Monday, July 30, 2007

The Industrial Dwellings Company Ltd.

And whilst of the subject of foppish, hypocritical eco-twats with posh skin...

Since I made a post about eco-twat David Mayer de Rothschild a few weeks ago all sorts of informative and entertaining Rothschild-related trivia has come my way

  • Rothschild fans the world over will be delighted to know that the 200 year long split (yeah, right) between the English and French arms of the Rothschild banking business has come to an end
  • Craig Murray, still understandably a tad bitter about being smeared and driven out of his job as Uzbek Ambassador by the British government for the sin of complaining that the Uzbek regime was supplying the UK with nonsense terrorist intel obtained by boiling innocent people to death, has slapped up a brief post entitled ‘Parasite News’. The parasites being Gulnara Karimova, daughter of the Uzbek People-Boiler in Chief, and Nathaniel Rothschild

But that’s not important right now. The other day I was strolling around Camberwell, camera in hand, doing what I could to capture the rapturous beauty of South London and adding to my collection of futile, pointlessly located Madeleine McCann posters at the same time…






when I came across this interesting feature on the side of a housing block…







Imagine my delight, when on returning home, I plugged ‘Four per Cent Industrial Dwellling Company Ltd.’ into Google and read this…


The Four Per Cent Industrial Dwellings Company Limited was founded by Nathaniel Mayer Rothschild in 1885. Its purpose was to provide 'the industrial classes with commodious and healthy Dwellings at a minimum rent'. Funds to build the Dwellings were raised by issuing shares to investors, who were guaranteed a 4% return.


Verily, even going about my normal business on the streets on South London the buildings are whispering to me '
Rothschild, Rothschild...'

No doubt, the first residents of those commodious and healthy industrial dwellings grabbed the opportunity to live in them with both hands. But, personally, I have a major problem with shady dynasties throwing the occasional crumb to the masses whilst continuing with the serious, centuries-old business of fucking those masses over six ways from Sunday

I thought it was a cool-looking plaque though…

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13 comments:

Shahid said...

I took a 36 bus to Hither Green once. What a fucking shithole.

Didn't see any Rothschit there though...

Wolfie said...

Wow, Proto-Ethical-Investment no less. Of course, provided the shares covered the development costs you would only need to make more than 4% profit from the running costs vs. rental income to make money. No doubt you escape some tax as its charity and you get to keep the capital equity (the building). Nice little earner.

Stef said...

tsk, such cynicism

Stef said...

No doubt you escape some tax as its charity

The super-funny thing being, of course, that income tax was introduced to pay the interest on made-up money borrowed from the Rothschilds to pay for the Napoleonic Wars...

http://tinyurl.com/25zhsx

You've got to love the way Wikipedia describes income tax...

The concept of taxing income is a modern innovation and presupposes several things: a money economy, reasonably accurate accounts, a common understanding of receipts, expenses and profits, and an orderly society with reliable records. For most of the history of civilization, these preconditions did not exist, and taxes were based on other factors. Taxes on wealth, social position, and ownership of the means of production were all common

moving away from a system that taxes absolute wealth an innovation?

Wolfie said...

Cynicism?

Stef said...

aka

http://tinyurl.com/3do3yq

/ off for a read

Anonymous said...

Maybe they fell out over an ecological dispute, both sides wanting to save the planet for themselves?
Nice to see they've split the difference. I hate it when people fight.

Anonymous said...

Blog notes The semiotics of a terrorist bombing.

Sophia said...

In Spike Lee's 'Inside Man' Jodie Foster's character quotes the Baron de Rotschild: "When there is blood on the street, buy property".

Stef said...

@shahid

Interesting Hither Green trivia per wikipedia...

* Jimi Hendrix once lived in Hither Green

* The largest ever Naan was baked at the Bengal Brassiere Curry House in Hither Green according to the Guiness Book of Records.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hither_Green

Stef said...

@sophia

http://tinyurl.com/28fxjq

In the early 19th century Rothschild set up a Europe-wide network of messengers and carrier pigeon stations, gathering information that could affect his investments. He soon garnered a reputation for being first with the news.

In June 1815, when the Battle of Waterloo was being fought, other speculators watched Rothschild's stocks in an attempt to guess who would win. Shortly after the battle ended, and long before anyone else knew who was the victor, he began selling stocks. Everyone assumed this meant Napoleon had won and Europe was lost. Panic selling ensued. When prices crashed, Rothschild bought everything in sight and made a packet...

Stef said...

@paul - I'll just get my coat...

Anonymous said...

The ultra rich love a bit of charity though don't they? It allows them to treat us like the dumb animals they really think we are.