The Bourbons and the Rothschild Bank of Naples

Written by an unknown author

The neo-Bourbonists have spread the erroneous claim that Garibaldi stole the assets of the Bank of Naples. This assertion is completely false. It might be useful to explain here the history of the Bank of Naples and the events of the Risorgimento.

Throughout its history the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies remained a state with limited sovereignty, being subject to heavy influence from foreign powers: first Spain, and after 1815 primarily Austria. The Habsburg Empire provided training officials to the Bourbon army (in essence, men who today are euphemistically called “military advisors”) and also controlled the finances of the kingdom. The Bourbon state had two official banks, the “Bank of Palermo” and the “Bank of Naples”, which was the most important. The latter had the power to print money, but it was not controlled by the Bourbon sovereign, but by a well known family of Jewish origin: the Rothschilds. The Austrian branch of the Rothschilds was for a long time (from the eighteenth century until 1866 and beyond) the main funder of the Austrian Emperor and had a free hand in imperial policy. For example, the military expedition of 1821 during which Austria marched into the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies at the invitation of its own sovereign in order to abolish the constitution, was financed by Baron Rothschild. Additionally, the financial control of the latter over the “Bank of Naples” indirectly granted Austria tight control of Bourbon finances and therefore control over government policy.

When Garibaldi arrived in Naples, one of his measures was that of confiscating the shares owned by the Rothschilds and nationalizing it. This measure was taken because the Bank was private and controlled by a foreigner, and most importantly because it was the long arm of the imperial government which was hostile to Italy. Note, however, that this decision concerned only the financial assets of Baron Rothschild, and the recipient was the Italian state. Therefore the Italians, including the southerners, did not lose a single cent from this expropriation. On the contrary, they were collectively enriched by the nationalization of shares controlled by the “Bank”, which was previously in the hands of an Austrian Jewish banker.

The affair of the nationalization of the Rothschild Bank of Naples is listed in some biographies of the famous banking family. Indeed, it is quite well known by the biographers of this family, since it represented one of the largest financial losses in Rothschild history and practically marked the end of their activities in Italy. The Italian Risorgimento in fact led to the nationalization of the Rothschilds Bank of Naples, and therefore ended their financial control in southern Italy, and led to the expulsion of Austria from Lombardy-Venetia, where the Rothschilds previously had a firm grip. After 1866, the only Italian state that continued to have a special relationship with the Rothschilds was the Papal States, to the extent that representatives of the family of Viennese Jews even dined together with Cardinal Antonelli, the Vatican foreign minister and éminence grise of the pontiff. It is not a coincidence that the Rothschilds were in business with all the states that were hostile to Italian Unification.

The finances of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was controlled by the Rothschild family, an Austrian Jewish family of private bankers, since at least 1821. That is the year in which Austria invaded and the recently-granted Neapolitan Constitution was abolished. The military operation was directly requested by Ferdinand I, an absolutist who was entirely opposed to constitutionalism. In exchange for the restoration of the absolute power of the Bourbon sovereign, Austria asked and obtained indirect control of the kingdom's finances. De facto, the military expedition was financed by the Rothschilds, the bankers of the House of Habsburg, and later the costs and war debts were charged to the Bank of Naples, i.e. to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. In short, King Ferdinand I asked the Austrians' help to abolish the constitution (which he had sworn to respect and defend) and in return agreed that the expenses of the military operation, by which Austria invaded and fought against the forces of the constitutional army, would be charged to the same Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. This helps explain why Bourbon foreign policy was always pro-Austrian since that time: the finances of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies were in the hands of the Rothschilds, whose economic interests were very closely linked with the Habsburgs.

In 1860, the Austrian Jew Adolf von Rothschild was the proprietor of the “Neapolitan” branch of the family, and he was in Naples on business. He was taken aback by the advance of Garibaldi and fled in haste with King Francis II to Gaeta. All his stakes in the Bank of Naples were nationalized by Garibaldi. This occurred both because von Rothschild was tied hand in glove to Austria (a state which was hostile to Italy), and because the shares owned by this speculator in Naples derived from the Austrian invasion of 1821 and from the debt taxation to the same Bank. Since the other members of the Rothschild family refused to help Adolf von Rothschild regain control of the Bank of Naples, he finally decided to leave Italy in 1863.

[Regarding the affairs of the Rothschilds in Naples, see: F. Morton, The Rothschilds; a Family Portrait, Boston 1962; N. Ferguson, “The House of Rothschild: The World's Banker: 1849-1999”, New York 1999. However, a broad overview of the history of public finance in Italy is found in F. A. Repaci, “La finanza pubblica italiana” (Zanichelli, Bologna 1962)]

It is true that the Rothschilds' financial canvas extended across all of Italy and all of Europe, however in 19th century Italy their power was concentrated in the lands ruled by Habsburg princes (Lombardy-Venetia, Modena, Parma and Tuscany) and in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (whose finances they de facto controlled since at least 1821). They also had strong relations with the Papal States in the 19th century, albeit to a lesser extent (even though the popes were anti-Jewish, Carl Mayer von Rothschild, a Jew and founder of the Bank of Naples, was awarded with the Order of St. George!). But the Rothschilds did not have any relationship with the Kingdom of Sardinia governed by the House of Savoy, due to the economic and financial strength of this state. In 1860 there were 377 commercial and industrial credit institutes, compared to 73 in Tuscany, 56 in Lombardy and 56 in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. [Demarco D., “L'economia degli stati italiani prima dell'Unità”, in “Rassegna storica del Risorgimento”, XLIV, 1957, p. 244.] The House of Savoy therefore did not need to take any loans from the Rothschilds, unlike the states ruled by the Habsburgs, the Bourbons and the Papal States, who in truth became slaves of the Rothschild banks.