China is a country with a strong sense of family culture, and everyone is more or less influenced by family tradition and family culture.
Since the May Fourth Movement, there has been very strong criticism of clans, which are believed to be one of the constraints that have caused China to lag behind the West.
However, Western society has many similar ideas, and they also place great emphasis on maintaining the prosperity of the family.
For example, the will made by the old Rothschild before his death in 1812 stated that only men could participate in business activities, and only the eldest son could be the leader.
Jacob Rothschild | Picture from the Internet
Due to the influence of Song Hongbing's "Currency War", the popularity of this family was once very popular in China.
UK February 26th. The death of the fourth Baron Rothschild at the age of 87 brought this mysterious family to the forefront again.
01
Princes and nobles have no race.
China has always had a very pragmatic view on blood. Liu Bei can rely on his status as a clan member of the Han Dynasty to establish his own legitimacy and authority. Chen Sheng can also shout "Princes, generals and ministers have race."
For China, the so-called nobility is more about moral cultivation and knowledge inheritance than Westerners' obsession with status.
However, Jews cannot cultivate and pass down family traditions on a piece of land like the Chinese do. They have no fixed place to live and have to develop excellent business skills in order to survive.
In Europe in the 18th century, the buds of capitalism were already beginning to grow. Whether it is the accumulation of primitive capital by ordinary people, or the bloody battle for interests by empires.
Meyer Amschel was born into this background. His parents imparted knowledge and business skills to him at a very young age.
Meyer Rothschild | Picture from the Internet
When his father passed away when he was 12 years old, Meyer inherited his father's career and worked in a bank.
But when his career was stable, Meyer resigned and did something that shocked everyone. He went to pick up rags.
Although rag picking is a job that ordinary people look down upon, we also know that in the years after the reform, many millionaires made their fortune by picking rags.
Because many items in the garbage dump may have become antiques due to age.
Meyer turned the old currencies and medals in the garbage dump into complete sets of collectibles. While earning his first pot of gold, he also made many powerful friends.
This is similar to the fact that the children of the Eight Banners like to carry birds in cages and collect antiques. Meyer's identity has been transformed because he met Prince William of Hesse and Kassel.
With this relationship, Meyer later married the 16-year-old Gutlin, the daughter of Schnapper, known as the "Court Jew".
Nathan Rothschild | From the Internet
This woman brought Meyer a large dowry, and also completely elevated Meyer's status to the aristocratic class.
Meyer’s experience tells us that a person’s knowledge, skills, and luck are particularly important to success in order to leverage interpersonal relationships.
Given the importance Westerners attach to aristocratic status, Meyer must have worked harder than ordinary people to counterattack.
With his identity and start-up capital, Meyer began to return to his old business and open a bank.
Taking advantage of the fierce fighting between European countries and Napoleon, Meyer relied on his keen insight to lend money to European countries.
also caught the wave of the industrial revolution and invested in railways and other fields. These two investments made him a lot of money.
Duke of Wellington | Picture from the Internet
Of course, Meyer's success was also due to the fact that Christians at the time were not allowed to charge interest on loans, but Jews did not have this concern, which to a certain extent resulted in Meyer having very few competitors.
02
Over exaggerating the power of wealth
In the mid-19th century, the Rothschild family's wealth and influence reached their heyday. They, father and son, work together to manage the family. Meyer's five sons were called the "Five Tigers of Luo" by later generations.
Members of the Rothschild family have gradually become financial advisors and investors for governments and companies in various countries. Their strength in the banking and financial industries far exceeds that of other consortiums and families.
Since their third son Nathan left Frankfurt and went to the UK, their banking business has spread all over Europe, and they have a huge trading volume in the fields of gold and silver, precious metals, jewelry and antiques.
But the family's investment secrets are not as mysterious as in "Currency Wars".
The family’s first priority is the professional field. Each of Meyer’s five sons is an expert in a different field, so they all have mature views on investment targets.
The first generation of the Rothschild family pedigree | Picture from the Internet
Unlike ordinary people who focus on short-term benefits, the Rothschild family is able to pursue long-term benefits because of its strong foundation.
invests in the introduction period of a certain target and chooses to withdraw it during the golden bull period. This rate of return is very significant.
At the same time, the sons’ investments in different fields have fully considered the sharing of risks, so that even if they encounter one or two major investment setbacks, they will not be hurt.
This combines the advantages of value investing and trend investing.
To sum up, it is nothing more than their strong background and fearlessness that makes them not afraid of any risks, their professional abilities that allow them to quickly find a way out, and their excellent counter-quotient that enables them to face any difficulties head-on.
However, there is no one person or family in this world who has been the leader for a long time. People will have weaknesses.
Pictures from the Internet
We often reflect on why a person doesn't know how to retreat from the rapids at the peak of his life? Because this is human nature.
The outstanding figures of the Rothschild family are the contributors to many famous sayings in the world, such as "Once money makes noise, bad words stop suddenly", "If I have the power to issue currency in a country, I don't care about sitting on the throne." "Who is it?"
This actually reflects a change in mentality. Once you become rampant, you will encounter a wake-up call from the laws of nature!
In 1865, the Rothschild family felt that the U.S. economy was not developing, so they closed the branch here.
Almost at the same time, they began to establish a partnership with Daqing.
After the Rothschild family withdrew their capital from the United States, the Rockefeller and Morgan families emerged. In fact, these two families also have deep connections with the Rothschild family. The picture comes from the Internet
This is a typical example of their investment failure, and they encountered World War I and World War II one after another. The assets of Germany, France, and Italy were frozen and returned to the public one after another, and the foundation of the family was severely hit.
And because they were Jewish, they were naturally targeted by the Nazis. During the Cold War, their assets were forcibly taken over by the Soviet Union.
03
A skinny camel & a plucked phoenix
Therefore, Western businessmen have more say than Chinese businessmen, but they are still just one of all variables that affect historical development.
What's more, the contest between wealth and secular power has continued from ancient times to the present. If one-sided emphasis on the power of wealth is greater than power, it will definitely encounter disaster.
Therefore, after World War II, the Rothschild family has long been "a plucked phoenix worse than a chicken." Its estimated total assets are US$6.27 billion, which is only a fraction of the world's four major banks.
Take their most recent chairman of the board, Benjamin de Rothschild, as an example. In the past two years, he was not even in the top 1,000 of the world's billionaires.
Benjamin de Rothschild | Picture from the Internet
He ranked 1349th in 2019 and 1851st in 2020. It can be said that there has been a serious decline. At this time, his assets were 1.1 billion.
Although "a skinny camel is bigger than a horse, which is beyond the reach of ordinary people, the assets of the world's richest man Jeff Bezos are 113 billion U.S. dollars. This gap is not even a little bit.
As early as after Song Hongbing published "Currency War" The next year, on April 12, 2009, CCTV's "Dialogue" column invited Roche's then 6th generation leader - David René de Rothschild.
Although he did not reveal a lot of information in the show due to family rules, he directly refused the show team's invitation to Song Hongbing, and also clearly told everyone that the book "Currency War" had an almost distorted description of their family.
David Rothschild | Picture from the Internet
Sir Jacob Rothschild, who just passed away, is the fourth generation baronet. He broke with the family in his early years, and the inheritance rights were once transferred to his distant cousin.
Even though Jacob is a little different from his family members, he still adheres to some family traditions, such as the creed that "male offspring are the core of the family."
His nephew James Rothschild married Nicky Hilton, the second daughter of the Hilton Group. After giving birth to two daughters, Nicky took the risk of being an advanced mother and gave birth to a boy as she wished at the age of 40.
James Rothschild and his wife | Picture from the Internet
His 61-year-old eldest daughter Hannah Rothschild serves as a board member of the trust company founded by her father and controls at least 10% of the shares, exceeding 250 million pounds. However, Hannah's main career is as a writer and she has published three novels.
After Jacob's death, his son Nathaniel Rothschild immediately became the successor baronet.
You must know that this is the son that Jacob and his wife only had in the tenth year of their marriage after giving birth to three daughters in succession.
It can be seen that this legendary family may have indeed once stood at the pinnacle of world finance and created many brilliance. Although it has gone through rain and wind, its dedication to male heirs has never changed.
The creative team of this article is
author | Zhao Xiyi
planner | Zhao Xiyi
editor | Zhao Xiyi
*The pictures are from the Internet. If you have any questions, please contact
