Daniel Weisweiller and his family: the social universe of a Jewish banker in Elizabethian Madrid

Authors

Keywords:

Weisweiller, Rothschild, banking, Spain, social elites, Jewishness

Abstract

This text is biographical sketch of the Jewish-German banker and agent in Spain of the Rothschilds between 1835 and 1892, Daniel Weisweiller. After a general account of his origins, instruction, and family connections, and of the financial and trading activities in which he participated on behalf of the Rothschilds and on his own, the article portrays his social networks and his strategy of social promotion. The latter relied on his integration in the sociability circles of Madrid elites, a process that demanded an active role of his wife and his daughters. Weisweiller’s central role in banking and his social success tuned him into an active diffuser in Spain of social practices that were common in the high finances of both Britain and France.

Author Biography

Juan Pan-Montojo , Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

Professor of Contemporary History at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. He has worked in particular on the history of the public economy (agrarian policy, taxation and debt) and on the history of rural societies. He has published three individual books and edited or co-edited seven others: the most recent is Darina Marykánová and Juan Pan-Montojo, Misioneros del capitalismo. Aventureros, hombres de negocios y expertos transnacionales en el siglo XIX, Granada, Comares, 2023. He has been a member of the editorial boards of Agricultura y Sociedad and Revista de Occidente, deputy director and director of Historia Agraria and director of Ayer.

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Published

2024-10-25

Issue

No. 110 (2024)

Section

Estudios