ABSTRACT
The Rothschilds have been linked to Spain for as long as they have been linked to their fortune, and thus much longer than is generally imagined. In fact, the first big business deal by this family of Jewish bankers was in Spain, when they financed the Duke of Wellington’s army, trapped in the Iberian Peninsula by the troops of Napoleon. It was to be the first in a long list of operations by the Rothschilds in Spain and in the rest of Europe in times of war and financial crises. This ability to act where other financiers beat a retreat was one that they were to develop with uncanny success in the years to come.
