The House of Rothschild: . Money's Prophets, 1798-1848 by Niall Ferguson

Author:Niall Ferguson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Autobiography, Banks and banking - Europe - History - 19th century, Jews - Europe, Rothschild family, Banks & Banking, Banks and banking, Rich & Famous, Europe, Finance, Entrepreneurship, Biography: historical, Business & Economics, History - General History, Bankers, Banking, Europe - General, 19th century, History, c 1800 to c 1900, Bankers - Europe, Jews, political & military, c 1700 to c 1800, General, Biography & Autobiography, Biography
ISBN: 9780140240849
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 1999-11-11T08:00:00+00:00

9.ii: “J.W.W.,” PLUCKING THE GOOSE OR BELGIUM SUPPORTED BY HER FRIENDS AND ALLIES (1831).

Anselm for one feared that it would “prove a bad concern, as I do not think that Belgium will be able to pay the Dividend for many years.” On the other hand, he went on, “There is some money to be made . . . We must take things as they are and profit of the folly of the world.” Provided the Dutch did not resume hostilities during the period when the loan was being sold to investors, the Rothschilds as underwriters could only profit; and if they did invade again there was “a clause which provides that, in the event of war, we need not take anything further.” As James reported, brokers and bankers were “snapping [the loan] up like sugar pumpernickel” even before it had been issued, though by the time it was issued news of unrest in Rome and delays over the ratification of the Belgian agreement weakened demand, forcing James to support the market with repurchases.

By the spring of 1832, with Holland diplomatically isolated, the brothers were ready for more. The diplomatic settlement had created a Belgian debt to Holland by allocating a portion of the pre-1830 combined Dutch debt to the new government in Brussels, and this raised an obvious possibility. “There is money to be made there,” wrote James. “If you promise Talleyrand a little something, my dear Nathan, he will then arrange that you be appointed the agent for the handling of the debt, just as Baring was between France and the Powers [in 1815].” There was “money to be made if we place ourselves between Belgium and Holland”—provided of course there was no further war between the two. In August 1832 proposals were drawn up for a second loan of £1.9 million, a third of which was to be issued by the Rothschilds in Paris—despite a warning from the French government that “it would be madness for us to give the Belgians money just at this moment & to give them every facility of making war.” The dandy and diarist Thomas Raikes took a different view. “The Belgian question is just as near settlement as it was twelve months ago,” he wrote on September 12:

The mandates of the Conference are of no avail. Holland will not abate a particle of its demands. Leopold wishes to yield, but the Belgians will not hear of it. His treasury is empty, and Rothschild will not contract for the loan without binding the Belgians not to go to war. But there will be more temporising, as the stock-jobbing interest must prevail. All the nations of Europe want money, and dread a fall in the funds more than any other calamity.

However, when French troops were marching into Belgium to impose terms on the Dutch the following November, it was James’s turn to think twice when the Belgian minister approached him for a short-term loan of 10 million francs. “One must help these people,” he

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