Editing Rothschild family (section)

== Napoleonic Wars ==

[[File:De nieuwe Günthersburg het Rothschildpalais in Frankfurt in 1855.jpg|thumb|A landmark Rothschild palace in [[Frankfurt]], Germany, Villa Günthersburg (photographed 1855)]]
The Rothschilds already possessed a significant fortune before the start of the [[Napoleonic Wars]] (1803–1815), and the family had gained preeminence in the [[Precious metal#Bullion|bullion]] trade by this time.<ref name="GrayOxNatBio" /> From London in 1813 to 1815, [[Nathan Mayer Rothschild]] was instrumental in almost single-handedly financing the British war effort, organising the shipment of bullion to the [[Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington|Duke of Wellington's]] armies across Europe, as well as arranging the payment of British financial subsidies to their continental allies. In 1815 alone, the Rothschilds provided £9.8&nbsp;million (equivalent to about £{{Inflation|UK-GDP|9.8|1815|fmt=c|r=-1}} million in {{Inflation/year|UK-GDP}}) in subsidy loans to [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|Britain's]] continental allies.<ref name="Money 2008 page 78">''The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World'', (London 2008), page 78.</ref>

[[File:Rothschild-metternichgasse.jpg|thumb|One of the smaller city houses, Vienna. A collection of far larger Viennese palaces known as [[Palais Rothschild]] were torn down during the Second World War.]]
The brothers helped coordinate Rothschild activities across the continent, and the family developed a network of agents, shippers and couriers to transport gold across war-torn Europe. The family network was also to provide Nathan Rothschild time and again with political and financial information ahead of his peers, giving him an advantage in the markets and rendering the house of Rothschild still more invaluable to the British government.

In one instance, the family network enabled Nathan to receive in London the news of Wellington's victory at the [[Battle of Waterloo]] a full day ahead of the government's official messengers.<ref name="GrayOxNatBio" /> Rothschild's first concern on this occasion was not to the potential financial advantage on the market which the knowledge would have given him; he and his courier immediately took the news to the government.<ref name="GrayOxNatBio">Victor Gray and Melanie Aspey, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/24162 "Rothschild, Nathan Mayer (1777–1836)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326031115/https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-24162 |date=26 March 2023 }}, ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'', Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edition, May 2006. Retrieved 21 May 2007.</ref> That he used the news for financial advantage was a fiction then repeated in later popular accounts, such as that of [[Frederic Morton|Morton]].<ref name="Random Variables 1984">Victor Rothschild – "The Shadow of a Great Man" in ''Random Variables'', Collins, 1984.</ref><ref name="Ferguson, Niall 1998">*Ferguson, Niall. ''The World's Banker: The History of the House of Rothschild.'' Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998, {{ISBN|0-297-81539-3}}</ref> The basis for the Rothschilds' most famously profitable move was made after the news of British victory had been made public. Nathan Rothschild calculated that the future reduction in government borrowing brought about by the peace would create a bounce in British government bonds after a two-year stabilisation, which would finalise the post-war restructuring of the domestic economy.<ref name="Money 2008 page 78" /><ref name="Random Variables 1984" /><ref name="Ferguson, Niall 1998" /> In what has been described as one of the most audacious moves in financial history, Nathan immediately bought up the government bond market, for what at the time seemed an excessively high price, before waiting two years, then selling the bonds on the crest of a short bounce in the market in 1817 for a 40% profit. Given the sheer power of leverage the Rothschild family had at their disposal, this profit was an enormous sum.<ref name="Money 2008 page 78" />

Nathan Mayer Rothschild started his business in [[Manchester]] in 1806 and gradually moved it to London, where in 1809 he acquired the location at 2 New Court in St. Swithin's Lane, [[City of London]],<ref name="GrayOxNatBio" /> where it operates today; he established [[N M Rothschild & Sons]] in 1811.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Brief history of the London house, N M Rothschild & Sons|url=https://www.rothschildarchive.org/business/n_m_rothschild_and_sons_london/|access-date=2021-09-29|website=The Rothschild Archive}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Records of the Rothschild banking and finance business. Private records of Rothschild family members and their estates. – Archives Hub|url=https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb2058-ral|access-date=2021-09-29|website=archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk|archive-date=26 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326031139/https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/a75a43f7-48de-38d0-8106-3ca238b60e2d|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1818, he arranged a £5&nbsp;million (equal to £{{Inflation|UK-GDP|5|1818|r=-1}} million in {{Inflation/year|UK-GDP}}) loan to the [[Prussia]]n government, and the issuing of [[Bond (finance)|bonds]] for government loans formed a mainstay of his bank's business. He gained a position of such power in the City of London that by 1825–26 he was able to supply enough coin to the [[Bank of England]] to enable it to avert a [[market liquidity]] crisis.