, in which well-known Frankfurt personages were invited to describe notable citizens of Frankfurt and their achievements.
In his essay for the book, Bethmann notes the initial rivalry between the two Houses as bankers to the Landgrave and Elector of Hesse
William I, Elector of Hesse
William I, Elector of Hesse was the eldest surviving son of Frederick II, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel and Princess Mary of Great Britain, the daughter of George II.-Early life:...
, which however soon gave way to preferment of Rothschild. Simon Moritz von Bethmann at first found this setback hard to take and complained about the aggressive style of doing business exhibited by the Rothschilds.
Eventually, however, he came to express respect for Mayer Amschel's five sons:
At the time of Mayer Amschel's birth, Frankfurt's Jews were still "serfs" in "slavery", as Ludwig Börne
Ludwig Börne
Karl Ludwig Börne was a German political writer and satirist.-Early life:Karl Ludwig Börne was born Loeb Baruch on May 6, 1786, at Frankfurt am Main, son of Jakob Baruch, a banker. His grandfather had been a government bureaucrat.-Education:Börne and his brothers were privately tutored by Jacob...
said, not mincing his words. Since the reign of Frederick II
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick II , was one of the most powerful Holy Roman Emperors of the Middle Ages and head of the House of Hohenstaufen. His political and cultural ambitions, based in Sicily and stretching through Italy to Germany, and even to Jerusalem, were enormous...
in the 13th century, they were "servants of the Imperial treasury". In spite of being restricted to a narrowly circumscribed range of retail, moneylending or pawnbrokerage businesses, a number of families managed to become prosperous by the end of the 18th century, foremost the Speyer family. Rothschilds had been small-scale peddlers, and Mayer Amschel himself had been a moderately successful retailer, a dealer in bills of exchange as well as a more traditional court Jew
Court Jew
Court Jew is a term, typically applied to the Early Modern period, for historical Jewish bankers who handled the finances of, or lent money to, European royalty and nobility....
. When Mayer Amschel died in 1812 he was a fully enfranchised citizen of Frankfurt. The walls of the ghetto had come down and he had laid the groundwork for the rise of his family to world renown.
The speed and breadth of the Rothschilds' rapid rise is something that even historians today find difficult to explain.
Börne described Mayer Amschel thus:
When Prince William
William I, Elector of Hesse
William I, Elector of Hesse was the eldest surviving son of Frederick II, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel and Princess Mary of Great Britain, the daughter of George II.-Early life:...
became the sovereign in 1785, Mayer Amschel reinforced his activities in his direction, aided by his ally Buderus, the man who held the Landgrave's purse strings. Mayer Amschel's young sons supported him increasingly, aiding the House of Rothschild's rise to fortune. The two older sons Amschel Mayer
Amschel Mayer Rothschild
Amschel Mayer Rothschild was a German Jewish banker of the Rothschild family financial dynasty.He was the second child and eldest son of Mayer Amschel Rothschild , the founder of the dynasty, and Gutlé Rothschild née Schnapper .On the death of Mayer Amschel in 1812, Amschel Mayer succeeded as head...
and Salomon Mayer probably made partner in 1796. In 1800 they and their father, at the latter's request, became imperial court factors, based on their deliveries to the army. In 1802 Mayer Amschel attained the appointment of his sons as masters of the war payroll, and in 1803 he himself rose to the post of court agent in Kassel
Kassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...
where he maintained a branch office.
The Landgrave (since 1803 Elector
Prince-elector
The Prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire were the members of the electoral college of the Holy Roman Empire, having the function of electing the Roman king or, from the middle of the 16th century onwards, directly the Holy Roman Emperor.The heir-apparent to a prince-elector was known as an...
) was one of the richest rulers of the age thanks to the "English subsidies", i.e., the sale of his subjects as soldiers. He invested the profits by turning them into loans, for which he accepted interest from creditors in the form of bills of exchange. From 1801 Rothschild took an ever greater part in the dealings of the Landgrave. Trade in government bonds had now gained in importance; there were bond issues for Denmark, Hessen-Darmstadt, Kurbaden, and the Johanniterorden. But Mayer Rothschild also entered into financial transactions with the Princes of Ysenburg, Büdingen and Thurn und Taxis.
What boosted Rothschild's fortunes, however, was the managing of the exiled Elector's assets. Mayer Amschel transferred liquidity to Nathan in England who advised that the Elector's "getaway money" be invested in English government bonds. In 1807 finally Mayer Amschel was the sole banker to the Elector. In 1806 Karl Theodor von Dalberg became Prince primate
Prince primate
Prince-Primate is a rare princely title held by individual archbishops of specific sees in a presiding capacity in an august assembly of mainly secular princes, notably the following:-Germany - Confederation of the Rhine:The Rheinbund or 'Confederation of the Rhine' was founded in 1806, when several...
of the Rheinbund and lord of Frankfurt, from 1810 as Grand Duke. Mayer Amschel quickly adapted and entered into a relationship with Dalberg. He lent him money for his extravagant lifestyle and financed his journey to Paris in 1810 to attend the wedding of Napolean and Marie Louise. This earned his youngest son Jacob (James) a residency permit for Paris. In addition Dalberg warned Rothschild when his connection to the absconded Elector became a threat for Rothschild. At the same time Simon Moritz von Bethmann also maintained a most cordial relationship with Dahlberg.
Frankfurt's Jews had greeted Dalberg's instatement in 1806 with high hopes but at first they were disappointed. It was only in 1811 that they received the legal status of citizens. However, as Paul Arnsberg writes in his book, Geschichte der Frankfurter Juden,
For the Grand Duchy, emancipation meant that it would lose the annual protection money from the Jews, which it could ill afford. Therefore a "tax commutation payment" was determined, and the Jews of Frankfurt had to purchase their freedom with 440,000 gulden. The Israelitic Community nominated a committee of five men to handle the matter, one of them being Mayer Amschel. In addition Rothschild procured the cash amounts that the Community was unable to raise through the discounting of bills of exchange, including the second installment in the form of debentures with a term of ten years, a major tranche
Tranche
In structured finance, a tranche is one of a number of related securities offered as part of the same transaction. The word tranche is French for slice, section, series, or portion, and is cognate to English trench . In the financial sense of the word, each bond is a different slice of the deal's...
of which was handled by the Gebrüder Bethmann bank.
Rothschilds profited from the upheavals and political developments from 1792 onward. Economic policy, the needs of the military, societal reforms and the development of private capitalism all led to a need for more money, so that the function of a banker as debt intermediary and money procurer became more pronounced. In addition religious tensions decreased, and thus also prejudice against the Jews. However, the major advantage of Mayer Amschel and his sons was that they perceived new business areas quickly and were informed quickly, accurately and comprehensively. This could only be done based on joint action in a framework of mutual trust, which required joint deliberations before each operation. Moreover Mayer Amschel himself had always been very mobile, traveling great distances in postal carriages with secret compartments.
The Freiherr
Freiherr
The German titles Freiherr and Freifrau and Freiin are titles of nobility, used preceding a person's given name or, after 1919, before the surname...
rounds out his account noting the charity of Mayer Amschel Rothschild, who gave to the needy regardless of their creed and was prepared at any time to travel and walk on behalf of those requiring his assistance.
Fritz Stern
The quote below from Fritz Stern shows that in 1852, the House of Bethmann was still strong enough to be wheeled out as a credible threat when the occasion called for it. The House of Rothschild was then at the pinnacle of its power and influence throughout Europe. Of course, as private banks owned by personally liable shareholder-directors, both were about to be challenged and eventually eclipsed by the new joint-stock banking corporations, such as the Disconto-Gesellschaft.Simon Moritz von Bethmann, in his own words
One of the few times that the Staatsrat allowed himself to get "hot under the collar". The exasperation he expressed came from a feeling of being squeezed from two sides – his fellow Christians who resented him for working to remove their privileges vis-à-vis the Jews, and the Rothschilds in whom centuries of persecution had embedded suspicion and wariness.Five years later, Bethmann expressed his thoughts in a less passionate manner in another letter.
Summary
While the sources do not indicate that Bethmanns and Rothschilds were friends—and while the curiosity and appreciation the Bethmanns expressed for the Rothschilds were not reciprocated in equal measure—in the rough-and-tumble world of international finance, complicated further by the delicate state of Judeo-Christian relations and the burden of history, the keen rivals and (less frequently) gimlet-eyed business partners did manage, as far as can be told, to transform a grudging respect into a more cordial relationship.External links
- Niall Ferguson: The House of Rothschild, vol. 1. Table of contents and beginning of first chapter.