the world of private banking

THE RISE OF tHE ROtHScHILDS 17
richest people in Germany.’ 57 More than twenty years later, this principle was
enshrined in a new partnership agreement, drawn up following the death of Nathan
himself:
[W]hen, almost forty years ago, [our father] took his sons into partnership with
him in his business, he told them that acting in unison would be a sure means of
achieving success in their work, and always recommended fraternal concord to
them as a source of divine blessing. In accordance with his venerable wishes, and
following the promptings of our own hearts, we therefore wish today, through
this renewed agreement, to reinforce our mutual dependence and hope, in this
new league of brotherly love, to guarantee the success of the future activities of
our House. 58
The same theme of paternally-ordained brotherly unity was developed still further
in a separate annex to the agreement. 59 Nearly thirty years after Mayer Amschel’s
death, his eldest son was still reminding the other partners of the same, allimportant
nexus between unity and success. 60
In practice, of course, it was easier to make such pious affirmations than to
practise brotherly love. For most of the period under discussion here, the brothers
were not equals at all; in effect, Nathan inherited his father’s role as primus inter
pares. This was made clear in 1814, when Nathan’s desire to dictate his brothers’
movements precipitated a violent quarrel. A distraught Carl took to his bed, warning
that ‘if he carried on in this way’, Nathan would ‘soon have a partner in the other
world’. Salomon also complained of ‘severe pains in my back and legs’ and accused
Nathan of ‘regard[ing] the other four brothers as stupid schoolboys’. James was
more cool, sarcastically accusing Nathan of ‘dictat[ing] about millions as if they
were apples and pears’. 61 But all their protests merely elicited from Nathan a stark
threat to dissolve the business. 62 This had the desired effect. Henceforth, Nathan
gave the orders more or less unchallenged, as Salomon acknowledged in August
1814. He now clearly saw himself in a subordinate, advisory role: ‘[W]e regard
57
RAL, XI/109/2/3, Amschel, Frankfurt, to Nathan, London, 12 Jan. 1815.
58
CPHDCM, 637/1/7/53–69, Vollständige Abschrift des Societäts-Vertrags …
Übereinkunft 30, July 1836.
59
CPHDCM, 637/1/7/70–72, Anhang to Agreement, 30 July 1836.
60
CPHDCM, 637/1/309, Amschel, Frankfurt, to his brothers and nephews, 11 Nov.
1841.
61
RAL, T28/5, Davidson to Nathan, London, 24 June 1814; RAL, XI/109/0/2/7,
Davidson, Amsterdam, to Nathan, London, 21 June; RAL, XI/109/0/2/13, Carl, Frankfurt,
to James, 24 June; RAL, XI/109/0/2/15, James and Salomon, Amsterdam, to Nathan and
Salomon Cohen, London, 27 June; RAL, XI/109/0/2/14, Carl, Frankfurt, to James, 28 June;
RAL, XI/109/0/3/2, Salomon and James, Amsterdam, to Nathan, 28 June.
62
RAL, T29/73, XI/109/0/3/16, Nathan, London, to Salomon, Carl, James and
Amschel, 3 July 1814.