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Sat 03 Mar 2007Prosperity and prejudiceBiography:Love, it appears, is not the only international lingua franca; money also has the ability to make its meaning plain anywhere and everywhere. After Nathan Rothschild's death, in July 1836, a writer in the Observer noted that while the deceased "had never acquired a correct knowledge of the English language, and consequently expressed himself in a strange sort of diction, yet it was impossible to be with him for ten minutes and not to perceive that his understanding was sagacious, clear and sound".Rothschild had arrived in England from his native Frankfurt in May 1800 speaking nothing but German. Initially he traded in manufactured goods but soon moved into banking and by the time of his death was believed to be the richest man in the world. The wealth he amassed was further incremented by his four sons, Lionel, Anthony, Nathaniel and Mayer, who went on to become pillars of the British establishment, loyal supporters of the crown and friends of the aristocracy, owners of large country estates and superlative art collections, breeders of racehorses and masters of their local hunts. But they would always be outsiders for one reason: their Jewish faith.