Construction begins this decade on the manor houses of Mentmore in England and Ferrières in France, more Rothschilds Manors will follow throughout the world, all of them filled with works of art.

James Rothschild in France is said to be worth 600 million francs, which at the time was 150 million francs more than all the other bankers in France put together.

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N.M. Rothschild & Sons begins refining gold and silver for the Royal Mint and the Bank of England and other international customers.

Future British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, states the following about when he becomes Chancellor of the Exchequer this year, "From the time I took office as Chancellor of the Exchequer, I began to learn that the State held, in the face of the Bank and the City, an essentially false position as to finance. The Government itself was not to be a substantive power, but was to leave the Money Power supreme and unquestioned."

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Nathaniel de Rothschild, the son in law of James Mayer Rothschild, purchases Château Brane Mouton, the Bordeaux vineyard of Mouton, and renames it Château Mouton Rothschild.

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Pope Pius IX proclaims the immaculate conception of Mary.

Caroline Stern, Salomon Mayer Rothschild’s wife, dies.

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The young Duke of Brabant, who is 10 years from being crowned King Leopold II of Belgium, dreams of making Belgium wealthy through the acquisition of a colony. At the age of 27, he travels to Seville to study Spain’s history as a colonizer. In a letter to a friend, he writes: “I am very busy here going through the Indies archives and calculating the profit which Spain made then and makes now out of her colonies.”

Two years later, he tours the British possessions of Ceylon, India, and Burma and explores investment potential in South America and even the American Pacific. There is little support among Belgians at this time for establishing colonies. But the duke is undeterred. “Belgium doesn’t exploit the world,” he complains to one of his advisor. “It’s a taste we have got to make her learn.”

The duke’s father, King Leopold I, had at one time considered acquiring a colony, but was discouraged after his investment at St. Thomas de Guatemala ended with the imprisonment, bankruptcy, and death of the settlers and main promoter. A few years later, the family suffers from another ill-fated venture, this time in Mexico. In 1964, Leopold’s youngest sister, Charlotte, and her husband Archduke Maximilian are installed by Napoleon III of France as the country’s Emperor and Empress. But Mexican rebels quickly put an end to Maximilian’s rule. In June 1967, two years after the duke is crowned King Leopold II, the emperor is killed by firing squad.

Amschel Mayer, Salomon Mayer and Carl Mayer Rothschild die.

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Lionel De Rothschild finally takes his seat in parliament when the requirement to take an oath in the true faith of a Christian is broadened to include other oaths. He becomes the first Jewish member of the British parliament.

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In February, Henry Morton Stanley emigrates to New Orleans, where he is desperate to establish a name for himself, so he takes without permission the New Name of Henry Morton Stanley, the name of his self proclaimed “Father” and employee. He is numbered as the few who fought on both sides of the Civil war and his correspondence of the war attracts the attention of James Gordon Bennett, editor of the New York Herald. In 1871, he is sent to Africa as a Correspondent for the New York Herald to find Livingston and write about it.

General Albert Pike is elected as Sovereign Grand Commander of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry's Southern Jurisdiction. He will retain this post for 32 years until his death in 1891.

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