A legacy in gold
After a turbulent year of geopolitical tension, inflation, and shifting central bank policies, gold is once again in the spotlight. In 2025, the precious metal has approached record highs, supported by strong demand from both central banks and investors.
At Rothschild & Co, our relationship with gold spans over two centuries. This legacy, shaped by experience and resilience, reflects gold’s enduring role during times of uncertainty and market stress.
Gold’s enduring qualities—such as its durability, stability, and historical role as a store of value—continue to make it a compelling asset in uncertain times.
Melanie Aspey Director of The Rothschild Archive
Q1. Melanie, you've described the story of Rothschild and gold as a continuum spanning over two centuries, why so?
The Rothschilds' understanding of gold stretches across borders, cultures and time. At its most intimate, it involves protecting gold for private individuals such as the Elector of Hesse, whose lands were invaded by Napoleon in 1806. At its most seismic, it involves supplying the British Government with gold during the Duke of Wellington's 1814 campaigns, averting the collapse of the Bank of England in 1825 or running the lease on the Royal Mint Refinery for over a hundred years. At its most strategic for the world of finance, it involved establishing the globally recognised price for gold amongst market participants every day at the firm's New Court London offices from 1919 to 2004. Finally, at its most symbolic, it involved the financing of the salvage operation for HMS Edinburgh found 200 miles from Murmansk in the depths of the Barents Sea. The cargo of £5 million in gold bullion, weighing 40 tons was lost when HMS Edinburgh was torpedoed on 30th April 1942. In 1981 attempts were made to salvage the gold, which was then worth £45 million. The operation was partially paid for by the first gold bar salvaged from the ship which contained the Rothschild hallmark. Such is the quality conveyed by this hallmark, that the bar was sold at a premium and has come to be known as the Edinburgh bar which is now one of the treasures in The Rothschild Archive (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Back from the Barents Sea: The Edinburgh Bar
I use these examples to illustrate the Rothschilds’ rich and varied history with gold over the last two centuries. You can review some of these key dates in the timeline below.
Across time:
The Rothschilds & Gold
1760
Mayer Amschel Rothschild, the founder of the Rothschild family, begins dealing in antique coins
1809
Nathan Mayer Rothschild conducts his first recorded deal in gold bullion and soon establishes a leading position as a bullion broker in the City of London
1810s
The Rothschilds supply gold to the Duke of Wellington’s troops, earning the trust of the British government
1819
Nathan opposes Britain’s return to the gold standard, on the grounds that it would lead to a scarcity of money
1824
Nathan conducts his first bullion dealing with the Bank of England, making a private arrangement for a loan of gold
1825
Rothschild saves the Bank of England from a suspension of payment crisis with a large injection of gold
1827
James de Rothschild begins operating a gold refinery in Paris, moving it to a new building in Qual de Valmy
1840
Rothschild appointed as one of the Bank of England’s bullion brokers
1848
Gold discovered in California, sparking the first of the gold rushes. In the following years Rothschild became the major London importer of American gold
1851
Gold discovered in New South Wales, Australia. Rothschild employs a number of agents in Melbourne to supervise the purchase and shipment of gold to London
1852
Rothschild secures the lease on the Royal Mint Refinery, making the Rothschilds one of London’s major bullion refiners
1919
Rothschild appointed Chair of establishing the daily price of gold, setting the formal benchmark in the new free market in gold
1967
Rothschild sells the Royal Mint Refinery to Engelhard Industries but remains active in the area of gold trading as a leading market-maker on the international bullion markets
2004
Gold fixing takes place at Rothschild's New Court for the final time
Today
The Rothschild Group remains one of the world's leading advisers and arrangers of finance for the mining industry and continues to advise private clients on making investments in gold
Q2. What are some of the defining features of the Rothschilds’ knowledge on gold?
To know your subject well you should study it from all angles. That is exactly what the Rothschild family did with gold. From finding and refining to marking and trading gold bars, the Rothschild family gained first-hand experience of gold's full lifecycle. This need to specialise is in keeping with the expertise the family built up over many years in the long-term preservation of wealth - a view which was reflected in the comments attributed to Nathan Rothschild at a social gathering in 1834.
For the Rothschild family, specialism is a part of our DNA. When managing gold this has meant searching for the right people with the relevant expertise. An example of this is the recruitment of ex-iron ore workers from Normandy, France to run the Royal Mint Refinery in London. This is one of many pan-European stories where the sharing of expertise and resources made the Rothschild business and its offering to clients stronger.
Q3. Finally, what to your mind best illustrates the value placed on Rothschild's expertise in gold?
It is common to hear of gold bars which sell for a premium given their Rothschild hallmark – for example the Edinburgh Bar. This premium can be as high as 20% vs. the bar's market value and is a sign of trust in the quality and purity of the gold which the Rothschild hallmark conveys. This symbol of quality is not just confined to gold – the independence and integrity of the Rothschild name as a lender to sovereign states during the nineteenth century helped create a commercial benchmark for reasonable contractual terms. If a country was uncomfortable with these terms, it was considered a poor reflection on that nation's financial dependency. These examples illustrate the trust which investors have placed over centuries in Rothschild as a mark of quality. I would conclude by reminding our readers that gold is one of the least reactive chemical elements found in nature and its relative scarcity, durability and authenticity sit closely to the values of the family.