The Unseen Hand - Ralph Epperson




The Rothschild Family

In his book The History of the Great American Fortunes, author Gustavus Myers had identified the major power behind the Second Bank of the United States as being the Rothschild family.

This European banking family was started by the father, Amschel Moses Bauer (they were later to change their last name to Rothschild) who started in the banking business in a meager way. After some early success in the loaning of money to local governments, Amschel decided to expand his banking establishment by loaning to national governments. He set up his five sons in banking houses, each in a different country.

Meyer Rothschild was sent to Frankfort, Germany; Solomon to Vienna, Austria; Nathan to London, England; Carl to Naples, Italy; and James to Paris, France.

With the Rothschild sons scattered all over Europe, each operating a banking house, the family could easily convince any government that it should continue to pay its debts, or the force of the "balance of power" politics would be used against the debtor's nation. In other words, the Rothschild family would play one government against another by the threat of war. Each government would feel cornered into paying its debts by the threat of a war which would take away its kingdom. The brothers could finance both sides of the conflict thereby insuring not only that the debtor would pay its debts but that enormous fortunes would be made in the financing of the war.

This power was visualized by Meyer Rothschild when he summarized the strategy thus:

"Permit me to control the money of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws."

One of the early events that solidified the Rothschild control of the English government was the battle of Waterloo in June, 1815.

The Rothschilds had created a system of Rothschild couriers in Europe so that important information could be exchanged amongst the five brothers. The sign that identified the messengers as being couriers for the Rothschild family was a red pouch that they carried. This pouch enabled them to cross national borders with impunity, as most European nations had instructed their guards that the pouch carrier was not to be detained, even if that nation was at war with the nation represented by the pouch carrier.

This method ensured that the Rothschild family had immediate information about the major events in Europe, even before the rulers of the countries involved. This device was also known to the other banking families in Europe and the Rothschild access to quick information often gave them an early advantage in the market place.

England was at war with France, and the battle of Waterloo was to be the deciding battle in this war. If Napoleon, the commanding general of the French forces, defeated Wellington, the commanding general of the English forces, there was little left to deter him from controlling all of Europe. The other bankers around London knew of the significance of this battle and looked to Nathan Rothschild for advance information as to the outcome, because the bankers knew of the promptness of Rothschild's courier system.

Nathan was seen in the corner of the London bond market looking exceedingly glum, and this was interpreted by the bankers as meaning that Nathan knew who had won the Battle of Waterloo: France and Napoleon had defeated Wellington and England. At least that was what the English bankers thought, and because they felt that their nation had lost, they started selling the government bonds that they owned.

And as always, when large quantities of bonds are sold at the same time, their price drops. And the more that the price fell, the more gloomy Nathan looked.

But unknownst to the English bond holders, Nathan's agents were buying English bonds, and he was able by this method to acquire large quantities of these bonds at a small percentage of their true value.

Nathan Rothschild had purchased the English government

When the official English courier finally appeared at the bond market and announced that the English had defeated the French and that all had not been lost, Nathan was nowhere to be found.

The exact profit made on this ruse might never be known, as the Rothschild banks are always partnerships and never corporations. Because there are no stockholders, the brothers and their successive heirs have only to share the knowledge of the size of all profits made by the bank with the other brothers and whatever partners they might take in, and not the stockholders of the corporation.