It seems oddly appropriate that the first Rothschild professor of banking at Insead is Bernard Dumas. The professor shares his surname with the 19th-century French author of the swashbuckler The Three Musketeers, which features the wicked Cardinal Richelieu.

In 1755, the real-life Duke of Richelieu consulted a doctor who happened to prescribe him a tonic by the name of Château Lafite Rothschild - a vintage from the cellar of our very own banking family. When the Duke returned to Versailles, King Louis XV commented that he looked 25 years younger. The 60-year-old Richelieu replied that he had discovered 'the wine of Château Lafite, the secret of eternal youth and a nectar fit for the gods'. Richelieu offered his majesty some bottles and soon the 'king's wine' was all the rage. Madame de Pompadour, Louis XV's mistress and arbiter of court fashion, served the wine at her supper parties. On Pompadour's death, the king's new mistress Madame du Barry made it her duty to pour no other wine but Rothschild.