ROTHSCHILD NATHAN MEYER: (1777-1836) Jewish German... Lot 1198

ROTHSCHILD NATHAN MEYER: (1777-1836) Jewish German banker, businessman and financier, one of the second generation of the Rothschild banking dynasty. D.S., N M Rothschild, in his capacity as contractor, in the right margin, two pages, folio, n.p. (London?), 1st March 1822. The printed document, in Russian, French and English, is a financial certificate 'of a perpetual Annuity in the Great Book of the Public Debt of the Imperial Commission of the Sinking Fund, representing a Capital of Seven Hundred and Twenty Silver Roubles…', equal to £111. With various decorative engravings to either side and a number of official stamps, as well as one of the original coupons lightly affixed at the base. Some light overall age wear and some two lengthy, neat splits at the edge of the central horizontal fold, G The present Russian bond of 1822 is widely recognized by Economic historians as being the first Eurobond. Issued by the House of Rothschild in London, Frankfurt, Paris and Vienna, the bond promised payment in European currencies, as well as in Russian roubles. Perhaps more importantly, dividends could be claimed in any of the aforementioned cities, effectively protecting the bondholder from the effects of a continental war. Although titled an annuity, the 1822 issue was in fact a perpetuity, a promise by Russia to pay a dividend to the bondholder forever, or at least until the Revolution of 1917.