the world of private banking
the world of private banking
the world of private banking
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‘HAUtE BANqUE’ AND tHE INtERNAtIONAL EcONOmy 129<br />
for <strong>the</strong> Delesserts, an ancient Waldensian family, and <strong>the</strong> Odiers. The Hottinguers,<br />
originating from Zurich, were also to be found practising as bankers in Paris from<br />
1786, or, arriving at <strong>the</strong> start <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> next century, <strong>the</strong> Hentsch family from Geneva,<br />
as well as <strong>the</strong> Vernes, who were also Huguenot descendants. The last to arrive<br />
were <strong>the</strong> Mirabauds, also with Huguenot ancestry, who really installed <strong>the</strong>mselves<br />
in Paris in 1846 when <strong>the</strong>y became associates <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Paccard-Dufours, who were<br />
originally from Geneva.<br />
Among <strong>the</strong> Jewish families in <strong>the</strong> Haute Banque one finds <strong>the</strong> Foulds, who were<br />
from Lorraine with distant Germanic ancestry, and, <strong>of</strong> course, <strong>the</strong> Rothschilds:<br />
it is known that James de Rothschild, <strong>the</strong> founder <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> French branch <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
family, arrived in Paris from Frankfurt in March 1811, where he was registered as<br />
a banker with <strong>the</strong> Tribunal de Commerce (Commercial Tribunal) from 1814, but<br />
that he remained <strong>of</strong> foreign nationality up until <strong>the</strong> end <strong>of</strong> his life (1868), even<br />
though his son, Alphonse, became French naturalized at <strong>the</strong> start <strong>of</strong> 1848. O<strong>the</strong>r<br />
major Parisian bankers came from various German States, such as <strong>the</strong> Heines from<br />
Lower Saxony (who became allied with <strong>the</strong> Foulds), and especially <strong>the</strong> Rhine<br />
regions, such as <strong>the</strong> Cahens from Antwerp.<br />
Among <strong>the</strong> Catholic families, not an insignificant number, one finds <strong>the</strong><br />
Pillet-Wills, who may also be considered to be <strong>of</strong> foreign origin, <strong>the</strong> founder<br />
<strong>of</strong> this Parisian bank, Frederic Pillet-Will, being born in Savoy in 1781, well<br />
before its annexation by France, and having served his commercial and <strong>banking</strong><br />
apprenticeship at Lausanne. But <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r Catholic bankers were <strong>of</strong> French stock,<br />
such as <strong>the</strong> Périers from <strong>the</strong> Dauphiné, <strong>the</strong> Seillières originating from Lorraine, or<br />
<strong>the</strong> Durands, descended from an ancient commercial dynasty based in Roussillon<br />
and Montpellier.<br />
If <strong>the</strong> Parisian Haute Banque remains thought <strong>of</strong> as a cosmopolitan <strong>world</strong><br />
incompletely assimilated into <strong>the</strong> French elite, this is due to <strong>the</strong> continued links<br />
that <strong>the</strong>se great <strong>banking</strong> families maintained with <strong>the</strong>ir parents and friends who<br />
remained in <strong>the</strong> foreign countries. It is also necessary to establish a distinction<br />
between <strong>the</strong> Catholic Haute Banque and <strong>the</strong> Jewish and Protestant Haute Banque.<br />
The major Jewish and Protestant bankers were married, and very <strong>of</strong>ten married<br />
<strong>the</strong>ir children, to foreign wives and husbands, or with people established in France<br />
but also with foreign origins, <strong>of</strong>ten <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> same religion as <strong>the</strong>mselves. These<br />
unions sometimes took place within <strong>the</strong> confines <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> same family, as with <strong>the</strong><br />
Rothschilds. The heads <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> French branch were systematically married to o<strong>the</strong>r<br />
branches <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> family: James married <strong>the</strong> daughter <strong>of</strong> his bro<strong>the</strong>r Salomon, who<br />
was located in Vienna, and his son Alphonse was married, in 1857, to his cousin<br />
Léonore, <strong>the</strong> daughter <strong>of</strong> Lionel de Rothschild <strong>the</strong> head <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> English branch, whilst<br />
his sister Charlotte married Nathaniel de Rothschild. Often <strong>the</strong>se marriages united<br />
<strong>the</strong> bankers more closely with foreign, or foreign-origin, families, with which <strong>the</strong>y<br />
already had an affinity, or more or less close relationships. Thus, in 1813 and <strong>the</strong>n<br />
1818 two bro<strong>the</strong>rs, Louis-Jules Mallet and Adolphe-Jacques Mallet, successively<br />
married <strong>the</strong> two daughters <strong>of</strong> Oberkampf, a Protestant <strong>of</strong> Bavarian origin who<br />
was a client <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir bank, with a factory for painted canvases at Jouy-en-Josas.