Historians have often emphasised the importance of the Pereire brothers in the banking revolution in France, and especially in the foundation of the Crédit mobilier. An innovation of scale, the latter was largely a creation of established bankers, particularly of Benoît Fould. Using previously untapped sources, this article reconstructs Fould’s role in founding the Crédit mobilier, while also situating this institution in the context of other financial experiments being undertaken in midnineteenth- century Europe. In doing so, it shows some of the continuities that existed in political economy and finance between the July Monarchy and the Second Empire.