Trade and Commerce
TRADE AND COMMERCE
In the Bible
The geopolitical location of Palestine, set as it is in the heart of the Fertile Crescent, made it a pivotal link in the commercial activities carried on by land and sea between, on the one hand, Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula in the south and, on the other, Phoenicia, Syria, Anatolia, and Mesopotamia in the north. Palestine also played a part in the maritime trade with the Mediterranean islands, as it did, too, in trade with the commercial centers on the Mediterranean littoral.
The special position enjoyed by Palestine among the ancient lands was due to the existence and activities of cities – harbor cities and others – which, being situated along the main arteries of communication, became important centers in the international and internal trade. The written sources in archaeological finds clearly show that trading was a favorite occupation by which a considerable proportion of the local population directly or indirectly earned a livelihood. A notable contribution to the development of economic relations in Palestine was made by the nomads who, roaming the border areas of the permanently populated regions and along the main highways, engaged in the transit trade (Gen. 37:25, 28).
Since it was poor in natural resources and raw materials, Palestine's own share in the export trade comprised agricultural products and other items, the production of which was associated with agriculture. Foreign sources (in particular those of Egypt, which imported the products of Palestine) and to some extent, too, the Bible, emphasize that Palestine sustained itself by exporting cereals and flour, oil and wine, as well as cosmetic and medicinal products extracted from plants (Gen. 43:11; Ezek. 27:17; Hos. 12:2) and, at a relatively later period, also ore and finished metal goods. In contrast to its limited exports the population of Palestine needed an unceasing stream of products, various luxury goods, and raw materials, such as timber, metal, and so on.
The destinations and composition of the commodities and the identity of the traders did not change with the conquest of Palestine by the Israelites. They did not actively participate in trade either because of the tribal structure of their autarchic society and economy or because access to the main arteries of commerce was obstructed by the autochthonous population. Thus the Bible contains no evidence of the pursuit of trade or finance (allied areas also in ancient times). Nor do the laws of the Torah make much reference to commerce, the exceptions being the laws enjoining just weights, measures, and balances (Lev. 19:36; Deut. 25:13ff.), and stringent warnings against exacting interest from Israelites, but these admonitions may reflect other spheres of economic activity and a later period when the land was being divided among the tribes. It is also probable that the sparse mention of trade is due in part to the negative attitude of the writers and redactors of the Bible and of prophetic circles to commerce and to the foreigners who engaged in it: "As the merchant [lit. Canaan] keeps balances of deceit, he loves to oppress" (Hos. 12:8). The expression "Canaanite" became a synonym for "a merchant" ("Who has devised this against Tyre, the crowning city, whose tradesmen are princes, whose merchants [Canaanites] are the honorable of the earth?" – Isa. 23:8; and see Prov. 31:24, et al.). Throughout the First Temple period (Isa. 23; Ezek. 27) and also in the early days of the Restoration (Neh. 13:16) their activities were considerable.
Israelite participation in international economic activities and commerce began with the inception of the United Kingdom. This participation was made possible by the establishment of a large kingdom whose needs were considerable and whose political ties were extensive. The control of lengthy sections of the important trade routes in Transjordan and in the coastal plain, along which commerce flowed, intensified the urge to profit from it. In the days of *David and particularly in those of *Solomon economic relations were developed with the kingdom of *Tyre, one of the most important economic powers at the time. To carry out its extensive construction projects both within and outside the confines of Jerusalem, Israel needed building materials, metal, and other commodities, which were supplied and transported to Jaffa by the Tyrians in exchange for agricultural products: "And we will cut whatever timber you need from Lebanon, and bring it to you in rafts by sea to Jaffa, so that you may take it up to Jerusalem" (ii Chron. 2:15 [16]; cf. i Kings 5:21ff.).
The chronicler of Solomon's activities lays great stress on the place occupied by the royal trade. Indeed, it seems that the monarchy in Israel exercised a monopoly in this economic sphere. Solomon's Tyrian allies undoubtedly benefited from the Israelite control of the arteries of communication along which flowed the trade with southern Arabia and Egypt, for Solomon could direct the caravans to such destinations in his own kingdom and in friendly countries as he wished. Thus he profited not only from barter with Tyre but also from the international transit trade. Moreover, the royal commercial apparatus in Israel was able to initiate independent trading activities. According to the sources, this independent trade was apparently maritime commerce in which Solomon's ships, built with Tyrian help in the port of *Ezion-Geber, took part. Yet these very sources make it possible for the opposite conclusion to be drawn, for it is probable that the Tyrians insisted on being made partners in such ventures in exchange for their technical assistance and for the participation of their men in these expeditions: "King Solomon built a fleet of ships at Ezion-Geber, which is near Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. And Hiram sent with the fleet his servants, seamen who were familiar with the sea, together with the servants of Solomon" (i Kings 9:26–27; ii Chron. 8:17–18). The ships sailed to, and traded with, the African and Arabian coasts (see *Ophir). On these voyages they brought with them precious metals and precious stones, as well as rare kinds of timber: "And they went to Ophir, and brought from there gold, to the amount of four hundred and twenty talents; and they brought it to King Solomon" (i Kings 9:28; ii Chron. 8:18). "The fleet of Hiram, which brought gold from Ophir, brought from Ophir a very great amount of almug wood and precious stones" (i Kings 10:11; ii Chron. 9:10). According to one theory, Israelite-Tyrian ships also voyaged in the Mediterranean Sea as far as Spain (if *Tarshish is explained as a place name). Another view however maintains that "the fleet of ships of Tarshish" was a type of ship suitable for transporting metal, and hence alludes to the nature of the Israelite exports and the goods received in exchange: "For the king had a fleet of ships of Tarshish at sea with the fleet of Hiram. Once every three years the fleet of ships of Tarshish used to come bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks" (i Kings 10:22; ii Chron. 9:21).
Barter also occupied a place in Solomon's economic activities: the royal merchants purchased horses from *Que and chariots from Egypt, and marketed them as "a finished product" to the kings of Syria: "And Solomon's import of horses was from Egypt and Keveh [Que], and the king's traders received them from Keveh at a price. A chariot could be imported from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty; and so through the king's traders they were exported to all the kings of the Hittites, and for the kings of Aram" (i Kings 10:28–29; ii Chron. 9:28). The enigmatic reference to "the kings of the mingled people" (מַלְכֵי הָעֶרֶב, the reading in ii Chron. is "the kings of Arabia" – מַלְכֵי עֲרָב) alongside "the governors of the land" as persons with whom Solomon had commercial relations either indicates that the United Kingdom traded directly with the Arabian Peninsula, or may refer to contacts with nomads who engaged extensively in transporting goods from the south to the north (i Kings 10:15; ii Chron. 9:14). The well-known story of the Queen of *Sheba's visit to Jerusalem may reasonably be explained on the assumption that the queen of this South Arabian kingdom came to Jerusalem at the head of a trade delegation to establish closer relations with Israel (i Kings 10:1ff.; ii Chron. 9:1–12).
The extensive space which the Bible devotes to Solomon is not accorded to the kings who reigned after him. This, however, does not warrant the conclusion that the commercial activities ceased after Solomon's time. The continuation of these activities is attested by the products of foreign lands dating from the days of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah which have been uncovered at various archaeological sites in the country. Under King *Jehoshaphat of Judah there was a renewed attempt to sail ships from Ezion-Geber which failed owing to the destructive forces of nature: "Jehoshaphat made ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold; but they did not go, for the ships were wrecked at Ezion-Geber" (i Kings 22:49 [48]). This attempt is undoubtedly to be understood against the background of the relations which Jehoshaphat established with the dynasty of Omri in Israel and with the Kingdom of Tyre. He may have been assisted in the building of his navy by the Tyrians. The close ties maintained by *Omri and Ahab with the Tyrians are similarly to be regarded as indubitably commercial relations. Jehoshaphat apparently brought the kings of Israel into association with the activities of his navy in the Red Sea: "After this Jehoshaphat king of Judah joined [רַּבחתֶא] with Ahaziah king of Israel, who did wickedly. He joined him [וַיְחַבְּרֵהוּ] in building ships to go to Tarshish, and they built the ships in Ezion-Geber. Then Eliezer son of Dodavahu of Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying: 'Because you have joined [בְּהִתְחַבֶּרְךָ] with Ahaziah, the Lord will destroy what you have made.' And the ships were wrecked and were not able to go to Tarshish" (ii Chron. 20:35–37). The use of the root ḥbr, "to join," is intended to indicate the significance of the relations between Jehoshaphat and Ahaziah. In several Semitic languages the use of ḥbr denotes a commercial partnership, particularly in a maritime connection. According to i Kings 22:50, Jehoshaphat rejected Ahaziah's offer to cooperate with him in maritime commerce.
Additional evidence of trade that was conditioned by political circumstances is the presence not only of Aramean commercial agencies in Samaria in the days of Omri and in part of those of Ahab, but also, after the latter's victory over Aram, of Israelite agencies in Damascus (i Kings 20:34). Furthermore the economic tendencies to develop trade in Israel and Judah, though not explicitly mentioned in the Bible, are evident in the expansionist ambitions of these kingdoms toward Transjordan and the west, the purpose of which was to gain control both of the trade routes in these areas and of the centrally located ports that promoted trade with Phoenicia, Egypt, and other countries on the Mediterranean littoral.
The biblical references to internal trade are sparse. This trade was carried on in open places, in streets, squares, and marketplaces (Neh. 13:17–22), as also in open areas near gates (ii Kings 7:1). It apparently took the form mainly of barter, in which farmers, artisans, and others who offered the products of their labors participated. Merchants and peddlers also displayed their wares. There is no information on the quality of the goods or on the organization of the internal retail trade. The Bible mentions trade in oil (ii Kings 4:7), wine, grapes, and figs (Neh. 13:15–16), fish (13:16) and animals (ii Sam. 12:3, et al.), in addition to products such as pottery (Jer. 19:1) and items of clothing (13:1–2). These individual mentions undoubtedly represent only a few of the potential articles of trade. The likely range of the retail trade may be inferred from the cultural and material standard of the population at various periods, and in particular from the fact that the economy of the Israelites ceased to be autarchic already at a late stage of the division of the land among the tribes, for as the standard of life rose among the inhabitants of the country, so undoubtedly did the articles of trade increase in quantity and diversity.
[Hanoch Reviv]
Post-Biblical
During the Babylonian Exile Jews became acquainted with old commercial traditions. The post-biblical, talmudic epoch shows Palestine again as an agrarian country, as is clear from the Talmud and Josephus. The growing Diaspora intensified the contacts with Phoenicians, Syrians, and Greeks, and especially Greek influence as is to be seen in the use of technical terms.
The consequence of those influences is especially notable where Jews met in an atmosphere of strong commercial activity, as in Alexandria and later in Delos and Ostia. In the late Roman Empire there were colonies of Jewish and Syrian merchants all over its realm who preserved their ethical and religious traditions. Such colonies were to be found from Britanny and Ireland as far as India and Turkestan. Hennig stressed the commerce of Jews with China which had already come into being. The superiority of the Jewish over the Syrian merchants must, according to Heichelheim, be seen in the fund of common traditions going back to Babylonia. The Talmud knows the "pragmateutes" and the "emporos" as specializations in trade in far distant lands, terms which point to their Hellenistic origins. In addition, the word "taggar" – known from Palmyra – is found, and is related to the Babylonian "tamkar." The taggar was the merchant who was occupied in local commerce. Many of these traditions passed, as pointed out by R.S. Lopez, from the late Roman Empire to the Byzantine Empire and from Sassanid Persia to the empire of the Caliphs. On the base of a widely autonomous economy, trade in the distant lands was limited to luxury goods.
Middle Ages to 18th Century
From the fifth to seventh centuries, Jews traded as far as Gaul where the ports of Provence, especially *Narbonne and *Marseilles, served them as transit places. They dealt in perfumes, glassware, textiles, and other luxury articles of the Orient. Procopius, Cassiodorus, and Pope Gregory i (the Great) mention Jewish merchants in Genoa, Naples, and Palermo. The system of trade in the *Byzantine Empire probably favored the expansion of these merchants toward the west where the vacuum created by the invasions of the Germans opened new routes for selling Oriental luxury goods. Clients of all ranks were to be found. Jewish merchants supplied kings as well as monasteries and high church dignitaries with *spices and all types of precious Oriental goods. The extent to which they obtained these wares directly from the Orient is not certain. Documentation on direct trading relations with the Orient exists only from the end of the eighth century. In 797 when *Charlemagne sent two ambassadors to the caliph Hārūn-al-Rashid from Aix-la-Chapelle the merchant *Isaac acted as a guide and interpreter, returning to Aix-la-Chapelle in 802.
At least from the seventh century, after the ports of Syria had been conquered by the Arabs, Jews were able to develop a far-flung trading network. According to Ibn Chordadbeh, the postmaster of the caliph of Baghdad (between 854 and 874), the *Radaniya traded between France and China along four routes, some of them touching at Byzantium on their return. It is not clear from where the Radaniya came, either from France or from a region east of the Tigris. These merchants brought swords, eunuchs, slaves, furs, and silks from the West, and musk, aloes, camphor, cinnamon, and other articles from the East. One of the most important spheres of trade seems to have been the *slave trade, especially in slaves from the countries of the Slavs, since the Council of Meaux in 845 (see *Church Councils) prohibited trade in Christian slaves. The chief market was the area in the Iberian Peninsula under Muslim rule. Commercial centers of the northern route were *Kiev, the valley of the Danube, where they had to pass the customs of Raffelstetten near *Passau, then *Regensburg and *Mainz.
From the tenth century, this northern route became the more important because of the rise of the Mediterranean rivalry of the Italian cities. Mainz and Regensburg then apparently became the most important starting points for trade expeditions to the East. Jews from the western regions traveled as far as Bulgar of Itil (see *Atil), the capital of the Jewish *Khazars on the Volga. Around 955 *Isaac b. Eleazar brought a letter from *Ḥisdai ibn Shaprut, when a minister in Córdoba, to the Khazar king *Joseph. The route passed through Prague and Cracow. In 965 Prague was visited by the Spanish geographer *Ibrahim ibn Yaqūb, who stressed the importance of this town for the trade with the East and mentions the role of the Jews. There he saw Jewish and Islamic merchants from the empire of the Khazars and *Crimea. At that time Italian Jews still had trading connections with Jerusalem. In particular Jews of Gaeta traded with Jaffa, and Jews of Capua with Egypt, until the rising cities of Amalfi, Bari, Venice, Genoa, and Pisa drove them from the Levantine trade. Venetian captains were forbidden to transport Jews and Jewish merchandise. The activity of the Jews of Mainz in the East European trade led to a diplomatic correspondence by the doge Pietro of Venice and the patriarch of Grado with Emperor Henry i and the archbishop of Mainz concerning the duty to compel the Mainz Jews to become Christians or else prohibit them from trading in Oriental goods.
In this period, additional Jewish settlements grew in the Rhine region, the main part of the East Franconian Empire, the most important being Metz, Trier, Cologne, Worms, and Speyer. There they were allowed to trade freely, especially in wines, hides, and drugs, as well as in meat and secondhand goods, which was often combined with lending on pawn, while slaves and Oriental products were also important. From the tenth century a new route was opened through the Danube Valley to Hungary which became accessible after the inhabitants became converted to Christianity, *Esztergom (Gran) or Ofen-Pest serving as points of transit. From there the merchants often crossed the passes of the Carpathians, continuing to *Przemysl and Kiev, where there was an important Jewish settlement. Toward the end of the 11th century *Isaac b. Asher ha-Levi at Speyer was well informed on the role and importance of this East European trade. He relates that the merchants traveled in caravans, and that each caravan formed an association, buying the merchandise jointly and distributing it by lot. During the 12th century Regensburg Jews became the main entrepreneurs of this trade. *Pethahiah of Regensburg shows that Jews from there traveled as far as Crimea, the *Caucasus, *Baghdad, and *Mosul. Later, from the beginning of the 13th century, Prague and Vienna seem to have outrivaled Regensburg. In 1221 transit through Vienna was forbidden. After the Tatar invasions Kiev's importance waned and this eastern trade declined.
Regensburg especially was a center for the silver trade and the mint business. Meanwhile, for the slave trade another route from Magdeburg and Merseburg to the Rhine came into use. The customs regulations of Coblenz from 1104 record the passage of slaves on the Rhine for the last time, since after the adoption of Christianity by the Slav countries the slave trade there was prohibited.
Along the trade routes of the Indian Ocean, as well as the Mediterranean, in the 11th to 13th centuries, Jewish merchants combined in manifold far-distance trading activities as well as more limited coastal trading in most of this period. *Yemen served as a transit station for the trade between Egypt and the Far East. Scores of categories of articles, some of them in huge quantities, were transported by this Jewish trade mainly through Muslim ports. Jewish trading activity was based on a well-established organization of Jewish merchants at the ports.
Meanwhile, the interior market in Western Europe grew, the fairs of Cologne especially attracting Jews. They met there three times a year in order to sell and buy wool, hides, furs, jewels, and pearls. With the First Crusade an epoch of persecutions began in Western Europe (see *Crusades). Local restrictions and canon law compelled Jews to concentrate on *moneylending. However, as late as the 14th century *Alexander Sueslein ha-Kohen of Frankfurt states that Jews did business at the fairs of the Christians, and that on Sabbath non-Jewish debtors came with wagons of corn. The responsa of *Meir b. Baruch of Rothenburg show that Jewish merchants used the Rhine shipping route, trading in, among other items, salted fish, wool, skins, wines, grain, silver, and gold. After the decline of the Cologne fairs Jewish merchants were attracted by the fairs of Frankfurt and Friedberg. At the same time the courts of the princes offered a market for luxury goods. In this period Jews generally seem to have bought from far-distance traders in order to sell as retailers and *peddlers. How far there were trading relations for instance with southern France and Spain is hard to ascertain. By then the distant trade had mainly passed to Christian merchants. Generally members of a family joined in partnership and women took an active part.
In the persecutions, plunder, and massacre of the Jews occasioned by the *Black Death, the patricians were not the main adversaries of the Jews – many of whom being active in far-distance trade had commercial relations with them – but the artisans, who viewed the Jewish retailers and peddlers as bringing unfavorable competition. After the persecutions Jews were again active in trade and apparently had trade connections from the Rhineland not only with the Netherlands and France but also with parts of Spain, Switzerland, and probably Italy.
Meanwhile, a new series of anti-Jewish measures began. From the end of the 14th until the beginning of the 16th centuries Jews had to leave most of the German towns. They withdrew into the small domains of local lords or went to Eastern Europe where there were possibilities open in the service of the crown of Poland and the nobles. The wealthy Jews were attracted by privileges in connection with the colonization policies of Duke *Boleslav and King *Casimir iii. Witold, grand duke of Lithuania, continued this policy. In an agrarian society Jews became important representatives of commercial activity. Not only the princes, but the nobles also had good relations with them. From Poland Jews, in the same way as Armenians, participated in the trade with the Black Sea regions, especially with Caffa (*Feodosiya), Khadzhibei, Cetatea-Alba (*Belgorod-Dnestrovski), and *Kiliya. *Vladimir-Volynski, *Lutsk, Lvov, Cracow, and later Lublin and Bratislava became the main trading links in Poland and Silesia. Meanwhile a Jewish colony grew up at Caffa, and later, after its decline, Jewish merchants in *Constantinople established direct commercial relations with Poland.
In *Apulia and *Sicily Jews were active in the silk trade, Emperor Frederick ii granting them the monopoly for trade in raw silk. They also organized the commerce in dyed textiles. In southern France Jews played a main part in the trade of kermes. From the ports of Provence they took part in the Levantine trade and had connections with the Spanish littoral, Sicily, and southern Italy. This trade was organized, like that of the Italian merchants in Venice or Genoa, by the practice of commenda. Mardoché Joseph, whose register from 1374 has been preserved, owned woods where the resin was extracted from the trees. In *Franche-Comté from 1300 to 1318 a Jewish company developed extensive trading activity in goods and money.
iberian peninsula
On the Iberian Peninsula Jews could maintain far-reaching trading relations from the areas under Arab rule with Central Europe and the slave markets in Eastern Europe, as well as with North Africa and the Levant, their main centers being Córdoba and *Lucena. Following persecutions in the Moorish part of the peninsula, Jews settled in the areas with a Christian population, where they participated, among other commercial activities, in provisioning the soldiers who fought in the Christian Reconquest. Apart from the prohibition on the slave trade, their economic activity was unrestricted. Generally, more is known of their activity as lessees of revenues such as customs or rents than of their trading activities, but in *Toledo, the Jewish center in Castile, as well as in *Barcelona and *Saragossa, the centers in Catalonia and Aragon, some Jews must have been merchants, dealing for instance in cloth or bullion. Don Samuel ha-Levi, the richest Jew in Toledo in the 14th century, was a merchant, and the building of the synagogue of Toledo as well as that of Córdoba must have been made possible by wealth acquired by trade.
In Portugal the Abrabanel family and other Jewish cloth merchants had far-reaching trade connections. The persecutions of the Jews in Spain of 1391 resulted in major damage to Jewish workshops, to the cloth production in Aragon and Catalonia, the tanneries of Oscaña and Córdoba, the silks of Valencia, Seville, *Talavera de la Reina, and *Murcia, the carpets of Borja and Salamanca, the goldsmiths' wares of Toledo and Córdoba, and other precious articles of artisan production organized by Jewish manufacturers and merchants. At the same time there were fairs to which Jews imported silk from Persia and Damascus, leather from Tafilalet, and Arabian filigree. Records exist especially from Seville showing that even after the persecutions the production of Jewish swordsmiths, tailors, and manufacturers of embossed leather, and the activities of merchants continued. Meanwhile, the wave of conversions to Christianity among the Jews in Spain especially affected members of the upper class, including merchants. One group of them is expressly known to have continued its activity as merchants – the Villanova of Calatayud, the Maluenda, de Ribas, de Jassa from Tauste and Hijar, the Ortigas, Esprés, Vidal, and Esplugas from Saragossa. Don Alfonso of Aragon, a bastard of King John of Navarre, had three sons by Estenza, daughter of the rich cloth merchant Aviasa ha-Cohen or Coneso, and took the name of Aragon.
A last important role was played by Jewish merchants in Spain in the final phase of the Christian Reconquest. There were also trading relations with the Moorish regions, and one of the reasons for the restrictions ordered against them by the Cortes of Toledo in 1480 was that Jews were selling arms there. On the other side Abraham *Senior and Isaac Abravanel with a staff of Jewish merchants organized the supply of the troops that conquered Malaga, Baza, and finally Granada.
The edict of March 31, 1492, ordering the expulsion of the Jews from Spain was made even more severe since they had to sell their properties but were forbidden to take gold and silver away with them. In Aragon Jews sold textile workshops at Hijar, Barbastro, Huesca, Saragossa, Lerida, Manresa, Valencia, and Barcelona. One of the best-known textile manufacturers at Huesca was Solomon Abenaqua, and at Hijar, Samuel Auping.
marrano activity. The exiles included many craftsmen, manufacturers, and merchants. The majority emigrated to Portugal, the nearest place of refuge. Those who preferred to stay in Spain had to accept baptism, though secretly most of them maintained their Jewish religious traditions and were regarded as a special group of New Christians (Marranos). The Spanish overseas expansion opened up new fields of activity for them, especially in the spice trade. Rui Mendes (de Brito), and subsequently Francisco and Diogo *Mendes, organized trading activities which spanned an area from the East Indies through Lisbon to Antwerp, and included not only spices, but precious stones, pearls, and other Oriental luxury goods. Additional Marrano families entered this trade. Later, toward the end of the 16th century, notably the Ximenes, the Rodrigues d'évora, Heitor Mendes, Duarte Furtado de Mendoza, Luis Gomes d'Elvas, and the Rodrigues Solis families participated in the East Indies trade.
Other fields of Marrano trading activity were the trade with Africa and Brazil which began with Fernão de Noronha, who organized the trade in Brazilian dyewood. Marrano merchants participated in the development of sugar production in Madeira, São Tomé, and Brazil. Diogo Fernandes and a group were owners of one of the five sugar plantations which existed in Brazil about 1550. Toward the end of the 16th century, as can be seen from the records of the Inquisition, among the outstanding businessmen accused of Judaizing were Bento Dias Santiago, João Nunes, and Heitor Antunes, who from localities in the northeast, especially Paraiba, Olinda, and Bahia, organized the export of sugar and other Brazilian goods as correspondents of the Marrano merchants at Lisbon and other places in Portugal, as well as of their relatives, who meanwhile had begun emigrating to Northern Europe. By maintaining commercial relations from Brazil to Buenos Aires, and from there through Córdoba to Lima and Potosi, they organized an important contraband trade for a market which, because of the monopolistic policy of the Spanish center, was underprovided. They exported textiles and other manufactured goods or slaves, and received bullion which they sent to Europe. "La complicidad grande," the large-scale investigation organized by the Inquisition, which alarmed Lima from 1635 to 1639, resulted in economic disaster; among 81 persons apprehended, 64 were "Judaizers," most of them merchants.
When the Dutch West India Company occupied part of Brazil, the Marranos and those who now openly confessed their Jewish tradition took a remarkable part in the trade both in retail business, in financing, and in the export-import trade. When the Dutch were expelled from the northeast (the last from *Recife in 1654) some of the sugar traders settled in the West Indies, where, through their European market connections they contributed, at first in Barbados and Guyana, in developing sugar export to Europe. Later Curacao and São Tomé became the main centers of Jewish trade in the Antilles.
This was a factor that exercised great influence in the expansion of Jewish trade toward Africa after the expulsion from the Iberian Peninsula. At first Morocco, Salé, and *Safed afforded them trading possibilities, and with the rise of the slave trade to America they found chances to extend their influence to the main African slave markets on the coast of Guinea, the Cape Verde Islands, São Tomé, and Angola, since these regions belonged to the sphere of Portuguese dominance. The same circumstances operated in the infiltration by Marrano merchants into Spain, especially to Seville, in order to participate from there in the American trade. Among the early families engaged in this activity was the Jorge family whose participation in the slave trade is recorded from 1540. After their bankruptcy in 1567, other representatives were Francisco Nunes de Bejar and his son Antonio Nunes Caldeira. These Seville merchants had correspondents in the important centers in the Indies and West Africa as well as in Lisbon, and especially with the slave contractors of Africa, some of whom were Marranos. From 1587 the king of Spain as monarch of Portugal signed slavetrading agreements with Lisbon merchants for the provision of slaves in Angola and Cape Verde. This system lasted until the Portuguese restoration in 1640. Meanwhile Moroccan trading connections were intensified with the Netherlands, especially through the intervention of the important family of Palache.
Jewish trading connections also intensified with the Sephardi migration to the Mediterranean.
Under Muslim Rule
In the Arab world Jewish trade in the Middle Ages followed the same trends as in the Occident. At first Arab expansion contributed to the urbanization of the Jews and favored their trading activity, especially in the era under the *Fatimids. Yaʿqūb ibn Killis (c. 991), who later adopted *Islam and became a vizier, was a merchant in the wide area between North Africa and *Iraq, where *Baghdad with its important Jewish settlement remained the principal trading center. Under al-Mustanṣir (c. 1094) the brothers *Abu Saʿd al-Tustari and Abu Harun traded as merchants between *Egypt, *Syria, and Iraq, and were influential in the finances of Egypt. In the 12th century a decline began, connected with the rise of the Christian city states in the Mediterranean, the decline of the Fatimids, and the Crusades. The Karimi merchants then obtained a leading position.
With the emigration of Jews from the Occident to the Ottoman possessions they were able to integrate into the widespread network of international trade reaching as far as Cochin and Goa, where spices and jewels attracted them. The Danube principalities were also connected with this network. From the 17th century *Isfahan Jews organized silk export to *Aleppo.
reestablishment in the west
From the end of the 16th century Leghorn, through the granting of important privileges to its inhabitants, became the most important trading link in the West, besides Venice. Jews compelled to emigrate from Milan in the 16th century were partially reintegrated into the network of Marrano trade, as in Naples, whereas in Rome and other central and northern Italian towns, some commerce remained a Jewish occupation, though generally not on a large scale.
In Provence, Jews lost their part in the Levantine trade after their expulsion at the end of the 15th century. Meanwhile émigré settlements of Marranos grew up at Antwerp, and also along the French Atlantic coast from St. Jean de Luz, *Bayonne, and Bordeaux to Nantes and Rouen and the Lower Elbe in Hamburg and Glueckstadt, as well as in the Netherlands, especially Amsterdam, and in London. Some of the Marranos remained Catholics, mainly in Antwerp, but along the Lower Elbe and at Amsterdam they openly returned to Judaism and established Sephardi communities. All the settlements played an important role in the trade between the Iberian Peninsula and Northwestern Europe.
Leading Marrano families throughout the 16th century were among the main contractors of the Portuguese spice trade. The jewel trade was an additional branch of the Antwerp colony, establishing connections with important trade centers in the interior such as Cologne (to which during the crisis in Antwerp they partly transferred their offices), with the Leipzig and the Frankfurt fairs, with Paris, with the fairs of Lyons, and with the trading centers of Italy. Meanwhile, they participated in the export-import trade between the Netherlands, England, Germany, and Italy. This included textiles, English cloth, Netherlands fabric, Italian fustian, and silk and grain, the latter being sent by sea. The main representatives of this trade were the Ximenes, the Rodrigues d'Evora, the Álvares Caldeira, and the Jorge families. The Hamburg colony, for some time, predominated in the import of sugar and spices and contributed to the modernization of trade usages.
Álvaro Dinis and Antônio Faleiro were merchants in Hamburg from the end of the 16th century. At Amsterdam Manuel Rodrigues Vega and others participated in the financing of voorkompagnien which opened up direct trade by the Dutch to the East Indies. The direct participation of the Amsterdam Portuguese in the Dutch East India Company was modest. But their international trading connections with the Mediterranean, as well as with the African and the Brazilian ports and the East Indies, contributed to the rise of the Dutch international trade, as well as to that of Hamburg, Scandinavia, and the Baltic.
The last act of the Dutch struggle with Spanish domination was helped by the contribution their merchants made to the forces of the Portuguese restoration after 1640. Jeronimo Nunes da Costa at Amsterdam and his father Duarte Nunes da Costa at Hamburg were the main suppliers or agents to the Portuguese of military and naval stores. However, it was typical of the complicated situation within the communities that Lopo Ramires at Amsterdam, a brother of Duarte Nunes da Costa, and Manuel Bocarro (Jacob Rosales) at Hamburg assisted the Spaniards.
In the second half of the 17th century the Hamburg as well as the Amsterdam Portuguese increasingly retired from the trade with the Iberian Peninsula and its colonial settlements in consequence of the continuing hostility against suspected Marranos and Jews. Meanwhile new fields of commercial activity opened with the Baltic, Scandinavia, and various courts. Diogo (Diego) *Teixeira and his son Manuel, the outstanding representatives at Hamburg, traded in jewels and, with their relatives, the Nunes Henriques, at Amsterdam entered the Norwegian copper exploitation. With the emigration of the Teixeira group to the Netherlands, the Hamburg settlement soon lost its earlier importance. Closely connected with Hamburg were small colonies at Altona and Glueckstadt. The latter especially was designed by Christian iv of Denmark and his successors to be a rival of Hamburg, in particular in the overseas trade, but never fulfilled their hopes. Nevertheless, for a time some Iberian trade in the 1620s, and again some African and West Indian trade in the second half of the 17th century, was organized from Glueckstadt.
In the Netherlands Amsterdam had the largest community of Portuguese Jews. At the beginning of the 18th century these still took considerable part in the colonial trade but were more active in speculative trade in commodities and company shares. Meanwhile the Sephardi community of London also took a share in the overseas trade, especially with West Africa and the West Indies. In its eastern extremities, from the 16th century this trade system linked with the extensive trade system of the Jews in *Poland-Lithuania based on *arenda and a large and growing share in exports and imports, as well as in the transit trade of the kingdom. The memoirs of *Glueckel von Hameln, and the even more extensive activities of the *Court Jews and factors show the influence of both these systems in Central European Jewish economic activity.
ashkenazi trading activity
For Ashkenazi Jews the 16th and 17th centuries were an epoch of repression in consequence of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. In Germany they mostly lived in smaller settlements where they obtained licences (Geleit; equivalent to the Italian condotta) and traded in cattle, horses, *agricultural produce, or secondhand articles obtained from loans on pawn, were peddlers, or provided the mints with bullion. The brothers Oppenheim at Frankfurt and their companies dealt in silk goods and other textiles, and there already existed connections with some courts that afforded the possibility of providing them with luxury goods, and their armies with victuals and weapons. When the possibility of forming mints, especially in the Hamburg region where overseas trading connections guaranteed a steady silver market, opened, Jacob *Bassevi at Prague was an outstanding entrepreneur of mints. During the Thirty Years' War several Jews took the opportunity to organize provisions for the armies. With the rise of the absolutist state and the sumptuous baroque culture displayed at a large number of courts the presence of the Court Jew opened new paths for wide-ranging Jewish commercial activity. Partly as a consequence of the protection afforded by the princes, the Ashkenazi settlements at Frankfurt, Hamburg, Altona, Berlin, and then Vienna also became centers of Jewish trade. From Hamburg and Altona as well as from Copenhagen and Amsterdam Jews entered the overseas trade.
From the second half of the 17th and especially in the 18th century Jews of Hamburg and Amsterdam actively participated in the trade of the fairs of Frankfurt, Zurzach, Braunschweig, Naumburg, and Frankfurt on the Oder, and especially of Leipzig and Breslau. In Eastern Europe, since there was as yet no large stratum of long-distance traders, this favored the role of small traders who were mostly of Jewish origin and often traveled in caravans. Jews from Prague, Mikulov (Nikolsburg), Leczno (Lissa), Teplice, Cracow, Brody, and Lvov in particular were among those visitors, but they had rivals in the Armenians, Greeks, Wallachians, "Raitzen" (Russians), and Courlanders. In Poland many of these Jews administered the trade of the nobility. Lithuanian Jews preferred Koenigsberg, Memel, and Riga, and traveled as far as Moscow. Galician Jews traveled to the Danubian principalities and imported wines from Hungary. Jewish trade was mostly concentrated in the fairs of Lublin, Yaroslaw, Torun, Gniezno, Kopyl, Stolin, and Mir. During the 18th century Berdichev and Brody, a free city from 1779, became important. The growing Jewish population in Bohemia, Moravia, Poland, and White Russia, and their widespread artisan activity, opened up an interior market of growing importance.
19th and 20th Centuries
From the period of the Middle Ages Jewish commercial activity had undergone many changes. At first the trade in Oriental luxury goods predominated; then, with the overseas expansion and the rise of shipping, colonial and staple goods were added. The *emancipation of the Jews in consequence of the epoch of the Enlightenment, combined with the consequences of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, put the Jewish communities on a new basis. Most spectacular was the rise of Jewish banking and the activity of Jews in industrialization, whereas the part of Jews in commerce is more difficult to discern. The organization of trade, then the sector of large stores (Tietz, Wertheim, Karstadt), and the commodity trade, especially in metal, wood, grain, furs, textiles, shoes, and diamonds, remained the branches preferred by Jews. In Germany, their part in the trading sector from 1895 to 1933 declined from 5.7 to 2.5%. In 1925 in Prussia over 34% of those active in the sector of banking and stock exchange, 13.2% in brokerage, 10.8% in the real estate business, and 10.7% in the commerce of merchandise and products, were Jews. On the whole, about 50% of the Jewish population were occupied in commerce. With the growing degree of social assimilation, however, this proportion declined as did the general participation of the Jews in economic life.
In general, it may be stated that the proportion of Jewish participation in commerce diminished in Germany and rose in the East European countries. In Hungary (1920) 44.1%, in Czechoslovakia (1921) 39.1%, in Poland (1913) 35.1%, and in Russia one-fifth (1926) of the total Jewish population were active in commerce. As Simon *Kuznets stressed, in the pre-World War ii epoch in all countries excepting Poland and the Soviet Union the largest sector in the industrial structure of the gainfully occupied Jewish population remained trade and finance. They accounted for such a large proportion of the nonagricultural Jewish population because small-scale entrepreneurship was more readily accessible: it did not require heavy capital investment, and personal training was not necessary. Moreover, the conditions under which Jewish minorities had lived for centuries favored the acquisition of skills and the formation of connections useful for the pursuit of trade and finance.
[Hermann Kellenbenz]
In the U.S.
colonial period to 1820
Virtually from the mid-17th-century beginnings of their settlement in North America, the Jews tended to support themselves as small businessmen – general merchants and shopkeepers – in tidewater commercial and shipping centers like New York, Newport, Philadelphia, Charleston (South Carolina), Savannah, and Montreal. Their function, like that of the non-Jewish businessmen with whom they frequently formed partnerships of more or less limited duration, was to supply the local market with hardware, textiles, and other European produced consumer goods as well as commodities like rum, wines, spices, tea, and sugar. They attempted to balance their European and West Indian imports with exports of North American products like lumber, grain, fish, furs, and whale oil. Though specialization was not unknown, these tradesmen for the most part offered a wide range of wares.
Jews were represented in nearly every branch of early American enterprise apart from the export of tobacco and iron. Seldom, however, did they play a leading role: great coastal, Caribbean, and trans-Atlantic merchant-shippers like Aaron *Lopez of Newport, Nathan Simson and Jacob *Franks of New York, and Nathan *Levy of Philadelphia, substantial inland merchants, land speculators, and fur traders like Joseph Simon of Lancaster (Pennsylvania) and Samuel Jacobs of Canada, and important army purveyors like David Franks of Philadelphia were atypical – if not always for the character, certainly for the scale, of their dealings. Not infrequently 18th-century American Jewish businessmen acted as agents for European firms. The Levy-Franks clan of New York and Philadelphia, for example, constituted a branch of the family's commercial empire headquartered in London. Though rudimentary banking often fell within a merchant's sphere of activity – since without extending credit to his customer he could not have survived – Jewish financiers on the contemporary European scale were absent from the early American scene.
The colonial American economy was precarious, offering formidable hazards as well as attractive opportunities. Even well-established merchants not uncommonly owed their European suppliers huge sums, while bankruptcies and even imprisonment for debt occurred with considerable regularity.
Post-Revolutionary and Early National America gave rise to fledgling Jewish communities in Midwestern river ports like Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, while Jewish economic activity presented in many respects a more varied scene. Though shopkeeping and merchantry continued to be characteristic, the country's westward expansion and interest in developing its own resources generated many new enterprises involving Jews: land speculation, planting, shipping, banking, insurance, garment manufacturing, mining, and distilling. Jewish railroad directors prospered in South Carolina, and Jewish bank directors were active in South Carolina, New York, and Rhode Island. The Richmond (Virginia) firm of Cohen and Isaacs employed a frontiersman like Daniel Boone to survey land in Kentucky, and the Philadelphia *Gratzes became more important in the trans-Allegheny trade. The New York Hendrickses became prominent in the copper industry. Moses Seixas was among the Bank of Rhode Island's organizers in the 1790s, and Judah *Touro established an impressive mercantile reputation in New Orleans. Peddling, though usually no more than a transitional occupation, was far more common among Jews in early 19th-century America than it had ever been during the pre-Revolutionary period.
As the American economy burgeoned in the half-century following the Revolution, people skilled in trade, moneylending, the distribution of commodities, and the establishment of wholesale and retail outlets were needed with increasing frequency everywhere in the country. Jews found a wide gamut of opportunities in a developing America and took advantage of them to become well integrated into the country's business life.
[Stanley F. Chyet]
since 1820
German Jewish immigrants to the U.S. who began arriving in large numbers about 1820 devoted themselves mainly to trade. The "Jew peddler" succeeded the "Yankee peddler" in the countryside as young Jews, securing their goods on credit mostly from Jewish wholesale houses in cities, peddled household and dry goods and small luxuries among isolated farmers throughout the Northeast, Middle West, and the South. With the opening of California in 1849 Jews became purveyors to its mining camps, a function they later performed in towns of the Rocky Mountains and the Southwest from the 1870s until the towns declined in the 1890s. The Jewish peddler's foreign accent, dauntlessness, and business skill won him a distinct, rather complimentary image in American folklore. Those who usually started by carrying their stock in a pack on the back came to own a horse and wagon; later, when their success permitted, they quit itinerant trade to open a store. Partners and employees were usually drawn from members of the family. Jewish merchants during the middle and later 19th century established themselves not only in all large cities, but in many crossroads villages and in river towns the length of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. During this period they played a major role in establishing a continentwide commercial network. In addition they were wheat and cotton brokers, and conspicuous in U.S. international trade. The migration of Jewish merchants from small places to booming metropolitan centers is noticeable after the 1880s. Their most conspicuous activity was the establishment of *department stores, among them some of the world's largest. A retail enterprise of particular importance was Sears Roebuck, under the ownership of Julius Rosenwald, which published huge catalogs for mail order service, thereby nearly eliminating the itinerant country peddler's market. Other merchants, notably clothiers, began to manufacture the goods they sold. A small but highly important group branched into banking from their mercantile operations (see *Banking).
East European Jews who settled mainly in large cities had few opportunities for rural peddling. Their commercial efforts were mainly urban. In the Middle West they were scrap metal merchants for the steel mills; throughout the United States they were petty shopkeepers when they did not follow proletarian occupations. The great majority of New York City's 25,000 pushcart peddlers in 1900 were Jews, as were half of its 4,000 meat retailers in 1888. The city's commercial life has been largely in Jewish hands to the present day. About 1920, only 3% of Los Angeles Jews were peddlers, but manufacturers, proprietors, and shopkeepers amounted to 20%. Jews were numerous in U.S. commerce, especially in such branches as import and export, department stores, general merchants in small cities, and after 1945 in inter-city chain and discount stores. The slow decline of small retail trade in the U.S. and the movement of Jews into white-collar occupations and the professions decreased the place of Jews in U.S. commerce, but roughly one-third of gainfully employed U.S. Jews still made their living in wholesale and retail trade.
[Lloyd P. Gartner]
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