Although Mr. Rothschild was commonly termed a merchant, his most important transactions were in connection with the Stock Exchange. It was here that his great decision, his skilful combinations, and his unequalled energy, made him remarkable. At a time when the funds were constantly varying, the temptation was too great for a capitalist like Mr. Rothschild to withstand. His operations were soon noticed; and when the money-market was left without an acknowledged head by the deaths of Sir Francis Baring and Abraham Goldsmid,—for the affairs of the latter were wound up, and the successors of the former did not aim at the autocracy of the money-market,—the name of Nathan Meyer Rothschild was in the mouths of all city men as a prodigy of success. Cautiously, however, did the capitalist proceed, until he had made a fortune as great as his future reputation. He revived all the arts of an older period. He employed brokers to depress or raise the market for his benefit, and is said in one day to have purchased to the extent of four millions. The name of Rothschild as contractor for an English loan made its first public appearance in 1819. But the twelve millions for which he then became responsible went to a discount; it was said, however, that Mr. Rothschild had relieved himself from all liability before the calamity could reach him. From this year his transactions pervaded the entire globe. The Old and the New World alike bore witness to his skill; and with the profits on a single loan he purchased an estate which cost £150,000. Minor capitalists, like parasitical plants, clung to him, and were always ready to advance their money in speculations at his bidding. Nothing seemed too gigantic for his grasp; nothing too minute for his notice. His mind was as capable of contracting a loan for millions, as of calculating the lowest possible amount on which a clerk could exist. Like too many great merchants, whose profits were counted by thousands, he paid his assistants the smallest amount for which he could procure them. He became the high-priest of the temple of Janus; and the coupons raised by the capitalist for a despotic state were more than a match for the cannon of the revolutionist.[8] From most of the speculations of 1824 and 1825, Mr. Rothschild kept wisely aloof. The Alliance Life and Fire Assurance Company, which owes its origin to this period, was however, produced under his auspices; and its great success is a proof of his forethought. None of the loans with which he was connected were ever repudiated; and when the crash of that sad period came, the great Hebrew looked coolly and calmly on, and congratulated himself on his caution. At his counting-house a fair price might be procured for any amount of stock which, at a critical time, would have depressed the public market; and it was no uncommon circumstance for brokers to apply at the office of Mr. Rothschild, instead of going in the Stock Exchange.