A FAMOUS HOUSE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 35, 24 January 1912, Page 4

A FAMOUS HOUSE.

Ever since the battle of Waterloo, when a' Rothschild was the first in England to obtain the news and prolit by it on the Stock Exchange, the name of Rothschild has been synonymous with that of untold wealth. The recent death in Paris of Baron Gustave has again drawn momentary attention to the fortune of the great house, whose extent it is by no means easy to calculate (says the London correspondent of flic Melbourne Ago). Everybody knows that the brothers are partners, and that the bank lias establishments in London, Paris, Berlin, Frankfort, and Vienna. As there are four branches almost equally rich, the whole family must have been in possession of nearly £6-10,000,000. No one member, however, is probably

as rich as Mr Beit or even Sir J. B. Robinson, both of whom are credited with over £80,000,000. France, which is certainly one of the richest countries in the world, has few extremely rich men, according to modern estimates. In his curious book, “The Rich Men of the Last Seven Hundred Years,” M. Avcncl states that he has not been able to find any fortune before the French revolution bringing in a revenue of over £120,000 a year. At present there are at least fifty in this, class, and 120 men who can spend between £40,000 and £129,000 per annum. Before the beginning of the nineteenth century there wore only about fifteen capitals of over £1,290,000. These calculations, of course, exclude, ancient times, for nobody has yet equalled the wealth of Croesus.