A research resource for Banking, finance and other business
Mayer Amschel Rothschild was born in 1744 in the Judengasse, in Frankfurt. His father had a business in goods-trading and currency exchange. He was a personal supplier of collectable coins to the Prince of Hesse. By the early years of the 19th century, Rothschild had consolidated his position, and in 1810, renamed his firm M A Rothschild und Söhne, establishing a partnership with his four sons still in Frankfurt, (his son Nathan Mayer Rothschild (1777-1836) having already established a business in Manchester and London).
Nathan Rothschild’s increasingly successful business provided a model for his brothers back in Frankfurt. In 1812, James Mayer Rothschild (1792-1868) established a banking house in Paris. Salomon Mayer Rothschild (1774-1855) settled in Vienna in 1820. Carl Mayer Rothschild (1788-1855) set up business in Naples in 1821, leaving Amschel Mayer (1773-1855), to head the Frankfurt bank. From these roots, the Rothschild banking business spread out across much of Europe becoming the most successful international bankers of the age.
Open to Research Forum members, researchers can now browse through the following sections of the Rothschild Business microsite:
Collections: Home - Introduction to the site
Business houses - An introduction to the history and surviving business records of the five business houses, with links to detailed lists of key sources:
- M A von Rothschild & Söhne, Frankfurt
- N M Rothschild & sons, London
- de Rothschild Frères, Paris
- S M von Rothschild Vienna
- C M de Rothschild & Figli, Naples
Agents - An introduction to the Rothschild network of agents, with descriptions of key sources for:
- August Belmont, New York
- Samuel Bleichröder, Berlin
- The Davidsons, San Francisco and Mexico
- Samuel Lambert, Antwerp and Brussels
- Weisweiller and Bauer, Madrid
Worldwide - Short summaries of Rothschild business activities across the world, arranged by country and place of business.
Activities - An introduction to the history of business activities:
- Banking: Merchant banking, Private banking
- Finance: Asset management, Bills of exchange, Equity, Gobal financial advice, Mergers & acquisitions, Insurance (The Alliance Assurance Company), Venture capital (The Exploration Company), Pensions, Investments
- Government finance: Bonds, loans & sovereign lending, Privatisation
- Commodities: Cotton, Indigo, Sugar, Tea & coffee, Tobacco
- Communications & technology
- Civil engineeering: Bridges, Tunnels
- Hotels, tourism & leisure
- Manufacturing: Cars, Iron & steel (Witkowitz (Vítkovice) Mines, Steel and Ironworks Corporation), Textiles
- Media & publishing
- Natural resources (mining & trade): Coal, Copper, Nickel, Oil, Platinum, Diamonds, Rubies, Quicksilver, Salt, Silver
- Gold: Gold mining and bullion, The Royal Mint Refinery, The Gold Fixing
- Power & utilities: Electricity, Hydroelectricity (BRINCO), Gas, Water
- Transport: Aircraft, Canals, waterways & harbours (The Suez Canal shares purchase), Road transport, Shipping
- Railways: Kaiser-Ferdinand's Nordbahn, The Chemin de fer du Nord, Brazilian railways, Indian railways, The London Underground, The New York Subway, Mass transit railways
- Wine: Château Lafite, Château Mouton and other global wine businesses
Guide - Links to the full Guide to the Collections of The Rothschild Archive.
Existing Rothschild Research Forum members Go to The Rothschild Business microsite »
