He graduated in 1976 from City University (London), where he read economics, history and archaeology.
His initial vocation was journalism, as a circulation manager of the now defunct literary magazine, The New Review.
Rothschild had inherited an arable farm, Rushbrooke, near Bury St. Edmunds where he spent many hours at work.
In July 1996, Amschel Rothschild died by suicide at the Hôtel Le Bristol Paris.
His wife attributed the suicide to untreated depression, partly over the recent death of his widowed mother.