coleman-the-rothschild-dynasty
coleman-the-rothschild-dynasty
coleman-the-rothschild-dynasty
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The Rothschild Dynasty<br />
VII<br />
FOREWORD<br />
The Rothschild family generally taken to mean <strong>the</strong> fa<strong>the</strong>r and his<br />
five sons is truly a story of opportunity seized; a determined will<br />
to carry out its gains and its entry into a world of <strong>the</strong> aristocracy<br />
that did not want <strong>the</strong>m. Some might consider it effrontery to talk<br />
about <strong>the</strong> huge fortune that fell into <strong>the</strong> hands and <strong>the</strong> control of<br />
Mayer Amschel Rothschild as an "opportunity," while o<strong>the</strong>rs<br />
regard it as nothing less than misappropriation of funds entrusted<br />
to his care, hardly an "opportunity" in <strong>the</strong> generally accepted<br />
meaning of <strong>the</strong> word.<br />
Never<strong>the</strong>less, for Mayer Amschel it was a godsend that<br />
lifted him out of a life of pawn-broking and selling second-hand<br />
goods, to <strong>the</strong> highest echelons of power, a remarkable<br />
achievement when one considers <strong>the</strong> history of <strong>the</strong> period, in<br />
which Jews were constrained by many civil laws designed to act<br />
as a permanent barrier between <strong>the</strong>m and <strong>the</strong> people of <strong>the</strong><br />
principalities and nations in which <strong>the</strong>y lived. Class distinction<br />
was ano<strong>the</strong>r huge barrier, which would have been daunting for<br />
even a non-Jew who was not a part of <strong>the</strong> ruling aristocracy.<br />
Mobility of classes was unheard of and separation was<br />
harsh and strictly enforced, especially in Frankfurt on <strong>the</strong> Main,<br />
Germany, where <strong>the</strong> Rothschild <strong>dynasty</strong> began its remarkable<br />
history. Mayer Amschel Rothschild had little if any formal<br />
education; his family did not have a motto, but what he did have<br />
was tenacity of purpose and a strong belief in his religion. His<br />
was a bourgeois home, an "alien" home in <strong>the</strong> alien ghetto of<br />
Frankfurt.<br />
Through guile, and what some unkind critics called<br />
"innate cunning," Mayer Amschel Rothschild reached right into<br />
<strong>the</strong> heady world of aristocratic families who shunned him, and<br />
who indeed, despised him. But for <strong>the</strong> "good fortune" (or<br />
"misfortune" — depending on which side one is on) of meeting