$400 Billion

Rothschild Family net worth estimated at December 2019

Beginning

Mayer Amschel Rothschild was born in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1744. There, he began his business that eventually made the Rothschild family a financial powerhouse. He started as an apprentice under Wolf Jacob Oppenheimer, a financier whose firm specialized in extending credit to royalty and participating in international trade. Oppenheimer gave Mayer Rothschild the knowledge that he would use to build his business.

Rothschild used money from his wife’s dowry and his personal business deals to invest in the industrial revolution and sell weapons. He began extending credit to his customers, which proved to be the catalyst that led him to success.

Though Rothschild had 10 children in total, he focused on his five sons to expand his family’s influence. He sent each one to a different European city to establish the family’s financial services in potentially profitable areas.

To prevent his family’s fortune from being lost due to inheritance laws, he prohibited female relatives from receiving a direct inheritance, a rule that encouraged women to marry their relatives.

Accolades

In the mid-19th century, the Rothschild family was known as the most successful global bankers of their time. The family also has the distinction of being the wealthiest family in history. Mayer Amschel Rothschild is credited as being the inventor of modern banking.

Conspiracy Theories

Conspiracy theories concerning the Rothschild family date back to the 18th century, and the family’s wealth was largely responsible for the anti-semitic belief that “Jews control the world’s money supply”. The Rothschilds are frequently associated with theories about the Illuminati, the New World Order, and other dark money groups that supposedly pull the strings of world governments, and the Rothschilds have been blamed for everything from starting wars for personal gain to funding the Holocaust to assassinating U.S. presidents.

While the Rothschilds are indeed very wealthy, claims about their net worth such as the ones displayed bellow are grossly exaggerated:

Although the Rothschild family has amassed great wealth since the 1700s, claims that they have a net worth of $500 trillion or that they own 80% of the world’s wealth are problematic. For one, the world’s total wealth was estimated as of 2015 to be only $250 trillion, half of what the Rothchilds alone are claimed to possess.

Current Net Worth

The Rothschilds began acquiring their wealth in the 1700s, and since then the family has spawned hundreds of descendants, so there is no longer any centralized Rothschild family wealth. The closest thing to a “Rothschild Family” business in 2016 is the Rothschild Group, a multinational investment banking company, but that firm does not in itself generate nearly enough income to back up claims about the family’s wealth. In 2015, the Rothschild Group’s annual revenue was approximately $500 million — less than what many modern-day corporations make.

The family has diversified its interests beyond banking. The family fortune currently includes investments in winemaking, farming, mining and real estate. As of December 2019 the Rothschild family’s net worth was estimated at $400 billion by Celebrity Net Worth.

It should also be noted that only one member of the Rothschild family is included among Forbes’ 2015 list of the world’s billionaires: Benjamin de Rothschild, who was ranked at number #1121 with a net worth of $1.61 billion.

While the Rothschild family certainly was one of the world’s most significant financial powers in centuries past, they no longer wield the same sort of influence over global affairs.