the world of private banking

PRIVAtE BANKERS AND PHILANtHROpy 253
firm’s facilities for making transactions. Thereafter, he built his fortunes on the
finance of railway construction, including the building of the Orient Express line.
He faced accusations of dubious practice but they were never proved. By 1890,
besides his huge railway interests, banking houses and a number of industrial
firms, Hirsch owned vast estates in Austria-Hungary and France and was one of
the wealthiest men of his day, with assets whose worth was estimated at between
16 and 30 million pounds sterling – that estimates were so much at variance
indicates the scale and complexity of his operations, which probably no-one but
himself could fully comprehend. He worked sometimes in association with other
financiers, including, in Britain, Ernest Cassel, whose early career he appears to
have nurtured, but the details of such associations remain mysterious. His personal
financial activities within Britain appear to have been few and no information is
known about them. He attributed his success to mastery of detail, economy in
small things and close personal watch over his transactions, which he combined
with inexhaustible energy and industry and undeniable financial flair. His working
day typically began at 5 a m. and lasted far into the night.
He was a well-known and ubiquitous member of the ‘smart set’ in Paris, the
South of France and London. He was a lavish host, with homes in London, France
and Hungary, though he was personally frugal, as was his wife. Every year he came
to London for the Season. He belonged to the circle of the Prince of Wales and
shared his interest in horse-racing. His racing stables were famous and his colours
were often successful. Like many of Edward’s circle, he was more popularly
known in Britain for his activities on the turf (and indeed for his philanthropy) than
for his business dealings. He was elected as a foreign member of the Turf Club.
This followed his rejection by the Jockey Club in Paris, in response to which he
purchased the Club’s premises and evicted it. Thereafter he lived more in London
than in Paris. It was not well known that his winnings on the English turf were
always donated to London hospitals, often through the Prince of Wales’ Fund. His
Jewish Chronicle obituary retailed that he liked to tell friends that his horses ‘raced
for charity’. Substantial sums were involved: £7,000 in 1891, £35,000 in 1892.
When in 1893 his horses won only £7,500 he doubled the amount before giving it
to the hospitals, saying that they should not suffer for the poor performance of his
stable. Over the years he gave some £100,000 in total to the hospitals.
His wife, Clara, took little pleasure in the social scene, though she often
travelled with him. She had more interest in philanthropic activity, especially after
the death from pneumonia of their only son Lucien (born 1856) in 1887. The
parents had previously lost their only other child, a daughter, in infancy and were
inconsolable. Shortly thereafter, Hirsch retired from business and both devoted
themselves to humanitarian causes. Apparently he wrote in response to a letter
of condolence: ‘My son I have lost, but not my heir, humanity is my heir’. 24
Retirement or semi-retirement from business to devote time and accumulated
24
S. Adler-Rudel, ‘Moritz Baron Hirsch. Profile of a Great Philanthropist’, Leo Baeck
Yearbook, 1971, p. 39.