in the district, and he had an antique coin catalogue of his own printed, which he circulated widely, especially among such princes as were interested in numismatics. He sent such catalogues to Goethe's patron Duke Karl August of Weimar, to Duke Karl Theodore of the Palatinate, and of course always to his own benefactor at Hanau, Prince William.

The prince's mother still kept him away from his father, Landgrave Frederick, who was ruling at Cassel, and who made several unsuccessful attempts to get into touch with his son. William had married Princess Caroline of Denmark six years before Meyer Amschel's marriage; but from the first moment of their union they had realized that they were not suited to one another. Indeed so little physical or spiritual harmony was there between the young couple that their marriage might be regarded as an absolute affliction. It finally led to William's entirely neglecting his wife and living with numerous favorites, who bore him children. The families Haynau, Heimrod, and Hessenstein are the descendants of such unions, it being William's practice to obtain titles for his illegitimate children from the Emperor of Austria, in return for the moneys he lent to him. It is difficult to verify the fantastic figures given as to the total number of his illegitimate children; but there is no doubt they were very numerous.

When he assumed the government of his small territory, William of Hanau was in a position to play the rôle of absolute ruler, and his highly marked individuality immediately made itself felt. He was insolent even with the nobility, and often observed that he did not like them to take advantage of any marks of familiar "condescension" that he showed them. On the other hand he did not show any pride in dealing with persons who he thought would serve his interests. He was exceedingly suspicious, quick to see a point, and easily made angry, especially if his divine right was questioned.

He held broad views in religious matters, associated much with Freemasons and practiced complete religious tolerance. Under his rule the Jews enjoyed all kinds of liberties; they did not, for instance, have to display in the market signs to distinguish them from Christian tradespeople. Indeed William took pleasure in their marked talent for business, for in this matter he felt himself to be a kindred spirit. Business considerations governed him even when he was specifically considering the welfare of his soldiers. He would concern himself with the smallest details of their equipment; would pass the new recruits, and would give precise instructions as to the length of the pigtail to be worn. He was particularly fond of parades, and tortured his men with drill and button-polishing. One reason he was particularly anxious that his troops should look smart was that he could make a great deal of money by following the example of his father and grandfather in selling his men to England.

His father Landgrave Frederick had in this way gradually transferred to England 12,000 Hessians, and amassed an enormous fortune in the process. In the same way William sold to England in 1776 the small Hanau regiment, which he had just formed. The conditions of such "subsidy-contracts" were exceedingly oppressive to the customer, as he had to pay substantial compensation for any man who was killed or wounded. The crown prince also increased his property considerably by this means. After deducting all expenses he realized a net profit of about 3,500,000 marks from this business, and there being no distinction between the public and the private purse of a prince, this money was at his absolute personal disposal.

In spite of his princely origin, such were the business instincts of this talented young man that this financial success simply whetted his appetite for amassing greater riches. Had William not been destined to succeed to the throne of Hesse, he would have been an outstandingly

successful man of business. As it was he found such outlet as he could for his commercial instincts within the sphere of his princely dignity. Father and son continued to accumulate large capital sums, and they refrained from bringing over to the Continent substantial proportions of the subsidy moneys, which they invested in England itself. The management of these funds was entrusted to the Amsterdam financial house Van der Notten. England did not always pay in cash, but often in bills of exchange that had to be discounted. For this purpose the prince and his officials had to employ suitable middlemen in large commercial centers like Frankfort; although the middlemen had to get their profit out of the business they could not be dispensed with in view of the restricted means of transport and communication at that time. Purchases and sales had to be carefully regulated to prevent the market from being suddenly flooded with bills, the rate of exchange being consequently depressed.

This work fell to the various crown agents and factors; of these the Jew Veidel David was the principal one attached to the landgrave at Cassel, Rothschild being employed only by the crown prince at Hanau, and only in exchange business and to a limited extent in conjunction with several others. His personal relation with the prince was at first exceedingly slender, for, however enlightened he might be, a ruling prince did not easily associate with a Jew, and only long years of useful service, acting upon a temperament such as William's, could break down such natural obstacles. In the first instance men of business had to deal with the crown prince's officials; to get on good terms with them was a primary essential for anybody who wanted to do business with the prince.

One of the most influential members of the crown prince's civil service was an official at the treasury called Carl Frederick Buderus. He was the son of a Hanau schoolmaster, and had shown a special aptitude

for the duties of a careful and accurate treasury clerk. His father had been writing- and music-master to the children of the crown prince's mistress Frau von RitterLindenthal, ancestress of the Haynaus, and this had given him the opportunity of bringing to the crown prince's attention a plan of his son's for increasing the milk profits from one of the prince's dairies by the simple expedient of forbidding the practice, adopted by the office concerned, of omitting fractions of a heller in the accounts. Young Buderus showed that this would increase the revenue by 120 thalers. This discovery appealed so strongly to the avaricious prince, who counted every halfpenny, that he entrusted Buderus with the accounts of his private purse, in addition to his normal duties.

Buderus henceforth displayed the greatest zeal in looking after the financial interests of the crown prince. He is generally credited with having been responsible for the introduction of the Salt Tax when the problem of providing for the prince's innumerable natural children. became pressing. The resulting increase in the cost of this important article of diet was heavily felt, especially by the poorest inhabitants of Hesse-Cassel. There being no distinction between the public treasury and the private purse we can readily imagine how great this man's influence was. Moreover, the officials of that period were always personally interested on a percentage basis in the financial dealings which they carried through in their official capacity. By arrangement with amenable crown agents with whom they had to deal they could, without any suggestion of bribery, or of acting against the influence of their master, easily so arrange matters that their personal interests would be better served by a clever agent than by one who was less adaptable.

Meyer Amschel brought to his work a certain natural flair for psychology, and he always endeavored to create personal links wherever he possibly could. He naturally made a special point of being on good terms with the

Hanau Treasury officials, and especially with Buderus. They, however, had not as yet sufficient confidence in the financial resources of the Frankfort Jew Rothschild to entrust to him anything except the smaller transactions. Through the death of Landgrave Frederick, the crown prince suddenly succeeded to the throne of HesseCassel, and to the most extensive property of any German prince of that period. On October 31, 1785, his father Frederick II had suddenly had a stroke during his midday meal and had fallen off his chair, dying a few minutes later. This news came as a complete surprise to the crown prince, as his father had latterly scarcely ever been ill. William of Hanau accordingly succeeded to the throne of Hesse-Cassel as Landgrave William IX. On reading his father's will he learned with pleasure that the country was free of debt, and that he had come into an enormous property. The subsidies received for the sale of mercenaries had been most profitably invested, and estimates the value of the inheritance varied between twenty 10 and sixty 11 million thalers-unparalleled sums for those times.

The new landgrave united his private property at Hanau with his inherited posssessions, and now found himself disposing of an amount of money which conferred far greater power on him than his new dignity. He moved his residence from Hanau, which was close to Frankfort, to Cassel, which lay much farther north, with the result that Meyer Amschel Rothschild's relations with the Hessian court at first suffered from the greater distance which separated him from his patron. But the Jewish tradesman was determined not to lose such a useful connection without a struggle. In order to remind the new landgrave of his existence he visited Cassel again in 1787, bringing with him a remarkably beautiful collection of coins, medals, and jeweled gold chains, and offered these wares to the landgrave at exceptionally low prices. The prince at once appreciated the real value of