When Bankers were good?

This was a documentary shown on BBC about a week ago on 19 th Century Bankers in the UK. It takes a look at the history of philanthropy of bankers from this era. The Barclay's, LLoyds, the Rothschilds and the Gurney's.

Many did some good things with their enormous wealth, although much of it seemed like charity with strings attached.

Self-made millionaire George Peabody was a merchant banker who made an enormous donation to London housing. 150 years on, his housing estates still provide accommodation to 50,000 Londoners.

Perhaps the richest of them all was Natty Rothschild, who tried not just to ensure that his personal wealth did good, but that his bank's did too.

I'm not sure how much this was trying to give bankers a better image under the current circumstances. Still, interested to hear others views.


www.bbc.co.uk...

Yea I'm also wondering about this, I have a book which I begun reading a while ago about the Rothschilds family. And it was talking about how the early rothschiles (I'm not sure whether it was the first one who started the bank or one further along the line) and how he used to be very charitable and generous. And someone that everybody liked, somewhat of a hero.

reply to post by Huntsman


Well after watching the documentary and doing a little further research, it is true that the Rothschilds were quite the philanthropists, but vehemently opposed the Lloyd Georges Old age pensions act, which would have assured the elderly a pension for the first time. Rothschild believed it would turn the working man Lazy. Rothschild believed that Philanthropy should provide the services for the poor rather than taxing the rich. The problem was there was so much poverty at the time Philanthropy wasn't enough.

Good find.. suprising that there wasn't already a thread covering this documentary Mr Woodwardjnr..

It was quite clear from watching the documentary that it was just a ploy from the government controlled BBC to show bankers and the Rothschild family in a positive light. Although in reality, for all their philanthropy and 'good deeds' most of the worlds problems stem from said bankers.. one family in particular..

And you speak of George Peabody.. he was just a puppet for the Rothschild's, do a little research on his early days in London..

actually ill save you the trouble..

Soon after he arrived in London, George Peabody was surprised to be summoned to an audience with the gruff Baron Nathan Mayer Rothschild. Without mincing words, Rothschild revealed to Peabody, that much of the London aristocracy openly disliked Rothschild and refused his invitations. He proposed that Peabody, a man of modest means, be established as a lavish host whose entertainments would soon be the talk of London. Rothschild would, of course, pay all the bills. Peabody accepted the offer, and soon became known as the most popular host in London.

www.cephas-library.com...

Dont buy in to this rubbish.. its just a form of propaganda...

reply to post by Misterlondon


I'm not a big fan of philanthropy anyway. Just lets the rich pick and choose which causes they wish to help while attaching certain strings to ensure the philanthropy has a benefit to the rich in the long run. So i wasn't even impressed by the "good" these people have done.

reply to post by woodwardjnr


Yeah, expect the propaganda machine to heat up quite a bit.
BBC = FOX
I want to see the piece they will do on how kind and benevolent the royals are.
Oops, actually I think I saw that one, on how hard the royals work...
All that comes out of that box in the family room is lies, to sway our opinion one way or another.