At the age of 21, Alfred took up employment at the
N.M. Rothschild Bank at New Court in London. It was there that he learnt the business of banking from his father and made valuable contacts in European banking circles. In 1868, at the age of 26, Alfred became a director of the
Bank of England, a post he held for 20 years, until 1889. In 1892, he represented the British Government at the
International Monetary Conference in
Brussels. His career at the Bank of England was described in
The Rothschilds: A Family of Fortune, by Virginia Cowles: Alfred was not only a partner at New Court but a Director of the Bank of England, an appointment he had been given in 1868 because the Governor felt it would not be a bad thing to keep in close touch with the Rothschilds. The relationship came to an abrupt end of 1889, however, over a slightly unorthodox situation. Alfred had paid a very high price for a French eighteenth-century painting after being assured by the dealer that he, too, had been forced to pay an excessive sum for it and was making only a marginal profit. A day or two later Alfred discovered that the dealer had an account with the Bank of England. He could not resist taking a peep to see what, in fact, the man had given for the painting. He was outraged when he discovered that he had been charged a price 'out of all proportion to decency!' He spread the story about London and, not surprisingly, got the sack from Threadneedle Street. He was the first Jew to be a Director of the Bank of England, and, after his departure, no other Jew was on the directorate for more than fifty years. Upon the death of his father in 1879, Alfred inherited a estate centred on
Halton in
Buckinghamshire. As Alfred lacked a country retreat and the Halton estate did not provide one, Alfred set about building a house in the style of a French chateau. Work started around 1880 and
Halton House was finished in July 1883. Alfred remained in residence at Seamore Place in London and only ever used Halton House for social purposes. In 1889, he was appointed as the inaugural
High Sheriff of the County of London. Alfred played a part in British diplomacy, serving as British delegate at an international conference on bimetallism in 1892, and later facilitating a series of informal meetings between ministers and contacts at the German Embassy with a view to Anglo-German rapprochement. Before the
First World War, he was
Consul-General for Austria in London. ==Honours==