Cosmopolitan Networks in Commerce and Society 1660–1914

Jewish Consuls in the Mediterranean
Sephardic merchants in Tuscany somewhat later (1591) under the
aegis of a strong Jewish consulate was un doubtedly influenced by
this development. As I have noted, the tradition of the economic–
political consulate founded by Rodriga by no means stopped after
1600 in Italy. In Dalmatia, too, and specifically in Spalato, this tradition
continued into the first half of the seventeenth century. Consuls
known by name, for example, were Rodriga’s successors Yacob
Abenun (c.1610), 118 and Yoseph Penso (c.1630). 119 Penso also operated
as a spy for the Serenissima. 120 In 1638, a Venetian source mentioned
that Spalato officially had four well-to-do Jewish merchants
who acted as ‘consoli ordinarij’, and two others who claimed the title
and whose claim was tolerated. 121 That the activity of these consuls
went beyond purely commercial duties can be gathered from the
same source. Thus the anti-Jewish Christian author complained
about the alleged meddling of the consuls in all branches of urban
economic life and appealed to the Venetian authorities to reduce the
Jewish consulate to a ‘simple consulate’ (‘solo e semplice consolato’).
122
It is striking, however, that the model shaped by Rodriga and
Maggino, with a consul at the top, was weakening. There are many
indications that the idea of economic–political consulship was on the
wane after 1650. Although Jews were active as consuls in, for exam-
118 Ibid. 174.
119 On Penso, see Paci, La ‘scala’ di Spalato, 140, and Melita Švob, Židovi u
Hrvatskoj: židovske zajednice (Jews in Croatia: Jewish Communities), 2 vols.
(Zagreb, 2004), i. 65.
120 See Paolo Preto, I servizi segreti di Venezia (Milan, 1994), 484; Paci, La ‘scala’
di Spalato, 140. This, incidentally, broaches a subject that needs more detailed
research. The activity of Jewish consuls in Venice as spies and informants in
the service of the Serenissima has already been documented in the cases of
Saruq and Rodriga. In Florence in 1592, the Grand Duke gave Maggino the
mission of freeing Tuscan sailors captured in the Levant. All this indicates
that collaboration and contacts with the Christian authorities (if required,
even in the area of espionage) was of great importance for ‘economic–political
consuls’ like Rodriga.
121 ‘Relation aus Spalato des Conte und Capitano Bassadona’ (1638), quoted
in Paci, La ‘scala’ di Spalato, 138. Four regular consuls are named: Sentob
Samaja, Jacob Lucena, Joseph Penso, and Jacopo Abraff. The ‘irregular’ consuls
were Abraam Pap and Abraam Abraff.
122 Ibid. 138–9.
183