Lazard Freres et Cie

""So it is at least the third time, in my family, that we build a fortune. It is ultimately the only way to really get rich, given a tax system as little 'stimulating'. Also facing the international monetary disorders that mean that money could very well be worth nothing at the end of every month.""

"It is reported that their reputation for honesty is so great that all of San Francisco knows that one can come without fear to store their bags of gold with the Lazards. Many pioneers also got into the habit of entrusting them to transfer their treasure to New York, or even to Europe. Simon reportedly slept on the precious bags he was transporting across the United States, rifle in hand..."

"Until World War I, the Bank primarily engaged in discounting trade drafts between France and the United States. It also profited from what would be called today foreign exchange and what was then known as the "gold points," a system that prevailed until the establishment of the Gold Exchange Standard, in other words, the universal acceptance of the gold standard. Another source of profits for Lazard house: managing a few private portfolios, few in number but well-chosen. Finally, it is probable that it was in these years 1900-1910 that it took its first stakes in industrial companie"

"The year 1876 was a decisive turning point in the history of the Lazards: the partners of the firm realized that the golden age of fabric and hardware trade was over. Their energy and expertise, they believed, would be better utilized in a strictly banking business. A firm that could skillfully manage this triple domicile in Paris, San Francisco, and London. Their decision was quickly made. They liquidated their assets by auctioning them off. "They ended their careers as merchants with the biggest annual profit they had ever made," notes Charles Altschul. "The firm had accumulated more capital than it could advantageously use in its business.""

"Their American base, their intact international network, as well as their two major specializations - foreign exchange and the financing of gold transfers - suddenly became major assets. While bonds collapsed and the franc quickly lost two-thirds of its pre-war value, London and New York fully benefited from the paralysis of the old European financial centers. Over the post-war years, these gentlemen from Lazard thus set up a magical New York-London-Paris triangle, governed by a top-tier team that made the firm a true hidden power. Governments would often call on them. The talent and genius of the partners during this delicate period was to always think big and international."

"A house as lesser-known as its "boss", Michel David-Weill, and its partners. But one that makes much more money than both Rothschild houses combined, the one in Paris and the one in London."

"But already the nearly dynastic principle wanted by the founders to avoid the dilution of capital was at work: a kind of primogeniture now existed in the family, allowing the transfer of the limited partnership shares to only one of the sons, to the detriment of all the others."