Original Five London Brokers

Who were the ‘famous five’?

For over one hundred years from the 1850s until the 1960s, the London gold and silver markets were run by five brokers: Mocatta & Goldsmid, Sharps Pixley, N.M. Rothschild, Johnson Matthey, and Samuel Montagu. They pioneered the gold and silver ‘fixings’.

• Mocatta was founded in 1671 by Moses Mocatta, first sent gold to India in 1676, and became broker to the Bank of England and the East India Company in the 18th century. The firm became Mocatta Goldsmid in 1779 and was always run by a Mocatta or a Goldsmid until 1957 when the family firm was acquired by Hambros Bank. In 1973 Standard Chartered Bank took over the controlling interest, which was sold to Bank of Nova Scotia in 1997. Scotia-Mocatta is now the global bullion banking division of Bank of Nova Scotia.
• Sharps Pixley began as Sharps & Wilkins, brokers in furs and pearls, in the 18th century and started brokerage in gold in 1811. Pixley and Abell was founded in 1852 by Stewart Pixley, a senior clerk in the cashiers office at the Bank of England. The two brokers merged as Sharps Pixley in 1957, which later became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kleinwort Benson, the merchant bank. Sharps was acquired by Deutsche Bank in 1993, and the name was discontinued in 1996, with the fixing membership and other business subsequently conducted under the Deutsche Bank name.
• N.M. Rothschild & Sons trace their origins back to the late 18th century when Nathan Mayer Rothschild established his banking house in London and at once became active in the bullion trade. Rothschild bought the Royal Mint Refinery in 1853 to handle much of the new gold from Australia and operated it until it closed in 1968. The first fixing was held on their premises on 12 September 1919 and it is still held there twice daily. Rothschild returned to refining in 1989 with a significant stake in the Golden West group.
• Johnson Matthey began as refiners in Hatton Garden, London, in 1817, although the Johnson family were assayers of precious metals as early as the 1750s. They became approved assayers and refiners to the Bank of England in 1852. They had a seat at the gold fixing from 1919-1985. They control refineries today in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and the United States.
• Samuel Montagu began as a bullion broking partnership in London in 1853 and developed into a merchant bank. Their Annual Bullion Review was launched in 1911 and continued until the 1990s as a unique source of market information. In 1985 they became part of Midland Montagu, the international banking arm of HSBC Midland Bank which changed its name to HSBC Bank in 1999.