The World Could Bank on Nathan Rothschild

Nathan Mayer Rothschild wasn't the first financier to profit from cross-border banking.

The British government turned to him to supply gold to its army and allies on the Continent fighting Napoleon, essentially asking him to violate Britain's own gold transfer restrictions.

As the Napoleonic Wars dragged on, Europe's governments began running bigger and bigger debts.

Those debt issuers needed debt buyers, and Rothschild helped bring them together by internationalizing the bond market. "He was the middleman," said Brandon Dupont, an economics professor at Western Washington University.