If I would ask any of you, name the richest and the most powerful family in history. Undoubtedly,
all of you will point fingers at Rothschilds. They are the mother of all conspiracies and
are blamed for everything bad that happens in the world, from financial crises to world
wars. Some people even estimate their wealth at
a total sum of 500 trillion dollars. With that kind of wealth, you can flip the world
around as you flip burgers. So in this video, let's break up the Rothschilds and figure
out how much of that is true, how rich they really are and how exactly they made such
a fortune.
Back in the 16th century, and pretty much until recently, Europe was ruled by religion.
The practice of lending money with interest is prohibited in the bible so naturally, most
people stayed away from that except the Jews who filled that gap.
Many Jewish families were involved in finance and had no problem lending money with interest.
In fact, they have passed this business down for generations.
One of these families went by the name Rothschilds. They specialized in collecting and exchanging
coins. And Mayer Rothschild who was the head of the family at that time had ambitious plans.
He sent his 5 sons whom him trained to be as good as him to 5 different European financial
capitals to lend and exchange money all across the continent. Nathan the most famous of them
all was sent to London, Amschell stayed in Frankfurt and the other 3 went to Paris, Vienna,
and Naples and that was the birth of Rothschilds international banking dynasty.
You see, life in medieval Europe was different. All that those kings, queens and emperors
cared about is to wage wars against each other and capture more land. This is the list of
wars that took place in the 19th century and Europe was involved in almost all of them.
However, wars require a lot of money. So the European nobilities built a strong relationship
with the Rothschilds since they had established an international banking network among European
financial centers and could easily move money from one country to another.
In fact, all five sons were elevated to nobility by Emperor Francis I of Austria and were granted
the Austrian title of Baron in 1822. Nathan, on the other hand, was also elevated to British
nobility by queen victoria( and was given the title of Baron Rothschild).
When the Napoleonic wars broke up, Nathan was ready. He became the key player in financing
the British war efforts, he was responsible for organizing the shipments of gold to armies
across Europe. The brothers have helped him to coordinate
actives all across the continent and the family developed a network of agents, shippers, and
couriers to transport gold during the wartime. It made the family so powerful that Nathan
received the news of Wellington's victory at the battle of Waterloo a day before the
government's messenger arrived.
With so many wars all across Europe, it was difficult to preserve your wealth, so the
family would always provide loans to different European governments and keep generating interest
instead of physically keeping their wealth. In fact, after the French revolution, Rothschilds
invested heavily in the mining and railroad businesses.
The family began to invest in different companies all across Europe. They purchased multiple
wine business,(put names of business), invested heavily in East India to the point where they
had some control over it and bought a big in share in De Beers, one of the largest diamond
companies.
Mayer Rothschild careful arranged marriages between first or second cousins to keep the
fortune in the family. Unfortunately, by the third generation, the
family began to cripple, many members decided to marry outside the family. Some even passed
away without a living heir. However, that was just the beginning, With the rise of Hitler
in Germany. Rothschilds had to surrender their bank to Nazis. their vast collection of palaces
that were built over a century were confiscated or destroyed.
The paintings and arts that family has been collecting for generations have been taken.
And the family had to secretly flee the country before getting arrested. However, one of them
was captured (Louis Nathaniel de Rothschild) and had to pay the largest ransom payment
in history. A total sum of 21 Million dollars. in the 1930s, their railroad was nationalized
by the French government and when Hitler took over France, their Paris branch was also confiscated.
Rothschilds are certainly still one of the wealthiest families in the world. But nowhere
close to what they have been before. Their wealth is spread among so many family members
that none of them is as powerful as people think.
In fact, the world GDP is around 90 trillion dollars, so the 500 trillion dollar wealth
is nothing but a myth. In fact, even the claimed 400 billion dollars is an exaggeration.
Of course, its hard to believe that but the 5 sons who built the empire are gone long
ago and preserving such an enormous wreath is not easy. Especially when Hitler came to
power.
And now it's your turn, what do you think, how powerful do you think is the family today!
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Thanks for watching and I will see you in the next one.