Risk Taker #1: Nathan Rothschild saved the London stock Exchange (and England's Credit) (1815)

Risk Taker #1: Nathan Rothschild saved the London stock Exchange (and England's Credit) (1815).

Here's my response to the article I wrote entitled "Where have all the Risk-Takers gone?", I decided to do a survey of financial risk-takers from history past who stepped in to save financial systems when markets were crashing.

The Panic of the London Stock Exchange in 1815 was accelerated by the fear that Napolean had defeated the Duke of Wellington (General of the British Army). Nathan Rothschild stepped into the panic and was a buyer of stocks. He did this putting the entire financial backing of the House of Rothschild into the market when the market was collapsing. He did this also because he made a commitment to the governments of Europe that were fighting Napolean. Many theorize that England would have gone bankrupt were it not for Nathan Rothschild and Napolean would have had the advantage. Upon receiving news that Wellington had defeated Napolean, he shared the news with the market (and revealed his secret of carrier pigeons to transport the news) and it recovered, while making Rothschild the richest man in the world.

This was dramatized in a movie in 1934 entitled "The House of Rothschild". This move was nominated for an academy award:

(11/12) Nathan Rothschild: "Rich People have grave responsibilities and moral responsibilities that come with money. I'm buying on the stock exchange when everyone else is selling. I'm risking everything we have to save England. "

(12/12) "Dramatic Conclusion"

Here are the links to the other 10 parts of the movie if you'd like to watch it in it's entirety: (1/12), (2/12), (3/12), (4/12), (5/12), (6/12), (7/12), (8/12), (9/12), (10/12)