History of the Rothschild Banking Family

This is Frankfurt, Germany.

Fifty years after the Bank of England opened its doors,

a goldsmith named Amschel Moses Bauer opened a coin shop,

a counting house, in 1743.

And over the door he placed a sign depicting a Roman eagle on a red shield.

The shop became known as the Red Shield Firm,

or in German Rothschild.

When his son, Amschel Mayer Bauer, inherited the business,

he decided to change his name to Rothschild.

Amschel soon learned that loaning money to governments and kings

was more profitable than loaning to private individuals.

Not only were the loans bigger, but they were secured by the nation's taxes.

Mayer Rothschild had five sons.

He trained them all in the skills of money creation,

then sent them out to the major capitals of Europe

to open branch offices of the family banking business.

His first son, Amschel Mayer, stayed in Frankfurt to mine the hometown bank.

His second son, Solomon, was sent to Vienna.

His third son, Nathan, was clearly the most clever.

He was sent to London at age 21 in 1798,

a hundred years after the founding of the Bank of England.

His fourth son, Carl, was born in the city of London.