Families That Rule The World
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00:00 Can a single family rule the world's 8 billion people?
00:04 Is it really happening?
00:06 And why aren't most of us aware of it?
00:08 And how do they rule over us?
00:11 These may have been some of your thoughts when you clicked on this video.
00:15 Don't worry, we'll go through them all.
00:17 So, today let's take a look at the family that secretly rules the world.
00:23 Yeah, I'm talking about the Rothschilds family.
00:26 So without further ado, let's get into it.
00:29 The Rothschilds are a powerful banking family with roots in Frankfurt.
00:35 Mayor Amschel Rothschild founded the family empire in the 18th century and it rose to
00:40 prominence under his five sons, Nathan Mayer, James Mayer, Salomon Mayer, Karl Mayer and
00:47 Amschel Mayer.
00:49 In addition to their home Frankfurt, the Rothschilds created subsidiaries in London, Paris, Vienna
00:56 and Naples, making them pioneers in the growth of international finance.
01:01 The Rothschild family expanded its business activities from selling goods and foreign
01:07 exchange to encompass merchant banking, private banking, asset management, mergers and acquisitions,
01:14 insurance, venture capital, pensions and investments, sovereign debt and commodities.
01:22 They've also put money into significant infrastructure projects like bridges, tunnels, railways and
01:28 the Suez Canal, to name a few.
01:31 Hotels, media, transportation and wine are among their other commercial holdings.
01:39 Mayor Amschel Rothschild, the founder.
01:42 Born in 1744, Mayor Amschel Rothschild grew up in Frankfurt's Judengasse, a narrow lane
01:49 where the city's 3,000 Jews were compelled to live.
01:53 Overcrowding and severe conditions prevailed.
01:56 Jews were not allowed to depart at night, on Sundays or on Christian holidays.
02:02 They couldn't go to public gardens or coffee shops and they couldn't walk in groups of
02:07 more than two in public.
02:09 Mayor Rothschild grew up in a family of businessmen.
02:13 Amschel Moses Rothschild, his father, was a silk fabric merchant and currency exchanger.
02:20 Mayor's first work was sorting coins purchased at Frankfurt's semi-annual trade fairs, which
02:26 drew buyers and merchants from all across the region.
02:30 Mayor's parents died of smallpox when he was 12 years old.
02:34 He was raised by family who moved him from Hanover to work as an apprentice for Simon
02:40 Wolf Oppenheimer, a major Jewish bank.
02:43 Mayor was exposed to international trade and banking while there, and he learnt about rare
02:49 coins from ancient Rome, Persia and the Byzantine Empire.
02:54 Leading figures and other wealthy individuals were the collectors of these coins.
02:59 The Jewish men who transacted with them were referred to as "coat Jews" or "coat factors",
03:06 indicating that they dealt with nobles.
03:09 The Beginnings of a Banking Empire
03:13 At the age of 19, Mayor Rothschild returned to Frankfurt and joined his brothers in their
03:18 father's trading firm.
03:21 Mayor became a rare coin trader and gained the support of Crown Prince Wilhelm of Hesse,
03:26 who had previously purchased coins from Mayor's father.
03:30 This was a crucial business partnership for Mayor, as it expanded to cover other financial
03:35 services and assisted him in forming relationships with other nobility.
03:41 Crown Prince Wilhelm inherited vast fortunes and later became Wilhelm IX, Landgrave of
03:48 Hesse-Kessel.
03:51 Rothschild requested the status of "coat factor" or "crown agent" from Wilhelm in 1769.
03:58 Mayor was given the honorary title since he had rendered services for royalty, and it
04:03 permitted him to display a shield with the Hesse and Hanau coat of arms on his house,
04:10 effectively advertising this fact.
04:13 Mayor married Guttlschnapper, the daughter of a banker and a coat factor, in 1770.
04:19 She gave birth to ten children, five sons and five daughters.
04:26 Expanding and Controlling the Rothschild Footprint
04:29 During the French Revolution, the Rothschild banking empire flourished quickly.
04:35 Mayor Rothschild facilitated British funding for the hire of Hessian mercenary forces.
04:42 Rothschild sent his boys to reside in Naples, Vienna, Paris and London in the early 1800s,
04:49 while also keeping a son in Frankfurt.
04:52 Mayor Rothschild's offspring were dispersed throughout Europe, therefore the five linked
04:57 branches effectively became the first bank to cross borders.
05:02 Over several centuries, lending to governments to finance military activities offered the
05:07 Rothschild family with ample opportunities to accumulate bonds and generate extra riches
05:14 in a variety of sectors.
05:16 Mayor Rothschild left precise instructions for his heirs on how to handle family funds
05:22 before he died.
05:24 He wanted to keep the fortune in the family.
05:27 Therefore, his will established a strict patrilineal succession system in which title and property
05:34 could only pass through the male line and female successors were barred from inheriting
05:40 directly.
05:41 This had the effect of encouraging family members to marry.
05:45 Mayor Rothschild's main descendants married 36 times between 1824 and 1877.
05:54 Seventy of them married within the family.
05:56 This means that the majority of them married first or second cousins.
06:02 Only four Rothschild ladies and two Rothschild men married non-related partners throughout
06:08 this period.
06:10 Nathan Mayor Rothschild, International Financier
06:13 Nathan, 1777-1836, the third of the four Rothschild boys who stepped abroad, was the most successful.
06:24 Nathan established a textile business in Manchester, England in 1798.
06:31 He eventually relocated to London to pursue a career as a banker, founding N.M.
06:36 Rothschild in 1810.
06:39 Today, N.M. Rothschild & Sons is still in business.
06:43 In 2019, the bank brought in $1.87 billion in revenue and managed $76 billion in assets.
06:53 N.M.
06:54 Rothschild & Sons, like the other Rothschild banks, provided credit to the British government
07:00 during times of distress.
07:02 During the Napoleonic Wars, the bank organized and paid government subsidies to allies and
07:08 lent money to pay British troops, thus founding the war effort on its own.
07:14 The Alliance Assurance Company, which is now part of the RSA Group, was created in 1824
07:20 by Nathan Rothschild and Moses Montefiore.
07:25 Nathan obtained the rights to mercury mines in Spain in 1835, giving him a virtual world
07:31 monopoly on the chemical element, which is essential for gold and silver refining.
07:38 When N.M.
07:39 Rothschild & Sons began refining gold and silver for the Bank of England and the Royal
07:44 Mint in 1852, this supply proved vital.
07:49 Growing Philanthropic Activities
07:52 Nathan Rothschild made significant contributions to the Jewish community in a variety of ways.
07:59 His family then expanded their humanitarian endeavors to include other Parisian and London
08:05 populations.
08:07 His first attempts were directed towards London synagogues.
08:11 As a result, the United Synagogue was formed, a group that aided the smaller synagogues
08:16 in their interest.
08:18 Later, family members contributed to Israel's development by assisting in the construction
08:24 of houses and government facilities.
08:27 Louise, Nathan's eldest daughter, and her seven daughters were in charge of several
08:33 of the 30 Rothschild charity organizations in Frankfurt.
08:38 Public libraries, orphanages, hospitals, homes for the elderly, and special funds dedicated
08:45 to education were among the foundations.
08:49 The Jews Free School in London was given a large sum of money.
08:53 The Rothschilds' philanthropy also enabled educational projects in Austria, France, and
08:59 Israel.
09:01 The family donated an estimated 60,000 pieces of artwork to public institutions in addition
09:07 to funds for education.
09:10 In the cities of London and Paris, the Rothschild family expanded the development of social
09:16 housing, and the Rothschild Foundation was established to support these efforts.
09:22 The House of Rothschild in the 20th Century
09:26 Over the next 100 years, wars, politics, and family feuds drained the family's fortune.
09:33 The bank's Naples branch collapsed in 1863, while the Frankfurt branch shuttered in 1901
09:41 due to a lack of male heirs.
09:44 Following the Nazi annexation of Austria and the threat posed to Jews, the Vienna branch
09:49 was closed in 1938.
09:52 During the war, the Wichy government in France expropriated Rothschild's Bordeaux holdings
09:58 and the Nazis seized millions of euros in art and other valuables from the family's
10:04 Austrian branch.
10:05 A portion of these were returned by the Austrian government in 1998.
10:11 Several opulent Rothschild estates have been gifted to the British and French governments,
10:16 as well as various organizations and universities over the years.
10:21 By the 1970s, only three Rothschild banks remained, the London and Paris branches, as
10:28 well as Edmund Adolf D. Rothschild's Swiss Bank (1926-1997).
10:35 The Paris Bank was nationalized and renamed Compagnie Européenne des Banques by President
10:42 François Mitterrand's socialist government in 1982.
10:47 Despite his independence, Edmund stepped in to help his cousin, Baron David René-James
10:53 D. Rothschild (1942), who remained in Paris and founded Rothschild & Sieyès Banker in
11:00 1987.
11:01 By 2003, the British and French banks had merged under David's leadership.
11:08 In 2008, all of the interests were consolidated into a single company, a shareholder of Paris
11:15 or Lyons in France, bringing the family enterprises together about two centuries after Mayor Rothschild's
11:23 five sons dispersed across Europe.
11:26 Moving into the 21st century.
11:30 Over time, the family fortune has been shared among relatives and heirs.
11:35 Rothschild assets today include financial services, real estate, mining, energy, and
11:41 philanthropic activity, among others.
11:44 In addition, the family owns more than a dozen wineries around the world.
11:50 Traditionally, the Rothschild fortune has been invested in family-owned businesses.
11:56 Rothschild enterprises have remained successful to this day.
11:59 The majority of family members are directly employed by these corporations or have investments
12:06 in businesses that create income for the family.
12:09 The family's amazing success is partly attributed to a great interest in collaboration, entrepreneurship,
12:17 and the use of sound business concepts.
12:21 Nathan Rothschild's estate was inextricably linked to the family's other holdings, and
12:26 it formed part of the collective wealth that each Rothschild passed down to the next generation.
12:33 The descendants continue to fund global corporate operations and support scholarly, humanitarian,
12:40 artistic, and commercial efforts.
12:43 Concordia Integritas Industria is the family motto, which means "Harmony, Integrity, and
12:51 Industry."
12:52 So, there you have it.
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13:02 Until next time.
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