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Barings Bank (1762 to 1995) was the oldest merchant bank in London[1] until its collapse in 1995 after one of the bank's employees, Nick Leeson, lost £827 million ($1.4 billion) speculating—primarily on futures contracts. Barings Bank was founded in 1762 as the 'John and Francis Baring Company' by Sir Francis Baring, the son of John Baring, originally from Bremen, Germany. The Baring family lives in both Germany and England. In 1806, his son Alexander Baring joined the firm and they renamed it Baring Brothers & Co., merging it with the London offices of Hope & Co., where Alexander worked with Henry Hope. Barings had a long and storied history. In 1802, it helped finance the Louisiana Purchase, despite the fact that Britain was at war with France, and the sale had the effect of financing Napoleon's war effort. Technically, the United States did not purchase Louisiana from Napoleon, but from the Baring brothers and Hope & Co.. Payment was made in US bonds, which Napoleon sold to Barings at a discount of 87 1/2 per $100. As a result, Napoleon received only $8,831,250 in cash. Alexander Baring, working for Hope & Co., conferred with the French Director of the Public Treasury François Barbé-Marbois in Paris and then went to the United States to pick up the bonds before taking them to France.
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