The Rise of the House of Rothschild (1927) by Count Egon Caesar Corti

Author:Count Egon Caesar Corti [Corti, Count Egon Caesar]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-09-15T05:15:04+00:00

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The Rise of the House of Rothschild

The ground had thus been well prepared for a favorable reception of the Austrian loan. The national bank required about 55,000,000 gulden in order to withdraw the paper money from circulation. On April 4 the emperor had authorized the minister of finance to issue the loan, which in accordance with Stadion's suggestion was to be done in two parts. On April 7 the first 20,000,000

gulden were, in accordance with Solomon's suggestion, issued to the firms of Rothschild and Parish in the form of a lottery loan, a method which was still unusual at that time, and which never failed of its effect upon the general public.

Nothing was said at the time of the negotiations that were already in progress for the issue of a further 35,000-gulden loan; and everyone subscribed to this loan in the confident belief that it would be the only lottery loan for the time being. The conditions were very oppressive to the Austrian state, although the redemption of the loan extended over quite a long period; under the agreement, the state had to repay in all 38,000,000 in return for the 20,000,000 then advanced. This naturally produced an adverse opinion in the general public, which was ignorant as to the general financial position and Stadion's intentions, and had only these figures to go upon.

A contemporary police report states60 that the announcement of the Rothschild lottery loan had had a very bad effect upon public sentiment. The government's credit when it had scarcely begun to recover was appreciably lowered.

"As far as the Rothschild loan is concerned," the report continued, "I feel a genuine difficulty in deciding where to commence with my description of the exceedingly unfavorable impression . . . made by this financial operation, not only upon the Viennese public, but also upon the inhabitants of all the provinces. It would not be in accordance with the modesty due from one in my position to record the harsh expressions used by the op-The Period of Congresses

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ponents of this measure in. describing it as a monument of frivolity, caprice, and self-interest—indeed as being an immoral transaction. There have probably not been such numerous critics and opponents of any previous financial operation.

"I heard a guest at an At Home exclaim, 'This loan is one of the most wicked things that have been done at the expense of our pockets for twenty years, and that is saying a great deal!' One thing generally felt about this loan is that the manner in which it was made public inevitably made it unpopular from the start. To notify the inhabitants of a state that 20,000,000 were being borrowed from a foreign Jew, for which 38,000,000—very nearly double the amount—would have to be repaid, is regarded as treating one's subjects as beneath contempt. ... It is felt that the announcement of the loan in the "Wiener Zeitung amounted to the finance minister's saying: 'I am well aware that your expenditure being greater than your income you have not enough money to pay your taxes.

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