THE FIRST WEALTHY ROTHSCHILD.

North Otago Times, 8 January 1908, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE FIRST WEALTHY ROTHSCHILD.

♦■ The founder of the Rothschild family was born in the ".Judcngasse," Frankfort on the Slain, in 17-13. His parents died when he was very young and, after a few years' schooling, Meyer Amschol Rothschild picked up his small belongings, grasped a thick stick, and walked to Hanover, where he drudged, denying himself all but the barest necessaries of life, till he reached the age of thirty, when he (vended In's way home to the miserable quarter whence he had spent his sordid youth. He did, not return empty handed ; with the hardly-won savings of his long toil he started in business, in a street culled Jcws'-lanc as moneylender, banker, and dealer in curiosities. Above the door of his little shop, in the dingy alley, hung the sign of the Red ShieM-Roth, as the reader may be aware, meaning red, and Schild, shield, Under this significant sign the Rothschilds were to win power aiwl fortune. The success of the family was based on an act of enlightened selfishness. Among the customers of Jleycr Amschol was William, Landgrave of Hesse Castle. Thero is no doubt that William often exchanged valuables for ready-money during the dillicult times created by Napoleon, and when the French troops marched into Frankfort Meyer Amschel placed all his valuables in the charge of his patron, William, who lodged them in his castle at Cnssel. Ten years later the tables were tinned, and the master of the sign of the Red Shield did more, a hundred times, to protect the endangered property of his former protector, ]n 1800, Xnpoleon drove William from his throne and country, mid lie, in order to save his fortune, plated it, with many misgivings, into the hands of Meyer Amschel Rothschild. It amounted to n quarter of a million sterling. Everyone was hard up, property was sold for a tithe of its value, and gold was at a premium of 12 per cent, to 2d per cent. What a chance for Hie astute, levelheaded Rothschild ! Ho was equal to the occasion ; the quarter of a million was turned, and turned again, until it grew, in the space of six years, when he died in 1812, to the sum of one million and a quarter, The million belonged to the family, and the original root quarter to the luckless William I. After the battle of Leipslc the Elector returned in triumph to his title throne, doubtless looking on his quarter of a million as a bad debt. He was wrong, however, Soon after his return he was visited by the eldest son of the honest broker, who handed him the quarter of a million placed in his father's care six years before. The astonished anil delighted Elector dubbed Amschel a knight on the spot,; and when he attended the Congress at Vienna, his praise of the astounding honesty of the Rothschilds was vehement and continuous. This act of enlightened selfishness was the secure foundation of the fortune and fame of the family.