As
William I, Elector of Hesse refused to join the French supporting
Confederation of the Rhine at its formation in 1806, he is threatened by
Napoleon. In
Frankfurt, he asks his agent
Mayer Amschel Rothschild to convey
bonds worth
£600,000 he has received from Britain to subsidise his army to safety in
England. Rothschild however uses the money for his own ends, with the help of his sons,
Nathan Rothschild in
London and
James Rothschild in
Paris. They first use the money to finance
Wellington's army in
Spain's war against Napoleon, at advantageous terms of interest. In a notable coup, in 1815, Nathan spreads the rumour that Napoleon had won the
Battle of Waterloo, causing London
stock prices to collapse. He then bought a large quantity of
equities at the bottom of the market, profiting handsomely as prices rose once the truth about the battle emerged. In a decade, the Rothschilds have accumulated a fortune of £11 million by using the Elector's money. Nathan returns the original capital to the Elector, plus only a small amount of interest, keeping the great bulk of the profits for the Rothschilds, and plans to formalise a Europe wide network of family led financial institutions. The film ends with a declaration that, as the film is released, the last Rothschild has left continental Europe as a refugee and the next target is England's
plutocracy. ==Cast==