Editing Rothschild family (section)

== International high finance ==
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|style="text-align: left;"| "I have not the nerve for his operations. They are well-planned, with great cleverness and adroitness in execution – but he is in money and funds what Napoleon was in war." —[[Alexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton|Baron Baring]] on Nathan Rothschild<ref>Philip Ziegler, ''The Sixth Great Power: Barings, 1726–1929'', (London 1988), pp.94f</ref>
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|style="text-align: left;"| "... your friends at the West End have the business in their hands to decide between Portugal & Brazil and an early intimation from you may serve us materially."—Samuel Phillips & Co to Nathan Rothschild, referring to the question on whether or not to support Brazilian independence<ref name="Brazil" />
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[[File:LocationRhodesia.png|thumb|right|The family financed the creation of the country [[Rhodesia (name)|Rhodesia]], and it became the site of the first international expansion of one of their mining enterprises—the [[Rio Tinto Group|Rio Tinto mining company]].]]
[[File:Frankfurt Taunusbahnhof 1850.jpg|thumb|The Frankfurt terminus of the Taunus railway, financed by the Rothschilds. Opened in 1840, it was one of Germany's first railways.]]

Rothschild family banking businesses pioneered international high finance during the industrialisation of Europe and were instrumental in supporting railway systems across the world and in complex government financing for projects such as the [[Suez Canal]]. From 1895 through 1907 they loaned nearly $450,000,000 ({{Inflation|US|450,000,000|1907|fmt=eq|r=-8}}{{Inflation/fn|US}}) to European governments.<ref>{{cite news |title=Two Great Foreign Fortunes |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85058245/1907-03-21/ed-1/seq-5/print/image_681x648_from_1361%2C4839_to_3498%2C6874/ |access-date=11 February 2022 |agency=University of Utah |issue=3–21–1907 |publisher=The Spanish Fork Press |date=21 March 1907 |archive-date=11 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220211213918/https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85058245/1907-03-21/ed-1/seq-5/print/image_681x648_from_1361,4839_to_3498,6874/ |url-status=live }}</ref> During the 19th century, the family bought up a large proportion of the property in [[Mayfair]], London.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://family.rothschildarchive.org/estates/46-1-seamore-place|title=1, Seamore Place, London, England |work=Rothschild Archive |access-date=27 March 2017}}</ref>

The Rothschild family was directly involved in the [[independence of Brazil]] from [[Portugal]] in the early 19th century. Upon an agreement, the Brazilian government should pay a compensation of two million pounds sterling to the Kingdom of Portugal to accept Brazil's independence.<ref name="Brazil">{{cite journal|last=Shaw|first=Caroline S.|year=2005|title=Rothschilds and Brazil: An Introduction to Sources in the Rothschild Archive|journal=Latin American Research Review|volume=40|location=Austin|pages=165–185|url=http://lasa-2.univ.pitt.edu/LARR/prot/fulltext/vol40no1/Shaw.pdf|access-date=20 September 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921054512/http://lasa-2.univ.pitt.edu/LARR/prot/fulltext/vol40no1/Shaw.pdf |archive-date=21 September 2013|doi=10.1353/lar.2005.0013|s2cid=144998736}}</ref> [[N M Rothschild & Sons]] was pre-eminent in raising this capital for the government of the newly formed [[Empire of Brazil]] on the London market. In 1825, Nathan Rothschild raised £2,000,000, and indeed was probably discreetly involved in the earlier tranche of this loan which raised £1,000,000 in 1824.<ref name="Brazil" /><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rothschildarchive.org/ib/?doc=/ib/articles/Brazil2|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110204094709/http://www.rothschildarchive.org/ib/?doc=%2Fib%2Farticles%2FBrazil2|archive-date=4 February 2011|title=Rothschild and Brazil – the online archive|website=Information Bureau|publisher=The Rothschild Archive|access-date=20 September 2013}}</ref> Part of the price of Portuguese recognition of Brazilian independence, secured in 1825, was that Brazil should take over repayment of the principal and interest on a £1,500,000 loan made to the Portuguese government in 1823 by N M Rothschild & Sons.<ref name="Brazil" /> A correspondence from Samuel Phillips & Co. in 1824 suggests the close involvement of the Rothschilds in the occasion.

Major 19th-century businesses founded with Rothschild family capital include:
* Alliance Assurance (1824) (now [[Royal & Sun Alliance]])
* [[Chemin de Fer du Nord]] (1845)
* [[Rio Tinto Group|The Rio Tinto mining company]] (1873) (from the 1880s onwards, the Rothschilds had full control of Rio Tinto)<ref>''The Rio Tinto Company: an economic history of a leading international mining concern'', Charles E. Harvey (1981), page 188</ref>
* [[Eramet]] (1880)
* [[Imerys]] (1880)
* [[De Beers]] (1888)

The family funded [[Cecil Rhodes]] in the creation of the African colony of [[Southern Rhodesia|Rhodesia]]. From the late 1880s onwards, the family took over control of the Rio Tinto mining company.

The Japanese government approached the London and Paris families for funding during the [[Russo-Japanese War]]. The London consortium's issue of Japanese [[war bond]]s would total £11.5&nbsp;million (at 1907 currency rates; £{{Format price|{{inflation|UK-GDP|11500000|1907|2012}} }}<!-- Use GDP inflator as this is effectively a government expenditure --> in 2012 currency terms).<ref name="Rothschild archive">{{cite web|first1=Richard|last1=Smethurst|access-date=4 September 2007|url=https://www.rothschildarchive.org/ib/articles/AR2006Japan.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070216130517/http://www.rothschildarchive.org/ib/articles/AR2006Japan.pdf|archive-date=16 February 2007|title=Takahasi Korekiyo, the Rothschilds and the Russo-Japanese War, 1904–1907}}</ref>

The name of Rothschild became synonymous with extravagance and great wealth; and the family was renowned for its art collecting, for its palaces, as well as for its philanthropy. By the end of the century, the family owned, or had built, at the lowest estimates, 41 palaces, of a scale and luxury perhaps unparalleled even by the richest royal families.<ref name="Money 2008 page 78" /> The British Chancellor of the Exchequer [[David Lloyd George]] claimed, in 1909, that [[Nathan Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild|Nathan, Lord Rothschild]] was the most powerful man in Britain.<ref name="Rothschild 1999, page 481-85" />{{Failed verification|date=December 2013}}<ref>''A History of the Jews'', Paul Johnson (London 2004), page 319–320</ref>

''[[Hezekiah Niles|Niles']] Weekly Register'', Volume 49 had the following to say about the Rothschilds' influence on international high finance in 1836:

{{blockquote|text=The Rothschilds are the wonders of modern banking ... we see the descendants of Judah, after a persecution of two thousand years, peering above kings, rising higher than emperors, and holding a whole continent in the hollow of their hands. The Rothschilds govern a Christian world. Not a cabinet moves without their advice. They stretch their hand, with equal ease, from [Saint] Petersburgh to Vienna, from Vienna to Paris, from Paris to London, from London to Washington. Baron Rothschild, the head of the house, is the true king of Judah, the prince of the captivity, the Messiah so long looked for by this extraordinary people. He holds the keys of peace or war, blessing or cursing. ... They are the brokers and counselors of the kings of Europe and of the republican chiefs of America. What more can they desire?<ref>{{cite book|title=Weekly Register|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wV8UAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA41|year=1836|page=41|access-date=22 November 2015|archive-date=26 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326031140/https://books.google.com/books?id=wV8UAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA41|url-status=live}}</ref>}}