Born in Glasgow in 1964, Niall Ferguson is Fellow and Tutor of Modern History at Jesus College, Oxford, as well as a political commentator and author. His previous publications include
The House of Rothschild: Money’s Prophets,
1798-1848, now a Penguin paperback,
The Pity of War,
and the bestselling book
Virtual History: Alternatives and Counterfactuals.

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First published in the United States of America by Viking Penguin,
a member of Penguin Putnam Inc. 1999
Published in Penguin Books 2000

This is the second of two volumes of
The House of Rothschild.
In Great Britain
The House
of Rothschild
was published as one volume by Weidenfeld & Nicolson
under the title
The World’s Banker: The History of the House of Rothschild.

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HAS CATALOGED

eISBN : 978-1-101-15357-4

1. Rothschild family. 2. Bankers—Europe biography. 3. Business people—
Europe biography. 4. Europe—Politics and government. I. Title.
HG1552.R8F-41868
332.1’092’2—dc21

http://us.penguingroup.com

FOR LACHLAN

ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT

1.i: Anon.,
Der 99ste Geburtstag der Groβmutter, Fliegende Blätter
(c. 1848). Source: Fuchs,
Juden in der Karikatur,
p. 146.

1.ii: Anon., ONE OF THE BENEFITS OF THE JEWISH
EMANCIPATION.
Source: Fuchs,
Juden in der Karikatur,
p. 55.

2.i: The weekly closing price of French 3 per cent and 5 per cent rentes, 1835-1857. Source:
Spectator.

3.i: The profits of the Naples house, 1849-1862 (ducats). Sources: AN, 132 AQ 13 and 14; Gille,
Maison Rothschild,
vol. II, pp. 573f.

3.ii: Profits as a percentage of capital at N. M. Rothschild & Sons, Barings and Schröders, 1850-1880. Sources: RAL, RFamFD/13F; Ziegler,
Sixth great power,
pp. 373-8; Roberts, pp. 527-35.

3.iii:
Das goldene Kalb
(1862). Source: Cowles,
Rothschilds,
p. 136.

3.iv:
Ferrières:
Auf
der groβen Jagd bei’m Rothschild
(1862). Source: Wilson,
Rothschild,
19th plate.

4.i: The Prussian-Austrian yield gap (Austrian minus Prussian bond yields), 1851-1875. Source: Heyn, “Private banking and industrialisation,” pp. 358-72.

4.ii: M. E. Schleich,
Rothschild’s Kriegsbereitschaft, Ein humoristisches Originalblatt, Münchener
Punsch, 19. Nr. 20 (May 20, 1866). Source: Herding, “Rothschilds in der Karikatur,” illustration 16. (Marburg Universitätsbibliothek.)

5.i: Baron Lionel de Rothschild (The Modern Croesus), The Period
(July
5, 1870). Source: Rubens,
“Rothschilds in caricature,” plate XVII.

6.i: The weekly closing price of French 3 per cent rentes, 1860-1877. Source:
Economist.

7.i: Max Beerbohm,
A quiet evening in Seymour Place. Doctors consulting whether Mr Alfred may, or may not, take a second praline before bedtime.
Source: Cowles, Rothschilds, p. 172.

8.i: C. Léandre,
Dieu protège Israel, Le Rêve
(April 1898). Source: Herding, “Rothschilds in der Karikatur,” p. 55, illustration 28. (Stadt- und Universitätsbibliothek, Frankfurt am Main.)

8.ii: Lepneveu,
Nathan Mayer ou l‘origine des milliards,
cover of
Musée des Horreurs
, no. 42 (c. 1900). Source: Herding, “Rothschilds in der Karikatur,” illustration 30. (Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg.)

8.iii: “Coin” Harvey,
The English Octopus: It Feeds on Nothing but Gold! (1894).
Source: Harvey,
Coin’s financial school,
p. 215.

8.iv: Max Beerbohm,
A quiet morning in the Tate Gallery
( 1907). Source: Rubens, “Rothschilds in caricature,” plate XXI.

8.v: Christian Schöller,
Die Kinder Israels ziehen ins Gelobte Land, um eine Republik zu gründen
(1848). Source: Herding, “Rothschilds in der Karikatur,” illustration 26. (Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien).

8.vi: Anon.,
Auszug der Juden aus Deutschland!, Politischer Bilderbogen,
Nr. 17 (1895). Source: Herding, “Rothschilds in der Karikatur,” illustration 27. (Sammlung Germania Judaica, Cologne.)

9.i: Combined Rothschild capital, selected years (£ thousand). Source: see appendix 2, table c.

9.ii: Average annual Rothschild profits (combined houses), selected periods (£ thousand). Source: see appendix 2, table c.

12.i: The weekly closing price of Russian 5 per cents, 1860-1900. Source:
Economist.

13.i:
Potted Peers: Lord Rothschild,
“The whole of the British capital having been exported to the South Pole as a result of the Budget Revolution, Lord Rothschild flies from St Swithin’s Lane and succeeds in escaping to the Antarctic regions disguised as a Penguin,”
Westminster Gazette
(1909). Source: Rothschild,
Dear Lord Rothschild,
illustration 21.

TABLES

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A full list of acknowledgements appeared in the first volume of
The House of Rothschild.
I would nevertheless like to take this opportunity to thank Barbara Grossman, Molly Stern and everyone else at Penguin Putnam for their work in preparing both halves of the American edition.