In Frankfurt, which, in 1780, is part of
Prussia, Jews are forbidden to learn trades, to farm or to leave
"Jew Street" after sundown. When the tax collector comes to
the shrewd money changer Mayer Rothschild and demands 20,000 gulden,
a higher tax than the best merchant in the city is charged,
Rothschild's son Nathan helps his father trick the collector, who
leaves after accepting a 5,000 gulden bribe. However, when
Rothschild learns that the man who was to bring him 10,000 gulden
from Hamburg has been waylaid and robbed by tax agents, he rages
against the plight of the Jews and collapses.
On his deathbed, Rothschild advises his
five sons that because money sent by coach between countries is
often lost, they each should start a banking business in a different
country and remain united. He admonishes them to remember the
ghetto and tells them that nothing will bring them happiness until
their people have equality, respect and dignity.
Thirty-two years later, after Napoleon
has overrun Europe, Nathan, in London, agrees to a petition brought
by Captain Fitzroy, envoy from the Duke of Wellington, to allow his
brothers in Vienna, Naples, Paris and Frankfurt to loan money to
stop Napoleon. After Napoleon is defeated, Fitzroy and
Nathan's daughter Julie plan to marry, and although Nathan would
prefer that Julie marry a Jew, he gives his consent because he
believes that the world is changing.
Wellington, in gratitude, gives Nathan
secret information regarding a loan needed by France to recover from
the war. Knowing that the loan will make the Rothschilds the
most powerful banking house in Europe, Nathan is greatly disturbed
when an Allied Council, led by the virulent anti-Semite Count
Ledrantz, refuses Nathan's bid even though his is the best and gives
the loan to one of his rivals, who, with the representatives of the
council, plans to offer a bond to the public to pay for the loan.
Furious, Nathan orders Julie to give up Fitzroy and sends her to
Frankfurt.
After Nathan purchases a previous
government bond and drives its cost far below that at which the
council members plan to sell theirs, he threatens to offer it to the
public at the low cost and thus forces the council members to sell
their bond to him. In response, Ledrantz sets off anti-Semitic
riots throughout Prussia. Nathan visits Frankfurt, and
although he orders the visiting Fitzroy to stay away from Julie, she
sneaks out at night and confesses her love. She refuses,
however, to marry Fitzroy without her father's consent.
When Ledrantz learns that Nathan is in
Frankfurt, he issues orders for him to be arrested should he try to
leave. After Napoleon escapes from Elba, where he had been
imprisoned, the French rally behind him. Ledrantz is then
forced to visit Nathan at his home in the Jewish ghetto to persuade
him not to grant Napoleon a loan, and he agrees to accept Nathan's
terms that the Jews be given the same freedom, respect and dignity
as other people have. When Nathan sees Fitzroy, who is about
to join Wellington, with Julie, he promises the captain that if he
survives the fighting, they can marry.
On March 22, 1815, Napoleon reaches
Paris. Soon King Louis has fled, and all Europe has become
mobilized. In June, after a number of victories by Napoleon,
the stock exchange in London goes through a panic, and rumors
circulate that it may close. To prevent the closing, which
would mean the collapse of English credit, Nathan stubbornly
continues to buy amid rumors of Wellington's defeat, until the war
ends with Wellington's victory at Waterloo.
Sometime later, Julie and Fitzroy are
reunited, and Nathan is made a baron by the King of England, who
expresses the country's gratitude to this "adopted" son whose
generosity and courage brought victory and peace to England.
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