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In 1815 the Rothschilds used a carrier pigeon to relay the news of the British victory at the Battle of Waterloo. The family used the information to accumulate gains on the stock exchange and became Europe's greatest banking dynasty.

The Battle of Waterloo was the deciding battle in the long and costly war between England and France. The moral of the story as told here is that the Rothschilds understood the importance of accessing information about who won the battle. They used the fastest communication technology (if we stretch our imagination enough to include a carrier pigeon as a technology) of the day to ensure that they had access to the news before anyone else. They were then able to analyze and contextualize what the information that the British were victorious meant to the European economy, and used it to their advantage. Bottom line: when you are able to access information, understand, analyze, contextualize, and then use it--information and the knowledge gained from it represent power.

In essense, this story about the Rothschilds' use of information is the antithesis of U.S. intelligence agencies' use of information about terrorism. Unfortunately, the story is not completely accurate in that it implies an immediate gain and rise. The reality is that the accumulation of wealth and dynasty status took place over a period of time. However, that rise had its foundation in being the first to know and use information about the British victory.