Encyclopaedia Judaica - Vol.06 (Dr-Feu) - WiccanGeek's Reading ...

economic history
the Low Countries; examples of less developed regions are the
countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
The discussion here of the early modern period will be
confined almost exclusively to Europe because most Jews
lived there (although Jews of course lived within the boundaries
of the Ottoman Empire, in the Middle East, and other
areas). Although the variety and heterogeneity of the European
situation make generalization hazardous, much of what
was done in one part of the continent to the Jews was more
or less emulated in other parts, because of the cultural affinities
within Christian Europe.
SEPHARDIM AND ASHKENAZIM. The Jewish communities in
Europe at the end of the 15th century were not homogeneous in
the cultural sense. The two mainstreams or dominant groups
were the *Sephardim, originating from the Spanish-Portuguese
Jews, and the *Ashkenazim, originating from the French
and German Jews. These two branches grew apart, especially
from the time of the Crusades. By the end of the 15th and beginning
of the 16th century, when the Sephardi Jews were
finally expelled from the Iberian Peninsula, the two major
“tribes” of European Jewry came into a much closer contact,
one resulting not in integration of the two, but in tolerable
coexistence and peripheral cross-cultural interchange.
The intellectual impact of the Sephardim was noticeable
primarily in one area, namely that of religious mysticism.
In other areas the Ashkenazim excelled the Sephardim in
the creative development of what could be termed Jewish
culture.
In the area of economic and social activity, the difference
between the Sephardim and Ashkenazim was profound. The
Sephardim were on the average much more affluent, skilled,
and better educated (at least in the secular sense) than the
Ashkenazim. In comparison the Ashkenazim were not only
less prosperous but less culturally influenced by the gentile
environment and less successful in any attempts at finding an
intellectual symbiosis between their own and the surrounding
culture. Therefore, the elements of the resource endowment
of the Sephardi Jews made them the more attractive group
of the two for settlement and employment in any European
country. The Sephardi Jews were able to bring into the new areas
of their settlement highly developed skills and craftsmanship
in the areas of luxury consumption and were therefore
highly valued by the influential consumers of such products
and services, by the nobility, gentry, and patricians – the ruling
classes of the contemporary societies. From available direct
and circumstantial evidence it becomes clear that some
of the Sephardi Jews were able to transfer portions of their
capital out of Spain and Portugal, and thus their settlement
in an area was accompanied by a capital import. It is interesting
to note that in most cases, as far as the Christian countries
are concerned, the Sephardi Jews were attracted to and
sought opportunities in the more economically advanced regions,
areas with both developed trade and crafts and with a
legal framework that did not hinder the economic activities
of a developed money economy. These were areas actively engaged
in foreign commerce in which the knowledge of commodity
and money markets possessed by Sephardi Jewish
merchants could be profitably utilized. An additional asset of
some Sephardi Jews was their knowledge gained from family
and former business connections in the Iberian Peninsula
and the overseas empires of Spain and Portugal. The Jewish
participation in trade with Spain, Portugal, and their colonies
never ceased, contrary to the myth of a worldwide Jewish boycott
of the Iberian Peninsula.
ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT. Thus it could be roughly assumed
that the “territory” of the Sephardim, at least during
the 16th and 17th centuries, was the city-states and commercial
centers of Europe, while the “territory” of the Ashkenazim
was the interior, the landmass or hinterland of Central
and Eastern Europe.
The economy of city-states like Genoa, Venice, and Dubrovnik
(Ragusa), or of commercial centers like Antwerp,
Amsterdam, and Hamburg, was based on international and
interregional trade and the exploitation of politically dependent
territories where trade was carried on or which were administered
by corporate bodies either in the form of trading
companies or governmental agencies acting on behalf of organized
mercantile interests. The main problem for the Jews,
as for any group of outsiders, and even more so because of
some peculiar restrictions or prejudices, was to gain entry
into the organized institutions of economic activity, whether
registered partnerships, trading companies, or later the commodity
and money exchanges. It was difficult, if not impossible,
for the Jews as newcomers to operate outside the institutional
framework except in areas where their specialized
skills or professions (such as medicine or science) would be
recognized as exceptionally useful for the polity or economy.
Thus, each outsider, including the Jews as individuals, had to
fit into the preexisting economic structure and social fabric,
upon neither of which he could expect to make any significant
impact. The process by which the Jews were economically
integrated in the city-states and commercial centers was
therefore primarily the sum total of adjustments by individuals
in these occupations and activities. Much depended on
individual skill or wealth, with very limited room left for the
collectivity of the Jews, the autonomous and organized Jewish
community, to influence significantly the pattern of economic
activity of its members.
The economic environment of the majority of the Ashkenazi
Jews in the areas of Central and Eastern Europe differed
from that in the city-states and in the major commercial areas.
In the latter the Jews were restricted in terms of numbers,
place of habitat, and areas of gainful employment, and
formed almost exclusively an urban element concentrated in
the major cities and confined largely to trade, some specialized
skills, and money and lending operations. The situation
of the Jews in Central and Eastern Europe, by contrast, can
be described as characterized by both greater opportunities
118 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6