“unmatched” relationships with prominent bankers, Jews and non-Jews,
like Ernest Cassel of London, Edouard Noetzlin of Paris, Robert Fleming
of Scotland (later London), the Rothschilds of London, and the Warburgs
of Hamburg. In some cases, Kuhn, Loeb built on ties already forged by
European bankers among themselves. For example, since Cassel also dealt
with Fleming, a triangular connection with Kuhn, Loeb was formed.
Those connections figured significantly in making the firm a serious com-
petitor of the leading American investment houses.^30
At the same time that European business strengthened the firm, the
foreign bankers benefited from links with Kuhn, Loeb. They had in Schiff
a reliable source for detailed information on changing conditions, from
crops to politics, that influenced the American economy, and they re-
spected his financial advice. In terms of potential profits, the nexus prom-
ised ever increasing wealth to both Kuhn, Loeb and its foreign friends. In
the first decade of the century, when Schiff arranged a guided tour from
New York to San Francisco for Cassel, Fleming, and Max Bonn, a New
Orleans newspaper commented: “The aggregate wealth of the party is suf-
ficient to buy up the whole State of Louisiana at its own valuation.”^31
Of all his foreign contacts, Cassel became Schiff’s closest friend. Five
years Schiff’s junior, he too had left school in his native Cologne at the age
of fourteen to start work in a local bank. He settled in England, where he
served as overseer of American and other foreign investments in the firm of
Bischoffsheim & Goldschmidt. As his personal fortune grew ever larger, he
left the firm and operated independently. In his early forties he became an
intimate friend and adviser of the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII. A
baronetcy gave Cassel the title of Sir Ernest, but on account of his influ-
ence with the court he was informally dubbed “Windsor Cassel.”^32
Cassel met Schiff in 1879 in connection with the American investments
of Bischoffsheim & Goldschmidt, and a shared interest in railroads drew
the two together. Recognizing a rare opportunity for his firm, Schiff prom-
ised as early as 1880 that Cassel would be rewarded if he directed clients to
Kuhn, Loeb. Cassel agreed; he brought business to the American firm, and
Schiff made money for him. Frequently, the latter gave his views of a spe-
cific company and then asked if Cassel personally was interested in pur-
chasing stock. Schiff’s loyalty was boundless. Once he withdrew from a
Mexican loan lest he appear as Cassel’s competitor. Throughout, Schiff
abided by his early advice to his friend: Don’t buy trash, for good securities
are safer and ultimately more profitable.^33
In short order the men were cooperating in numerous investments both
in North America and in other continents. In 1890, when Cassel rescued
fourteen-year-old Frieda during a mountain-climbing expedition in Swit-
zerland, he earned the Schiffs’ everlasting gratitude. A voluminous corre-
spondence between the friends spanned some forty years, but since Schiff
The Making of a Leader 11