the world of private banking
the world of private banking
the world of private banking
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20<br />
THE WORLD OF PRIVAtE BANKING<br />
extent, Rothschilds tended to marry Rothschilds. Of 21 marriages involving<br />
descendants <strong>of</strong> Mayer Amschel between 1824 and 1877, no fewer than 15 were<br />
between his direct descendants. Although marriage between cousins was far from<br />
uncommon in <strong>the</strong> nineteenth century – especially amongst German-Jewish business<br />
dynasties – this was an extraordinary degree <strong>of</strong> intermarriage. ‘These Rothschilds<br />
harmonize with one ano<strong>the</strong>r in <strong>the</strong> most remarkable fashion’, noted Heinrich Heine.<br />
‘Strangely enough, <strong>the</strong>y even choose marriage partners from among <strong>the</strong>mselves<br />
and <strong>the</strong> strands <strong>of</strong> relationship between <strong>the</strong>m form complicated knots which future<br />
historians will find difficult to unravel.’ 71 Not even <strong>the</strong> royal families <strong>of</strong> Europe<br />
were as closely in-bred, though self-conscious references to ‘our royal family’<br />
suggest that <strong>the</strong> Rothschilds regarded <strong>the</strong>m as a kind <strong>of</strong> model. 72<br />
Of closely related significance was <strong>the</strong> family’s attitude towards religion. The<br />
fact that <strong>the</strong> Rothschilds were Jews is at once hugely important and pr<strong>of</strong>oundly<br />
difficult to interpret. Mayer Amschel once recalled that ‘in my youth I was … a<br />
very active merchant, but I was disorganized, because I had been a student [<strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>the</strong> Talmud] and learnt nothing [about business]’: this casts doubt on any simple<br />
notion <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> relationship between religion and financial aptitude. 73 Probably,<br />
membership <strong>of</strong> a tightly knit ‘outsider’ group helped when it came to constructing<br />
credit networks, and perhaps <strong>the</strong>re was a kind <strong>of</strong> work ethic derived from Judaism.<br />
But, obviously, <strong>the</strong>se points can be made with equal force about <strong>the</strong> various<br />
Protestant sects, as indeed <strong>the</strong>y were by Max Weber. In fact, it may be that being<br />
Jewish was less important to <strong>the</strong> Rothschilds than staying Jewish. As Ludwig<br />
Börne noted with grudging admiration, <strong>the</strong>y had ‘chosen <strong>the</strong> surest means <strong>of</strong><br />
avoiding <strong>the</strong> ridicule that attaches to so many baronized millionaire families <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>the</strong> Old Testament: <strong>the</strong>y have declined <strong>the</strong> holy water <strong>of</strong> Christianity’. 74 It was<br />
a fact which also impressed Benjamin Disraeli, himself (like Börne) born a Jew<br />
but baptized. It should be stressed that <strong>the</strong> degree <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Rothschilds’ religiosity<br />
varied greatly: James was notoriously lax about observance, did not keep kosher<br />
and <strong>of</strong>ten worked on <strong>the</strong> Sabbath. His nephew Wilhelm Carl, at <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r extreme,<br />
became a firm supporter <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Orthodox revival in Frankfurt, to <strong>the</strong> bemusement<br />
<strong>of</strong> his Anglicized cousins. However, what most members <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> family shared was<br />
a belief that remaining Jewish was in some way integral to <strong>the</strong>ir good fortune; and<br />
that to deviate from Judaism would be to jeopardize this.<br />
Nothing illustrates this more clearly than <strong>the</strong> family’s reaction when Hannah<br />
Mayer, Nathan’s second daughter, converted in order to marry a Gentile (Henry<br />
Fitzroy, a younger son <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Earl <strong>of</strong> Southampton) in 1839. When her uncle James<br />
first heard <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> relationship, he was appalled. ‘Nothing,’ he thundered<br />
71<br />
S.S. Prawer, Heine’s Jewish Comedy: A Study <strong>of</strong> his Portraits <strong>of</strong> Jews and Judaism<br />
(Oxford, 1983), pp. 331–5.<br />
72<br />
RAL, T20/34, XI/109/48/2/42, Nat, Paris, to his bro<strong>the</strong>rs, 4 Sept., probably 1844.<br />
73<br />
RAL, RFamAD/2, Mayer Amschel, Frankfurt, to Nathan, undated, c. June 1805.<br />
74<br />
Prawer, Heine’s Jewish Comedy, p. 359f.