Alphonse James de Rothschild

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Alphonse James de Rothschild
Grand Cross, Legion of Honor
Signature

Mayer Alphonse James Rothschild (1 February 1827 – 26 May 1905), was a French

philanthropist, racehorse owner/breeder and a member of the Rothschild banking family of France
.

Biography

Known as Alphonse, he was the eldest son of

Banque de France
, a position he held for the remainder of his life.

In 1857 Alphonse de Rothschild married a cousin,

Albert Salomon von Rothschild
.

As a vineyard operator

Alphonse and his brother

Château Lafite
vineyard in Pauillac when it came up for sale.

On the death of their father in 1868, Alphonse and Gustave inherited the Château Lafite-Rothschild vineyard. However, they lived in Paris and the vineyard was not significant relative to their massive investments in banking and other business ventures. As such, they only visited the Pauillac vineyard occasionally, maintaining little more than an arms-length interest. On their deaths, the Rothschild brothers willed the property to a son and it remains in family hands to this day.

As financier and investor

Rothschild by Guth, 1894

Alphonse de Rothschild inherited a large fortune on the death of his father in 1868, including share positions in de Rothschild Frères bank and the

Chemin de Fer du Nord company. He began his training in finance at a young age and his father put him in charge of the bank's gold bullion
operations.

During the 1860s, great debates raged across

Société Le Nickel (SLN), a nickel mining business in New Caledonia
.

During the Franco-Prussian War, Alphonse de Rothschild had guarded the ramparts of Paris on the eve of the Prussian siege. When a peace treaty was finally agreed to in January 1871, his bank would play a major role, not only in raising the five billion francs France was obliged to pay in reparations to the new German Empire, but in helping bring about economic stability. France made a dramatic financial recovery and repaid the reparations bill ahead of schedule which, under terms of the armistice, brought about an end to the German occupation of northern French territory in 1873. In contrast though, that same year, both the Berlin and Vienna stock markets crashed, plunging all of Central Europe into an economic depression. However, in less than a decade Alphonse de Rothschild would witness considerable economic upheaval in France. The collapse of the investment bank Société de l'Union Générale precipitated the 1882 stock market crash that triggered a downturn in the economy.

In 1883, he founded the

Comptoir d'Escompte de Paris bank went into receivership and shortly thereafter the Panama scandals
erupted, culminating in an official enquiry into the matter conducted in 1893 by the French parliament.

His intense pressure pushed back the abrogation project of the décret Crémieux filed by the chief of the provisional government, Adolphe Thiers in 1871.

Already made a member of the

Legion of Honor
, for his contributions to the French economy at a time of crisis, in 1896 Alphonse de Rothschild was elevated to the Grand Cross, the highest class of the Legion of Honor.

Thoroughbred racing

Alphonse de Rothschild was an enthusiastic supporter of

thoroughbred horse racing who in 1852 at the age of twenty-four became a member of the Paris Jockey Club. He eventually purchased a rural property near Touques, Calvados in the Lower Normandy region where he built the Haras de Meautry horse breeding farm. There, he laid the foundation for a breeding operation that would prove highly successful for more than one hundred years and one that under the guidance of his descendants remains in operation today. Alphonse de Rothschild raced in an era before the creation of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe
. Among the major races which his horses won were:

As an art collector

Over his lifetime Alphonse de Rothschild put together a massive collection of artworks. He was an avid collector of the

Dutch Masters as well as an important assembler of Islamic works of art. In 1885 he was made a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts and would donate and/or bequeath approximately 2,000 pieces to many different museums.[1]

Residences

As part of his father's estate, Alphonse de Rothschild inherited a large residence in Paris at 2

American Embassy complex. In addition, he also received the Château de Ferrières
, an enormous mansion and woodlands in the country about 26 km east of Paris.

Assassination attempt

In August 1895, a crude

letter bomb
addressed to Alphonse de Rothschild was delivered to his Paris residence. Not at home, a member of the house staff had it forwarded to the de Rothschild Frères offices where it detonated, seriously injuring the chief clerk.

On his death in 1905, Alphonse's son Edouard took over as head of the family business.

References

  1. ^ "Alphonse de Rothschild at the Hôtel de Saint-Florentin". Institut national d'histoire de l'art. 23 September 2019. Retrieved July 29, 2022.

External links

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