Helen Parker - Amazing Entrepreneurs & Business People: A2 (Collins Amazing People ELT Readers)

C ONTENTS

Collins Amazing People Readers are collections of short stories. Each book presents the life story of five or six people whose lives and achievements have made a difference to our world today. The stories are carefully graded to ensure that you, the reader, will both enjoy and benefit from your reading experience.

You can choose to enjoy the book from start to finish or to dip into your favourite story straight away. Each story is entirely independent.

After every story a short timeline brings together the most important events in each persons life into one short report. The timeline is a useful tool for revision purposes.

Words which are above the required reading level are underlined the first time they appear in each story. All underlined words are defined in the glossary at the back of the book. Levels 1 and 2 take their definitions from the Collins COBUILD Essential English Dictionary and levels 3 and 4 from the Collins COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary.

To support both teachers and learners, additional materials are available online at www.collinselt.com/readers.

The Amazing People Club

Collins Amazing People Readers are adaptations of original texts published by The Amazing People Club. The Amazing People Club is an educational publishing house. It was founded in 2006 by educational psychologist and management leader Dr Charles Margerison and publishes books, eBooks, audio books, iBooks and video content, which bring readers face to face with many of the worlds most inspiring and influential characters from the fields of art, science, music, politics, medicine and business.

T HE G RADING S CHEME

The Collins COBUILD Grading Scheme has been created using the most up-to-date language usage information available today. Each level is guided by a brand new comprehensive grammar and vocabulary framework, ensuring that the series will perfectly match readers abilities.

For more information on the Collins COBUILD Grading Scheme, including a full list of the grammar structures found at each level, go to www.collinselt.com/readers/gradingscheme.

Also available online: Make sure that you are reading at the right level by checking your level on our website (www.collinselt.com/readers/levelcheck).

Mayer Amschel Rothschild

17441812
the man who started one of the richest banks in history

I came from a poor family but worked hard to build one of the biggest fortunes in history. I became the banker for many rich and powerful people. My sons, who also became successful bankers, expanded my business.

I was born in a poor area of Frankfurt in Hesse (now part of Germany). I had seven brothers and sisters and my family never had enough money. My father had a small business. He bought and sold goods and did some currency exchange . I worked hard to help my family. I did jobs for my father and I learned a lot about his business. I learned how to buy and sell at the best price.

My father wanted me to learn to read and write. He also wanted me to learn useful business skills. So, in 1757, I was sent to Hanover to train with Jacob Wolf Oppenheimer, a banker.

In Hanover, I learned all about banking . I was a quick learner and very good at mathematics. I learned that it wasnt enough to keep money in the bank. You also needed to use money and make good investments . I listened to the banks richest clients . They knew many interesting ways to become rich.

The bank also owned a lot of rare coins and I became very interested in them. When I returned to Frankfurt, I started to buy and sell rare coins.

Soon my business was doing well and Prince William of Hesse became my client. The prince introduced me to many of his rich and powerful friends and they became clients, too.

In 1785, the prince became King William the Ninth of Hesse. He and his friends often asked for my advice about money. They paid me well to make good investments for them. I often went to other countries and found the best investments. I took many risks , but I did well. I made a lot of money for my clients and myself. In this way, I became the international banker for many powerful people.

By that time, I had a wife and children. I married Guttle Schnapper in 1770, and we had ten children five boys and five girls. I trained my boys in the business when they were very young. For our family, banking was more than a job. It was our family fortune and we had to protect it.

I could see that the world was changing and I discovered many new opportunities for our business. The United States of America was created in 1776. It was a new country and it needed a national bank. In 1791, I became the main shareholder in the Bank of the United States. And, in 1804, when Napoleon Bonaparte became Emperor of France, many European governments were frightened. Napoleon wanted to expand his empire and rule other countries. These governments borrowed a lot of money from me to pay for soldiers to fight against Napoleon.

For our family, business was a kind of war. We always needed to protect ourselves and find new opportunities. My sons, who were now well trained, helped me to expand the Rothschild empire.

My eldest son, Amschel, became the head of our business in Frankfurt. He also became the head of the Rothschild empire when I died. My second son, Salomon, started a bank in Vienna, Austria. The government borrowed a lot of money from our bank to build the first railways in Austria.