The Jews and Modern Capitalism

Werner Sombart

Translated by M. Epstein

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  • Notes and References
  • Part I: The Contribution of the Jews to Modern Economic Life
  • Part II. The Aptitude of the Jews of Modern Capitalism
  • Part III. The Origin of the Jewish Genius
  • Chapter 14. The Vicissitudes of the Jewish People



  • Notes and References


    Werner Sombart is undoubtedly one of the most striking personalities in
    the Germany of to-day. Born in 1863, he has devoted himself to re-search
    in economics, and has contributed much that is valuable to eco-nomic
    thought. Though his work has not always been accepted without
    challenge, it has received universal recognition for its brilliance, and his
    reputation has drawn hosts of students to his lectures, both at Breslau,
    where he held the Chair of Economics at the University (1890--1906),
    and now in Berlin at the Handelshochschule, where he occupies a simi-lar
    position.
    But Sombart is an artist as well as a scholar; he combines reason
    with imagination in an eminent degree, and he has the gift, seldom enough
    associated with German professors, of writing in a lucid, flowing, al-most
    eloquent style. That is one characteristic of all his books, which
    are worth noting. The rise and development of modern capitalism has
    been the theme that has attracted him most, and his masterly treatment
    of it may be found in his Der moderne Kapitalismus (2 vols., Leipzig,
    1902). In 1896 he published Sozialismus und soziale Bewegung, which
    quickly went through numerous editions and may be described as one of
    the most widely read books in German-speaking countries.1 Die deutsche
    Volkswirtschaft im 19ten Jahrhundert appeared in 1903, and Das Pro-letariat
    in 1906.
    For some years past Sombart has been considering the revision of
    his magnum opus on modern capitalism, and in the course of his studies
    came across the problem, quite accidentally, as he himself tells us, of
    the relation between the Jews and modern capitalism. The topic fasci-nated
    him, and he set about inquiring what that relationship precisely
    was. The results of his labours were published in the book 2 of which this.6/Werner Sombart
    is an English edition.
    The English version is slightly shorter than the German original.
    The portions that have been left out (with the author's concurrence) are
    not very long and relate to general technical questions, such as the mod-ern
    race theory or the early history of credit instruments. Furthermore,
    everything found within square brackets has been added by the transla-tor.
    My best thanks are due to my wife, who has been constantly helpful
    with suggestions and criticisms, and to my friend Leon Simon for the
    verse rendering on pp. 000--000.
    M. E. London, April 21, 1913.
    Notes to Introduction
    1. An English version was prepared by the present writer and issued by
    Messrs. J. M. Dent Co. in 1909, under the title Socialism and the
    Social Movement.
    2. Die Juden und das Wirtschaftsleben. Leipzig: Duncker und Humblot.
    1911.

    Part I: The Contribution of the Jews to Modern Economic Life


    Chapter 1. Introductory


    Two possible methods may be used to discover to what extent any group
    of people participated in a particular form of economic organization.
    One is the statistical; the other may be termed the genetic.
    By means of the first we endeavour to ascertain the actual number
    of persons taking part in some economic activity -- say, those who
    establish trade with a particular country, or who found any given indus-try
    -- and then we calculate what percentage is represented by the mem-bers
    of the group in which we happen to be interested. There is no doubt
    that the statistical method has many advantages. A pretty clear concep-tion
    of the relative importance for any branch of commerce of, let us
    say, foreigners or Jews, is at once evolved if we are able to show by
    actual figures that 50 or 75 per cent of all the persons engaged in that
    branch belong to either the first or the second category named. More
    especially is this apparent when statistical information is forthcoming,
    not only as to the number of persons but also concerning other or more
    striking economic factors -- e.g., the amount of paid-up capital, the
    quantity of the commodities produced, the size of the turnover, and so
    forth. It will be useful, therefore, to adopt the statistical method in ques-tions
    such as the one we have set ourselves. But at the same time it will
    soon become evident that by its aid alone the complete solution cannot
    be found. In the first place, even the best statistics do not tell us every-thing;
    nay, often the most important aspect of what we are trying to
    discover is omitted. Statistics are silent as to the dynamic effects which.8/Werner Sombart
    strong individualities produce in economic, as indeed in all human life
    -- effects which have consequences reaching far beyond the limits of
    their immediate surroundings. Their actual importance for the general
    tendency of any particular development is greater far than any set of
    figures can reveal. Therefore the statistical method must be supplemented
    by some other.
    But more than this. The statistical method, owing to lack of infor-mation,
    cannot always be utilized. It is indeed a lucky accident that we
    possess figures recording the numberof those engaged in any industry
    or trade, and showing their comparative relation to the rest of the popu-lation.
    But a statistical study of this kind, on a large scale, is really only
    a possibility for modern and future times. Even then the path of the
    investigator is beset by difficulties. Still, a careful examination of vari-ous
    sources, including the assessments made by Jewish communities on
    their members, may lead to fruitful results. I hope that this book will
    give an impetus to such studies, of which, at the present time, there is
    only one that is really useful -- the enquiry of Sigmund Mayr, of Vienna.
    When all is said, therefore, the other method (the genetic), to which
    I have already alluded, must be used to supplement the results of statis-tics.
    What is this method? We wish to discover to what extent a group of
    people (the Jews) influence or have influenced the form and develop-ment
    of modern economic life -- to discover, that is, their qualitative or,
    as I have already called it, their dynamic importance. We can do this
    best of all by enquiring whether certain characteristics that mark our
    modern economic life were given their first form by Jews, i.e., either
    that some particular form of organization was first introduced by the
    Jews, or that some well-known business principles, now accepted on all
    hands as fundamental, are specific expressions of the Jewish spirit. This
    of necessity demands that the history of the factors in economic devel-opment
    should be traced to their earliest beginnings. In other words, we
    must study the childhood of the modern capitalistic system, or, at any
    rate, the age in which it received its modern form. But not the childhood
    only: its whole history must be considered. For throughout, down to
    these very days, new elements are constantly entering the fabric of capi-talism
    and changes appear in its characteristics. Wherever such are noted
    our aim must be to discover to whose influence they are due. Often
    enough this will not be easy; sometimes it will even be impossible; and
    scientific imagination must come to the aid of the scholar.
    Another point should not be overlooked. In many cases the people.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/9
    who are responsible for a fundamental idea or innovation in economic
    life are not always the inventors (using that word in its narrowest mean-ing).
    It has often been asserted that the Jews have no inventive powers;
    that not only technical but also economic discoveries were made by
    non-Jews alone, and that the Jews have always been able cleverly to
    utilize the ideas of others. I dissent from this general view in its entirety.
    We meet with Jewish inventors in the sphere of technical science, and
    certainly in that of economics, as I hope to show in this work. But even
    if the assertion which we have mentioned were true, it would prove
    nothing against the view that Jews have given certain aspects of eco-nomic
    life the specific features they bear. In the economic world it is not
    so much the inventors that matter as those who are able to apply the
    inventions: not those who conceive ideas (e.g., the hire-purchase sys-tem)
    as those who can utilize them in everyday life.
    Before proceeding to the problem before us -- the share of the Jews
    in the work of building up our modern capitalistic system -- we must
    mention one other point of importance. In a specialized study of this
    kind Jewish influence may appear larger than it actually was. That is in
    the nature of our study, where the whole problem is looked at from only
    one point of view. If we were enquiring into the influence of mechanical
    inventions on modern economic life the same would apply: in a mono-graph
    that influence would tend to appear larger than it really was. I
    mention this point, obvious though it is, lest it be said that I have exag-gerated
    the part played by the Jews. There were undoubtedly a thousand
    and one other causes that helped to make the economic system of our
    time what it is. Without the discovery of America and its silver trea-sures,
    without the mechanical inventions of technical science, without
    the ethnical peculiarities of modern European nations and their vicissi-tudes,
    capitalism would have been as impossible as without the Jews.
    In the long story of capitalism, Jewish influence forms but one chap-ter.
    Its relative importance to the others I shall show in the new edition
    of my Modern Capitalism, which I hope to have ready before long.
    This caveat will, I trust, help the general reader to a proper appre-ciation
    of the influence of Jews on modern economic life. But it must be
    taken in conjunction with another. If on the one hand we are to make
    some allowance, should our studies apparently tend to give Jews a pre-ponderating
    weight in economic affairs, on the other hand, their contri-bution
    is very often even larger than we are led to believe. For our
    researches can deal only with one portion of the problem, seeing that all.10/Werner Sombart
    the material is not available. Who to-day knows anything definite about
    the individuals, or groups, who founded this or that industry, estab-lished
    this or that branch of commerce, first adopted this or that busi-ness
    principle? And even where we are able to name these pioneers with
    certainty, there comes the further question, were they Jews or not?
    Jews -- that is to say, members of the people who profess the Jew-ish
    faith. And I need hardly add that although in this definition I pur-posely
    leave out any reference to race characteristics, it yet includes
    those Jews who have withdrawn from their religious community, and
    even descendants of such, seeing that historically they remain Jews.
    This must be borne in mind, for when we are determining the influence
    of the Jew on modern economic life, again and again men appear on the
    scene as Christians, who in reality are Jews. They or their fathers were
    baptized, that is all. The assumption that many Jews in all ages changed
    their faith is not far fetched. We hear of cases from the earliest Middle
    Ages; in Italy, in the 7th and 8th centuries; at the same period in Spain
    and in the Merovingian kingdoms; and from that time to this we find
    them among all Christian nations. In the last third of the 19th century,
    indeed, wholesale baptisms constantly occurred. But we have reliable
    figures for the last two or three decades only, and I am therefore inclined
    to doubt the statement of Jacob Fromer that towards the end of the
    twenties in last century something like half the Jews of Berlin had gone
    over to Christianity.1 Equally improbable is the view of Dr. Wemer,
    Rabbi in Munich, who, in a paper which he recently read, stated that
    altogether 120,000 Jews have been baptized in Berlin. The most reliable
    figures we have are all against such a likelihood. According to these, it
    was in the nineties that apostasy on a large scale first showed itself, and
    even then the highest annual percentage never exceeded 1.28 (in 1905),
    while the average percentage per annum (since 1895) was 1. Neverthe-less,
    the number of Jews in Berlin who from 1873 to 1906 went over to
    Christianity was not small; their total was 1869 precisely.2
    The tendency to apostasy is stronger among Austrian Jews, espe-cially
    among those of Vienna. At the present time, between five and six
    hundred Jews in that city renounce their faith every year, and from 1868
    to 1903 there have been no less than 9085. The process grows apace; in
    the years 1868 to 1879 there was on an average one baptism annually
    for every 1200 Jews; in the period 1880 to 1889 it was one for 420--430
    Jews; while between 1890 and 1903 it had reached one for every 260--
    270. 3.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/11
    But the renegade Jews are not the only group whose influence on
    the economic development of our time it is difficult to estimate. There
    are others to which the same applies. I am not thinking of the Jewesses
    who married into Christian families, and who, though they thus ceased
    to be Jewish, at any rate in name, must nevertheless have retained their
    Jewish characteristics. The people I have in mind are the crypto-Jews,
    who played so important a part in history, and whom we encounter in
    every century. In some periods they formed a very large section of Jewry.
    But their non-Jewish pose was so admirably sustained that among their
    contemporaries they passed as Christians or Mohammedans. We are
    told, for example, of the Jews of the South of France in the 15th and
    16th centuries, who came originally from Spain and Portugal (and the
    description applies to the Marannos everywhere): "They practised all
    the outward forms of Catholicism; their births, marriages and deaths
    were entered on the registers of the church, and they received the sacra-ments
    of baptism, marriage and extreme unction. Some even took or-ders
    and became priests."4 No wonder then that they do not appear as
    Jews in the reports of commercial enterprises, industrial undertakings
    and so forth. Some historians even to-day speak in admiring phrase of
    the beneficial influence of Spanish or Portuguese "immigrants." So skil-fully
    did the crypto-Jews hide their racial origin that specialists in the
    field of Jewish history are still in doubt as to whether a certain family
    was Jewish or not.5 In those cases where they adopted Christian names,
    the uncertainty is even greater. There must have been a large number of
    Jews among the Protestant refugees in the 17th century. General rea-sons
    would warrant this assumption, but when we take into consider-ation
    the numerous Jewish names found among the Huguenots the prob-ability
    is strong indeed.6
    Finally, our enquiries will not be able to take any account of all
    those Jews who, prior to 1848, took an active part in the economic life
    of their time, but who were unknown to the authorities. The laws for-bade
    Jews to exercise their callings. They were therefore compelled to
    do so, either under cover of some fictitious Christian person or under
    the protection of a "privileged" Jew, or they were forced to resort to
    some other trick in order to circumvent the law. Reliable authorities are
    of opinion that the number of Jews who in many a town lived secretly in
    this way must have been exceedingly large. In the forties of last century,
    for example, it is said that no less than 12,000 Jews, at a moderate
    estimate, were to be found in Vienna. The wholesale textile trade was at.12/Werner Sombart
    that time already in their hands, and entire districts in the centre of the
    city were full of Jewish shops. But the official list of traders of 1845
    contained in an appendix the names of only sixty-three Jews, who were
    described as "tolerated Jewish traders," and these were allowed to deal
    only in a limited number of articles.7
    But enough. My point was to show that, for many and various rea-sons,
    the number of Jews of whom we hear is less than those who actu-ally
    existed. The reader should therefore bear in mind that the contribu-tion
    of the Jews to the fabric of modern economic life will, of necessity,
    appear smaller than it was in reality.
    What that contribution was we shall now proceed to show.

    Chapter 2. The Shifting of the Centre of Economic Life since the Sixteenth Century


    One of the most important facts in the growth of modern economic life
    is the removal of the centre of economic activity from the nations of
    Southern Europe -- the Italians, Spaniards and Portuguese, with whom
    must also be reckoned some South German lands -- to those of the
    North-West -- the Dutch, the French, the English and the North Ger-mans.
    The epoch-making event in the process was Holland's sudden
    rise to prosperity, and this was the impetus for the development of the
    economic possibilities of France and England. All through the 17th cen-tury
    the philosophic speculators and the practical politicians among the
    nations of North-Western Europe had but one aim: to imitate Holland in
    commerce, in industry, in shipping and in colonization.
    The most ludicrous explanations of this well-known fact have been
    suggested by historians. It has been said, for example, that the cause
    which led to the economic decline of Spain and Portugal and of the
    Italian and South German city states was the discovery of America and
    of the new route to the East Indies; that the same cause lessened the
    volume of the commerce of the Levant, and therefore undermined the
    position of the Italian commercial cities which depended upon it. But
    this explanation is not in any way satisfactory. In the first place, Levantine
    commerce maintained its pre-eminence throughout the whole of the 17th
    and 18th centuries, and during this period the prosperity of the maritime
    cities in the South of France, as well as that of Hamburg, was very
    closely bound up with it. In the second place, a number of Italian towns,.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/13
    Venice among them, which in the 17th century lost all their importance,
    participated to a large extent in the trade of the Levant in the 16th cen-tury,
    and that despite the neglect of the trade route. It is a little difficult
    to understand why the nations which had played a leading part until the
    15th century -- the Italians, the Spaniards, the Portuguese -- should
    have suffered in the least because of the new commercial relations with
    America and the East Indies, or why they should have been placed at
    any disadvantage by their geographical position as compared with that
    of the French, the English or the Dutch. As though the way from Genoa
    to America or the West Indies were not the same as from Amsterdam or
    London or Hamburg! As though the Spanish and Portuguese ports were
    not the nearest to the new lands -- lands which had been discovered by
    Italians and Portuguese, and had been taken possession of by the Portu-guese
    and the Spaniards!
    Equally unconvincing is another reason which is often given. It is
    asserted that the countries of North-Western Europe were strong con-solidated
    states, while Germany and Italy were disunited, and accord-ingly
    the former were able to take up a stronger position than the latter.
    Here, too, we ask in wonder whether the powerful Queen of the Adriatic
    was a weaker state in the 16th century than the Seven Provinces in the
    17th? And did not the empire of Philip II excel all the kingdoms of his
    time in power and renown? Why was it, moreover, that, although Ger-many
    was in a state of political disruption, certain of its cities, like
    Hamburg or Frankfort-on-the-Main, reached a high degree of develop-ment
    in the 17th and 18th centuries, such as few French or English cities
    could rival?
    This is not the place to go into the question in all its many-sidedness.
    A number of causes contributed to bring about the results we have men-tioned.
    But from the point of view of our problem one possibility should
    not be passed over which, in my opinion, deserves most serious consid-eration,
    and which, so far as I know, has not yet been thought of. Cannot
    we bring into connexion the shifting of the economic centre from South-ern
    to Northern Europe with the wanderings of the Jews? The mere
    suggestion at once throws a flood of light on the events of those days,
    hitherto shrouded in semi-darkness. It is indeed surprising that the par-allelism
    has not before been observed between Jewish wanderings and
    settlement on the one hand, and the economic vicissitudes of the differ-ent
    peoples and states on the other. Israel passes over Europe like the
    sun: at its coming new life bursts forth; at its going all falls into decay..14/Werner Sombart
    A short résumé of the changing fortunes of the Jewish people since the
    15th century will lend support to this contention.
    The first event to be recalled, an event of world-wide import, is the
    expulsion of the Jews from Spain (1492) and from Portugal (1495 and
    1497). It should never be forgotten that on the day before Columbus set
    sail from Palos to discover America (August 3, 1492) 300,000 Jews are
    said to have emigrated from Spain to Navarre, France, Portugal and the
    East; nor that, in the years during which Vasco da Gama searched for
    and found the sea-passage to the East Indies, the Jews were driven from
    other parts of the Pyrenean Peninsula.1
    It was by a remarkable stroke of fate that these two occurrences,
    equally portentous in their significance -- the opening-up of new conti-nents
    and the mightiest upheavals in the distribution of the Jewish people
    -- should have coincided. But the expulsion of the Jews from the
    Pyrenean Peninsula did not altogether put an end to their history there.
    Numerous Jews remained behind as pseudo-Christians (Marannos), and
    it was only as the Inquisition, from the days of Philip II onwards, be-came
    more and more relentless that these Jews were forced to leave the
    land of their birth.2 During the centuries that followed, and especially
    towards the end of the 16th, the Spanish and Portuguese Jews settled in
    other countries. It was during this period that the doom of the economic
    prosperity of the Pyrenean Peninsula was sealed.
    With the 15th century came the expulsion of the Jews from the Ger-man
    commercial cities -- from Cologne (1424--5), from Augsburg
    (1439--40), from Strassburg (1438), from Erfurt (1458), from Nuremberg
    (1498--9), from Ulm (1499), and from Ratisbon (1519).
    The same fate overtook them in the 16th century in a number of
    Italian cities. They were driven from Sicily (1492), from Naples (1540--
    1), from Genoa and from Venice (1550). Here also economic decline
    and Jewish emigration coincided in point of time.
    On the other hand, the rise to economic importance, in some cases
    quite unexpectedly, of the countries and towns whither the refugees fled,
    must be dated from the first appearance of the Spanish Jews. A good
    example is that of Leghorn,3 one of the few Italian cities which enjoyed
    economic prosperity in the 16th century. Now Leghorn was the goal of
    most of the exiles who made for Italy. In Germany it was Hamburg and
    Frankfort 4 that admitted the Jewish settlers. And remarkable to relate, a
    keen-eyed traveller in the 18th century wandering all over Germany
    found everywhere that the old commercial cities of the Empire, Ulm,.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/15
    Nuremberg, Augsburg, Mayence and Cologne, had fallen into decay,
    and that the only two that were able to maintain their former splendour,
    and indeed to add to it from day to day, were Frankfort and Hamburg.5
    In France in the 17th and 18th centuries the rising towns were
    Marseilles, Bordeaux, Rouen -- again the havens of refuge of the Jew-ish
    exiles.6
    As for Holland, it is well-known that at the end of the 16th century
    a sudden upward development (in the capitalistic sense) took place there.
    The first Portuguese Marannos settled in Amsterdam in 1593, and very
    soon their numbers increased. The first synagogue in Amsterdam was
    opened in 1598, and by about the middle of the 17th century there were
    Jewish communities in many Dutch cities. In Amsterdam, at the begin-ning
    of the 18th century, the estimated number of Jews was 2400. 7 But
    even by the middle of the 17th century their intellectual influence was
    already marked; the writers on international law and the political phi-losophers
    speak of the ancient Hebrew commonwealth as an ideal which
    the Dutch constitution might well seek to emulate.8 The Jews themselves
    called Amsterdam at that time their grand New Jerusalem.9
    Many of the Dutch settlers had come from the Spanish Netherlands,
    especially from Antwerp, whither they had fled on their expulsion from
    Spain. It is true that the proclamations of 1532 and 1539 forbade the
    pseudo-Christians to remain in Antwerp, but they proved ineffective.
    The prohibition was renewed in 1550, but this time it referred only to
    those who had not been domiciled for six years. But this too remained a
    dead letter: "the crypto-Jews are increasing from day to day." They took
    an active part in the struggle for freedom in which the Netherlands were
    engaged, and its result forced them to wander to the more northerly
    provinces.10 Now it is a remarkable thing that the brief space during
    which Antwerp became the commercial centre and the money-market of
    the world should have been just that between the coming and the going
    of the Marannos.11
    It was the same in England. The economic development of the coun-try,
    in other words, the growth of capitalism,12 ran parallel with the
    influx of Jews, mostly of Spanish andPortuguese origin.13
    It was believed that there were no Jews in England from the time of
    their expulsion under Edward I (1290) until their more or less officially
    recognized return under Cromwell (1654--56). The best authorities on
    Anglo-Jewish history are now agreed that this is a mistake. There were
    always Jews in England; but not till the 16th century did they begin to.16/Werner Sombart
    be numerous. Already in the reign of Elizabeth many were met with,
    and the Queen herself had a fondness for Hebrew studies and for inter-course
    with Jews. Her own physician was a Jew, Rodrigo Lopez, on
    whom Shakespeare modelled his Shylock. Later on, as is generally
    known, the Jews, as a result of the efforts of Manasseh ben Israel, ob-tained
    the right of unrestricted domicile. Their numbers were increased
    by further streams of immigrants including, after the 18th century, Jews
    from Germany, until, according to the author of the Anglia Judaica,
    there were 6000 Jews in London alone in the year 1738. 14
    When all is said, however, the fact that the migration of the Jews
    and the economic vicissitudes of peoples were coincident events does
    not necessarily prove that the arrival of Jews in any land was the only
    cause of its rise or their departure the only cause of its decline. To assert
    as much would be to argue on the fallacy "post hoc, ergo propter hoc."
    Nor are the arguments of later historians on this subject conclusive, and
    therefore I will not mention any in support of my thesis.15 But the opin-ions
    of contemporaries always, as I think, deserve attention. So I will
    acquaint the reader with some of them, for very often a word suffices to
    throw a flood of light on their age.
    When the Senate of Venice, in 1550, decided to expel the Marannos
    and to forbid commercial intercourse with them, the Christian merchants
    of the city declared that it wouldmean their ruin and that they might as
    well leave Venice with the exiles, seeing that they made their living by
    trading with the Jews. The Jews controlled the Spanish wool trade, the
    trade in Spanish silk and crimsons, sugar, pepper, Indian spices and
    pearls. A great part of the entire export trade was carried on by Jews,
    who supplied the Venetians with goods to be sold on commission; and
    they were also bill-brokers.16
    In England the Jews found a protector in Cromwell, who was actu-ated
    solely by considerations of an economic nature. He believed that he
    would need the wealthy Jewish merchants to extend the financial and
    commercial prosperity of the country. Nor was he blind to the useful-ness
    of having moneyed support for the government.17
    Like Cromwell, Colbert, the great French statesman of the 17th
    century, was also sympathetically inclined towards the Jews, and in my
    opinion it is of no small significance that these two organizers, both of
    whom consolidated modern European states, should have been so keenly
    alive to the fitness of the Jew in aiding the economic (i.e., capitalistic)
    progress of a country. In one of his Ordinances to the Intendant of.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/17
    Languedoc, Colbert points out what great benefits the city of Marseilles
    derived from the commercial capabilities of the Jews.18 The inhabitants
    of the great French trading centres in which the Jews played an impor-tant
    role were in no need of being taught the lesson; they knew it from
    their own experience and, accordingly, they brought all their influence
    to bear on keeping their Jewish fellow-citizens within their walls. Again
    and again we hear laudatory accounts of the Jews, more especially from
    the inhabitants of Bordeaux. In 1675 an army of mercenaries ravaged
    Bordeaux, and many of the rich Jews prepared to depart. The Town
    Council was terrified, and the report presented by its members is worth
    quoting. "The Portuguese who occupy whole streets and do consider-able
    business have asked for their passports. They and those aliens who
    do a very large trade are resolved to leave; indeed, the wealthiest among
    them, Gaspar Gonzales and Alvares, have already departed. We are
    very much afraid that commerce will cease altogether."19 A few years
    later the Sous-Intendant of Languedoc summed up the situation in the
    words "without them (the Jews) the trade of Bordeaux and of the whole
    province would be inevitably ruined."20
    We have already seen how the fugitives from the Iberian Peninsula
    in the 16th century streamed into Antwerp, the commercial metropolis
    of the Spanish Netherlands. About the middle of the century, the Em-peror
    in a decree dated July 17, 1549 withdrew the privileges which had
    been accorded them. Thereupon the mayor and sheriffs, as well as the
    Consul of the city, sent a petition to the Bishop of Arras in which they
    showed the obstacles in the way of carrying out the Imperial mandate.
    The Portuguese, they pointed out, were large undertakers; they had
    brought great wealth with them from the lands of their birth, and they
    maintained an extensive trade. "We must bear in mind," they continued,
    "that Antwerp has grown great gradually, and that a long space of time
    was needed before it could obtain possession of its commerce. Now the
    ruin of the city would necessarily bring with it the ruin of the land, and
    all this must be carefully considered before the Jews are expelled." In-deed,
    the mayor, Nicholas Van den Meeren, went even further in the
    matter. When Queen Mary of Hungary, the Regent of the Netherlands,
    was staying in Ruppelmonde, he paid her a visit in order to defend the
    cause of the New Christians, and excused the conduct of the rulers of
    Antwerp in not publishing the Imperial decree by informing her that it
    was contrary to all the best interests of the city.21 His efforts, however,
    were unsuccessful, and the Jews, as we have already seen, left Antwerp.18/Werner Sombart
    for Amsterdam.
    Antwerp lost no small part of its former glory by reason of the
    departure of the Jews, and in the 17th century especially it was realized
    how much they contributed to bring about material prosperity. In 1653
    a committee was appointed to consider the question whether the Jews
    should be allowed into Antwerp, and it expressed itself on the matter in
    the following terms: "And as for the inconveniences which are to be
    feared and apprehended in the public interest -- that they (the Jews)
    will attract to themselves all trade, that they will be guilty of a thousand
    frauds and tricks, and that by their usury they will devour the wealth of
    good Catholics -- it seems to us on the contrary that by the trade which
    they will expand far beyond its present limits the benefit derived will be
    for the good of the whole land, and gold and silver will be available in
    greater quantities for the needs of the state."22
    The Dutch in the 17th century required no such recommendations;
    they were fully alive to the gain which the Jews brought. When Manasseh
    ben Israel left Amsterdam on his famous mission to England, the Dutch
    Government became anxious; they feared lest it should be a question of
    transplanting the Dutch Jews to England, and they therefore instructed
    Neuport, their ambassador in London, to sound Manasseh as to his
    intentions. He reported (December 1655) that all was well, and that
    there was no cause for apprehension. "Manasseh ben Israel hath been to
    see me, and did assure me that he doth not desire anything for the Jews
    in Holland but only for those as sit in the Inquisition in Spain and Por-tugal."
    23
    It is the same tale in Hamburg. In the 17th century the importance
    of the Jews had grown to such an extent that they were regarded as
    indispensable to the growth of Hamburg's prosperity. On one occasion
    the Senate asked that permission should be given for synagogues to be
    built, otherwise, they feared, the Jews would leave Hamburg, and the
    city might then be in danger of sinking to a mere village.24 On another
    occasion, in 1697, when it was suggested that the Jews should be ex-pelled,
    the merchants earnestly entreated the Senate for help, in order to
    prevent the serious endangering of Hamburg's commerce.25 Again, in
    1733, in a special report, now in the Archives of the Senate, we may
    read: "In bill-broking, in trade with jewellery and braid and in the manu-facture
    of certain cloths the Jews have almost a complete mastery, and
    have surpassed our own people. In the past there was no need to take
    cognizance of them, but now they are increasing in numbers. There is.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/19
    no section of the great merchant class, the manufacturers and those who
    supply commodities for daily needs, but the Jews form an important
    element therein. They have become a necessary evil."26 To the callings
    enumerated in which the Jews took a prominent part, we must add that
    of marine insurance brokers.27
    So much for the judgment of contemporaries. But as a complete
    proof even that will not serve. We must form our own judgment from
    the facts, and therefore our first aim must be to seek these out. That
    means that we must find from the original sources what contributions
    the Jews made to the building-up of our modern economic life from the
    end of the 15th century onward -- the period, that is, when Jewish
    history and general European economic progress both tended in the same
    direction. We shall then also be able to state definitely to what extent the
    Jews influenced the shifting of the centre of economic life.
    My own view is, as I may say in anticipation, that the importance of
    the Jews was twofold. On the one hand, they influenced the outward
    form of modern capitalism; on the other, they gave expression to its
    inward spirit. Under the first heading, the Jews contributed no small
    share in giving to economic relations the international aspect they bear
    to-day; in helping the modern state, that framework of capitalism, to
    become what it is; and lastly, in giving the capitalistic organization its
    peculiar features, by inventing a good many details of the commercial
    machinery which moves the business life of to-day, and co-operating in
    the perfecting of others. Under the second heading, the importance of
    the Jews is so enormous because they, above all others, endowed eco-nomic
    life with its modern spirit; they seized upon the essential idea of
    capitalism and carried it to its fullest development.
    We shall consider these points in turn, in order to obtain a proper
    notion of the problem. Our intention is to do no more than ask a ques-tion
    or two, and here and there to suggest an answer. We want merely to
    set the reader thinking. It will be for later research to gather sufficient
    material by which to judge whether, and to what extent, the views as to
    cause and effect here propounded have any foundation in actual fact.

    Chapter 3. The Quickening of International Trade


    The transformation of European commerce which has taken place since
    the shifting of the centre of economic activity owed a tremendous debt
    to the Jews. If we consider nothing but the quantity of commodities that.20/Werner Sombart
    passed through their hands, their position is unique. Exact statistics are,
    as I have already remarked, almost non-existent; special research may,
    however, bring some figures to light that will be useful. At present there
    is, to my knowledge, only some slight material on this head, but its
    value cannot be overestimated.
    It would appear that even before their formal admission into En-gland
    -- that is, in the first half of the 17th century -- the extent of the
    trade in the hands of Jews totalled one-twelfth of that of the whole king-dom.
    1 Unfortunately we are not told on what authority this calculation
    rests, but that it cannot be far from the truth is apparent from a state-ment
    in a petition of the merchants of London. The question was whether
    Jews should pay the duty on imports levied on foreigners. The petition-ers
    point out that if the Jews were exempted, the Crown would sustain a
    loss of ten thousand pounds annually.2
    We are remarkably well informed as to the proportion of trading
    done by Jews at the Leipzig fairs,3 and as these were for a long period
    the centre of German commerce, we have here a standard by which to
    measure its intensive and extensive development. But not alone for Ger-many.
    One or two of the neighbouring countries, especially Bohemia
    and Poland, can also be included in the survey. From the end of the 17th
    century onwards we find that the Jews take an increasing share in the
    fairs, and all the authorities who have gone into the figures are agreed
    that it was the Jews who gave to the Leipzig fairs their great impor-tance.
    4
    It is only since the Easter fair of 1756 that we are able to compare
    the Jewish with the Christian traders, as far as numbers are concerned,
    for it is only from that date that the Archives possess statistics of the
    latter. The average number of Jews attending the Leipzig fair was as
    follows: --
    1675-1680 416
    1681-1690 489
    1691-1691 834
    1701-1710 854
    1711-1720 769
    1721-1730 899
    1731-1740 874
    1741-1748 708
    1767-1769 995.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/21
    1770-1779 1652
    1780-1789 1073
    1790-1799 1473
    1800-1809 3370
    1810-1819 4896
    1820-1829 3747
    1830-1839 6444
    Note especially the speedy increase towards the end of the 17th and
    18th centuries and also at the beginning of the 19th.
    If we glance at the period 1766 to 1839, we see that the fairs were
    visited annually by an average of 3185 Jews and 13,005 Christians --
    that is to say, the Jews form 24.49 per cent, or nearly one-quarter of the
    total number of Christian merchants. Indeed, in some years, as for ex-ample
    between 1810 and 1820, the Jewish visitors form 33% per cent of
    the total of their colleagues (4896 Jews and 14,366 Christians). This is
    significant enough, and there is no need to lay stress on the fact that in
    all probability the figures given in the table are underestimated.
    The share taken by Jews in the commerce of a country may some-times
    be ascertained by indirect means. We know, for example, that the
    trade of Hamburg with Spain and Portugal, and also with Holland, in
    the 17th century was almost entirely in the hands of the Jews.5 Now
    some 20 per cent. of the ships' cargoes leaving Hamburg were destined
    for the Iberian Peninsula, and some 30 per cent for Holland.6
    Take another instance. The Levant trade was the most important
    branch of French commerce in the 18th century. A contemporary au-thority
    informs us that it was entirely controlled by Jews -- "buyers,
    sellers, middlemen, bill-brokers, agents and so forth were all Jews."7
    In the 16th and 17th centuries, and even far into the 18th, the trade
    of the Levant as well as that with, and via, Spain and Portugal, was the
    broadest stream in the world's commerce. This mere generalization goes
    far to prove how preeminent, from the purely quantitative point of view,
    the Jews were in forwarding the development of international intercourse.
    Already in Spain the Jews had managed to obtain control of the greater
    portion of the Levant trade, and everywhere in the Levantine ports Jew-ish
    offices and warehouses were to be found. Many Spanish Jews at the
    time of the expulsion from Spain settled in the East; the others jour-neyed
    northwards. So it came about that almost imperceptibly the
    Levantine trade became associated with the more northerly peoples. In.22/Werner Sombart
    Holland, more especially, is the effect of this seen: Holland became a
    commercial country of world-wide influence. Altogether, the commer-cial
    net, so to say, became bigger and stronger in proportion as the Jews
    established their offices, on the one hand further afield, on the other in
    closer proximity to each other.8 More particularly was this the case
    when the Western Hemisphere -- largely through Jewish influence --
    was drawn into the commerce of the world. We shall have more to say
    on this aspect of the question in connexion with the part the Jews played
    in colonial foundations.
    Another means by which we may gain a clear conception of what
    the Jews did for the extension of modern commerce is to discover the
    kind of commodities in which they for the most part traded. The quality
    of the commerce matters more than its quantity. It was by the character
    of their trade that they partially revolutionized the older forms, and thus
    helped to make commerce what it is to-day.
    Here we are met by a striking fact. The Jews for a long time practi-cally
    monopolized the trade in articles of luxury, and to the fashionable
    world of the aristocratic 17th and 18th centuries this trade was of su-preme
    moment. What sort of commodities, then, did the Jews specialize
    in? Jewellery, precious stones, pearls and silks.9 Gold and silver jewellery,
    because they had always been prominent in the market for precious
    metals. Pearls and stones, because they were among the first to settle in
    those lands (especially Brazil) where these are to be found; and silks,
    because of their ancient connexions with the trading centres of the Ori-ent.
    Moreover, Jews were to be found almost entirely, or at least pre-dominantly,
    in such branches of trade as were concerned with exporta-tion
    on a large scale. Nay, I believe it may with justice be asserted that
    the Jews were the first to place on the world's markets the staple articles
    of modern commerce. Side by side with the products of the soil, such as
    wheat, wool, flax, and, later on, distilled spirits, they dealt throughout
    the 18th century specially in textiles,10 the output of a rapidly growing
    capitalistic industry, and in those colonial products which for the first
    time became articles of international trade, viz., sugar and tobacco. I
    have little doubt that when the history of commerce in modern times
    comes to be written Jewish traders will constantly be met with in
    connexion with enterprises on a large scale. The references which quite
    by accident have come under my notice are already sufficient to prove
    the truth of this assertion.11.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/23
    Perhaps the most far-reaching, because the most revolutionary, in-fluence
    of the Jews on the development of economic life was due to their
    trade in new commodities, in the preparation of which new methods
    supplanted the old. We may mention cotton,12 cotton goods of foreign
    make, indigo and so forth.13 Dealing in these articles was looked upon at
    the time as "spoiling sport," and therefore Jews were taunted by one
    German writer with carrying on "unpatriotic trade"14 or "Jew-commerce,
    which gave little employment to German labour, and depended for the
    most part on home consumption only."15
    Another great characteristic of "Jew-commerce," one which all later
    commerce took for its model, was its variety and many-sidedness. When
    in 1740 the merchants of Montpelier complained of the competition of
    the Jewish traders, the Intendant replied that if they, the Christians, had
    such well-assorted stocks as the Jews, customers would come to them
    as willingly as they went to their Jewish competitors.16 We hear the same
    of the Jews at the Leipzig fairs: "The Jewish traders had a beneficial
    influence on the trade of the fairs, in that their purchases were so varied.
    Thus it was the Jews who tended to make trade many-sided and forced
    industry (especially the home industries) to develop in more than one
    direction. Indeed, at many fairs the Jews became the arbiters of the
    market by reason of their extensive purchases."17
    But the greatest characteristic of "Jew-commerce" during the ear-lier
    capitalistic age was, to my mind, the supremacy which Jewish trad-ers
    obtained, either directly or by way of Spain and Portugal, in the
    lands from which it was possible to draw large supplies of ready money.
    I am thinking of the newly discovered gold and silver countries in Cen-tral
    and South America. Again and again we find it recorded that Jews
    brought ready money into the country.18 The theoretical speculator and
    the practical politician knew well enough that here was the source of all
    capitalistic development. We too, now that the mists of Adam Smith's
    doctrines have lifted, have realized the same thing. The establishment of
    modern economic life meant, for the most part, and of necessity, the
    obtaining of the precious metals, and in this work no one was so suc-cessfully
    engaged as the Jewish traders. This leads us at once to the
    subject of the next chapter, which deals with the share of the Jews in
    colonial expansion..24/Werner Sombart

    Chapter 4. The Foundation of Modern Colonies


    We are only now beginning to realize that colonial expansion was no
    small force in the development of modern capitalism. It is the purpose of
    this chapter to show that in the work of that expansion the Jews played,
    if not the most decisive, at any rate a most prominent part.
    That the Jews should have been keen colonial settlers was only natu-ral,
    seeing that the New World, though it was but the Old in a new garb,
    seemed to hold out a greater promise of happiness to them than cross-grained
    old Europe, more especially when their last Dorado (Spain)
    proved an inhospitable refuge. And this applies equally to all colonial
    enterprises, whether in the East or the West or the South of the globe.
    There were probably many Jews resident in the East Indies even in me-diaeval
    times,1 and when the nations of Europe, after 1498, stretched
    out their hands to seize the lands of an ancient civilization, the Jews
    were welcomed as bulwarks of European supremacy, though they came
    as pioneers of trade. In all likelihood -- exact proofs have not yet been
    established -- the ships of the Portuguese and of the Dutch must have
    brought shoals of Jewish settlers to their respective Indian possessions.
    At any rate, Jews participated extensively in all the Dutch settlements,
    including those in the East. We are told that Jews were large sharehold-ers
    in the Dutch East India Company.2 We know that the Governor of
    the Company who, "if he did not actually establish the power of Hol-land
    in Java, certainly contributed most to strengthen it,"3 was called
    Cohn (Coen). Furthermore, a glance at the portraits of the Governors of
    the Dutch colonies would make it appear that this Coen is not the only
    Jew among them.4 Jews were also Directors of the Company;5 in short,
    no colonial enterprise was complete without them.6
    It is as yet unknown to what extent the Jews shared in the growth of
    economic life in India after the English became masters there. We have,
    however, fairly full information as to the participation of the Jews in the
    founding of the English colonies in South Africa and Australia. There is
    no doubt that in these regions (more particularly in Cape Colony), well-nigh
    all economic development was due to the Jews. In the twenties and
    thirties of the 19th century Benjamin Norden and Simon Marks came to
    South Africa, and "the industrial awakening of almost the whole inte-rior
    of Cape Colony" was their work. Julius Mosenthal and his brothers
    Adolph and James established the trade in wool, skins, and mohair. Aaron
    and Daniel de Pass monopolized the whaling industry; Joel Myers com-.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/25
    menced ostrich fanning. Lilienfeld, of Hopetown, bought the first dia-monds.
    7 Similar leading positions were occupied by the Jews in the other
    South African colonies, particularly in the Transvaal, where it is said
    that to-day twenty-five of the fifty thousand Jews of South Africa are
    settled.8 It is the same story in Australia, where the first wholesale trader
    was Montefiore. It would seem to be no exaggeration therefore that "a
    large proportion of the English colonial shipping trade was for a consid-erable
    time in the hands of the Jews."9
    But the real sphere of Jewish influence in colonial settlements, espe-cially
    in the early capitalistic period, was in the Western Hemisphere.
    America in all its borders is a land of Jews. That is the result to which a
    study of the sources must inevitably lead, and it is pregnant with mean-ing.
    From the first day of its discovery America has had a strong influ-ence
    on the economic life of Europe and on the whole of its civilization;
    and therefore the part which the Jews have played in building up the
    American world is of supreme import as an element in modern develop-ment.
    That is why I shall dwell on this theme a little more fully, even at
    the risk of wearying the reader.10
    The very discovery of America is most intimately bound up with
    the Jews in an extraordinary fashion. It is as though the New World
    came into the horizon by their aid and for them alone, as though Colum-bus
    and the rest were but managing directors for Israel. It is in this light
    that Jews, proud of their past, now regard the story of that discovery, as
    set forth in the latest researches.11 These would seem to show that it was
    the scientific knowledge of Jewish scholars which so perfected the art of
    navigation that voyages across the ocean became at all possible. Abraham
    Zacuto, Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy at the University of
    Salamanca, completed his astronomical tables and diagrams, the
    Almanach perpetuum, in 1473. On the basis of these tables two other
    Jews, Jose Vecuho, who was Court astronomer and physician to John II
    of Portugal, and one Moses the Mathematician (in collaboration with
    two Christian scholars), discovered the nautical astrolabe, an instru-ment
    by which it became possible to measure from the altitude of the
    sun the distance of a ship from the Equator. Jose further translated the
    Almanack of his master into Latin and Spanish.
    The scientific facts which prepared the way for the voyage of Co-lumbus
    were thus supplied by Jews. The money which was equally nec-essary
    came from the same quarter, at any rate as regards his first two
    voyages. For the first voyage, Columbus obtained a loan from Louis de.26/Werner Sombart
    Santangel, who was of the King's Council; and it was to Santangel, the
    patron of the expedition, and to Gabriel Saniheg, a Maranno, the Trea-surer
    of Aragon, that the first two letters of Columbus were addressed.
    The second voyage was also undertaken with the aid of Jewish money,
    this time certainly not voluntarily contributed. On their expulsion from
    Spain in 1492, the Jews were compelled to leave much treasure behind;
    this was seized by Ferdinand for the State Exchequer, and with a por-tion
    of it Columbus was financed.
    But more than that. A number of Jews were among the companions
    of Columbus, and the first European to set foot on American soil was a
    Jew -- Louis de Torres. So the latest researches would have us be-lieve.
    12
    But what caps all -- Columbus himself is claimed to have been a
    Jew. I give this piece of information for what it is worth, without guar-anteeing
    its accuracy. At a meeting of the Geographical Society of
    Madrid, Don Celso Garcia de la Riega, a scholar famous for his re-searches
    on Columbus, read a paper in which he stated that Christobal
    Colon (not Columbus) was a Spaniard who on his mother's side was of
    Jewish descent. He showed by reference to documents in the town of
    Pontevedra, in the province of Galicia, that the family of Colon lived
    there between 1428 and 1528, and that the Christian names found among
    them were the same as those prevalent among the relatives of the Span-ish
    admiral. These Colons and the Fonterosa family intermarried. The
    latter were undoubtedly Jews, or they had only recently been converted,
    and Christobal's mother was called Suzanna Fonterosa. When disor-ders
    broke out in the province of Galicia the parents of the discoverer of
    America migrated from Spain to Italy. These facts were substantiated
    by Don Celso from additional sources, and he is strengthened in his
    belief by distinct echoes of Hebrew literature found in the writings of
    Columbus, and also because the oldest portraits show him to have had a
    Jewish face.
    Scarcely were the doors of the New World opened to Europeans
    than crowds of Jews came swarming in. We have already seen that the
    discovery of America took place in the year in which the Jews of Spain
    became homeless, that the last years of the 15th century and the early
    years of the 16th were a period in which millions of Jews were forced to
    become wanderers, when European Jewry was like an antheap into which
    a stick had been thrust. Little wonder, therefore, that a great part of this
    heap betook itself to the New World, where the future seemed so bright..The Jews and Modern Capitalism/27
    The first traders in America were Jews. The first industrial establish-ments
    in America were those of Jews. Already in the year 1492 Portu-guese
    Jews settled in St. Thomas, where they were the first plantation
    owners on a large scale; they set up many sugar factories and gave
    employment to nearly three thousand Negroes.13 And as for Jewish emi-gration
    to South America, almost as soon as it was discovered, the stream
    was so great that Queen Joan in 1511 thought it necessary to take mea-sures
    to stem it.14 But her efforts must have been without avail, for the
    number of Jews increased, and finally, on May 21, 1577, the law forbid-ding
    Jews to emigrate to the Spanish colonies was formally repealed.
    In order to do full justice to the unceasing activity of the Jews in
    South America as founders of colonial commerce and industry, it will
    be advisable to glance at the fortunes of one or two colonies.
    The history of the Jews in the American colonies, and therefore the
    history of the colonies themselves, falls into two periods, separated by
    the expulsion of the Jews from Brazil in 1654.
    We have already mentioned the establishment of the sugar industry
    in St. Thomas by Jews in 1492. By the year 1550 this industry had
    reached the height of its development on the island. There were sixty
    plantations with sugar mills and refineries, producing annually, as may
    be seen from the tenth part paid to the King, 150,000 arrobes of sugar.15
    From St. Thomas, or possibly from Madeira,16 where they had for a
    long time been engaged in the sugar trade, the Jews transplanted the
    industry to Brazil, the largest of the American colonies. Brazil thus
    entered on its first period of prosperity, for the growth of the sugar
    industry brought with it the growth of the national wealth. In those early
    years the colony was populated almost entirely by Jews and criminals,
    two shiploads of them being brought thither annually from Portugal.17
    The Jews quickly became the dominant class, "a not inconsiderable num-ber
    of the wealthiest Brazilian traders were New Christians."18 The first
    Governor-General was of Jewish origin, and he it was who brought
    order into the government of the colony. It is not too much to say that
    Portugal's new possessions really began to thrive only after Thomé de
    Souza, a man of exceptional ability, was sent out in 1549 to take mat-ters
    in hand.19 Nevertheless the colony did not reach the zenith of its
    prosperity until after the influx of rich Jews from Holland, consequent
    on the Dutch entering into possession in 1642. In that very year, a num-ber
    of American Jews combined to establish a colony in Brazil, and no
    less than six hundred influential Dutch Jews joined them.20 Up to about.28/Werner Sombart
    the middle of the 17th century all the large sugar plantations belonged to
    Jews,21 and contemporary travellers report as to their many-sided ac-tivities
    and their wealth. Thus Nieuhoff, who travelled in Brazil from
    1640 to 1649, says of them:22 "Among the free inhabitants of Brazil that
    were not in the (Dutch West India) Company's service the Jews were the
    most considerable in number, who had transplanted themselves thither
    from Holland. They had a vast traffic beyond the rest; they purchased
    sugar-mills and built stately houses in the Receif. They were all traders,
    which would have been of great consequence to the Dutch Brazil had
    they kept themselves within the due bounds of traffic." Similarly we
    read in F. Pyrard's Travels:29 "The profits they make after being nine or
    ten years in those lands are marvellous, for they all come back rich."
    The predominance of Jewish influence in plantation development
    outlasted the episode of Dutch rule in Brazil, and continued, despite the
    expulsion of 1654, 24 down to the first half of the 11th century.25 On one
    occasion, "when a number of the most influential merchants of Rio de
    Janeiro fell into the hands of the Holy Office (of the Inquisition), the
    work on so many plantations came to a standstill that the production
    and commerce of the Province (of Bahio) required a long stretch of time
    to recover from the blow." Later, a decree of the 2nd March 1768 or-dered
    all the registers containing lists of New Christians to be destroyed,
    and by a law of 25th March 1773 New Christians were placed on a
    footing of perfect civic equality with the orthodox. It is evident, then,
    that very many crypto-Jews must have maintained their prominent posi-tion
    in Brazil even after the Portuguese had regained possession of it in
    1654, and that it was they who brought to the country its flourishing
    sugar industry as well as its trade in precious stones.
    Despite this, the year 1654 marks an epoch in the annals of Ameri-can-
    Jewish history. For it was in that year that a goodly number of the
    Brazilian Jews settled in other parts of America and thereby moved the
    economic centre of gravity.
    The change was specially profitable to one or two important islands
    of the West Indian Archipelago and also to the neighbouring coastlands,
    which rose in prosperity from the time of the Jewish influx in the 17th
    century. Barbados, which was inhabited almost solely by Jews, is a case
    in point.26 It came under English rule in 1627; in 1641 the sugar cane
    was introduced, and seven years later the exportation of sugar began.
    But the sugar industry could not maintain itself. The sugar produced
    was so poor in quality that its price was scarcely sufficient to pay for.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/29
    the cost of transport to England. Not till the exiled "Dutchmen" from
    Brazil introduced the process of refining and taught the natives the art
    of drying and crystallizing the sugar did an improvement manifest it-self.
    As a result, the sugar exports of Barbados increased by leaps and
    bounds, and in 1661 Charles II was able to confer baronetcies on thir-teen
    planters, who drew an annual income of £10,000 from the island.
    By about the year 1676 the industry there had grown to such an extent
    that no fewer than 400 vessels each carrying 180 tons of raw sugar left
    annually.
    In 1664 Thomas Modyford introduced sugar manufacturing from
    Barbados into Jamaica,27 which in consequence soon became wealthy.
    Now, while in 1656, the year in which the English finally wrested the
    island from Spain, there were only three small refineries in Jamaica, in
    1670 there were already 75 mills at work, many of them having an
    output of 2000 cwts. By 1700 sugar was the principal export of Ja-maica
    and the source of its riches. The petition of the English merchants
    of the colony in 1671, asking for the exclusion of the Jews, makes it
    pretty plain that the latter must have contributed largely to this develop-ment.
    The Government however, encouraged the settlement of still more
    Jews, the Governor in rejecting the petition remarking 28 that "he was of
    opinion that his Majesty could not have more profitable subjects than
    the Jews and the Hollanders; they had great stocks and correspondence."
    So the Jews were not expelled from Jamaica, but "became the first trad-ers
    and merchants of the English colony."29 In the 18th century they
    paid all the taxes and almost entirely controlled industry and commerce.
    Of the other English colonies, the Jews showed a special preference
    for Surinam.30 Jews had been settled there since 1644 and had received
    a number of privileges -- "whereas we have found that the Hebrew
    nation . . . have . . . proved themselves useful and beneficial to the
    colony." Their privileged position continued under the Dutch, to whom
    Surinam passed in 1667. Towards the end of the 17th century their
    proportion to the rest of the inhabitants was as one to three, and in 1730
    they owned 115 of the 344 sugar plantations.
    The story of the Jews in the English and Dutch colonies finds a
    counterpart in the more important French settlements, such as Martinique,
    Guadeloupe, and San Domingo.81 Here also sugar was the source of
    wealth, and, as in the other cases, the Jews controlled the industry and
    were the principal sugar merchants.
    The first large plantation and refinery in Martinique was established.30/Werner Sombart
    in 1655 by Benjamin Dacosta, who had fled thither from Brazil with
    900 co-religionists and 1100 slaves.
    In San Domingo the sugar industry was introduced as early as 1587,
    but it was not until the "Dutch" refugees from Brazil settled there that it
    attained any degree of success.
    In all this we must never lose sight of the fact that in those critical
    centuries in which the colonial system was taking root in America (and
    with it modern capitalism), the production of sugar was the backbone of
    the entire colonial economy, leaving out of account, of course, the min-ing
    of silver, gold and gems in Brazil. Indeed, it is somewhat difiicult
    exactly to picture to ourselves the enormous significance in those centu-ries
    of sugar-making and sugar-selling. The Council of Trade in Paris
    (1701) was guilty of no exaggerated language when it placed on record
    its belief that "French shipping owes its splendour to the commerce of
    the sugar-producing islands, and it is only by means of this that the navy
    can be maintained and strengthened." Now, it must be remembered that
    the Jews had almost monopolized the sugar trade; the French branch in
    particular being controlled by the wealthy family of the Gradis of Bor-deaux.
    32
    The position which the Jews had obtained for themselves in Central
    and South America was thus a powerful one. But it became even more
    so when towards the end of the 17th century the English colonies in
    North America entered into commercial relations with the West Indies.
    To this close union, which again Jewish merchants helped to bring about,
    the North American Continent (as we shall see) owes its existence. We
    have thus arrived at the point where it is essential to consider the Jewish
    factor in the growth of the United States from their first origins. Once
    more Jewish elements combined, this time to give the United States their
    ultimate economic form. As this view is absolutely opposed to that gen-erally
    accepted (at least in Europe), the question must receive full con-sideration.
    At first sight it would seem as if the economic system of North
    America was the very one that developed independently of the Jews.
    Often enough, when I have asserted that modern capitalism is nothing
    more or less than an expression of the Jewish spirit, I have been told that
    the history of the United States proves the contrary. The Yankees them-selves
    boast of the fact that they throve without the Jews. It was an
    American writer -- Mark Twain, if I mistake not -- who once consid-ered
    at some length why the Jews played no great part in the States,.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/31
    giving as his reason that the Americans were as "smart" as the Jews, if
    not smarter. (The Scotch, by the way, think the same of themselves.)
    Now, it is true that we come across no very large number of Jewish
    names to-day among the big captains of industry, the well-known specu-lators,
    or the Trust magnates in the country. Nevertheless, I uphold my
    assertion that the United States (perhaps more than any other land) are
    filled to the brim with the Jewish spirit. This is recognized in many
    quarters, above all in those best capable of forming a judgment on the
    subject. Thus, a few years ago, at the magnificent celebration of the
    250th anniversary of the first settlement of the Jews in the United States,
    President Roosevelt sent a congratulatory letter to the Organizing Com-mittee.
    In this he said that that was the first time during his tenure of
    office that he had written a letter of the kind, but that the importance of
    the occasion warranted him in making an exception. The persecution to
    which the Jews were then subjected made it an urgent duty for him to
    lay stress on the splendid civic qualities which men of the Jewish faith
    and race had developed ever since they came into the country. In men-tioning
    the services rendered by Jews to the United States he used an
    expression which goes to the root of the matter -- "The Jews partici-pated
    in the up-building of this country."33 On the same occasion ex-President
    Cleveland remarked: "I believe that it can be safely claimed
    that few, if any, of those contributing nationalities have directly and
    indirectly been more influential in giving shape and direction to the
    Americanism of to-day."34
    Wherein does this Jewish influence manifest itself? In the first place,
    the number of Jews who took part in American business life was never
    so small as would appear at the first glance. It is a mistake to imagine
    that because there are no Jews among the half-dozen well-known multi-millionaires,
    male and female, who on account of the noise they make in
    the world are on all men's lips, therefore American capitalism necessar-ily
    lacks a Jewish element. To begin with, even among the big Trusts
    there are some directed by Jewish hands and brains. Thus, the Smelters'
    Trust, which in 1904 represented a combination with a nominal capital
    of 201,000,000 dollars, was the creation of Jews -- the Guggenheims.
    Thus, too, in the Tobacco Trust (500,000,000 dollars), in the Asphalt
    Trust, in the Telegraph Trust, to mention but a few, Jews occupy com-manding
    positions.36 Again, very many of the large banking-houses be-long
    to Jews, who in consequence exercise no small control over Ameri-can
    economic life. Take the Harriman system, which had for its goal the.32/Werner Sombart
    fusion of all the American railways. It was backed to a large extent by
    Kuhn, Loeb Co., the well-known banking firm of New York. Espe-cially
    influential are the Jews in the West California is for the most part
    their creation. At the foundation of the State Jews obtained distinction
    as Judges, Congressmen, Governors, Mayors, and so on, and last but
    not least, as business men. The brothers Seligman -- William, Henry,
    Jesse and James -- of San Francisco; Louis Sloss and Lewis Gerstle of
    Sacramento (where they established the Alaska Commercial Company),
    Hellman and Newmark of Los Angeles, are some of the more prominent
    business houses in this part of the world. During the gold-mining period
    Jews were the intermediaries between California and the Eastern States
    and Europe. The important transactions of those days were undertaken
    by such men as Benjamin Davidson, the agent of the Rothschilds; Albert
    Priest, of Rhode Island; Albert Dyer, of Baltimore; the three brothers
    Lazard, who established the international banking-house of Lazard Freres
    of Paris, London and San Francisco; the Seligmans, the Glaziers and
    the Wormsers. Moritz Friedlaender was one of the chief "Wheat kings."
    Adolph Sutro exploited the Cornstock Lodes. Even to-day the majority
    of the banking businesses, no less than the general industries, are in the
    hands of Jews. Thus, we may mention the London, Paris and American
    Bank (Sigmund Greenbaum and Richard Altschul); the Anglo-Califor-nian
    Bank (Philip N. Lilienthal and Ignatz Steinhart); the Nevada Bank;
    the Union Trust Company; the Farmers' and Merchants' Bank of Los
    Angeles; John Rosenfeld's control of the coalfields; the Alaska Com-mercial
    Company, which succeeded the Hudson Bay Company; the North
    American Commercial Company, and many more.36
    It can scarcely be doubted that the immigration of numerous Jews
    into all the States during the last few decades must have had a stupen-dous
    effect on American economic life everywhere. Consider that there
    are more than a million Jews in New York to-day, and that the greater
    number of the immigrants have not yet embarked on a capitalistic ca-reer.
    If the conditions in America continue to develop along the same
    lines as in the last generation, if the immigration statistics and the pro-portion
    of births among all the nationalities remain the same, our imagi-nation
    may picture the United States of fifty or a hundred years hence as
    a land inhabited only by Slavs, Negroes and Jews, wherein the Jews will
    naturally occupy the position of economic leadership.
    But these are dreams of the future which have no place in this
    connexion, where our main concern is with the past and the present..The Jews and Modern Capitalism/33
    That Jews have taken a prominent share in American life in the present
    and in the past may be conceded; perhaps a more prominent share than
    would at first sight appear. Nevertheless, the enormous weight which, in
    common with many others who have the right of forming an opinion on
    the subject, I attach to their influence, cannot be adequately explained
    merely from the point of view of their numbers. It is rather the particu-lar
    kind of influence that I lay stress on, and this can be accounted for
    by a variety of complex causes.
    That is why I am not anxious to overemphasize the fact, momen-tous
    enough in itself, that the Jews in America practically control a
    number of important branches of commerce; indeed, it is not too much
    to say that they monopolize them, or at least did so for a considerable
    length of time. Take the wheat trade, especially in the West; take to-bacco;
    take cotton. We see at once that they who rule supreme in three
    such mighty industries must perforce take a leading part in the eco-nomic
    activities of the nation as a whole. For all that I do not labour this
    fact, for to my mind the significance of the Jews for the economic devel-opment
    of the United States lies rooted in causes far deeper than these.
    As the golden thread in the tapestry, so are the Jews interwoven as a
    distinct thread throughout the fabric of America's economic history;
    through the intricacy of their fantastic design it received from the very
    beginning a pattern all its own.
    Since the first quickening of the capitalistic spirit on the coastlands
    of the ocean and in the forests and prairies of the New World, Jews have
    not been absent; 1655 is usually given as the date of their first appear-ance.
    37 In that year a vessel with Jewish emigrants from Brazil, which
    had become a Portuguese possession, anchored in the Hudson River,
    and the passengers craved permission to land in the colony which the
    Dutch West India Company had founded there. But they were no humble
    petitioners asking for a favour. They came as members of a race which
    had participated to a large extent in the new foundation, and the gover-nors
    of the colony were forced to recognize their claims. When the ship
    arrived, New Amsterdam was under the rule of Stuyvesant, who was no
    friend to the Jews and who, had he followed his own inclination, would
    have closed the door in the face of the newcomers. But a letter dated
    March 26, 1665, reached him from the Court of the Company in
    Amsterdam, containing the order to let the Jews settle and trade in the
    colonies under the control of the Company, "also because of the large
    amount of capital which they have invested in shares of this Company."38.34/Werner Sombart
    It was not long before they found their way to Long Island, Albany,
    Rhode Island and Philadelphia.
    Then their manifold activities began, and it was due to them that the
    colonies were able to maintain their existence The entity of the United
    States to-day is only possible, as we know, because the English colonies
    of North America, thanks to a chain of propitious circumstances, ac-quired
    i degree of power and strength such as ultimately led to their
    complete independence. In the building up of this position of supremacy
    the Jews were among the first and the keenest workers.
    I am not thinking of the obvious fact that the colonies were only
    able to achieve their independence by the help of a few wealthy Jewish
    firms who laid the economic foundations for the existence of the New
    Republic. The United States would never have won complete indepen-dence
    has not the Jews supplied the needs of their armies and furnished
    them with the indispensable sinews of war. But what the Jews accom-plished
    in this direction did not arise out of specifically American condi-tions.
    It was a general phenomenon, met with throughout the history of
    the modern capitalistic States, and we shall do justice to instances of it
    when dealing with wider issues.
    No. What I have in mind is the special service which the Jews ren-dered
    the North American colonies, one peculiar to the American Con-tinent
    -- a service which indeed gave America birth. I refer to the simple
    fact that during the 17th and 18th centuries the trade of the Jews was the
    source from which the economic system of the colonies drew its life-blood.
    As is well known, England forced her colonies to purchase all the
    manufactured articles they needed in the Mother-country. Hence the
    balance of trade of the colonies was always an adverse one, and by
    constantly having to send money out of the country they would have
    been drained dry. But there was a stream which carried the precious
    metals into the country, a stream diverted in this direction by the trade
    of the Jews with South and Central America. The Jews in the English
    colonies maintained active business relations with the West Indian Is-lands
    and with Brazil, resulting in a favourable balance of trade for the
    land of their sojourn. The gold mined in South America was thus brought
    to North America and helped to keep the economic system in a healthy
    condition.39
    In the face of this fact, is there not some justification for the opinion
    that the United States owe their very existence to the Jews? And if this
    be so, how much more can it be asserted that Jewish influence made the.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/35
    United States just what they are -- that is, American? For what we call
    Americanism is nothing else, if we may say so, than the Jewish spirit
    distilled.
    But how comes it that American culture is so steeped in Jewishness?
    The answer is simple -- through the early and universal admixture of
    Jewish elements among the first settlers. We may picture the process of
    colonizing somewhat after this fashion. A band of determined men and
    women -- let us say twenty families -- went forth into the wilds to
    begin their life anew. Nineteen were equipped with plough and scythe,
    ready to clear the forests and till the soil in order to earn their livelihood
    as husbandmen. The twentieth family opened a store to provide their
    companions with such necessaries of life as could not be obtained from
    the soil, often no doubt hawking them at the very doors. Soon this twen-tieth
    family made it its business to arrange for the distribution of the
    products which the other nineteen won from the soil. It was they, too,
    who were most likely in possession Of ready cash, and in case of need
    could therefore be useful to the others by lending them money. Very
    often the store had a kind of agricultural loan-bank as its adjunct, per-haps
    also an office for the buying and selling of land. So through the
    activity of the twentieth family the farmer in North America was from
    the first kept in touch with the money and credit system of the Old
    World. Hence the whole process of production and exchange was from
    its inception along modern lines. Town methods made their way at once
    into even the most distant villages. Accordingly, it may be said that
    American economic life was from its very start impregnated with capi-talism.
    And who was responsible for this? The twentieth family in each
    village. Need we add that this twentieth family was always a Jewish
    one, which joined a party of settlers or soon sought them out in their
    homesteads?
    Such in outline is the mental picture I have conceived of the eco-nomic
    development of the United States. Subsequent writers dealing
    with this subject will be able to fill in more ample details; I myself have
    only come across a few. But these are so similar in character that they
    can hardly be taken as isolated instances. The conclusion is forced upon
    us that they are typical. Nor do I alone hold this view. Governor Pardel
    of California, for example, remarked in 1905: "He (the Jew) has been
    the leading financier of thousands of prosperous communities. He has
    been enterprising and aggressive."40
    Let me quote some of the illustrations I have met with. In 1785.36/Werner Sombart
    Abraham Mordccai settled in Alabama. "He established a trading-post
    two miles west of Line Creek, carrying on an extensive trade with the
    Indians, and exchanging his goods for pinkroot, hickory, nut oil and
    peltries of all kinds."41 Similarly in Albany: "As early as 1661, when
    Albany was but a small trading post, a Jewish trader named Asser Levi
    (or Leevi) became the owner of real estate there."42 Chicago has the
    same story. The first brick house was built by a Jew, Benedict Schubert,
    who became the first merchant tailor in Chicago, while another Jew,
    Philip Newburg, was the first to introduce the tobacco business.43 In
    Kentucky we hear of a Jewish settler as early as 1816. When in that
    year the Bank of the United States opened a branch in Lexington, a Mr.
    Solomon, who had arrived in 1808, was made cashier.44 In Maryland,45
    Michigan,46 Ohio 47 and Pennsylvania 48 it is on record that Jewish trad-ers
    were among the earliest settlers, though nothing is known of their
    activity.
    On the other hand, a great deal is known of Jews in Texas, where
    they were among the pioneers of capitalism. Thus, for example, Jacob
    de Cordova "was by far the most extensive land locator in the State
    until 1856." The Cordova's Land Agency soon became famous not only
    in Texas but in New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, where the own-ers
    of large tracts of Texas land resided. Again, Morris Koppore in
    1863 became President of the National Bank of Texas. Henry Castro
    was an immigration agent; "between the years 1843--6 Castro intro-duced
    into Texas over 5000 immigrants . . . transporting them in 27
    ships, chiefly from the Rhenish provinces. . . . He fed his colonists for a
    year, furnished them with cows, farming implements, seeds, medicine,
    and in short with everything they needed."49
    Sometimes branches of one and the same family distributed them-selves
    in different States, and were thereby enabled to carry on business
    most successfully. Perhaps thebest instance is the history of the Seligman
    family. There were eight brothers (the sons of David Seligman, of
    Bayersdorf, in Bavaria) who started a concern which now has branches
    in all the most important centres in the States. Their story began with
    the arrival in America in the year 1837 of Joseph Seligman. Two other
    brothers followed in 1839; a third came two years later. The four began
    business as clothiers in Lancaster, moving shortly after to Selma, Ala.
    From here they opened three branches in three other towns. By 1848
    two more brothers had arrived from Germany and the six moved North.
    In 1850, Jesse Seligman opened a shop in San Francisco -- in the first.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/37
    brick house in that city. Seven years later a banking business was added
    to the clothing shop, and in 1862 the house of Seligman Brothers was
    established in New York, San Francisco, London, Paris and Frankfort.50
    In the Southern States likewise the Jew played the part of the trader
    in the midst of agricultural settlers.51 Here also (as in Southern and
    Central America) we find him quite early as the owner of vast planta-tions.
    In South Carolina indeed, "Jew's Land" is synonymous with "Large
    Plantations."52 It was in the South that Moses Lindo became famous as
    one of the first undertakers in the production of indigo.
    These examples must suffice. We believe they tend to illustrate our
    general statement, which is supported also by the fact that there was a
    constant stream of Jewish emigration to the United States from their
    earliest foundation. It is true that there are no actual figures to show the
    proportion of the Jewish population to the total body of settlers. But the
    numerous indications of a general nature that we do find make it pretty
    certain that there must always have been a large number of Jews in
    America.
    It must not be forgotten that in the earliest years the population was
    thinly scattered and very sparse. New Amsterdam had less than 1000
    inhabitants.53 That being so, a shipful of Jews who came from Brazil to
    settle there made a great difference, and in assessing Jewish influence
    on the whole district we shall have to rate it highly.54 Or take another
    instance. When the first settlement in Georgia was established, forty
    Jews were among the settlers. The number may seem insignificant, but
    when we consider the meagre population of the colony, Jewish influence
    must be accounted strong. So, too, in Savannah, where in 1733 there
    were already twelve Jewish families in what was then a tiny commercial
    centre.55
    That America early became the goal of German and Polish Jewish
    emigrants is well known. Thus we are told: "Among the poorer Jewish
    families of Posen there was seldom one which in the second quarter of
    the 19th century did not have at least one son (and in most cases the
    ablest and not least enterprising) who sailed away across the ocean to
    flee from the narrowness and the oppression of his native land."56 We
    are not surprised, therefore, at the comparatively large number of Jew-ish
    soldiers (7243 ) 57 who took part in the Civil War, and we should be
    inclined to say that the estimate which puts the Jewish population of the
    United States about the middle of the 19th century at 300,000 (of whom
    30,000 lived in New York)58 was if anything too moderate..38/Werner Sombart

    Chapter 5. The Foundation of the Modern State


    The development of the modern colonial system and the establishment
    of the modern State are two phenomena dependent on one another. The
    one is inconceivable without the other, and the genesis of modern capi-talism
    is bound up with both. Hence, in order to discover the importance
    of any historic factor in the growth of capitalism it will be necessary to
    find out what, and how great a part that factor played in both the colo-nial
    system and the foundation of the modern State. In the last chapter
    we considered the Jews in relation to the colonial system; in the present
    we shall do the same for the modern State.
    A cursory glance would make it appear that in no direction could
    the Jews, the "Stateless" people, have had less influence than in the
    establishment of modern States. Not one of the statesmen of whom we
    think in this connexion was a Jew -- neither Charles the Fifth, nor
    Louis the Eleventh, neither Richelieu, Mazarin, Colbert, Cromwell,
    Frederick William of Prussia nor Frederick the Great.1 However, when
    speaking of these modern statesmen and rulers, we can hardly do so
    without perforce thinking of the Jews: it would be like Faust without
    Mephistopheles. Arm in arm the Jew and the ruler stride through the age
    which historians call modern. To me this union is symbolic of the rise of
    capitalism, and consequently of the modern State. In most countries the
    ruler assumed the role of protector of the persecuted Jews against the
    Estates of the Realm and the Gilds -- both pre-capitalistic forces. And
    why? Their interests and their sympathies coincided. The Jew embodied
    modern capitalism, and the ruler allied himself with this force in order
    to establish, or maintain, his own position. When, therefore, I speak of
    the part played by the Jews in the foundation of modern States, it is not
    so much their direct influence as organizers that I have in mind, as rather
    their indirect co-operation in the process. I am thinking of the fact that
    the Jews furnished the rising States with the material means necessary
    to maintain themselves and to develop; that the Jews supported the army
    in each country in two ways, and the armies were the bulwarks on which
    the new States rested. In twoways: on the one hand, the Jews supplied
    the army in time of war with weapons, and munition and food; on the
    other hand, they provided money not only for military purposes but also
    for the general needs of courts and governments. The Jews throughout
    the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries were most influential as army-purvey-.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/39
    ors and as the moneyed men to whom the princes looked for financial
    backing. This position of the Jews was of the greatest consequence for
    the development of the modern State. It is not necessary to expatiate on
    this statement; all that we shall do is to adduce instances in proof of it.
    Here, too, we cannot attempt to mention every possible example. We
    can only point the way; it will be for subsequent research to follow.
    The Jews as Purveyors
    Although there are numerous cases on record of Jews acting in the ca-pacity
    of army-contractors in Spain previous to 1492, I shall not refer
    to this period, because it lies outside the scope of our present consider-ations.
    We shall confine ourselves to the centuries that followed and
    begin with England.
    In the 17th and 18th centuries the Jews had already achieved re-nown
    as army-purveyors. Under the Commonwealth the most famous
    army-contractor was Antonio Fernandez Carvajal, "the great Jew," who
    came to London some time between 1630 and 1635, and was very soon
    accounted among the most prominent traders in the land. In 1649 he
    was one of the five London merchants entrusted by the Council of State
    with the army contract for corn.2 It is said that he annually imported
    into England silver to the value of £100,000. In the period that ensued,
    especially in the wars of William III, Sir Solomon Medina ("the Jew
    Medina") was "the great contractor," and for his services he was knighted,
    being the first professing Jew to receive that honour.3
    It was the same in the wars of the Spanish Succession; here, too,
    Jews were the principal army-contractors.4 In 1716 the Jews of Strassburg
    recall the services they rendered the armies of Louis XIV by furnishing
    information and supplying provisions.8 Indeed, Louis XIV's army-con-tractor-
    in-chief was a Jew, Jacob Worms by name;6 and in the 18th
    century Jews gradually took a more and more prominent part in this
    work. In 1727 the Jews of Metz brought into the city in the space of six
    weeks 2000 horses for food and more than 5000 for remounts.7 Field-Marshal
    Maurice of Saxony, the victor of Fontenoy, expressed the opin-ion
    that his armies were never better served with supplies than when the
    Jews were the contractors.8 One of the best known of the Jewish army-contractors
    in the time of the last two Louis was Cerf Beer, in whose
    patent of naturalization it is recorded that "... in the wars which raged in
    Alsace in 1770 and 1771 he found the opportunity of proving his zeal in
    our service and in that of the State."9.40/Werner Sombart
    Similarly, the house of the Gradis, of Bordeaux, was an establish-ment
    of international repute in the 18th century. Abraham Gradis set up
    large storehouses in Quebec to supply the needs of the French troops
    there.10 Under the Revolutionary Government, under the Directory, in
    the Napoleonic Wars it was always Jews who acted as purveyors.11 In
    this connexion a public notice displayed in the streets of Paris in 1795 is
    significant. There was a famine in the city and the Jews were called
    upon to show their gratitude for the rights bestowed upon them by the
    Revolution by bringing in corn. "They alone," says the author of the
    notice, "can successfully accomplish this enterprise, thanks to their busi-ness
    relations, of which their fellow citizens ought to have full ben-efit."
    12 A parallel story comes from Dresden. In 1720 the Court Jew,
    Jonas Meyer, saved the town from starvation by supplying it with large
    quantities of corn. (The Chronicler mentions 40,000 bushels.)18
    All over Germany the Jews from an early date were found in the
    ranks of army-contractors. Let us enumerate a few of them. There was
    Isaac Meyer in the 16th century, who, when Cardinal Albrecht admitted
    him a resident of Halberstadt in 1537, was enjoined by him, in view of
    the dangerous times, "to supply our monastery with good weapons and
    armour." There was Joselman von Rosheim, who in 1548 received an
    imperial letter of protection because he had supplied both money and
    provisions for the army. In 1546 , there is a record of Bohemian Jews
    who provided great; coats and blankets for the army.14 In the next cen-tury
    (1633) another Bohemian Jew, Lazarus by name, received an offii
    cial declaration that he "obtained either in person, or at his own ex-pense,
    valuable information for the Imperial troops, and that he made it
    his business to see that the army had a good supply of ammunition and
    clothing."15 The Great Elector also had recourse to Jews for his military
    needs. Leimann Gompertz and Solomon Elias were his contractors for
    cannon, powder and so forth.16 There were numerous others: Samuel
    Julius, remount contractor under the Elector Frederick Augustus of
    Saxony; the Model family, court-purveyors and army-contractors in the
    Duchy of Ansbach in the 17th and 18th centuries are well known.17 In
    short, as one writer of the time pithily expresses it, "all the contractors
    are Jews and all the Jews are contractors."18
    Austria does not differ in this respect from Germany, France and
    England. The wealthy Jews, who in the reign of the Emperor Leopold
    received permission to re-settle in Vienna (1670) -- the Oppenheimers,
    Wertheimers, Mayer Herschel and the rest -- were all army-contrac-.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/41
    tors.19 And we find the same thing in all the countries under the Austrian
    Crown.20 Lastly, we must mention the Jewish army-contractors who
    provisioned the American troops in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.21
    The Jews as Financiers
    This has been a theme on which many historians have written, and we
    are tolerably well informed concerning this aspect of Jewish history in
    all ages. It will not be necessary for me, therefore, to enter into this
    question in great detail; the enumeration of a few well-known facts will
    suffice.
    Already in the Middle Ages we find that everywhere taxes, salt-mines
    and royal domains were farmed out to Jews; that Jews were royal
    treasurers and money-lenders, most frequently, of course, in the Pyrenean
    Peninsula, where the Almoxarife and the Rendeiros were chosen prefer-ably
    from among the ranks of the rich Jews. But as this period does not
    specially concern us here, I will not mention any names but refer the
    reader to the general literature on the subject.22
    It was, however, in modern times, when the State as we know it to-day
    first originated, that the activity of the Jews as financial advisers of
    princes was fraught with mighty influence. Take Holland, where al-though
    officially deterred from being servants of the Crown, they very
    quickly occupied positions of authority. We recall Moses Machado, the
    favourite of William III; Delmonte, a family of ambassadors (Lords of
    Schoonenberg); the wealthy Suasso, who in 1688 lent William two mil-lion
    gulden, and others.23
    The effects of the Jewish haute finance in Holland made themselves
    felt beyond the borders of the Netherlands, because that country in the
    17th and 18th centuries was the reservoir from which all the needy princes
    of Europe drew their money. Men like the Pintos, Delmontes, Bueno de
    Mesquita, Francis Mels and many others may in truth be regarded as
    the leading financiers of Northern Europe during that period.24
    Next, English finance was at this time also very extensively con-trolled
    by Jews.25 The monetary needs of the Long Parliament gave the
    first impetus to the settlement of rich Jews in England. Long before their
    admission by Cromwell, wealthy crypto-Jews, especially from Spain
    and Portugal, migrated thither via Amsterdam: the year 1643 brought
    an exceptionally large contingent. Their rallying-point was the house of
    the Portuguese Ambassador in London, Antonio de Souza, himself a
    Maranno. Prominent among them was Antonio Fernandez Carvajal, who.42/Werner Sombart
    has already been mentioned, and who was as great a financier as he was
    an army contractor. It was he who supplied the Commonwealth with
    funds. The little colony was further increased under the later Stuarts,
    notably under Charles the Second. In the retinue , of his Portuguese
    bride, Catherine of Braganza, were quite a number of moneyed Jews,
    among them the brothers Da Sylva, Portuguese bankers of Amsterdam,
    who were entrusted with the transmission and administration of the
    Queen's dowry.26 Contemporaneously with them came the Mendes and
    the Da Costas from Spain and Portugal, who united their families under
    the name of Mendes da Costa.
    About the same period the Ashkenazi (German) Jews began to ar-rive
    in the country. On the whole, these could hardly compare for wealth
    with their Sephardi (Spanish) brethren, yet they also had their capitalis-tic
    magnates, such as Benjamin Levy for example.
    Under William III their numbers were still further increased, and
    the links between the court and the rich Jews were strengthened. Sir
    Solomon Medina, who has also been already mentioned, followed the
    King from Holland as his banker, and with him came the Suasso, an-other
    of the plutocratic families. Under Queen Anne one of the most
    prominent financiers in England was Menasseh Lopez, and by the time
    the South Sea Bubble burst, the Jews as a body were the greatest finan-cial
    power in the country. They had kept clear of the wild speculations
    which had preceded the disaster and so retained their fortunes unim-paired.
    Accordingly, when the Government issued a loan on the Land
    Tax, the Jews were in a position to take up one quarter of it. During this
    critical period the chief family was that of the Gideons, whose represen-tative,
    Sampson Gideon (1699--1762), was the "trusted adviser of the
    Government," the friend of Walpole, the "pillar of the State credit." In
    1745, the year of panics, Sampson raised a loan of £1,700,000 for the
    assistance of the Government. On his death his influence passed to the
    firm of Francis and Joseph Salvador, who retained it till the beginning
    of the 19th century, when the Rothschilds succeeded to the financial
    leadership.
    It is the same story in France, and the powerful position held by
    Samuel Bernard in the latter part of the reign of Louis XIV and in the
    whole of that of Louis XV may serve as one example among many. We
    find Louis XIV walking in his garden with this wealthy Jew, "whose
    sole merit," in the opinion of one cynical writer,27 "was that he sup-ported
    the State as the rope does the hanged man." He financed the.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/43
    Wars of the Spanish Succession; he aided the French candidate for the
    throne of Poland; he advised the Regent in all money matters. It was
    probably no exaggeration when the Marquis de Dangeau spoke of him
    in one of his letters 28 as "the greatest banker in Europe at the present
    time." In France also the Jews participated to a large extent in the re-consolidation
    of the French East India Company after the bursting of
    the South Sea Bubble.29 It was not, however, until the 19th century that
    they won a really leading position in financial circles in France, and the
    important names here are the Rothschilds, the Helphens, the Foulds, the
    Cerfbeers, the Duponts, the Godchaux, the Dalemberts, the Pereires
    and others. It is possible that in the 17th and 18th centuries also a great
    many more Jews than those already mentioned were active as financiers
    in France, but that owing to the rigorous exclusion of Jews they became
    crypto-Jews, and so we have no full information about them.
    It is easier to trace Jewish influence in finance in Germany and
    Austria through that clever invention -- the status of "Court Jew."
    Though the law in these countries forbade Jews to settle in their bound-aries,
    yet the princes and rulers kept a number of "privileged" Jews at
    their courts. According to Graetz,30 the status of "Court Jew" was intro-duced
    by the Emperors of Germany during the Thirty Years' War. Be
    that as it may, it is an undoubted fact that pretty well every State in
    Germany throughout the 17th and 18th centuries had its Court Jew or
    Jews, upon whose support the finances of the land depended.
    A few examples by way of illustration. In the 17th century 31 we find
    at the Imperial Court Joseph Pinkherle, of Goerz, Moses and Jacob
    Marburger, of Gradisca, Ventura Parente of Trieste, Jacob Bassewi
    Batscheba Schmieles in Prague, the last of whom the Emperor Ferdinand
    raised to the ranks of the nobility under the title von Treuenburg on
    account of his faithful services. In the reign of the Emperor Leopold I
    we meet with the respected family of the Oppenheimers, of whom the
    Staatskanzler Ludewig wrote in the following terms.32 After saying that
    the Jews were the arbiters of the most important events, he continues:
    "In the year 1690 the Jew Oppenheimer was well known among mer-chants
    and bankers not only in Europe but throughout the world." No
    less famous in the same reign was Wolf Schlesinger, purveyor to the
    court, who in company with Lewel Sinzheim raised more than one large
    loan for the State. Maria Theresa utilized the services of Schlesinger
    and others, notably the Wertheimers, Amsteins and Eskeles. Indeed, for
    more than a century the court bankers in Vienna were Jews.33 We can.44/Werner Sombart
    gauge their economic influence from the fact that when an anti-Jewish
    riot broke out in Frankfort-on-the-Main, the local authorities thought it
    wise in the interest of credit to call upon the Imperial Office to interfere
    and protect the Frankfort Jews, who had very close trade relations with
    their brethren in Vienna.34
    It was not otherwise at the smaller German courts. "The continu-ally
    increasing needs of the various courts, each vying with the other in
    luxury, rendered it imperative, seeing that communication was by no
    means easy, to have skilful agents in the commercial centres." Accord-ingly
    the Dukes of Mecklenburg had such agents in Hamburg; Bishop
    John Philip of Wurzburg was in 1700 served by Moses Elkan in Frank-fort.
    This activity opened new channels for the Jews; the enterprising
    dealer who provided jewels for her ladyship, liveries for the court cham-berlain
    and dainties for the head cook was also quite willing to negotiate
    a loan.35 Frankfort and Hamburg, with their large Jewish population,
    had many such financial agents, who acted for ruling princes living at a
    distance. Besides those already mentioned we may recall the Portuguese
    Jew, Daniel Abensur, who died in Hamburg in 1711. He was Minister-resident
    of the King of Poland in that city, and the Polish Crown was
    indebted to him for many a loan.36 Some of these agents often moved to
    the court which borrowed from them, and became "Court Jews."
    Frederick Augustus, who became Elector of Saxony in 1694, had a
    number of them: Leffmann Berentz, of Hanover, J. Meyer, of Hamburg,
    Berend Lehmann, of Halberstadt (who advanced money for the election
    of the King of Poland) and others.37 Again, in Hanover the Behrends
    were Chief Court Purveyors and Agents to the Treasury;38 the Models,
    the Fraenkels and the Nathans acted in a similar capacity to the Duchy
    of Ansbach. In the Palatinate we come across Lemte Moyses and Michel
    May, who in 1719 paid the debt of 2½ million gulden which the Elector
    owed the Emperor,39 and lastly, in the Marggravate of Bayreuth, there
    were the Baiersdorfs.40
    Better known perhaps are the Court Jews of the Brandenburg-Prus-sian
    rulers -- Lippold, under Joachim II; Gomperz and Joost Liebmann,
    under Frederick III; Veit, underFrederick William I; and Ephraim, Moses,
    Isaac and Daniel Itzig, under Frederick II. Most famous of all the Ger-man
    Court Jews, the man who may be taken as their archetype, was
    Suess-Oppenheimer, who was at the court of Charles Alexander of
    Wiirtemberg.41
    Finally, we must not leave unmentioned that during the 18th cen-.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/45
    tury, more especially in the Revolutionary Wars, the Jews played no
    small role as financiers in the United States of America. Haym Salomon 42
    ranks side by side with the Minis and the Cohens in Georgia,43 but the
    most prominent of them all was Robert Morris, the financier par excel-lence
    of the American Revolution.44
    And now comes an extraordinary thing. Whilst for centuries (espe-cially
    during the 17th and the 18th -- the two so momentous in the
    growth of the modern State) the Jews had personal financial dealings
    with the rulers, in the century that followed (but even during the two
    already mentioned) the system of public credit gradually took a new
    form. This forced the big capitalist from his dominating position more
    and more into the background, and allowed an ever-increasing number
    of miscellaneous creditors to take his place. Through the evolution of
    the modern method of floating loans the public credit was, so to speak,
    "democratized," and, in consequence, the Court Jew became superflu-ous.
    But the Jews themselves were not the least who aided the growth of
    this new system of borrowing, and thus they contributed to the removal
    of their own monopoly as financiers. In so doing they participated to a
    greater degree than ever before in the work of building up the great
    States of the present.
    The transformation in the public credit system was but a part of a
    much vaster change which crept over economic life as a whole, a meta-morphosis
    in which also the Jews took a very great share. Let us con-sider
    this change in its entirety.

    Chapter 6. The Predominance of Commerce in Economic Life


    Tt is a matter of common knowledge that the Stock Exchange in modern
    times is becoming more and more the heart of all economic activities.
    With the fuller development of capitalism this was only to be expected,
    and there were three clear stages in the process. The first was the evolu-tion
    of credit from being a personal matter into one of an impersonal
    relationship. It took shape and form in securities. Stage two: these secu-rities
    were made mobile -- that is, bought and sold in a market. The last
    stage was the formation of undertakings for the purpose of creating
    such securities.
    In all the stages the Jew was ever present with his creative genius..46/Werner Sombart
    We may even go further and say that it was due specifically to the Jew-ish
    spirit that these characteristics of modern economic life came into
    being.
    The Origin of Securities 1
    Securities represent the standardization of personal indebtedness.2 We
    may speak of "standardization" in this sense when a relationship which
    was originally personal becomes impersonal; where before human be-ings
    directly acted and reacted on each other, now a system obtains. An
    instance or two will make our meaning clear. Where before work was
    done by man, it is now done by a machine. That is the standardization of
    work. In olden times a battle was won by the superior personal initiative
    of the general in command; nowadays victory falls to the leader who
    can most skilfully utilize the body of experience gathered in the course
    of years and can best apply the complicated methods of tactics and
    strategy; who has at his disposal the best guns and who has the most
    effective organization for provisioning his men. We may speak in this
    instance of the "standardization" of war. A business becomes standard-ized
    when the head of the firm who came into personal contact with his
    employees on the one hand and with his customers on the other, is suc-ceeded
    by a board of directors, under whom is an army of officials, all
    working on an organized plan, and consequently business is more or
    less of an automatic process.
    Now, at a particular stage in the growth of capitalism credit became
    standardized. That is to say, that whereas before indebtedness arose as
    the result of an agreement between two people who knew each other, it
    was now rearranged on a systematic basis, and the people concerned
    might be entire strangers. The new relationship is expressed by nego-tiable
    instruments, whether bill of exchange or security or banknote or
    mortgage deed, and a careful analysis of each of them will prove this
    conclusively.
    Of the three persons mentioned in a bill of exchange, the specified
    party in whose favour the document is made out (the payee) or, if no
    name is mentioned, the bearer of the document may be quite unknown to
    the other two; he may have had no direct business relation with the party
    making out the bill (the drawer), yet this document establishes a claim
    of the former on the latter -- general and impersonal.3
    The security gives the owner the right to participate in the capital
    and the profit of a concern with which he has no direct personal contact..The Jews and Modern Capitalism/47
    He may never even have seen the building in which the undertaking in
    question is housed, and when he parts with his security to another per-son
    he transfers his right of participation.
    Similarly with a banknote. The holder has a claim on the bank of
    issue despite the fact that he personally may never have deposited a
    penny with it.
    So, in short, with all credit instruments: an impersonal relationship
    is established between either an individual or a corporation on the one
    hand (the receiver of moneys), and an unknown body of people (we
    speak of "the public") on the other -- the lender of moneys.
    What share did the Jews take in the creation of this credit machin-ery?
    It would be difficult, perhaps impossible, to show what that share
    was by reference to documentary evidence, even if we had a very full
    account of the position of the Jews in the early economic history of most
    lands. But unfortunately that aspect of economic development which
    would have been invaluable for the solution of the problem in hand has
    been sadly neglected. I refer to the history of money and of banking in
    the Pyrenean Peninsula during the last centuries of the Middle Ages.
    But even if such a history were at our disposal, the question would still
    be difficult to answer. We must remember that the origins of economic
    organization can no more be discovered by referring to documentary
    evidence than the origins of legal institutions. No form of organization
    or tendency in economic life can be traced to a particular day or even a
    particular year. It is all a matter of growth, and the most that the eco-nomic
    historian can do is to show that in any given period this or that
    characteristic is found in business life, this or that organization domi-nates
    all economic activities. Even for this the ludicrously inadequate
    sources at our disposal are hardly sufficient. The historian will have to
    turn to the general history of the particular group in which he happens
    to be interested.
    To take an instance. The history of bills of exchange can scarcely
    be written merely by referring to the few mediaeval bills which chance
    has left to us. Such documents are certainly useful to supplement or
    correct general theories. But we must formulate the general theories
    first. Let us take a case in point. The bill which for a long time was held
    to be the oldest extant was drawn by a Jew, Simon Rubens, in the year
    1207. This is hardly sufficient evidence on which to base the assertion
    that the Jews were the inventors of this form of credit instrument.4 Ear-lier
    bills have come to light recently, drawn by non-Jews, but they do not.48/Werner Sombart
    render testimony strong enough for the statement that the Jews were not
    the inventors of bills. Do we know how many thousands of bills circu-lated
    in Florence or Bruges, and how can we be sure which section of
    the population issued them? We do know, however, that the Jews were
    occupied throughout the Middle Ages in money-dealing, that they were
    settled in various parts of Europe and that they carried on a continuous
    intercourse with each other. From these facts we may draw the tolerably
    certain conclusion that "the Jews, the intermediaries in international
    trade, utilized on a large scale the machinery of foreign exchanges, then
    traditionally current in the Mediterranean lands, and extended it."5
    That this method of reasoning requires great caution is self-evident.
    Yet it may lead to useful conclusions for all that. There are cases, as we
    shall see, where the share of the Jews in the extension of some economic
    policy or machinery may be proved by a fund of documentary evidence.
    In other instances, and they are numerous, we must content ourselves if
    it can be shown that, at any particular time and in any given place, there
    must have been some special reason for the utilization by Jews of a form
    of economic organization then current.
    Bearing this in mind, let us enquire into the genesis of one or two
    types of credit instruments.
    The Bill of Exchange
    Not merely the early history of the bill of exchange but rather that of the
    modern endorsable bill is what we are concerned with most of all. It is
    generally accepted that the endorsing of bills of exchange had been fully
    developed prior to the 17th century, and the first complete legal recogni-tion
    of such endorsement was found in Holland (Proclamation in
    Amsterdam of January 24, 1651).6 Now, as we shall see presently, all
    developments in the money and credit systems of Holland in the 17th
    century were due more or less to Jewish influence. Some authorities
    trace the origin of endorsable bills of exchange to Venice, where they
    were made illegal by a law of December 14, 1593. 7 It is fairly certain
    that the use of circulating endorsable bills in Venice must have been first
    commenced by Jews, seeing that we know that nearly all bill-broking in
    the Adriatic city in the 16th century was in their hands. In the petition of
    the Christian merchants of Venice of the year 1550 (to which reference
    has already been made) the passage relating to the bill business of Jews
    reads as follows 8 : --.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/49
    We carry on the same commerce with them also in matters of ex-change,
    because they continually remit to us their money . . . send-ing
    cash, in order that we may change it for them for Lyons,
    Flanders and other parts of the world on our Exchange, or indeed
    that we may buy for them silken cloths and other merchandise
    according to their convenience, gaining our usual commission.
    That which we say of the inhabitants of Florence holds good also
    of the other merchants of the same Spanish and Portuguese na-tion,
    who dwell in Flanders, Lyons, Rome, Naples, Sicily and other
    countries, who lay themselves out to do business with us, not only
    in exchanges but in sending hither merchandise of Flanders, sell-ing
    corn from Sicily and buying other merchandise to transport to
    other countries.
    A further development in the endorsing of bills appears to have
    taken place at the fairs of Genoa in the 16th century. Who, we may ask,
    were the "Genoese," met with everywhere throughout that century, but
    especially at the famous fairs of Besancon, dominating the money mar-ket,
    and who all of a sudden showed a remarkable genius for business
    and gave an impetus to the growth of new methods, hitherto unknown,
    for cancelling international indebtedness? It is true that the ancient
    wealthy families of Genoa were the principal creditors of the Spanish
    Crown as well as of other needy princes. But to imagine that the descen-dants
    of the Grimaldis, the Spinolas, the Lercaras exhibited that ex-traordinary
    commercial ability which gave a special character to the
    activity of the Genoese in the 16th century; to think that the old nobility
    gadded about the fairs at Besancon or elsewhere, or even sent their agents
    with never-failing regularity -- this appears to me an assumption hardly
    warranted without some very good reason. Can the explanation be that
    the Jews brought new blood into the decrepit economic body of Genoa?
    We know 9 that fugitives from Spain landed at Genoa, that some of the
    settlers became Christians, that the rest were admitted into Novi, a small
    town near Genoa, and that the Jews of Novi did business with the capi-tal;
    we know, too, that the newcomers were "for the most part intelligent
    Jewish craftsmen, capitalists, physicians," and that in the short space of
    time between their arrival and 1550 they had become so unpopular in
    Genoa that they had aroused the hatred of the citizens; we know, finally,
    that there were constant communications between the Genoese bankers
    and the Jewish, or rather Maranno, banking houses of the Spanish cit-ies,
    e.g., with the Espinosas, the leading bankers in Seville.10.50/Werner Sombart
    Securities (Stocks and Shares)
    If we should wish to speak of securities in those cases where the capital
    of a business concern is split up into many parts, and where the liability
    of the capitalists is limited, we have ample justification for so doing in
    the case of the Genoa Maones, in the 14th century,11 the Casa di San
    Giorgio (1407) and the important trading companies of the 17th cen-tury.
    But if stress is laid on the standardization of the credit-relation-ship,
    it will not be before the 18th century that we shall find instances of
    joint-stock enterprise and of securities. For the early contributions to a
    joint-stock never lost their personal character. The Italian Monies were
    impregnated through and through with the personality of their founders.
    In the case of the Maones, the personal factor was no less important
    than the financial; while at the Bank of St. George in Genoa, the fami-lies
    concerned jealously guarded the principle that each one should ob-tain
    its proper share in the directing of the work of the bank. The trading
    companies too had a strong personal element. In the English East India
    Company, for instance, it was not until 1650 that shares could be trans-ferred
    to strangers, but they had to become members of the Company.
    In all early instances the security was for unequal and varying sums.
    The personal relationship thus showed itself plainly enough. In some
    companies shares could not be transferred at all except by consent of all
    the other members. In fact, the security was just a certificate of mem-bership,
    and throughout the 18th century such securities as were made
    out in the name of a specified person predominated.12 Even where there
    was freedom of transfer from one person to another (as in the case of the
    Dutch East India Company) the process was beset with innumerable
    obstacles and difficulties.18
    The modern form of security can therefore not be found before the
    18th century. If now it be asked what share did the Jews have in the
    extension of this form of credit in modern times, the reply is obvious
    enough. During the last hundred and fifty or two hundred years, Jews
    have beenlargely instrumental in bringing about the standardization of
    what was before a purely personal relationship between the holder of
    stock and the company in which he participated. I am bound to admit,
    however, that I cannot adduce direct proofs in support of my thesis. But
    indirectly the evidence is fairly conclusive. Jews were great speculators,
    and speculation must of necessity tend to substitute for the security
    wherein the holder is specified one which has no such limitation. A little.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/51
    reflection will show therefore that Jews must have had no small influ-ence
    on the standardization of securities. In some cases it may even be
    demonstrated that speculation was responsible for the change from se-curities
    of differing amounts to those of equal value. The Dutch East
    India Company is a case in point. Originally its shares were of all val-ues;
    later only 3000 florin shares were issued.14
    Banknotes
    Many opinions prevail as to the precise occasion when banknotes first
    came into use. For my own part I lay stress on the standardization here
    also. The first time any banker issued a note without reference to some
    specific deposit a new type of credit instrument, the modern banknote,
    came into being. There were banknotes in existence long before that.15
    But they bore the depositor's name and referred to his money.16 I believe
    that in all probability the personal banknote became a general (imper-sonal)
    one in Venice about the beginning of the 15th century. There are
    on record instances dating from that time of banks making written prom-ises
    to pay over and above the sums deposited with them. An edict of the
    Venetian Senate as early as 1421 made it an offence to deal in such
    documents.17 The first permission to establish a bank was granted to
    two Jews in 1400, and their success was so great that the nobili made
    haste to follow their example.18 The question arises, may these two Jews
    be regarded as the fathers of the modern (impersonal) banknote?
    But perhaps no particular firm introduced the new paper money. It
    may have come into existence in order to satisfy the needs of some
    locality. Nevertheless, if we take as the place of its origin the town where
    the earliest banks reached a high degree of perfection, we shall surely be
    on the safe side. From this point of view Venice is admirably qualified.
    Now Venice was a city of Jews, and that is wherein its interest for us lies
    in this connexion. According to a list dating from the year 1152, there
    were no fewer than 1300 Jews in Venice.19 In the 16th century their
    number was estimated at 6000; and Jewish manufacturers employed
    4000 Christian workmen.20 These figures, to be sure, have no scientific
    value, but they do show that the Jews must have been pretty numerous
    in Venice. From other sources we are acquainted with some of their
    activities. Thus, we find Jews among the leading bankers -- one of the
    most influential families were the Lipmans; and in 1550, as we have
    already noted, the Christian merchants of Venice stated that they might
    as well emigrate if trade with the Marannos were forbidden them..52/Werner Sombart
    It is possible that the Marannos may have founded the business of
    banking even while they were yet in Spain. We have, however, no satis-factory
    information, though many writers have dealt with the subject.21
    There is a strong probability that at the time when measures were taken
    against them (16th century) the Jews were the leading bankers in the
    Pyrenean Peninsula. If this be so, is not the presumption justifiable that
    before then, too, the Jews engaged in banking?
    Furthermore, Jews were prominent and active figures wherever in
    the 17th century banks were established. They participated in the foun-dation
    of the three great banks of that period -- the Bank of Amsterdam,
    the Bank of England and the Bank of Hamburg. But as none of these
    owed its origin to purely commercial causes, I shall not emphasize their
    importance in connexion with the Jews. The facts, nevertheless, are in-teresting,
    and I would therefore state that the experience which the Jews
    gathered when the Bank of Amsterdam was founded served them in
    good stead when in 1619 the Hamburg Bank came into being. No less
    than forty Jewish families took shares in the new concern. As for the
    Bank of England, the latest authorities 22 on its history are agreed that
    the suggestion for the Bank came from Jewish immigrants from Hol-land.
    Public Debt Bonds
    The earliest bonds issued for public loans were addressed to some indi-vidual
    lender, and it was long before they changed then" character and
    became "general" instruments. In Austria, to take one example, it was
    not until the Debt of 1761 was contracted that the bonds had coupons
    attached which gave the bearer the right to receive interest.24 Previous
    to that, the bond was of the nature of a private agreement; the Crown or
    the Treasury was the debtor of some specific lender.25
    To what extent the Jews were responsible for the "standardization"
    of public credit it is difficult to estimate. So much is certain, that Will-iam
    III's advisers were Jews; that public borrowing in the German States
    was commenced on the model of Holland, most probably through the
    influence of Dutch Jews who, as we have already seen, were the chief
    financiers in German and Austrian lands. Speaking generally, Dutch
    Jews were most intimately concerned in European finance in the 18th
    century.26
    As for private loan-bonds or mortgage-deeds, we know very little of
    their history, and it is almost impossible to compute the direct influence.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/53
    of the Jews here. But indirectly the Jews were, in all likelihood, the
    originators of this species of credit instrument, more especially of mort-gage
    deeds. We have it on record that Dutch bankers, from about the
    middle of the 18th century onward, advanced money to colonial plant-ers
    on the security of their plantations. Mortgage-deeds of this kind
    were bought and sold on the Stock Exchange, just like Public Debt
    bonds. The bankers who dealt in them were called "correspondentie" or
    "Directeurs van de negotiatie," and the instruments themselves
    "obligatie." Documents to the value of no less than 100,000,000 gulden
    were in circulation before the crash of the 1770's.27
    I must confess that nowhere have I found any mention of Jewish
    bankers participating in these speculations. Yet even the most superfi-cial
    acquaintance with the Dutch moneymarket in the 18th century can
    scarcely leave room for doubt that Jews must have been largely inter-ested
    in this business. It is a well-known fact (as I hope to show) that in
    those days anything in Holland connected with money-lending, but es-pecially
    with stocks and shares and speculation, was characteristically
    Jewish. We are strengthened in this conclusion through knowing that
    most of the business in mortgage-banking was carried on with the colony
    of Surinam. Of the 100,000,000 gulden of mortgage-deeds already men-tioned,
    60,000,000 worth was from Surinam. Now Surinam, as we noted
    above, was the Jewish colony par excellence. The possibility that the
    credit relationship at that time between Surinam and the Motherland
    was maintained by other than Jewish houses is well-nigh excluded.
    So much for the "sources" regarding the Jewish share in the devel-opment
    of modern credit instruments. The sum-total is not much; it is
    for subsequent research to fill in the details and to add to them. Yet I
    believe the evidence sufficient for the general conclusion that in the stan-dardization
    of modern credit the Jews took no inconsiderable share. This
    impression will only be deepened if we think for a moment of the means
    by which the standardization was brought about or, at any rate, facili-tated.
    I mean the legal form of the credit instruments, which in all prob-ability
    was of Jewish origin.
    There is no complete agreement among authorities on the history of
    legal documents as to the origin of credit instruments.28 But in my opin-ion
    the suggestion that they owe their modern form to Jewish influence
    has much to be said for it. Let it be remembered that such documents
    first came into use among merchants, in whose ranks the Jewish element
    was not insignificant. The form that became current received recogni-.54/Werner Sombart
    tion in judicial decisions, and eventually was admitted into the body of
    statute law, first of all presumably in Holland.
    The only question is. Can we possibly deduce modern credit instru-ments
    from Rabbinic law? I believe we can.
    In the first place, the Bible and the Talmud are both acquainted with
    credit instruments. The Biblical passage is in the Book of Tobit, iv. 20;
    v. 1, 2, 3; ix. 1, 5.
    The best known passage in the Talmud is as follows (Baba Bathra,
    172): --
    "In the court of R. Huna a document was once produced to this
    effect: T, A.B., son of C.D., have borrowed a sum of money from you.'
    R. Huna decided that 'from you' might mean 'from the Exilarch or even
    from the King himself.'"
    Second, in later Jewish law, as well as in Jewish commercial prac-tice,
    the credit instrument is quite common. As regards practice, special
    proof is hardly necessary; and as for theory, let me mention some Rab-bis
    who dealt with the problem.29
    First in importance was Rabbenu Asher (1250--1327), who speaks
    of negotiable instruments in his Responsa (lxviii. 6, 8). "If A sends
    money to B and C, and notes in his bill 'payable to bearer by B and C,'
    payment must be made accordingly." So also R. Joseph Caro in his
    Choshen Mishpat: "If in any bill no name is mentioned but the direction
    is to 'pay bearer,' then whoever presents the bill receives payment" (lxi.
    10; cf. also 1.; lxi. 4, 10; lxxi. 23). R. Shabbatai Cohen in his Shach. (1.
    7; lxxi. 54) is of the same opinion.
    Thirdly, it is very likely that the Jews, in the course of business,
    independently of Rabbinic laws, developed a form of credit instrument
    which was quite impersonal and general in its wording. I refer to. the
    Mamre (Mamram, Momran).30 It is claimed that this document first
    appeared among the Polish Jews in the 16th century, or even earlier. Its
    form was fixed, but a space was left for the name of the surety, some-times,
    too, for the amount in question. There is no doubt that such docu-ments
    were in circulation during three centuries and were very popular,
    circulating even between Christians and Jews. Their value as evidence
    consists in that they already had all the characteristics of modern instru-ments:
    (1) the holder put the document in circulation by endorsement;
    (2) there is no mention of the personal relationship of the debtor and the
    creditor; (3) the debtor may not demand proof of endorsement or trans-fer;
    (4) if the debtor pays his debt without the presentation of the Mamre.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/55
    having been made to him, it is considered that he has not really dis-charged
    his obligation; and lastly (5) the cancellation of the document is
    almost the same as it is to-day -- if it is lost or stolen the holder of the
    document informs the debtor; public notice is given by a declaration
    posted up for four weeks in the synagogue, wherein the bearer of the
    instrument is requested to come forward; at the end of four weeks, if
    nothing happens, the creditor demands payment of the debtor.
    In the fourth place, it would appear that Jewish influences were
    potent in the development of many weighty points of legal practice. Let
    me mention some.
    (1) During the 16th century there circulated in different parts of
    Europe credit instruments with blanks for filling in names. What was
    their origin? Is there not a possibility that they emanated from Jewish
    commercial circles, having been modelled on the pattern of the Mamre?
    They are met with in the Netherlands,31 in France 32 and in Italy.33 In the
    Netherlands they appeared towards the beginning of the 16th century at
    the Antwerp fairs, just when the Jews began to take a prominent part in
    them. An Ordinance of the year 1536 states explicitly that "at the Antwerp
    fairs payment for commodities was made by promissory notes, which
    might be passed on to third persons without special permission." It would
    seem from the wording that the practice of accepting notes in payment
    for goods was a new one. What sort of documents were these notes?
    Can they have been Christian Mamrem? Even more Jewish were the
    documents in vogue in Italy a century later. I mean the first known
    "open" note, issued by the Jewish bill-brokers, Giudetti, in Milan. The
    note was for 500 scudi, payable through John Baptist Germanus at the
    next market day in Novi to the personal order of Marcus Studendolus in
    Venice for value received. Studendolus sent the bill to de Zagnoni Brothers
    in Bologna "with his signature, leaving a sufficient blank space at the
    end for filling in the amount, and the name of the person in whose favour
    the de Zagnonis preferred payment to be made." The recorder of this
    instance remarks 34 that "Italian financial intercourse could hardly have
    thought of a facility of this kind, had there not been a model somewhere
    to imitate. Such a model is found in France, where from the 17th cen-tury
    onward bearer bonds were in general circulation." The question at
    once suggests itself, how did this document arise in France. Will the
    example of Holland account for it? Even in Italy it may be a case of
    Maranno influence -- Studendolo(?) in Venice, Giudetti in Milan!
    (2) Of very great significance in the development of modern credit.56/Werner Sombart
    instruments is the Antwerp Custom of 1582, wherein it is for the first
    time admitted that the holder of a note has the right of suing in a court of
    law.35 This conception spread rapidly from Antwerp to Holland -- as
    rapidly, indeed, as the Jewish refugees from Belgium settled down among
    the Dutch.36
    (3) In Germany the first State to adopt credit instruments was Saxony.
    In the year 1747 an adventurer of the name of Bischopfield suggested to
    the Minister of Finance the plan of a Public Loan, and it seems that
    Bischopfield was in communication with Dutch Jews at the time.37 Fur-ther,
    an ordinance of 20th September 1757 forbade Dutch Jews to specu-late
    in Saxon Government Stock. All of which points to Jewish influ-ence
    -- on the one side of the Dutch Jews, and on the other of Polish
    Jews, owing to the connexion of the royal houses of Saxony and Poland.
    So great was this influence that one authority comes to the definite con-clusion
    that the Mamre became the model for credit instruments.38
    (4) Among the instruments wherein the name of the holder was in-serted
    we must include marine insurance policies. It is recorded that the
    Jewish merchants of Alexandria were the first to use the formulae "o
    qual si voglia altera persona," "et qwsvis alia persona" and "sive
    quamlibet aliam personam" ("or to any other person desired").39
    Now why did the Jewish merchants of Alexandria adopt this legal
    form? The answer to this question is of the gravest import, more espe-cially
    as I believe that the causes for which we are seeking were inherent
    in the conditions of Jewish life.
    (5) That leads me to my fifth consideration. It was to the interest of
    the Jews to a very large degree -- in some respects even it was to the
    interest of the Jews alone -- to have a proper legal form for credit
    instruments. For what was it that impelled the Jewish merchants of Al-exandria
    to make out their policies to bearer? Anxiety as to the fate of
    their goods. Jewish ships ran the risk of capture by Christian pirates and
    the fleets of His Catholic Majesty, who accounted the wares of Jews and
    Turks as legitimate booty. Hence the Jewish merchants of Alexandria
    inserted in their policies some fictitious Christian name, Paul or Scipio,
    or what you will, and when the goods arrived, received them in virtue of
    the "bearer" formula in their policies.
    How often must the same cause have actuated Jews throughout the
    Middle Ages! How often must they have endeavoured to adopt some
    device which concealed the fact that they were the recipients either of
    money or of commodities sent from a distance. What more natural than.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/57
    that they should welcome the legal form which gave "the bearer" the
    right of claiming what the document he had entitled him to. This for-mula
    made it possible for fortunes to vanish if the Jews in any locality
    passed through a storm of persecution. It enabled Jews to deposit their
    money wherever they wanted, and if at any time it became endangered,
    to remove it through the agency of some fictitious person or to transfer
    their rights in such a way as not to leave a trace of their former posses-sions.
    40 It may seem inexplicable that while throughout the Middle Ages
    the Jews were deprived of their "all" at very short intervals, they man-aged
    to become rich again very quickly. But regarded in the light of our
    suggestion, this problem is easily explained. The fact was that the Jews
    were never mulcted of their "all"; a good portion of their wealth was
    transferred to a fictitious owner whenever the kings squeezed too tight.
    Later, when the Jews commenced to speculate in securities and com-modities
    (as we shall see in due course) it was only to be expected that
    they would extend the use of this form of bond, more particularly in the
    case of securities.41 It is obvious that if a big loan is subscribed by a
    large number of comparatively small contributors bearer bonds offer
    facilities of various kinds.42
    The remark of a Rabbi here and there demonstrates this conclu-sively.
    One passage in the commentaries of R. Shabbatai Cohen is dis-tinctly
    typical. "The purchaser of a bond," he says, "may claim dam-ages
    against the debtor if he pays the debt without obtaining a receipt,
    the reason being that as there is no publicity in the transaction this prac-tice
    is detrimental to dealings in such instruments. It is true that Rabbenu
    Asher and his school expressed no view concerning Shetarot (instru-ments)
    of all kinds, which the Rabbis introduced in order to extend com-merce.
    That is because dealings in such instruments were not very com-mon,
    owing to the difficulty of transfer. But the authorities were think-ing
    only of personal bonds. In the case of bearer bonds, the circulation
    of which at the present time (i.e., the 17th century) is greater far than
    that of commodities, all ordinances laid down by the Rabbis for the
    extension of commerce are to be observed."
    (6) Here again we touch a vital question. I believe that if we were to
    examine the whole Jewish law concerning bearer bonds and similar in-struments
    we should find -- and this is my sixth point -- that such
    documents spring naturally from the innermost spirit of Jewish law, just
    as they are alien to the spirit of German and Roman law.
    It is a well-known fact that the specifically Roman conception of.58/Werner Sombart
    indebtedness was a strictly personal one.43 The obligatio was a bond
    between certain persons. Hence the creditor could not transfer his claim
    to another, except under exceedingly difficult conditions. True, in later
    Roman law the theory of delegation and transmission was interpreted
    somewhat liberally, yet the root of the matter, the personal relationship,
    remained unchanged.
    In German law a contract was in the same way personal; nay, to a
    certain extent it was even more so than in Roman law. The German
    principle on the point was clear enough. The debtor was not obliged to
    render payment to any one but the original creditor to whom he had
    pledged his word. There could in no wise be transference of claim -- as
    was the case in English law until 1873. It was only when Roman law
    obtained a strong hold on Germany that the transfer of claims first came
    into vogue. The form it took was that of "bearer bonds" -- the embodi-ment
    of an impersonal credit relationship.
    It is admitted that the legal notion underlying all "bearer" instru-ments
    -- that the document represents a valid claim for each successive
    holder -- was not fully developed either in the ancient world or in the
    Middle Ages.44 But the admission holds good only if Jewish law be left
    out of account. Jewish law was certainly acquainted with the imper-sonal
    credit relationship.45 Its underlying principle is that obligations
    may be towards unnamed parties, that you may carry on business with
    Messrs. Everybody. Let us examine this principle a little more closely.
    Jewish law has no term for obligation: it knows only debt ("Chov")
    and demand ("Tvia"). Each of these was regarded as distinct from the
    other. That a demand and a promise were necessarily bound up with
    some tangible object is proved by the symbolic act of acquisition. Con-sequently
    there could be no legal obstacles to the transfer of demands or
    to the making of agreements through agents. There was no necessity
    therefore for the person against whom there was a claim to be defined,
    the person in question became known by the acquisition of certain com-modities.
    In reality claims were against things and not against persons.
    It was only to maintain a personal relationship that the possessor of the
    things was made responsible. Hence the conception that just as an obli-gation
    may refer to some specified individual, so also it may refer to
    mankind as a whole. Therefore a transference of obligations is effected
    merely by the transference of documents.
    So much would appear from the view held by Auerbach. Jewish
    law is more abstract in this respect than either Roman or German law..The Jews and Modern Capitalism/59
    Jewish law can conceive of an impersonal, "standardized" legal rela-tionship.
    It is not too much to assume that a credit instrument such as
    the modern bearer bond should have grown out of such a legal system as
    the Jewish. Accordingly, all the external reasons which I have adduced
    in favour of my hypothesis are supported by what may be termed an
    "inner" reason.
    And what is this hypothesis? That instruments such as modern bearer
    bonds owe thenorigin chiefly to Jewish influences.
    Buying and Selling Securities
    The Evolution of a Legal Code Regulating Exchange
    In modern securities we see the plainest expression of the commercial
    aspect of our economic life. Securities are intended to be circulated, and
    they have not served their true purpose if they have not been bought and
    sold. Of course it may be urged that many a security rests peacefully in
    a safe, yielding an income to its owner, for whom it is a means to an end
    rather than a commodity for trading in. The objection has a good deal in
    it. A security that does not circulate is in reality not a security at all; a
    promissory note might replace it equally well. The characteristic mark
    of a security is the ease with which it may be bought and sold.
    Now if to pass easily from hand to hand is the real raison d'être of
    the security, everything which facilitates that movement matters, and
    therefore a suitable legal code most of all. But when is it suitable? When
    it renders possible speedy changes in the relationship between two people,
    or between a person and a commodity.
    In a society where every commodity continues as a rule in the pos-session
    of one and the same person, the law will strive all it can to fix
    every relationship between persons and things. On the other hand, if a
    body of people depends for its existence on the continued acquisition of
    commodities, its legal system will safeguard intercourse and exchange.
    In modern times our highly organized system of intercommunica-tion,
    and especially dealings in securities and credit instruments of all
    kinds, has facilitated the removal of old and the rise of new legal rela-tionships.
    But this is contrary to the spirit of Roman and German law,
    both of which placed obstacles in the way of commodities changing
    hands. Indeed, under these systems any one who has been deprived of a
    possession not strictly in accordance with law may demand its return
    from the present owner, without the need of any compensation, even
    though his bona-fides be established. In modern law, on the other hand,.60/Werner Sombart
    the return of the possession can be made only if the claimant pays the
    present owner the price he gave for it -- to say nothing of the possibility
    that the original owner has no claim whatever against the present holder.
    If this be so, whence did the principle, so alien to the older systems,
    enter into modern law? The answer is that in all probability it was from
    the Jewish legal code, in which laws favouring exchange were an inte-gral
    part from of old.
    Already in the Talmud we see how the present owner of any object
    is protected against the previous owners. "If any one," we read in the
    "Mishna" (Baba Kama, 114b and 115a), "after it has become known
    that a burglary took place at his house finds his books and utensils in the
    possession of another, this other must declare on oath how much he paid
    for the goods, and on his receiving the amount returns them to the origi-nal
    owner. But if no burglary has taken place, there is no need for this
    procedure, for it is then assumed that the owner sold the goods to a
    second person and that the present owner bought them." In every case,
    therefore, the present owner obtains compensation, and in certain given
    circumstances he retains the objects without any further ado. The
    "Gamara," it is true, wavers somewhat in the discussion of the passage,
    but in general it comes to the same conclusion. The present owner must
    receive "market protection," and the previous owner must pay him the
    price he gave.
    The attitude of the Talmud, then, is a friendly one towards exchange,
    and the Jews adopted it throughout the Middle Ages. But more than that
    -- and this is the important point -- they succeeded quite early in
    getting the principle recognized by Christian law-courts in cases where
    Jews were concerned. For centuries there was a special enactment regu-lating
    the acquisition of moveables by Jews; it received official recogni-tion
    for the first time in the "Privileges" issued by King Henry IV to the
    Jews of Speyers in 1090. "If a commodity that has been stolen," we read
    therein, "is found in the possession of a Jew who declares that he bought
    it, let him swear according to his law how much he paid for it, and if the
    original owner pays him the price, the Jew may restore the commodity
    to him." Not only in Germany, but in other lands too 46 (in France al-ready
    about the middle of the 12th century), is this special ordinance for
    Jews to be met with.47.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/61
    The Stock Exchange
    But when all is said, the principal thing was to establish a suitable mar-ket
    for credit instruments. The Stock Exchange answered the purpose.
    And just as the commodities there to be bought and sold were imper-sonal
    embodiments of claims, so, too, was the dealing divested of its
    personal character. Indeed, this is a feature of the Stock Exchange which
    differentiates it from other markets. It is no longer the trustworthiness
    that a merchant enjoys in the estimation of his fellow-merchants, based
    upon personal experience, that underlies business activities, but the gen-eral,
    abstract valuation of credit, the ditto di Borsa. Prices are no longer
    formed by the higgling of two or more traders talking over their transac-tions,
    but rather by a mechanical process, representing the average of a
    thousand and one units.48
    As for the history of the Stock Exchange (in the broadest connota-tion
    of the term), it may be divided into two periods -- (1) from its
    beginning in the 16th to the end of the 18th century, an epoch of growth
    and development, and (2) from the 19th century to the present day, when
    the Stock Exchange dominates all economic activities.
    It is now generally agreed that the origin of Stock Exchange dealing
    most likely began with the associating of bill-brokers.49 The centres
    where the famous exchanges first arose in the 16th and 17th centuries
    were previously well known for a brisk trade in bills.
    The important thing for us is that just when the Stock Exchanges
    came into being the Jews almost entirely monopolized bill-broking. In
    many towns, indeed, this business was regarded as a Jewish specialty.
    That such was the case in Venice we have already seen.50 It was also
    true of Amsterdam, though we must add that the first mention of Jews in
    that capacity was not until the end of the 17th century.51 Despite this,
    however, I believe we shall be safe in assuming that previous to that
    date also they were influential bill-brokers.
    In Frankfort-on-the-Main we hear the same story. Already in the
    16th century a contemporary"52 says of the Jews who came to the fan's
    that their presence was "hardly ornamental but certainly very useful,
    especially in the bill-discounting business." Again, in 1685, the Chris-tian
    merchants of Frankfort complained that the Jews had captured the
    whole of the business of bill-broking.53 Lastly, Gliickel von Hamein
    states in her Memoirs that friends of her family dealt in bills, "as was
    customary among Jews."34
    As for Hamburg, Jews certainly introduced the business of bill-.62/Werner Sombart
    broking there. A hundred years after the event (1733) a document in the
    Archives of the Senate expressed the opinion that "Jews were almost
    masters of the situation in bill-broking and had quite beaten our people
    at it."55 And even as late as the end of the 18th century the Jews were
    almost the only purchasers of bills in Hamburg. Among other German
    towns, it is recorded that in Furth bill-broking (in the 18th century) was
    almost entirely in Jewish hands.56
    The position in Vienna was no different. The Austrian capital, as is
    well known, became a notable centre as a stock market at the end of the
    18th century, and the State Chancellor Ludewig remarks concerning the
    activities of the Jews under Leopold I, "chiefly in Vienna by the influ-ence
    and credit of the Jews business of the greatest importance is often
    transacted. Especially exchanges and negotiations of the first import in
    the market."
    So in Bordeaux, where we are told 57 "the chief business activity is
    buying bills and introducing gold and silver into the realm." Even from
    so far north as Stockholm the same story reaches us.58 There also the
    Jews dominated the bill-broking market in the early 19th century (1815).
    As the principal bill-brokers of the period, the Jews must have had
    much to do with the establishment of the Stock Market. But more than
    that. They gave the Stock Exchange and its dealings their peculiar fea-tures
    in that they became the "originators of speculation in futures,"
    and, indeed, of speculation generally.
    When speculation in stocks first arose is as yet difficult to deter-mine.
    Some have held 59 that the Italian cities furnish examples of this
    kind of dealing as early as the 15th century.60 But to my mind this has
    not yet been conclusively proved.61
    Not in Italy in the 15th, but in Amsterdam in the 17th century will
    the beginnings of modern speculation have to be more correctly placed.
    It is almost certain that the Dutch East India Company's shares called
    stock-jobbing into existence. The large number of shares of equal value
    that were suddenly put into circulation at that time, the strong specula-tive
    temper of the age, the great interest taken in the Company ever
    since its foundation, the changing rates of profit that its activities pro-duced
    -- all these must surely have given an impetus to stock and share
    dealing on the Amsterdam Exchange,62 then already a highly developed
    institution. In the space of only eight years dealing in stock became so
    general and so reckless that it was regarded as an evilby the authorities,
    who tried to abolish it. A proclamation by the Government of the 26th.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/63
    February, 1610, forbade merchants to sell more shares than they actu-ally
    possessed. Similar prohibitions were issued in 1621, 1623, 1677,
    1700 and so on, all equally without effect.
    Who were the speculators? The answer is, all those irrespective of
    religion who had sufficient money to enable them to participate. Never-theless
    the assumption will not be too bold that the Jews were more
    prominent than others in this activity. Their contribution to the growth
    of Stock Exchange business was their specialization in stockbroking
    and the device of dealing in futures. We are not without evidence on
    both points. Towards the end of the 18th century it was a generally
    accepted fact that Jews had "discovered" the stock and share business.63
    This belief does not necessarily prove anything; yet that it was without
    any foundation is hardly likely, especially as there are witnesses to give
    it support. Nicolas Muys van Holy, who has already been mentioned,
    says that Jews were the principal stockholders -- already in the second
    half of the 17th century. Later they are found as large investors in both
    the Dutch India Companies. De Pinto 64 is the authority as regards the
    Dutch East India Company, and for the West India Company there is
    the letter of the Directors to Stuyvesant,65 the Governor of New
    Amsterdam, requesting him to allow the Jews to settle in the Company's
    colony, "also because of the large amount of capital which they have
    invested in shares of the Company." Referring to both companies,
    Manasseh ben Israel 66 reported to Cromwell "that the Jews were enjoy-ing
    a good part of the Dutch East and West India Company."
    Most significant of all, however, the book which for the first time
    exhaustively treated of Stock Exchange business in all its branches was
    written by a Portuguese Jew in Amsterdam, towards the end of the 17th
    century. I refer to Don Joseph de la Vega's Confusion de confusiones,
    etc., which appeared in 1688, 67 and which a Stock Exchange specialist
    has described as "being still the best description, both in form and sub-stance,
    of stock and share dealing even to-day." The book bears witness
    to the fact that a Jew was the first "theorist" in the sphere of specula-tions
    in futures. De la Vega was himself engaged in commerce and his
    treatise clearly reflects the atmosphere in which he lived.
    De la Vega's book in conjunction with the other evidence quoted
    cannot but lead to the conclusion that if the Jews were not actually the
    "fathers" of Stock Exchange business they were certainly primarily con-cerned
    in its genesis.
    Should this view nevertheless be sceptically received by some, I.64/Werner Sombart
    have a trump card in the way of direct proof in support of it.
    We possess a report, probably of the French Ambassador in The
    Hague, written for his Government in the year 1698, wherein he dis-tinctly
    states that the Jews held the Stock Exchange business in their
    hands, and shaped its development as they willed. The most salient pas-sages
    68 here follow in full: --
    In this State (Holland) the Jews have a good deal of power and
    according to the prognostications of these pretended political specu-lators,
    themselves often unreliable, the prices of these stocks vary
    so considerably that they cause transactions to take place several
    times a day, transactions which merit the term wager or bet rather
    than business; the more so, as the Jews who dominate this kind of
    activity are up to all manner of tricks which take in people, even if
    they be ever so skilled.... Their Jewish brokers and agents, the
    cleverest of their kind in all the world.... Bonds and shares, of all
    of which they hold large amounts.
    The author, acquainted as he is with all the secrets of Stock Ex-change
    activity, describes at length how the Jews succeeded in obtaining
    the influential position they held on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. I
    shall refer to this in due course.
    Much light is thrown on the conditions of the Stock Exchange in the
    Dutch capital when compared with those in other centres. Let us take
    London first, which from the 18th century onward succeeded Amsterdam
    as the chief financial centre in Europe. The predominance of Jews in the
    Stock Exchange in London is perhaps more apparent even than in the
    case of Amsterdam. The growing activity in the London Stock market
    towards the end of the 17th century may be traced to the exertions of
    Amsterdam Jews, who at that time began to settle in England. If this be
    so, it is proof positive that the Jews were in large measure responsible
    for the expansion of Stock Exchange dealing in Amsterdam. Else how
    could they have been so influential in the London Exchange, highly
    developed as it then already was?
    One or two particulars in the story of the accession to power of the
    Jews in the London Exchange may be noted.
    In 1657 Solomon Dormido applied for admission as a member of
    the Exchange, from which Jews were officially excluded. The law which
    ordered this exclusion seems to have been conveniently forgotten. Any-.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/65
    how, towards the end of the 17th century the Exchange (which since
    1698 had become known as 'Change Alley) was full of Jews. So numer-ous
    did they become that a special corner of the building was designated
    the "Jews' Walk." "The Alley throngs with Jews," wrote a contempo-rary.
    69
    Whence these throngs?70 The answer is obvious. They came in the
    train of William III from Amsterdam, and brought with them the ma-chinery
    of Stock Exchange dealings in vogue there. The events, as re-lated
    by John Francis, are regarded as a true presentation by many au-thorities,
    even on the Jewish side.
    The Stock Exchange was like Minerva: it appeared on the scene
    ready armed. The principal participants in the first English loan were
    Jews: they assisted William III with their advice, and one of them, the
    wealthy Medina, was Marlborough's banker, giving the General an an-nual
    grantof £6,000 and receiving in return the advantage of being first
    in the field with news of the wars. The victories of the English troops
    were as profitable to Medina as they were honourable for England. All
    the tricks bound up with rising and falling prices, lying reports from the
    seat of war, the pretended arrival of couriers, the formation of financial
    cliques and cabals behind the scenes, the whole system of Mammon's
    wheels -- they knew them all, the early fathers of the Stock Exchange,
    and utilized them to the full to their own advantage.
    By the side of Sir Solomon Medina ("the Jew Medina," as he was
    called), who may be regarded as having originated speculation in the
    public funds in England, we may place a number of other wealthy Jews
    of the reign of Anne, all of whom speculated on the Stock Exchange.
    Manasseh Lopez was one. He amassed a fortune in the panic which
    followed the false news that the Queen was dead, buying up all Govern-ment
    Stock which had fallen in price in consequence. A similar story is
    told of Sampson Gideon, known among the Gentiles as "the great Jew
    broker."71 A notion of the financial strength of the Jews in the London of
    those days may be obtained when it is recalled that at the beginning of
    the 18th century the number of Jewish families with an annual income
    between £1000 and £2000 was put by Picciotto at 100; those with an
    annual income of £300 at 1000; whilst some individual Jews, such as
    Mendes da Costa, Moses Hart, Aaron Frank, Baron d'Aguilar, Moses
    Lopez Pereira, Moses or Anthony da Costa (who towards the end of the
    17th century was a Director of the Bank of England) and others were
    among the wealthiest merchants in London..66/Werner Sombart
    It is evident then that the wealth of the Jews brought about Stock
    Exchange speculation on a large scale. But more striking still, the busi-ness
    of stock-jobbing as a specialized profession was introduced into
    the London Exchange by Jews, probably in the first half of the 18th
    century. As far as I am aware this fact has hitherto passed unnoticed.
    But there is abundant proof in support of it.
    Postlethwayt, who is pretty reliable in matters of this kind, asserts 72
    that "Stock-jobbing . . . was at first only the simple occasional transfer-ring
    of interest and shares from one to another as persons alienated their
    estates; but by the industry of the stockbrokers, who got the business
    into their hands, it became a trade; and one, perhaps, which has been
    managed with the greatest intrigue, artifice, and trick that ever anything
    which appeared with a face of honesty could be handled with; for, while
    the brokers held the box, they made the whole exchange the gamesters,
    and raised and lowered the prices of stocks as they pleased and always
    had both buyers and sellers, who stood ready, innocently to commit
    their money to the mercy of their mercenary tongues."
    That Jews formed a considerable proportion of brokers is well-known.
    As early as 1697, out of one hundred sworn brokers on the
    London Exchange, no fewer than twenty were Jews and aliens. Doubt-less
    their number increased in the centuries that followed. "The He-brews
    flocked to 'Change Alley from every quarter under heaven," wrote
    Francis. Indeed, a reliable observer of the 1730's (that is to say, a gen-eration
    after their first appearance on the London Exchange) remarks 73
    that there were too many Jewish brokers for them all to do business,
    consequently this "has occasioned almost one half of the Jew brokers to
    run into stock-jobbing." The same authority puts the number of Jews
    then in London at 6000.
    This process, by which stock-jobbing was in a sense the outcome of
    stockbroking, was not limited to London. The same tendencies showed
    themselves in Frankfort. Towards the end of the 17th century the Jews
    there were in possession of the entire broking business,74 and gradually
    no doubt worked their way into stock-jobbing. In Hamburg 75 the Portu-guese
    Jews had four brokers in 1617, whilst a little later there were
    twenty. Taking these facts into consideration, taking into consideration
    also that public opinion regarded the Jews as responsible for the growth
    of arbitrage business on the London Exchange,76 and that Jews partici-pated
    to a great degree in the big speculations in Government Stock
    towards the end of the 18th century, we shall be forced to agree with the.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/67
    view that has been expressed by a first-rate authority,77 that if to-day
    London is the chief financial centre of the world, it owes this position in
    large measure to the Jews.
    In the period of early capitalism, the Stock Exchanges of other towns
    lagged far behind those of Amsterdam and London. Even in Paris it was
    not until towards the end of the 18th century that business became at all
    brisk. The beginnings of stock speculation (or Agiotage, as it is called
    in France) can be traced to the early 18th century; Ranke 78 discovered
    the term Agioteur in a letter of Elisabeth Charlotte, dated 18th January,
    1711. The writer is of the opinion that the term had some connexion
    with the billets de monnaye (bills) but that it was unknown before. It
    would seem, therefore, that the Law period left no lasting impression.
    For even in the 1730's the economic pre-eminence of England and Hol-land,
    both more capitalistically advanced than their neighbour, was felt
    in France. One writer of the time 79 makes this clear. "The circulation of
    stock is one of the sources of great wealth to our neighbours; they have
    a bank, dividendsare paid, and stock and shares are sold." Apparently
    then such was not the case in France. Even in 1785, an edict (7th Au-gust)
    proclaimed that "the King is informed that for some time past a
    new kind of commodity has been introduced into the capital" -- viz.,
    stocks and shares.
    The condition of comparative unimportance which Stock Exchange
    activities occupied in France during the 18th century is a direct indica-tion
    that the Jews had little influence on the economic life of France (and
    especially of Paris) in that period. The cities in which they resided, such
    as Lyons or Bordeaux, were hardly favourable to the development of
    stockbroking. In Lyons, however, there was for a short space, in the
    16th century, a fairly brisk trade in what would to-day be called securi-ties,
    but no satisfactory reasons have as yet been offered to explain it.80
    Anyhow, it had no after-effects.
    But to return to Paris. What stockbroking it had it probably owed to
    the Jews. The centre of this business was in the Rue Quincampoix,
    which later became notorious through the swindles connected with the
    name of Law. Now in this particular street there lived, in the words of a
    reliable authority,81 "many Jews." Be that as it may, the man with whom
    the first stock speculations in France were connected, one who was a
    greater master of the art of manipulation than even Law, was Samuel
    Bernard, the well-known financier of Louis XIV. No wonder then that
    the billets de monnaye, when they became merely bits of valueless pa-.68/Werner Sombart
    per, were nicknamed Bernardines.82 And as for John Law, his knowl-edge
    of the mechanism of the Stock Exchange had been acquired in
    Amsterdam.83 Whether he was himself a Jew (it has been held 84 that
    Law == Levy) I have been unable to discover. It is, however, quite
    possible. Was not his father a "goldsmith" (and banker)? He was, it is
    true, a Christian, but that is not necessarily a proof of his non-Jewishness.
    The Jewish appearance of the man in portraits (for example, in the Ger-man
    edition (1720) of his Money and Trade Considered) rather sup-ports
    the thesis that he was a Jew. On the other hand, the peculiar mix-ture
    of the lordling and the adventurer which characterized his nature is
    against the assumption.
    In Germany the Exchanges of Frankfort and Hamburg, the two Jew-ish
    towns par excellence, alone reached a position of any importance.
    Illustrations of the Jewish influence have already been dealt with.
    As for Berlin, it may be said that the Stock Exchange there was a
    Jewish institution from its very inception. At the beginning of the last
    century, even before 1812, when they were emancipated, the Jews pre-dominated
    numerically on the Exchange. Of the four Presidents, two
    were Jews; and the whole Stock Exchange Committee was made up as
    follows: -- 4 Presidents, 10 Wardens of the two Gilds, 1 of the Elbe
    Seamen's Gild, and 8 "of the merchants of the Jewish nation, elected
    thereto." Out of a total of 23, therefore, 10 were Jews. That is to say,
    professing Jews: it is impossible to determine whether, and how many,
    baptized Jews and crypto-Jews were in the committee.
    As it is, their number shows plainly enough that stockbroking had
    its large quota of Jews. Of six sworn bill-brokers three were Jews. Fur-ther,
    of the two sworn brokers in cotton and silk, one was a Jew, and his
    substitute was also a Jew. That is to say, of a total of three, two were
    Jews.85
    Stockbroking so far as Germany in the 18th century was concerned
    was carried on only in Hamburg and Frankfort. Already at the begin-ning
    of that century trading in securities was forbidden. A proclamation
    of the Hamburg Council, dated 19th July, 1720, expresses itself as fol-lows:
    -- "The Council has heard to its abhorrence and great disgust,
    that certain private citizens, under the pretext of founding an assurance
    company, have on their own authority commenced business as dealers
    in shares. The Council fears that harmful consequences may ensue there-from
    as well to the public at large, as also to the said private citizens."86
    It seems that the powers that be were only voicing the general feeling in.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/69
    the matter; "the dangerous and wickedly ruinous trade in stocks and
    shares" a writer of the tune 87 indignantly called it.
    Were Jews here also the originators? So much at least is certain,
    that the impetus to stock-dealing came from the circles of the assurers,
    as is apparent from the above-mentioned proclamation of 1720. Now,
    as a matter of fact, it is known that Jews actively stimulated the growth
    of marine insurance in Hamburg.88 Any further evidence as to Stock
    Exchange influences is only indirect. The same applies to Frankfort The
    first certain trace dates from 1817, and refers to Augsburg. There is on
    record the decision of a court of law in a bill case of the 14th February
    in the year mentioned. A motion to enforce payment of the difference in
    the price of a credit-instrument which rose owing to the rise of the mar-ket-
    rate was dismissed, on the ground that it was of the nature of a game
    of hazard. The sum in question was 17,630 florins, and the original
    contract was for delivery of 90,000 florins' worth of lottery tickets in
    the Bavarian State Lottery. The plaintiff's name was Heymann, the
    defendant's H. E. Ullmann! This is the first attested case of speculation
    in bonds in Germany.89
    But with the year 1817 we reach a period which differed from the
    preceding one, and which I consider as opening a new epoch in the
    history of Stock Exchange transactions. Why new? What were its spe-cial
    features that it should be described by that dreadful word "mod-ern"?
    Judgments on the Stock Exchange by contemporaries then and now
    show how widely different a position it occupies to-day from what it did
    even a hundred years ago.
    Until well on in the 18th century, even in capitalistic circles, specu-lation
    in the public funds was looked at askance. The standard commer-cial
    handbooks and dictionaries in English, French, Italian and German,
    which have come down to us from the 18th century, either make no
    mention at all of dealings in stocks (especially in the economically "back-ward"
    countries), or if, like Postlethwayt, they do treat of the subject,
    they cannot sufficiently express their contempt for it. The view concern-ing
    the Stock Exchange which is to-day held by the petty trader, the
    small shopkeeper or the farmer was in the 18th century that of the rich
    merchant. When in 1733 Sir John Barnard's Bill (to prevent the "infa-mous
    practice of stock-jobbing") was being discussed in the House of
    Commons, all the speakers were unanimous in their condemnation of
    the business. Half a generation later the same harsh terms are to be.70/Werner Sombart
    found in the pages of Postlethwayt, who refers to "those mountebanks
    we very properly call stockbrokers." Stock-jobbing he regards as a "pub-lic
    grievance," which has become "scandalous, to the nation."90 No
    wonder that the legislation of the period completely forbade the busi-ness.
    But the dislike of the Stock Exchange went deeper still. It was bound
    up with an aversion for what the Exchange rested on -- securities in
    general. Naturally the interests of the State coincided with those who
    defended the trade in securities, so that Ruler and Jobber were ranged as
    a lonely couple on one side, while everybody else was on the other --
    save only those who indulged in the purchase of securities. In truth, the
    National Debt was looked upon as something of which States had need
    to be ashamed, and the best men of their generation were agreed that its
    growth was an evil which should be combated by all possible means.
    Thinkers and practical men were united on this point. In commercial
    circles the question was seriously discussed how the public debt could
    be paid off, and it was even suggested that the State should disavow its
    responsibilities in connexion with the debt, and so wipe it out. And this
    in England in the second half of the 18th century!91 Nor were the theo-rists
    of the time differently minded. The system of public borrowing is
    called by David Hume "a practice . . . ruinous beyond all controversy;"92
    Adam Smith writes of "the ruinous practice of funding," "the ruinous
    expedient of perpetual funding ... has gradually enfeebled every State
    which has adopted it" . . . "the progress of the enormous debts, which at
    present oppress and will in the long run probably ruin all the great na-tions
    of Europe."93 In these opinions, as always, Adam Smith is the
    mirror of the economic conditions of his age, a period of early capitalis-tic
    development, and nothing distinguishes it from our own so well as
    the fact that in the complete system of Adam Smith there is no niche
    available for the study of securities, or of the Stock Exchange and its
    business.
    About the same time, however, a book appeared which dealt only
    with credit and its blessings, with the Stock Exchange and its signifi-cance;
    a book which may be justly termed the "Song of Songs" of Pub-lic
    Debts and share-dealing; a book which looked to the Future, as the
    Wealth of Nations looked to the Past. I refer to the Traité du credit et de
    la circulation, published in 1771 from the pen of Joseph de Pinto. Now
    Pinto was a Portuguese Jew, hence my special reference to him in this
    connexion. In his pages may be found the very arguments which have.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/71
    been put forward in the 19th century in defence of public credit, of
    dealings in securities and of speculation in the public funds. If Adam
    Smith in his system be said to stand at the end ofthe period in which the
    Stock Exchange was in its infancy, Pinto may be regarded as standing
    at the beginning of the modern era with its theory of credit, in which
    stock and share speculation have become the centre of economic activ-ity,
    and the Stock Exchange the heart of the body economic.
    Silently, but none the less surely, public opinion veered round in
    favour of dealings in securities and of the recognition of the Stock Ex-change
    as a necessity. Public opinion grew as these grew, and step by
    step, hostile legislation was removed, so that when the Napoleonic wars
    were over and peace reigned once more, the Stock Exchange began to
    take on enormous dimensions.
    We see, then, that there is some justification for speaking of a new
    period in the history of the Stock Exchange. What were the actual
    changes? And to what extent were the Jews concerned in bringing about
    the new state of affairs?
    There was not much modification in the mechanism of the Stock
    Exchange; that was complete as early as 1688, when de la Vega pub-lished
    his book. Naturally, subsidiary kinds of business activities cropped
    up here and there, and of these, too, Jews were generally the originators.
    Thus I have discovered 94 that the business of insurance was established
    (in Germany) by W. Z. Wertheimer in Frankfort, and that of the peculiar
    form of ship chartering known as "Heuergeschäft" Jews were the
    founders.
    But the rise of subsidiary businesses was not the salient point in the
    development of Stock Exchange activities. It was rather the extensive
    and intensive growth of the volume of business.
    The enormous increase in the number of securities which have ap-peared
    in the market since the beginning of the 19th century, and the
    rapidity with which they came before the public, are facts too well known
    to need repetition. But with this increase came also an extension of specu-lation.
    Until about the middle of the 18th century, speculation in London
    and Amsterdam may be compared to little ripples on the face of the
    water. It was not till 1763, as a reliable informant tells us, that the first
    private loan was floated in Amsterdam. Previously what speculation
    there was was limited to public bonds, "but during the last war a vast
    ocean of annuities flooded the market."95 Even so, there were only forty-four
    different kinds of securities on the Amsterdam Exchange about the.72/Werner Sombart
    middle of the century. Of these, twenty-five were bonds of internal, and
    six of German loans. When the century closed, the first category of
    bonds numbered eighty, and the second thirty.96 Then came a sudden
    upward movement, especially after the defeat of Napoleon. From the
    first establishment of the Amsterdam Exchange until the year 1770, a
    total debt of 250,000,000 Gulden had been dealt in; whereas in fourteen
    years (1808--22) one London firm alone issued a greater sum --
    22,000,000 pounds. All this is common knowledge; and the identity of
    that one London firm, which in a decade floated so vast a sum on the
    market, does not need further indication.
    With the mention of this firm, and of its four branches, we have
    touched on the connexion between the extensive growth of Stock Ex-change
    activities and the Jewish influence upon it. For the expansion of
    the share market between 1800 and 1850 was also the expansion of the
    house of Rothschild and its appendages. The name Rothschild refers to
    more than the firm: it stands for the whole of Jewish influence on the
    Stock Exchange. By the aid of that influence the Rothschilds were en-abled
    to attain to their powerful position -- it may even be said to their
    unique position -- in the market for Government securities. It was no
    exaggeration to assert that in many a land the minister of finance who
    could not come to an agreement with this firm might as well close the
    doors of his exchequer. "There is only one power in Europe," was a
    dictum well-known about the middle of the 19th century, "and that is
    Rothschild: a dozen other banks are his underlings, his soldiers are all
    honest merchants and workmen, and speculation is his sword" (A. Weil).
    Heine's wit, in passages that are surely too well-known to need quoting,
    has demonstrated the importance of the family better far than any table
    of figures.
    I have not the least intention of writing here a history of the
    Rothschilds, even in outline. The reader will find ample material 97 at his
    disposal should he wish to acquaint himself with the fortunes of this
    remarkable family. All I shall do will be to point out one or two charac-teristics
    which the modern Stock Exchange owes to them, in order to
    make clear that not only quantitatively, but also qualitatively, the Stock
    Exchange bears the impress of the Rothschilds (and therefore of the
    Jew).
    The first feature to be observed is that, since the appearance of the
    Rothschilds, the stock market has become international. This was only
    to be expected, considering the enormous extension of Stock Exchange.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/73
    activities, which necessitated the flow of vast sums from all parts of the
    inhabited world to the borrowing centres. To-day the internationaliza-tion
    of the stock market is an accepted fact; at the commencement of the
    19th century it was regarded with nothing short of amazement. When in
    1808, during the Peninsular War, Nathan Rothschild undertook in Lon-don
    to attend to the pay of the English army in Spain, his action was
    regarded as a stupendous achievement, and indeed, laid the foundation
    of all his influence. Until 1798 only the Frankfort firm had been in
    existence; in that year one of the sons of Mayer Amschel established a
    branch in London, another son settled in Paris in 1812, a third in Vienna
    in 1816, and a fourth in Naples in 1820. The conditions were thus given
    whereby a foreign loan might be treated as though it were an internal
    loan, and gradually the public became accustomed to investing their
    capital in foreign securities, seeing that the interest could be paid at
    home in coins of the realm. Writers of the early 19th century describe it
    as a marvellous thing that "every holder of Government stock . . . can
    receive his dividends in various places at his convenience without any
    difficulty. The Rothschilds in Frankfort pay interest for many Govern-ments;
    the Paris house pays the dividends on the Austrian Métalliques,
    the Neapolitan Rentes, the Anglo-Neapolitan Loan either in London,
    Naples or Paris."98
    The circle of possible investors was thus enlarged. But the
    Rothschilds were also alive to the importance of obtaining every avail-able
    penny that could be borrowed, and for this purpose they skilfully
    utilized the machinery of the Stock Exchange for floating loans.
    As far as can be judged from contemporary records,99 the issue by
    the Rothschilds of the Austrian bonds in 1820--1 was an epoch-making
    event, both in public borrowing and in Stock Exchange business. For
    the first time all the ropes were pulled to create a demand for the shares,
    and speculations in Government stocks may be stated to have begun on
    this occasion, at least on the Continent.
    "To create a demand" was henceforth the watchword of the Stock
    Exchange. "To create a demand" was the object in view when, by means
    of systematic buying and selling, changes were brought about in price;
    and the Rothschilds devoted themselves to the business from the first.100
    In a sense, they carried on what the French called agiotage, and this
    was something quite new for a great banking firm to do. In reality the
    Rothschilds only adopted the methods of the Amsterdam Jews for artifi-cially
    influencing the market, but they applied them to a new purpose --.74/Werner Sombart
    the placing of fresh securities before the public.
    The changed relation of the banker to the Stock Exchange on the
    one hand, and to the public on the other, will become more apparent
    when we have glanced at the new activities which loomed on the horizon
    at this period -- the age of the Rothschilds -- and began to play an
    independent role. I mean the business of bringing out loans.
    The Creation of Securities
    The business of bringing out loans is an attempt to obtain profit by
    means of the creation of securities. It is important because it represents
    a capitalistic force of exceedingly great power. Henceforth, stocks and
    shares come into being not because of the needs of those who require
    money and depend on credit, but quite independently, as a form of capi-talistic
    enterprise. Hitherto the possible investor was waited for until he
    came; now he is sought out. The loan-floater becomes, as it were, ag-gressive;
    he gives the impetus to the borrowing movement. But this is
    hardly ever noticeable. We see how it works, however, when small States
    require loans; we may imagine a kind of "commercial traveller in loans."
    "Now we have wealthy firms with large machinery, whose time and
    staff are devoted to hunting about the world for Powers for whom to
    bring out loans."101
    Naturally, the loan-floater's relation to the Stock Exchange and the
    public changes. He must be aggressive and pushful, now that his main
    work is to get people to take up shares.
    There is as yet no satisfactory history of the business of bringing
    out loans. We do not know, therefore, when it first began; its origins,
    however, no doubt reach back into the 18th century, and probably there
    were three well marked stages in its growth.
    In the first of these, either a bank or a wealthy individual (who, in
    the pre-Stock Exchange period himself made the loan) was entrusted
    with the placing of the debt in return for a commission. Such was the
    method adopted in Austria throughout the whole of the 18th century:
    "Loans of fairly large sums, especially those contracted abroad, were
    usually obtained through the intervention of a bank or a group of finan-ciers.
    The firm in question arranged, by means of public subscription,
    for the supply of the amount needed; handed over the sum to the bor-rower
    or his agent; undertook' the payment of interest and portions of
    the principal to the individual lenders -- out of their own funds if need
    be; all, of course, for a consideration."102.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/75
    But about the middle of the 18th century there were already "deal-ers
    in loans." In 1769 there were Italian and Dutch firms who would
    willingly undertake the floating of loans.103 Adam Smith's description
    of this business makes the matter plainer still. "In England . . . the
    merchants are generally the people who advance money to Government.
    But by advancing it they do not mean to diminish, but, on the contrary,
    to increase their mercantile capitals; and unless theyexpected to sell
    with some profit their share in the subscription for a new loan, they
    never would subscribe." In France, on the other hand, those concerned
    in the finances were people of private means, who advanced their own
    money.104
    Where did the specialists in this business come from? Not from
    among the bankers, who in the 18th century floated loans, but in all
    probability from among the dealers in stock and shares. Towards the
    end of the 18th century the charmed circle of London bankers who had
    the monopoly of bringing out Government loans was broken through by
    competition from the ranks of the stockholders. Here, too, it was a Jew-ish
    firm that took the initiative, and brought the emission of loans into
    connexion with the Stock Exchange. I refer to the "Rothschilds of the
    18th century," the men who predominated in 'Change Alley in those
    days -- Abraham and Benjamin Goldsmid. In 1792 they came forward
    as the first members of the Stock Exchange 105 to compete with the bank-ers
    of London in the bringing out of the new loan, and from that date
    until the death of the second brother, Abraham, which occurred in 1810,
    this firm controlled the money market. Perhaps we may account them as
    the first "loan specialists," whom the Rothschilds succeeded. But even
    if there is some doubt about the Goldsmids' claim, there can be no pos-sible
    doubt about the Rothschilds', who were thus certainly the first in
    the field.
    But it is obvious that only a few wealthy firms could subsist by the
    business of issuing public loans. After all, the demand was compara-tively
    limited. But as soon as opportunities offered themselves for the
    creation of securities for private needs, a very wide field of activity was
    ready for ploughing. All that was necessary was to create a big demand
    artificially, and this tendency gave birth to company-promoting and
    mortgage business.
    Company-promoting is carried on by firms "whose business it pro-fessedly
    is to make money by manufacturing stocks and shares whole-sale
    and forcing them upon the public" (Crump). The strength of the.76/Werner Sombart
    motive power that thus began to actuate economic activities need scarcely
    be described. It was not to the interest of undertakers, some of no small
    importance, to create fresh capital by the issue of new stock or by ex-tending
    the old, without any reference at all to the question as to whether
    there was a demand for the stock or not.
    Who first started this form of business? It will not be difficult to
    show that even if the Jews did not actually establish it, they certainly
    helped forward its development.
    The first ray of light on this matter, as far as we can make out, is
    once again the activity of the Rothschilds. The railway boom of the
    1830's made it possible to carry on company-promoting on a large scale.
    The Rothschilds, as well as other Jewish houses (the d'Eichthals, the
    Foulds, etc.), were the first in the field, and brought this branch of busi-ness
    to a flourishing condition.
    The extent of the participation may be gathered in some degree from
    the length of the lines built, or the amount of capital subscribed. But the
    actual share of the individual firms cannot be estimated. Nevertheless,
    we know that the Rothschilds "built" the Northern Railway in France,
    the Northern Railway in Austria, the Austro-Italian Railway, and many
    more.
    Further, judging from the views of contemporaries, it would appear
    that the Rothschilds were really the first "Railway Kings." In 1843 the
    Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung wrote as follows: "When in the last
    few years speculation became rife in industrial undertakings, and rail-ways
    grew to be a necessity for the Continent, the Rothschilds took the
    plunge and placed themselves at the head of the new movement." The
    house of Rothschild set the fashion in railway building as it had done
    before in public loans. "Scarcely a company that was started in Ger-many
    but looked to the goodwill of Rothschild. Those in which he had
    no say were not very successful, and little could be made out of them."106
    Statements such as these, in which friend and foe agree, are significant
    enough.
    Ever since those days the activity of floating companies has become
    a specialty of Jewish undertakers. In the first place, the very biggest
    men, such as Baron Hirsch or Dr. Strousberg, were Jews. But the rank
    and file, too, have many Jews among them. A glance at the figures on
    the next page concerning the promotion of companies in Germany in the
    two years 1871--3 suffices to show that an astoundingly large number of
    Jews participated in the work.107 But these figures do not tell the whole.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/77
    story. In the first place, they form only a selection of the whole, and
    refer (of set purpose) to the "shaky" companies, from which the Jews
    will probably have kept away; and secondly, in many cases, the Jews
    were behind the scenes as controlling influences, and those in the fore-ground
    were merely puppets. Even so the figures will serve a useful
    purpose.
    The tendency is perhaps best seen where private banking is still
    important, as it is in England. Here, as I am told on the best authority, of
    the 63 banks in the Bankers' Almanack for 1904, 33 were Jewish firms,
    or at least with a strong Jewish interest, and of these 33, 13 were first-class
    concerns.
    It is more difficult to determine the proportion of Jews in this call-ing
    in countries (e.g., Germany) where the private banker has been dis-placed
    by the joint-stock bank. But everything points to Jewish influ-ence
    in the tendency of the joint-stock banks to act as company promot-ers.
    None of the decades of company-flotation, neither the fifties nor the
    seventies, nor still less the nineties, would have been conceivable with-out
    the co-operation of the speculative bank. The stupendous undertak-ings
    in railway construction owe their very existence to the banks, which
    advanced capital to limited companies of their own creation. Private
    firms, it is true, did no little in the same direction, but their means did
    not allow of rivalry with the great banks. In France, between 1842 and
    1847, no less than 144 million francs were spent in railway building; in
    the following four years 130 millions, while from 1852 to 1854 the sum
    had reached 250 millions; in 1855 alone it was 500 millions, and in
    1856 520 millions.108 It was the same in Germany. "The entire work of
    building our net of railways in this period (1848--70) . . . was carried
    through . . . with the assistance of banks."109
    The reason for this is not far to seek. On the one hand, the increase
    of available capital, which was due to the rise of new joint-stock banks,
    paved the way for proportionately larger undertakings. On the other
    hand, since the joint-stock company in trying to obtain greater profits
    strove, harder than a private firm to add to its activities, all possible
    opportunities that presented themselves were utilized to the full.110
    How did this special banking activity originate?111 I believe it may
    be traced to 1852, when the credits mobiliers 112 were first established.
    The history of the crédit mobilier is well known.113 What interests
    us specially is that it owes its inception to two Portuguese Jews, Isaac.78/Werner Sombart
    and Emil Pereire, and that other Jews participated in it. The list of sub-scribers
    showed that the two Pereires together held 11,446 shares, and
    Fould-Oppenheim 11,445, that among the other large shareholders were
    Mallet Freres, Benjamin Fould, Torlonia (of Rome), Solomon Heine (of
    Hamburg), Oppenheim (of Cologne) -- in other words, the chief repre-sentatives
    of European Jewry. The Rothschilds were not found in the
    ist, for the crédit mobilier was directed against them.
    Nature of Establishment Total Number Number
    of Founders of Jews
    Twenty-five firms of first-rate importance
    that floated companies 25 16
    Two of the biggest mining syndicates 13 5
    Continental Railway Company
    (capital 1½ million sterling) 6 4
    Twelve land-purchase companies in Berlin 80 27
    Building Society, "Unter den Linden" 8 4
    Nine building banks 104 37
    Nine Berlin breweries 54 27
    Twenty North German machine
    building companies 148 47
    Ten North German gasworks 49 18
    Twenty paper factories 89 22
    Twelve North German chemical works 67 22
    Twelve North German textile factories 65 27
    The French crédit mobilier produced in the years that followed a
    number of offshoots, legitimate and illegitimate, all of Jewish blood. In
    Austria there was the "Kaiserlich-Koenigliche privilegierte
    oesterreichische Kreditanstalt," established in 1855 by S. M. Rothschild.
    In Germany the first institution modelled on the new principle was the
    Bank fur Handel und Industrie (Darmstadter Bank), founded in 1853,
    on the initiative of the Oppenheims of Cologne.114 One of the first direc-tors
    of this bank was Hess, who had been a high official in the crédit
    mobilier. The Berliner Discontogesellschaft was the second institution
    of the same kind. Its origin was Christian, but its transformation into
    what it is to-day is the work of David Hausemann. It was the same with
    the third German instance -- the Berliner Handelsgesellschaft, which
    was called into being by the Cologne firms already mentioned in
    connexion with the Darmstadter Bank, and by the best known Berlin
    bankers, such as Mendelssohn Co., S. Bleichroder, Robert Warschauer.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/79
    Co., Schickler Brothers, and others Finally, in the case of the Deutsche
    Bank (1870) the Jewish element again predominated.
    The Commercialization of Industry
    With the speculative banks capitalistic development reached its zenith,
    at any rate, for the time being. They pushed the process of the commer-cialization
    of economic life as far forward as it could go. Themselves
    children of the Stock Exchange, the speculative banks brought Stock
    Exchange activities (i.e., speculation) to their fullest bloom.115 Trade in
    securities was extended to undreamt-of proportions. So much so, that
    the opinion has been expressed that, in Germany at any rate, the specu-lative
    joint-stock banks will replace the Stock Exchange.118 There may
    be a grain of truth in this, provided the terms be properly understood.
    That the Stock Exchange may cease to be an open market and be domi-nated
    by la haute finance is possible; but as an economic organization it
    is bound to gain, if anything, by modern developments, seeing that its
    sphere is continuously being widened.
    That is what I mean by the commercialization of industry. The Stock
    Exchange activities of the joint-stock banks are becoming more and
    more the controlling force in every department of economic life. Indeed,
    all undertakings in the field of industry are now determined by the power
    of finance. Whether a new industrial concern shall be established or an
    old one enlarged, whether a "universal provider" shall receive an in-crease
    of capital in order to extend his business -- all this is now de-cided
    in the private offices of banks or bankers. In the same way the
    distribution of commodities is becoming more and more a financial prob-lem.
    It is not too much to say that our chief industries are as much
    financial as industrial concerns. The Stock Exchange determines the
    price of most international manufactured articles and raw materials,
    and he who hopes to survive the competitive strain must be able to
    command the Stock Exchange. In a word, it may be safely asserted that
    all economic activities nowadays are tending to become commercial
    dealings.
    The electrical industry is the best example. From its first founda-tions
    it represented a new type. Hitherto the great capitalistic industries
    regarded their work as finished when they had obtained and carried out
    their orders. A particular factory would appoint an agent in every big
    town, who in most cases represented other factories as well, and whose
    search for customers could not be marked by any very striking initia-.80/Werner Sombart
    tive. In the electrical industry all this was changed. Its organizers were
    the first to see that one of the primary duties of an industry was to create
    a market for itself. What did they do? They endeavoured to capture the
    customer. On the one hand, they attempted to control buyers. For ex-ample,
    by purchasing shares either in tram companies about to be turned
    into electric tramways, or in entirely new undertakings, they could ob-tain
    a dominating influence over the body which gave orders for the
    commodities they were manufacturing. In case of need, the directors of
    electrical undertakings would themselves call into being limited compa-nies
    for such activities as would create a demand for their goods. The
    most successful electrical works have to-day become in an increasing
    degree similar to banks for floating companies.
    Nor is this all. Another policy they adopted was to establish branches
    in all parts in order to seize upon as much of the market as they could.
    Whereas formerly reliance was placed on general agents, now the work
    of extending the connexion is delegated by each firm to a special repre-sentative
    of its own. What is the result? The customer is seen at closer
    quarters; his needs are better understood and, therefore, better supplied;
    his wishes more easily met, and so forth.
    It is well known that such was the system adopted by the Allgemeine
    Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft and that Felix Deutsch was foremost in its
    extension. The older companies have but slowly followed suit. Siemens
    and Halske long thought themselves "too grand to run after customers,"
    until Berliner, one of their directors, accepted the new plan to such good
    effect, that his company soon regained the lost ground from its rival.
    This instance is typical, and we may say generally that the commer-cialization
    of industry was the gap in the hedge through which the Jews
    could penetrate into the field of the production and transportation of
    commodities, as they had done earlier in commerce and finance.
    By this we are not asserting that the history of the Jews as industri-alists
    commences here. Far from it. As soon as modern capitalism dif-ferentiated
    between the technical and commercial aspects of all eco-nomic
    processes, so soon was the Jew found engaged in both. It is true
    that commerce attracted him more, but already in the early capitalistic
    period Jews were among the first undertakers in one industry or another.
    Here they established the tobacco industry (Mecklenberg, Austria);
    there, whisky distilling (Poland, Bohemia); in some countries they were
    leather manufacturers (France, Austria), in others silk manufacturers
    (Prussia, Italy and Austria); they made stockings in Hamburg; looking-.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/81
    glasses in Fürth; starch in France; cotton in Moravia. And almost ev-erywhere
    they were pioneers in the tailoring trade. I could show by ref-erence
    to the materials I have collected that in the 18th and early 19th
    centuries there were many other instances of Jews as capitalistic indus-trialists.
    117 But I hold that an account of this aspect of Jewish economic
    history is useless, seeing that it contains nothing specifically Jewish.
    Jews were driven into an industry by mere chance, and in all probability
    it would have thriven without them equally well. Let us take an instance
    or two. In Poland and Austria the position of the Jews as the stewards of
    the nobility brought it about that they became whisky distillers. In other
    countries their enterprise in the tobacco industry was a direct result of
    their status as Court Jews, in connexion with which they very often held
    the tobacco monopoly. In the majority of instances their commercial
    activities led to their stocking manufactured articles, and eventually to
    their making of them, as in the case of textiles. But the process is a
    common one, and non-Jews passed through it equally with Jews. There
    was, however, an exception in the case of old clo' dealing. That was an
    essentially Jewish business, and led first to the sale of new clothes, and
    eventually to tailoring.
    But when all is said, Jewish influence on industrial undertakings
    was not very great until their commercialization came about; that is,
    until in almost every modern industry the work of directing and organiz-ing
    has become common to all, and a man may pass from one industry
    to another without thereby diminishing his skill. The technical side is
    now in all cases a subdivision by itself. It is no uncommon thing there-fore
    to find that a man who started in the leather industry ends up as an
    ironmaster, after having been in turn (shall we say?) a manufacturer of
    alcoholic liquors and of sulphuric acid. The capitalistic undertaker of
    old bore a technical impress, the modern undertaker is quite colourless.
    Can you imagine Alfred Krupp manufacturing anything but guns, Borsig
    anything but machines, Werner von Siemens anything but electrical ap-paratus?
    Can you picture H. H. Myer at the head of any other concern
    but the Nord-deutscher Lloyd? On the other hand, if Rathenau, Deutsch,
    Berliner, Arnold, Friedlander, Ballin changed positions to-morrow they
    would be no less successful than in their present capacities. And what is
    the reason? They are all men of commerce, and the particular sphere of
    their activity matters not in the least.
    It has been put thus: the Christian makes his way up, starting as
    technician; the Jew as commercial traveller or clerk..82/Werner Sombart
    The extent of Jewish participation in industrial undertakings to-day
    would be very useful to know, but there is little material to go upon. We
    shall have to be content with an approximate estimate, based on the
    numbers of Jews who are directors of industrial concerns. The method
    is unsatisfactory -- naturally so. How is it possible to say with cer-tainty
    who is a Jew and who is not? How many people are aware, for
    example, that Hagen of Cologne, who holds more directorships than
    any other man in Germany, was originally called Levy? But apart from
    this, mere numbers are no criterion of the extent of influence. Moreover,
    in some companies business ability alone does not determine the mem-bership
    of the Board of Directors; in others there is an unwritten law to
    exclude Jews from positions of trust. In any case, therefore, the figures
    that have been obtained relate only to a small portion of the Jewish
    influence.
    MANAGING DIRECTORS
    Industry Total Number Percentage
    of Jews of Jews
    Leather and rubber 19 6 31.5
    Metal 52 13 25.0
    Electrical 95 22 23.1
    Brewing 71 11 15.7
    Textiles 59 8 13.5
    Chemicals 46 6 13.0
    Mining 183 23 12.8
    Machinery 90 11 12.2
    Potash 36 4 11.1
    Cement, timber, glass, 57 4 7.0
    Total 808 108 13.3
    BOARD OF DIRECTORS
    Industry Total Number Percentage
    of Jews of Jews
    Brewing 165 52 31.5
    Metal 130 40 30.7
    Cement, timber, glass, 137 41 29.9
    Potash 156 46 29.4
    Leather and rubber 42 12 28.6
    Electrical 339 91 26.8
    Mining 640 153 23.9
    Chemicals 127 29 22.8.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/83
    Machinery 215 48 21.4
    Textiles 141 19 13.5
    Total 2092 511 24.4
    For all that I quote them; they have been compiled for me from the
    last edition of the Handbook of German Joint-Stock Companies. In the
    case of the electrical industries, only those with a capital of 6 million
    mark have been noted; in the chemical industries those with 5 millions;
    machinery and textiles with 4 millions, and the remainder with 3 mil-lions.
    What do these figures suggest? Is the Jewish influence in the indus-tries
    named great or small? I think it is very large, at any rate quantita-tively.
    Bear in mind that the social group which occupies almost a sev-enth
    part of all directorships, and nearly a quarter of all the boards of
    directors, forms exactly only a hundredth part of the entire population
    of the German Empire.

    Chapter 7. The Growth of a Capitalistic Point of View in Economic Life


    It is evident from the survey in the previous chapters that Jewish influ-ence
    extended far beyond the commercial institutions which it called
    into being. In other words, the Stock Exchange is not merely a piece of
    machinery in economic life, it is the embodiment of a certain spirit.
    Indeed, all the newest forms of industrial organization are the products
    of this spirit, and it is to this that I wish specially to call the reader's
    attention.
    The outer structure of the economic life of our day has been built up
    largely by Jewish hands. But the principles underlying economic life --
    that which may be termed the modern economic spirit, or the economic
    point of view -- may also be traced to a Jewish origin.
    Proofs for the statement will have to be sought in directions other
    than those hitherto followed. Documentary evidence is obviously of little
    avail here. But what will certainly be a valuable guide is the feeling that
    prevailed in those circles which first became alive to the fact that the
    Jewish attitude of mind was something alien. Non-Jewish merchants or
    their spokesmen expressed opinions which, though one-sided and often
    harsh, are nevertheless of immense help, because they naively set forth.84/Werner Sombart
    the dislike of the Jewish spirit, reflecting it, as it were, as in a mirror
    (though often enough, to be sure, it was a convex mirror). The people
    who voiced the opinions to which we are about to refer looked on the
    Jews as their worst enemies, and therefore we must try to read between
    the lines, and deduce the truth from statements which were meant to
    convey something very different. The task is made the more easy be-cause
    of the uniformity in the opinions formulated -- a uniformity due
    by no means to thoughtless imitation, but rather to similarity of condi-tions.
    Their very similarity adds to their forcefulness as proofs.
    In the first place, it must be noted that wherever Jews appeared as
    business competitors, complaints were beard that Christian traders suf-fered
    in consequence: their livelihood, we are told, was endangered, the
    Jews deprived them of their profits, their chances of existence were less-ened
    because their customers went to Jews, and so forth.
    A few extracts from documents of the 17th and 18th centuries, the
    period which concerns us most, will illustrate what has been mentioned.
    Let us turn first to Germany. In 1672 the Estates of Brandenburg com-plain
    that the Jews "take the bread out of the mouths of the other inhab-itants."
    1 Almost the same phrase is found in the petition of the mer-chants
    of Danzig, of March 19th, 1717. 2 In 1712 and 1717 the good
    citizens of the old town of Magdeburg object to the admission of Jews
    into their midst, "because the welfare of the city, and the success of
    traders, depends upon the fact that ... no Jewish dealing is permitted
    here."3
    In 1740 Ettenheim made a communication to its Bishop, wherein it
    was stated that "as is well-known, the Jews' low ways make only for
    loss and undoing." The same idea is voiced in the proverb, "All in that
    city doth decay, where Jews are plentiful as hay."4 In the preamble to the
    Prussian Edict of 1750, mention is made that "the big merchants of our
    town complain . . . that the Jews who deal in the same commodities as
    they do, lessen their business considerably." It was the same in the South
    of Germany. In Nuremberg, for example, the Christian traders had to sit
    by and see their customers make purchases of Jews. In 1469 the Jews
    were expelled from Nuremberg; a very large number of them settled in
    the neighbouring town of Fürth, and their customers from the first-named
    city, seeking the best advantage for themselves as buyers, journeyed to
    Fürth to do their shopping.[The first German railway was built between
    Nuremberg and Fürth (1835). Whether the Jewish influence mentioned
    in the text had anything to do with it is difficult to say. But it is a curious.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/85
    fact. -- Trans.] No wonder that the City Fathers of Nuremberg show-ered
    ordinances on the town throughout the 17th and 18th centuries,
    forbidding dealings with Jews from Fürth.5
    That Jews all through the 18th century were refused admission to
    the merchant-gilds, no less than to the craft-gilds, is too well-known to
    need further emphasis.6
    Was it different in England? By no means. Says Josiah Child, "The
    Jews are a subtil people . . . depriving the English merchant of that
    profit he would otherwise gain"; they carry on their business "to the
    prejudice of the English merchants."7 When in 1753 the Jews' Natural-ization
    Bill became law, the ill-will of the populace against the hated
    race was so great that the Act had to be repealed the very next year. One
    great fear was that if the Jews became English citizens they would "oust
    the natives from their employment."8
    From Marseilles to Nantes the same tones were heard in France.
    The merchants of the latter city in 1752 bewailed their fate in the fol-lowing
    terms: "The prohibited trade carried on by these strangers . . .
    has caused considerable loss to the merchants of this town, so much so,
    that if they are not favoured by the good-will of these gentry, they are in
    the predicament of being able neither to provide for their families nor to
    pay their taxes."9 Seven years earlier, in 1745, the Christian traders of
    Toulouse regretfully declared that "everybody runs to the Jewish trad-ers."
    10 "We beseech you to bar the onward march of this nation, which
    otherwise will assuredly destroy the entire trade of Languedoc" -- such
    was the request of the Montpelier Chamber of Commerce.11 Their col-leagues
    in Paris compared the Jews to wasps who make their way into
    the hive only to kill the bees, rip open their bodies and extract the honey
    stored in their entrails.12
    In Sweden,13 in Poland,14 the same cry resounded.15 In 1619 the
    civic authorities of Posen complained, in an address to King Sigismund,
    that "difficulties and stumbling-blocks are put in the way of merchants
    and craftsmen by the competition of Jews."
    But all this does not suffice. We want to know more than that the
    Jews endangered the livelihood of the others. We want to find out the
    reason for this. Why were they able to become such keen competitors of
    the Christian traders? Only when this question has been answered will
    we understand the peculiar nature of Jewish business methods, "les se-crets
    du négoce," as Savary calls them.
    Let us refer to contemporary opinion, to the men who were suffi-.86/Werner Sombart
    ciently in touch with everyday life to know the reason. Here again the
    answer is pretty well unanimous. And what is it? The Jews were more
    successful because of their dishonest dealing. "Jews . . . have one law
    and custom whenever it pays them; it is called lying and cheating," you
    may read in the pages of Philander von Sittewald.16 Equally compli-mentary
    is the Comic Lexicon of Cheating, compiled by George Paul
    Hönn,17 where under "Jews," the only interpolation in the whole book is
    made as follows: "Jews are cheats, collectively and individually. . . ."
    The article "Jews," in the General Treasury for Merchants, is of the
    same calibre,18 while an anonymous writer on manners and morals de-clares
    that the Jews of Berlin "make their living by robbing and cheat-ing,
    which, in their opinion, are no crimes."19
    Similar views were current in France. "The Jews," says Savary,
    "have the reputation of being good at business, but they are supposed
    not to be able to carry it on with strict honesty and trustworthiness."20
    Now what do these accusations amount to? Even if the term "cheat-ing"
    be given a very wide connotation, the commercial practices of many
    Jews hardly came within its scope. When it was asserted that Jews were
    cheats, that was only an epithet to describe the fact that Jews in their
    commercial dealings did not always pay regard to the existing laws or
    customs of trade. Jewish merchants offended in neglecting certain tradi-tions
    of their Christian compeers, in (now and again) breaking the law,
    but above all, in paying no heed to commercial etiquette. Look closely
    into the specific accusations hurled against Jewish traders, examine their
    innermost nature, and you shall find that the conflict between Jewish
    and Christian merchants was a struggle between two outlooks, between
    two radically differing -- nay, opposite -- views on economic life.
    To understand this conflict in its entirety, it will be necessary to
    obtain some idea of the spirit that dominated economic activities, activi-ties
    in which from the 16th century onwards the Jews were obtaining a
    surer footing from day to day. So much did they seem to be out of
    harmony with that spirit that everywhere they were looked upon as a
    disturbing element.
    During the whole of the period which I have described as the "early
    capitalistic age," and in which the Jews began to make their influence
    felt, the same fundamental notions generally prevailed in regard to eco-nomic
    life as characterized the Middle Ages -- feudal relationships,
    manual labour, three estates of the realm, and so forth.
    The centre of this whole was the individual man. Whether as pro-.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/87
    ducer or as consumer, his interests determined the attitude of the com-munity
    as of its units, determined the law regulating economic activities
    and the practices of commercial life. Every such law was personal in its
    intent; and all who contributed to the life of the nation had a personal
    outlook. Not that each person could do as he liked. On the contrary, a
    code of restrictions hedged about his activities in every direction. But
    the point is that the restrictions were born of the individualistic spirit.
    Commodities were produced and bought and sold in order that consum-ers
    might have their wants sufficiently satisfied. On the other hand, pro-ducers
    and traders were to receive fair wages and fair profits. What was
    fair, and what sufficient for your need, tradition and custom determined.
    And so, producer and trader should receive as much as was de-manded
    by the standard of comfort in their station in life. That was the
    mediaeval view; it was also the view current in the early capitalistic age,
    even where business was carried on along more or less modern lines.
    We find its expression in the industrial codes of the day, and its justifi-cation
    in the commercial literature.21
    Hence, to make profit was looked upon by most people throughout
    the period as improper, as "unchristian"; the old economic teaching of
    Thomas Aquinas was observed,22 at least officially. The religious or
    ethical rule was still supreme;23 there was as yet no sign of the liberation
    of economic life from its religious and ethical bonds. Every action, no
    matter in what sphere, was done with a view to the Highest Tribunal --
    the will of God. Need it be pointed out that the attitude of Mammon was
    as opposed to this as pole is to pole?
    Producer and trader should receive sufficient for their need. One
    outstanding result of this principle was strictly to circumscribe each
    man's activity in his locality. Competition was therefore quite out of the
    question. In his own sphere a man might work as he willed -- when,
    how, where -- in accordance with tradition and custom. But to cast a
    look at his neighbour's sphere -- that he was forbidden to do. Just as
    the peasant received his holding -- so much field, with pasture and
    woodland, as would keep him and his family, just as he never even
    dreamt of adding to his possessions, so, too, the craftsman and the mer-chant
    were to rest content with their portions and never covet their
    neighbour's. The peasant had his land, the town-dweller his customers:
    in either case they were the source whence sprang his livelihood; in
    either case they were of a size sufficient for the purpose. Hence, the
    trader had to be assured of his custom, and many were the ordinances.88/Werner Sombart
    which guarded him against competition. Besides, it was commercial
    etiquette. You did not run after customers. You waited until they came,
    "and then" (in the words of De Foe's sermon), "with God's blessing and
    his own care, he may expect his share of trade with his neighbours."24
    The merchant who attended fairs did not do otherwise; "day and night
    he waits at his stall."25
    To take away your neighbour's customers was contemptible, un-christian,
    and immoral.26 A rule for "Merchants who trade in commodi-ties"
    was: "Turn no man's customers awayfrom him, either by word of
    mouth or by letter, and do not to another what you would not have
    another do to you."27 It was, however, more than a rule; it became an
    ordinance, and is met with over and over again. In Mayence its wording
    was as follows:28 "No one shall prevent another from buying, or by
    offering a higher price make a commodity dearer, on pain of losing his
    purchase; no one shall interfere in another's business undertaking, or
    carry on his own on so large a scale as to ruin other traders." In Saxony
    it was much. the same.29 "No shopkeeper shall call away the customers
    from another's shop, nor shall he by signs or motions keep them from
    buying."
    But to attract customers even without interfering with your
    neighbour's business was regarded as unworthy. As late as the early
    18th century in London itself it was not considered proper for a shop-keeper
    to dress his window tastefully, and so lure purchasers. De Foe,
    no less than his later editors, did not mince words in expressing his
    contempt for such a course, of which, as he mentions apparently with
    some satisfaction, only a few bakers and toymen were guilty.30
    To the things that were not permitted belonged also advertising your
    business and praising your wares. The gentle art of advertising first
    appeared in Holland sometime about the middle of the 17th century, in
    England towards its end, in France much later. The Ghentsche Post-Tijdingen,
    founded in 1667, contained the first business advertisement
    in its issue of October 3rd of that year.31 At this time none of the London
    news-sheets published advertisements; even after the Great Fire not one
    business thought of advertising its new address. It was not until 1682,
    when John Houghton established The Collection for the Improvement
    of Husbandry and Trade, that the merchant community of London be-came
    accustomed to utilizing the Press as a medium for advertising.32
    This had been preceded by the practice, in a small way, of distributing
    bills in the streets to passers-by..The Jews and Modern Capitalism/89
    Two generations later Postlethwayt 33 gave currency to the then ex-isting
    views. "Advertising in the newspapers, in regard to matters of
    trade and business, is now grown a pretty universal practice all over the
    kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland; . . . and however mean and
    disgraceful it was looked upon a few years since, by people of reputa-tion
    in trade, to apply to the public by advertisements in the papers; at
    present (1751) it seems to be esteemed quite otherwise; persons of great
    credit in trade experiencing it to be the best, the easiest and the cheapest
    method of conveying whatever they have to offer to the knowledge of
    the whole kingdom."
    They were not quite so far advanced in France at that time. In his
    Dictionary (1726) Savary 34 says nothing of the economic aspect of the
    term reclame. Not until six years later -- in 1732, when his supplement
    was published -- does he add: "A poster exhibited in public thorough-fares
    to make something generally known." And what does he instance?
    The sale of ships; the time of sailing; the announcement by the big trad-ing
    companies of the arrival of goods from distant parts, but only in
    cases where they are to be publicly sold; the establishment of new facto-ries;
    change of address. The business advertisement in its most elemen-tary
    form is lacking. It is lacking also in the newspapers of the period
    until the second half of the 18th century. Surprising as it may seem, the
    first issue of the famous advertisement sheet, Les Petites Affiches, which
    appeared on May 13, 1751, contained no real business advertisement."
    In other words, the simple announcement "I sell such-and-such wares at
    such-and-such a place" did not become general in England until the
    18th century, and in France not till much later. In Germany only one or
    two towns were to the fore in this respect. Berlin and Hamburg may be
    instanced, but even there the innovations are isolated, the only excep-tion
    being books, which were originally much advertised.
    To praise your goods or to point out wherein your business was
    superior to others was equally nefarious. But the last word in commer-cial
    impropriety was to announce that your prices were lower than those
    of the man opposite. 'To undersell" was most ungentlemanly: "No bless-ing
    will come from harming your neighbour by underselling and cutting
    prices."36
    Bad as underselling itself was in the eyes of the people of those
    days, it was beneath contempt to advertise it. "Since the death of our
    author," say the editors of the fifth edition (1745) of De Foe's Complete
    English Tradesman,37 "this underselling practice is grown to such a.90/Werner Sombart
    shameful height that particular persons publickly advertise that they
    undersell the rest of the trade." It may be asked, Why were the editors so
    concerned about the matter? The reason is manifest in a subsequent
    passage, "We have had grocers advertising their underselling one an-other
    at a rate a fair trader cannot sell for and live." It is the old cry:
    fixed profits, a fixed livelihood, a fixed production and fixed prices.
    We possess a French instance which shows even more strikingly
    how heinous this offence was thought to be, even in Paris. An Ordi-nance
    of 1761 38 proclaimed to all and sundry in the French capital that
    to advertise that you are selling your goods at a price below the custom-ary
    one must be regarded as the last resource of a merchant in difficul-ties,
    and that such action deserved severe condemnation. The Ordinance
    proceeded to forbid the traders of Paris and its suburbs "to run after one
    another trying to find customers, and above all, to distribute hand-bills
    calling attention to their wares."
    Like the producers, the consumers also received attention. In a cer-tain
    sense the consumer received even more, for the naive conception
    that all production was in the interests of consumption had not yet dis-appeared.
    Hence the stress laid on good wares, on the principle that
    commodities should really be what they pretended; and innumerable
    were the ordinances that were everywhere promulgated to this intent,
    more especially in the 17th and 18th centuries.
    It was long before the purely capitalistic notion gained acceptance
    that the value in exchange of any commodity was what influenced the
    undertaker most. We may see how slow its progress was from the con-flicting
    opinions on the subject in England in the 18th century. Sir Josiah
    Child appears to have been in the minority on this, as on most other
    questions, when he formulated the demand that every manufacturer should
    be allowed to judge for himself as to the kind of commodity, and the
    quality, that he brought into the market. It is curious enough nowadays
    to read Child's plea for the right of the manufacturer to make shoddy
    goods. "If ,we intend to have the trade of the world," he cries,39 "we
    must imitate the Dutch, who make the worst as well as the best of all
    manufactures, that we may be in a capacity of serving all markets and
    all humours."
    In a world of economic ideas such as these, the theory of "just price"
    was an organic element Price was not something in the formation of
    which the individual had a say. Price was determined for him; it was a
    subject to religious and ethical principles as everything else in economic.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/91
    life. It was to be such as would make for the common good, as well of
    the consumer as of the producer. Different ages had their own standard
    for determining it; in Luther's day, for example, the cost of production
    was the deciding factor. But as commercial intercourse widened, the
    doctrine of the just price was found to be more and more impossible,
    and the view that price must be determined by the factors in the market 40
    found general acceptance. But be that as it may, the point to accentuate
    is that price was based on ethical and not (as was held to be the case
    later) on natural principles. Then people said that the individual must
    not determine price at his own will; whereas later the view was that he
    could not so determine it.
    What manner of world was that in which opinions such as these
    predominated? If we had to describe it in a word, we should say that it
    was "slow." Stability was its bulwark and tradition its guide. The indi-vidual
    never lost himself in the noise and whirl of business activity. He
    still had complete control of himself; he was not yet devoid of that na-tive
    dignity, which does not make itself cheap for the sake of profit.
    Trade and commerce were everywhere carried on with a dash of per-sonal
    pride. And all this to a greater extent in the country than in the
    large towns, where advancing capitalism made itself soonest felt. "The
    proud and haughty demeanour of the country merchant" is noted by a
    keen observer of his time.41 We can almost see the type, in his knee-breeches
    and long coat, his head bewigged and his manner somewhat
    stiff. Business with him was an even process; he got through it without
    much thought or worry, serving his circle of customers in the traditional
    way, knowing nothing of excitement, and never complaining that the
    way was too short.
    To-day one of the best signs of a flourishing trade is a universal
    hurry and scurry, but towards the end of the 18th century that was re-garded
    as .a sure token of idleness. The man of business was deliber-ately
    slow of stride. "In Paris people are in one continuous haste --
    because there is nothing to do there; here (in Lyons, the centre of the silk
    industry, and a town of some commercial importance) our walk is slow
    because every one is busy." Such is the verdict of the observer,42 already
    mentioned, in the year of grace 1788.
    In this picture the Nonconformist, the Quaker, the Methodist, is a
    fitting figure, even though we are accustomed to think of him as one of
    the first to be associated with capitalistic ideas. As his inner life, so was
    his outward bearing to be. "Walk with a sober pace, not tinkling with.92/Werner Sombart
    your feet," was a canon of the Puritan rule of life.43 "The believer hath,
    or at least ought to have, and, if he be like himself, will have, a well-ordered
    walk, and will be in his carriage stately and princely."44
    This was the world the Jews stormed. At every step they offended
    against economic principles and the economic order. That seems clear
    enough from the unanimous complaints of the Christian traders every-where.
    But were the Jews the only sinners in this respect? Was it fair to
    single out "Jewish dealing" and to stigmatize it as inclined to be dishon-est,
    as contrary to law and practice, as characterized by lying and de-ception?
    There can be little doubt that the practices of Christian manu-facturers
    and traders were not always blameless in the matter of being
    opposed to custom and regulation. Human nature being what it is, this
    was only to be expected. But apart from that, the age with which we are
    concerned could not boast of a very high standard of commercial moral-ity.
    Else why the necessity for the plethora of ordinances and prohibi-tions
    which touched economic activities at every point? Contemporary
    evidence certainly leaves no doubt on the subject.
    We have already mentioned the Cheating Lexicon which was pub-lished
    at the beginning of the 18th century. It must have been widely
    read, for in the space of a few years several editions were issued. Turn
    to its pages, and you will ask in amazement whether there was any
    honesty left in the world. True, this impression is created by the concen-tration
    within a small space of very many instances and illustrations of
    cheating and swindling. But even making allowance for this fact, the
    impression cannot be eradicated that there must have been a good deal
    of questionable conduct in those days. And if any doubt still lurks on
    this point other witnesses soon obliterate it. "You can find but few wares
    nowadays (1742) that have not been adulterated," is the plaint of one
    German writer.45 Numerous are the prohibitions of the evil; imperial
    edicts (such as that of 1497), police regulations (such as that of Augsburg,
    of 1548) and rules originating in merchant circles (such as that of Lübeck,
    of 1607) all deal with the practice. But falsification was by no means
    limited to the production of commodities; it was not unknown in com-merce
    too. Fraudulent bankruptcies must have occurred very frequently
    in the 17th and 18th centuries, and must have formed a problem difficult
    of solution. Again and again there were complaints about their uninter-rupted
    reappearance.46 Indeed, the loose commercial morality of En-glish
    merchants in the 17th century was proverbial.47 Cheating and fal-.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/93
    sifying were said to be "the besetting sin of English tradesmen." "Our
    merchants," says a 17th-century writer,48 "by their infinite over-asking
    for commodities proclaim to the world that they would cheat all if it
    were in their power."
    Such being the case, what reason was there for marking out the
    Jews? And can we really speak of something specially characteristic in
    the conduct of Jews over against the established principles of the time?
    I believe we can. I believe that the specifically Jewish characteristic
    consisted in that it was not an individual here and there who offended
    against the prevailing economic order, but the whole body of Jews. Jew-ish
    commercial conduct reflected the accepted point of view among Jewish
    traders. Hence Jews were never conscious of doing wrong, of being
    guilty of commercial immorality; their policy was in accordance with a
    system, whichfor them was the proper one. They were in the right; it
    was the other outlook that was wrong and stupid. We are not here speaking
    of capital delinquencies generally acknowledged to be wrong, and gen-erally
    condemned. For a 'distinction must be drawn between the funda-mental
    regulations of any legal institution (e.g., property), and those
    which vary with the progress of society. Stealing will be looked upon as
    a capital offence as long as property exists; but there will be much dif-ference
    of opinion from age to age on the question of taking interest.
    The first falls under the former category; the second under the latter.
    No doubt, in their peculiar commercial activity, Jews were guilty of
    both sorts of misdemeanours. In early times Jews committed wrongs
    which were universally regarded as such. They were constantly accused,
    for example, of receiving and dealing in stolen property.49 But Jews, as
    a body, themselves condemned practices of this kind; and for that mat-ter,
    there were honest and dishonest Jews as there were honest and dis-honest
    Christians. If any Jews were addicted to systematic cheating,
    they in so far set themselves up against the majority of Jews and Chris-tians,
    both of whom were agreed that such conduct was not in accord
    with the accepted standards of right. We are not without records that
    illustrate this very forcibly. The history of the Jews in Hamburg is an
    instance. In the 17th century, the Portuguese Jews undertook to a cer-tain
    extent to be responsible to the authorities for the proper commercial
    conduct of the newly arrived German Jews. As soon as the Tedescos
    came into the city, they had to promise their Portuguese brethren not to
    buy stolen property, nor otherwise to carry on shady business. On one
    occasion the Elders of the German Jews were summoned before the.94/Werner Sombart
    Mahamad [The governing body of the Portuguese Jewish congregation.
    The term is still used among the Spanish and Portuguese Jews in Lon-don.
    -- Trans.] and warned because several of them had broken their
    pledge; on another occasion because they had bought stolen goods from
    soldiers.50
    The point I am emphasizing must be remembered in considering the
    accusations hurled against the Jews in the early capitalistic age, accusa-tions
    which, on the whole, were not unfounded. Universally accepted
    offences, such as stealing or receiving stolen property, must not be in-cluded
    under this heading. Jews equally with Christians abhorred such
    crimes. The practices, however, common to all Jews, which overstepped
    law and custom, but which Jews did not feel as being wrong, the prac-tices
    which may be looked upon as being the result of a specifically
    Jewish outlook, these must come within our ken. And what do we find
    on examining them?
    We find that the Jew rises before us unmistakably as more of a
    business-man than his neighbour; he follows business for its own sake;
    he recognizes, in the true capitalistic spirit, the supremacy of gain over
    all other aims.
    I know of no better illustration than the Memoirs of Glückel von
    Hamein, a mine of information, by the way, about Jewish life and thought
    in the early capitalistic age. Glückel, the wife of a merchant in Ham-burg,
    lived between 1645 and 1724, the period when the Jewish commu-nities
    of Hamburg and Altona shot up to a position of prosperity, and in
    almost every respect we may regard this remarkable woman as a type of
    the Jew of that day. Her narrative grips the reader because of its natural
    simplicity and freshness. As I read these Memoirs, in which a complete
    personality is revealed to us in a life rich in experience, I was again and
    again reminded of the famous Frau Rat (Goethe's mother).
    If I cite just this splendid book in order to show the predominating
    interest of money among Jews in those days, it is because I believe that
    this characteristic must have been general, seeing that even in so gifted
    a woman as Glückel it also stands out. In very truth, money is the be-all
    and end-all with her, as with all the other people of whom she has any-thing
    to say. Accounts of business enterprise occupy but a small space
    in the book, but on no less than 609 occasions (in 313 pages) does the
    authoress speak of money, riches, gain and so forth. The characters and
    their doings are mentioned only in some connexion or other with money.
    Above all, we are told of good matches -- good from the financial point.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/95
    of view. To marry her children is in fact the chief object of Glückel's
    business activities. "He also saw my son, and they were almost on the
    point of coming to terms, but they could not close because of a thousand
    marks." Incidents of this kind abound in the book. Of her second mar-riage
    she says, "in the afternoon my husband wedded me with a valu-able
    gold ring an ounce in weight." I cannot help regarding the peculiar
    conception of marriage-making, which used to be current among Jews,
    as symptomatic of the way they looked upon money, and especially the
    tendency among them of appraising even the most precious things in life
    from a purely business point of view. Children, for example, have their
    value. That was a matter of course among Jews in those days. "They are
    all my darling children, and may they all be forgiven, as well those on
    whom I had to spend a lot of money as those on whom I spent nothing,"
    writes Glückel. It was as marriageable persons that they had a price,
    which varied with the state of the market. Scholars, or the children of
    scholars, were much in demand. In one case we are told that a father
    speculated in his children. The fortunes of Solomon Maimon, as related
    by Graetz, are well known and frequently cited in this connexion. "At
    eleven years of age he had so complete a mastery of the Talmud that he
    ... became much sought after as a possible husband. His needy father, in
    a speculating spirit, provided him with two brides at once, without his
    being able to see . . . either of them." Similar incidents are abundant
    enough to warrant the conclusion that they must have been typical.
    But the objection may be urged that among Christians also money
    was no less valued, only the fact was not admitted; people were hypo-critical.
    There is perhaps a certain. element of truth in this objection. In
    that case I should say what was specifically Jewish was the naivete with
    which money was made the pivot of life; it was a matter of course; no
    attempt was made to hide it.
    What light does contemporary opinion in the 17th and 18th centu-ries
    shed upon the characteristic to which we have called attention?
    There appears to be universal agreement on the subject, which lends
    support to our theory. The Jew in those days of undeveloped capitalism
    was regarded as the representative of an economic outlook, wherein to
    obtain profit was the ultimate goal of all commercial activity. Not his
    "usury" differentiated him from the Christian, not that he sought gain,
    not that he amassed wealth; only that he did all this openly, not thinking
    it wrong, and that he scrupulously and mercilessly looked after his busi-ness
    interests. But more awful things are related of Christian "usurers".96/Werner Sombart
    who "are worse than Jews." "The Jews wears his soul on his sleeve and
    is not ashamed, but these carry on their devil's trade with hypocritical
    Christian countenances."51
    One or two more contemporary opinions must be quoted. "These
    people have no other God but the unrighteous Mammon, and no other
    aim than to get possession of Christian property . . . they... look at
    everything for their profit."52 Such is the verdict of the Rev. John Mega-lopolis,
    who wrote on March 18th, 1655. Another judgment is harsher
    still.53 "No trust should be put in the promises made there (in Brazil) by
    the Jews, a race faithless and pusillanimous, enemies to all the world
    and especially to all Christians, caring not whose house burns so long as
    they may warm themselves at the coals, who would rather see a hundred
    thousand Christians perish than suffer the loss of a hundred crowns."
    The statement of Savary,54 who was amicably disposed towards the Jews,
    is also to the point. "A usurious merchant or one too keen, who tries to
    get a mean advantages and flays those who have dealings with him, is
    termed 'a real Jew.' People say 'he has fallen into the hands of Jews'
    when those with whom a man does business are hard, immovable and
    stingy." It is true that a very Christian merchant first coined the phrase
    "Business is business," but Jews undoubtedly were the first to mould
    their policy in accordance with it.
    In this connexion we ought to mention also that the proverbs of all
    nations have always depicted the Jew as the gain-seeker, who had a
    special love of money. "Even to the Jew our Lady Mary is holy" (Hun-garian)
    -- in reference to the Kremnitzer gold ducats. "Yellow is the
    colour that suits the Jew best" (Russian). "Yellow is the dearest colour
    for the Jew" (German).
    This profit-seeking, which the Jew held to be legitimate, will ac-count
    for his business principles and practices, of which complaints
    were so frequently made. In the first place, he paid no attention to the
    strict delimitation of one calling or of one handicraft from another, so
    universally insisted on by law and custom. Again and again we hear the
    cry that Jews did not content themselves with one kind of activity; they
    did whatever they could, and so disturbed the order of things which the
    gild system wished to see maintained. Their aim was to seize upon all
    commerce and all production; they had an overpowering desire to ex-pand
    in every direction. "The Jews strive to destroy the English mer-chants
    by drawing all trade towards themselves," is a further complaint
    of the Rev. John Megalopolis in 1655.' 55 'The Jews are a subtil people.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/97
    prying into all kinds of trade," said Sir Josiah Child.56 And Glückel von
    Hamein thus describes her father's business: "He dealt in precious stones,
    and in other things -- for every Jew is a Jack-of-all-trades."
    Innumerable were the occasions when the German gilds complained
    of this Jewish ubiquitousness in trade, which paid no heed to the demar-cation
    of all economic activities into strictly separate categories. In 1685,
    the city authorities of Frankfort-on-the-Main were loud in their cry that
    Jews had a share in all kinds of business -- e.g., in linen and silk retail-ing,
    in cloth and book selling." In the other Frankfort (on the Oder)58
    Jews were blamed for selling foreigp braid to the detriment of the gold-lace
    makers, and so forth.
    Perhaps the reason for this tendency to universal trading may be
    found in that a large number of miscellaneous articles, all forfeited
    pledges, brought together by mere chance, collected in the shops of Jews,
    and their sale would naturally enough interfere with the special business
    of all manner of dealers. The very existence of these second-hand shops
    -- the prototype of the stores in modern times -- was a menace to the
    prevailing order of commerce and industry. A vivid picture of such a
    collection of second-hand goods is given in an old Ratisbon song, dating
    from the 15th century,59 and the details could not but have become more
    well-marked as time went on.
    No handicraft however mean,
    But the Jew would damage it i' the extreme.
    For if any one had need of raiment
    To the Jew he'd hie with payment;
    Whether 'twas silver or linen or tin,
    Or aught his house was lacking in,
    The Jew was ready to serve his need,
    With pledges he held -- right many indeed.
    For stolen goods and robbers' plunder
    They and the Jew were seldom asunder.
    *******
    Mantle, hose or damsel's veil,
    The Jew he had them all for sale.
    To the craftsman, then, there came but few,
    For all the world dealt with the Jew.
    Here an interesting question presents itself. Is there any connexion
    between the breach of gild regulations and the stress laid on pure busi-.98/Werner Sombart
    ness ends on the part of the Jews, and their hostile attitude to mercantil-ism?
    Was it their aim to establish the principle that trade should be
    untrammelled, regardless of the commercial theory which guided the
    mercantilist States? It looks like it. "Jewish trade," was the term applied
    to the commerce of Frankfort in the 18th century, because it was mostly
    import trade, "which gives useful employment to but few German hands
    and flourishes only by reason of home consumption."60 And when in the
    early 19th century Germany was flooded with the cheap products of
    England, which were sold for the most part at auctions, Jews were held
    to be the mainstay of this import trade. The Jew almost monopolized the
    auctions. "Since dealing in manufactured articles is to a great extent in
    the hands of Jews, the commerce of England is for the most part with
    them." The Jew had "his shop full of foreign hats, shoes, stockings,
    leather gloves, lead and copper ware, lacquer work, utensils, ready-made
    clothing of all sorts -- all brought over by English ships."61 It was
    the same story in France.62 Nor was this all. The Jews were guilty of
    another deadly sin in the mercantilist calendar: they imported raw ma-terials.
    63
    We see, then, that the Jews, in following their business interests,
    gave as little heed to the barriers between States as to those between
    industries. Still less did they have regard to the prevailing code of eti-quette
    in any industry. We have already seen how custom-chasing was
    looked upon in the early capitalistic age. Here the Jews were continual
    offenders. Everywhere they sought out sellers or buyers, instead of wait-ing
    for them in their shops, as commercial custom prescribed. Of this
    we have abundant proof.
    A complaint was lodged by the furriers of Konigsberg 64 in 1703
    against "the Jews Hirsch and Moses, who with their agents are always
    first in the field in buying raw material and selling the ready-made furs,
    whereby they (the supplicants) suffer much loss." In 1685 the jewellers
    and goldsmiths of Frankfort had a similar experience.65 They were forced
    to buy all the old gold and silver they needed from Jews, who, by means
    of their numerous "spies," snapped it away from under the very noses of
    the Christians. A few years previously the whole of the trading body of
    that town had protested against Jews "spying out the business of Chris-tian
    merchants." Earlier still, in 1647, the tailors of Frankfort petitioned 66
    that the Jews should be forbidden to engage in the sale of new clothing.
    "A source of bitter weeping it is, that the Jews may freely wander up
    and down the streets, laden with all manner of goods and cloth, like so.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/99
    many camels and asses, running to meet every newcomer to Frankfort,
    be he of high or low degree, and offering to sell him what he wants; and
    so deprive us of our daily bread."67 Still earlier even than this, in 1635,
    was the petition of the silk merchants, who bemoaned the fact that the
    Jews "wait about in the city outside the bounds of the Jewish quarter, in
    inns and wherever opportunity offers; they run through many a street,
    both openly and in secret, to meet the soldiers and their officers, when
    these come to town. They have arranged with certain master-tailors to
    give them facilities for exhibiting their wares at their shops when troops
    march past."68
    In 1672 a complaint is heard from Brandenburg.69 "Jews go about
    as chapmen among the villages and in the towns and force their wares
    on people." A similar story comes from Frankfort-on-the-Oder,70 wherein
    the details are fuller. Jews run after customers -- the travellers to their
    hotels, the nobility to their castles and the students to their lodgings.
    And in Nikolsburg, in Austria, we are told 71 that "the Jews have drawn
    to themselves all the trade, all the money, all the goods. They wait out-side
    the city, try to strike up an acquaintance with travellers while they
    are yet on the road, and endeavour to take away their custom from
    Christian citizens."
    How the Jews were ever on the look-out for new customers is de-scribed
    by a well-informed writer of the early 19th century.72 It was a
    practice with them, he says, "to pay frequent visits to all and sundry
    places of public resort where, by reading the many news-sheets, they
    sought to obtain knowledge of possibilities for doing business, and es-pecially
    of noting what strangers were expected to arrive; and by listen-ing
    to every conversation, to find out whose houses were in danger in
    order to make bargains or contracts with them."
    The streets in which the Jewish old clo' men lived were the scenes
    of similar activities, the end in view always being the same. In fact, the
    dealers sometimes seized the passer-by by the arm and tried to force him
    to make purchases. This method of carrying on business is not unknown
    in our modern cities; it was known in the Paris of the 18th century,
    where it was associated with the fripiers, the old clo' dealers, who, as
    we are informed,74 were for the most part Jews. One description of such
    a scene is too good not to be quoted." "The touts of these disorderly
    shops call to you uncivilly enough; and when one of them has invited
    you, all the other shopkeepers on your road repeat the deafening invita-tion.
    The wife, the daughter, the servant, the dogs, all howl in your ears..100/Werner Sombart
    . . . Sometimes these fellows seize an honest man by the arm, or by his
    shoulder, and force him to enter in spite of himself; they make a pastime
    of this unseemly game. . . ."
    We hear the same tale from a traveller who journeyed in Western
    Germany about that time. "To walk in the streets of those places where
    there are many Jews has become a nuisance. You are badgered by them
    every minute and at every turn. You are constantly being asked. Can I
    sell youanything? Won't you buy this, that or the other?"75
    Or they turn into wandering traders in order to sweep in custom.
    "The Jew thinks nothing of turning the seats in the porches into a shop
    counter, often extending them by means of planks; he places a form or
    table against the wall of any house he can get at, or even makes the front
    passage into a shop; or, he hires a cart which becomes his moving shop,
    and often enough he has the bad manners to pull up in front of a shop
    which sells the same wares as he."76
    "Get hold of the customers" -- that was the end and aim. Is it not
    the guiding principle of the big industries of to-day? Is not the splendid
    organization of a concern like the Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft,
    for example, directed to the same object?
    The policy was first systemized when advertising was resorted to.
    The "deafening invitation" which, as we have just noted, came from the
    small fripier, is now made by the million-voiced advertisements of our
    business life. If the Jews are to be considered the originators of the
    system of "getting hold of the customers," their claim to be the fathers
    of modern advertising is equally well established. I am, however, unable
    to adduce conclusive evidence for this. What is needed is a careful study
    of the files of the earliest newspapers, in order to discover the names of
    the people who advertised. As a matter of fact, the whole subject of
    advertising has as yet been dealt with but scantily. The only branch
    which has received adequate attention is the history of business announce-ments.
    Nevertheless, I am able to give one or two instances which show
    the connexion of Jews with the practice of advertising.
    The very earliest advertisement with which I am acquainted is to be
    found in No. 63 of the Vossische Zeitung, of May 28, 1711, which is to
    this effect: "This is to inform all and sundry that a Dutch (Jewish?)
    merchant has arrived at Mr. Boltzen's in the Jews' Street, with all kinds
    of tea of the finest quality, to be sold cheap. Any one who may care to
    buy should come early, as the visitor will not stay for more than eight
    days.".The Jews and Modern Capitalism/101
    The first known advertisement in the text of the paper dates from
    1753, and hails from Holland. The advertiser was an eye-specialist of
    the name of Laazer.77 A very old advertisement in the United States --
    whether the oldest I cannot say -- appeared on August 17, 1761, in the
    New York Mercury, as follows 78 : -- "To be sold by Hayman Levy, in
    Bayard Street, Camp Equipages of all sorts, best soldiers' English shoes
    . . . and everything that goes to make up the pomp and circumstance of
    glorious war."
    Finally, the Jews are the founders of the modern Press, i.e., the
    machinery for advertising, more especially of the cheap newspapers.79
    Polydore Millaud, who established the Petit Journal, was the father of
    the "half-penny Press."
    But to obtain likely addresses, to intercept travellers on their way,
    to sing the praises of your wares -- that was only one side of the game
    of catching customers. It was supplemented by another, which consisted
    in so decking-out the goods for sale as to attract people. In this art the
    Jews were great adepts. Nay more, there is sufficient evidence that they
    were the first to stand up for the general principle, that it is the right
    (and the duty) of every trader to carry on his business in such a way as
    will obtain for him as much of the available custom as possible, or by
    creating new demands, will increase the circle of buyers.
    Now in a community where quality was regulated, the only effec-tive
    means of achieving this end was price-cutting. We shall therefore
    not be surprised to find the Jews availing themselves of this weapon,
    and we shall see that it was just this that made them so disliked among
    Christian traders, whose economic outlook was all for maintaining prices.
    The Jew undersells; the Jew spoils prices; the Jew tries to attract cus-tomers
    by low prices -- that was the burden of the complaints heard in
    the 17th and 18th centuries wherever Jews did business.
    Our pages would be overloaded did we attempt to cite all the proofs
    on this point. A few, therefore, will have to suffice.
    First for England where, in 1753, the storm burst forth against the
    Jews on the passing of the Naturalization Bill. One of the principal fears
    was that if they became recognized citizens, they would oust the natives
    from their means of livelihood by underselling them.80
    Next for France. "The stuffs . . . which the Jews bring to the fairs .
    . . are worth more at the price at which they sell them than those in the
    traders' shops," is the reply 81 of the Intendant of Languedoc to the plaints
    of the merchants of Montpelier (May 31, 1740). The merchants of.102/Werner Sombart
    Nantes 82 were of opinion that the public, which dealt with Jews under
    the impression that they were making a good bargain, were generally
    duped. At the same time, they admit that prices at Jewish shops are
    lower than elsewhere. The same admission is made by the Paris traders:
    the Jews sell even more cheaply than the factories.83 Concerning a Fürth
    Jew, of the name of Abraham Ouhnan,84 the bronze-dealers of Paris
    reported that "he sells the same bronzes below the price for which they
    are sold in this country." In Lyons the master silk-weavers passed a
    resolution (October 22, 1760) in which they ascribed the bad times to
    the influence of the Jews, who had cut prices, and thereby made them-selves
    masters of the silk industry in all the provinces.85
    The Swedish Parliament in 1815 debated the question whether the
    Jews should be allowed entire liberty of trade, and one of the chief rea-sons
    which prevailed against themotion was that Jews lowered prices.86
    From Poland the same strains reach us. Jews tell Christian traders
    that if they (the latter) sold their goods as cheaply as the Jews, they too
    would attract customers.87
    It is no different in Germany. From Brandenburg (1672),88 from
    Frankfort (17th century),89 from Madgeburg (1710)90 the old story is
    repeated. A Wallachian traveller in Germany 91 about the same time re-ports
    the ubiquity of this accusation. The General Prussian Edict of
    1750 takes cognizance of it. "The merchants of our towns ... complain
    ... that the Jewish traders who sell the same goods do them great harm,
    because they sell at a lower price." Right up to the 19th century it is still
    met with. In the Supplication of the Augsburg wholesale merchants
    against the admission of the Jews 92 (1803) we may read that "the Jews
    understand how to derive advantages from the general depression of
    trade. They obtain goods from people who need money badly at shame-ful
    prices, and then spoil the market by selling them at a cheaper rate."
    In many branches of industry Christian manufacturers and mer-chants
    even to-day regard the cutting of prices by Jews as a serious
    endangering of their trade. That this is an open secret and often enough
    discussed, is well known. I hope to touch upon the matter again in due
    course.
    One more instance from the history of Finance, as showing that the
    Jews had the reputation of making lower terms. When the Austrian
    Government early in the 18th century determined on raising another
    loan, as usual, in Holland, an order was issued (December 9, 1701) to
    Baron Pechmann, who was negotiating the matter, to make private en-.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/103
    quiries whether, in view of the fact that the Hungarian Copper Mines
    were being pledged to guarantee the loan, a greater sum might not be
    raised. More especially was he to communicate with the Portuguese
    Jews in Holland, since the other subjects of the United Provinces asked
    for an additional guarantee beside the general one.93 In a report of the
    Court Chancery of Vienna (May 12, 1762) the view is expressed that "it
    is advisable to come to terms with the Jews in reference to contracts for
    the army . . . seeing that they are prepared to quote lower prices than
    others."
    Here, then, was a problem for all the wiseacres to put their heads
    together and try to solve. They did, asking each other again and again,
    at their work and in their shops, on Sunday afternoons in their walks
    outside the city rampart, and in the evenings at the social pint of beer:
    How is it possible? How on earth is it done? How can the Jew carry
    through his "dirty trick" of underselling? What was the reason for it?
    The answer differed in accordance with the capacity and the preju-dice
    of each enquirer. And so the numberless explanations on record
    cannot be accepted without testing their value; unlike the assertion that
    Jews lowered prices, which, in view of its unanimity, there is no reason
    to doubt. In any case, for the present only those opinions will be of
    interest to us which give indication of a special way of carrying on
    business, or of a special commercial morality.
    The commonest explanation is that of dishonesty, and the conclu-sion
    was arrived at in some such way as this. Seeing that the Jews have
    the same expenses, seeing that the cost of production is also the same, if
    the price is below the current one, everything is not quite above-board.
    The Jews must have obtained possession of their wares by dishonest
    means. They were doubtless stolen goods. The bad reputation of the
    Jews generally must have given probability to this explanation, and the
    low prices must have lent support to the accusation levelled against
    them that they were receivers.
    I have no intention of citing instances where this line of argument is
    taken, for in reality it is the least interesting of any. In many cases, no
    doubt, it was correct. But if that were the only reason forthcoming to
    account for low prices among Jewish traders, there would be no need to
    mention the matter at all, for then it would not have the significance
    which it actually possesses.
    As a matter of fact, even the extremists among gild members could
    not but cast about for other causes to account for the underselling of.104/Werner Sombart
    Jewish traders, and they found them close at hand, not in actual breach
    of the law, but in practices that were not all they should be. And what
    were these? That the Jews dealt in prohibited articles (contraband of
    war, etc.); in lapsed pledges; in goods that had been confiscated (e.g.,
    by customs officials); in goods that had been bought for a mere song
    from the owners, who were deep in debt and whose necessity, therefore,
    was great,94 or from those who needed money badly;95 in old goods,
    bought for next to nothing at auctions; in bankrupt stock;96 in goods the
    quality of which was not up to the standard of the ordinances of the
    industrial code;97 or, finally, that the Jew cut prices with the intention of
    going into bankruptcy himself.98
    To what extent instances such as these -- "the miserable methods
    of the Jews" as they were termed by the traders of Metz 99 -- were gen-eral
    or only sporadic, it is difficult to say. Nor does it much matter for
    our purpose. As to their probability, it is hardly likely that they were all
    pure inventions. The important thing to note, however, is that shady
    practices such as those enumerated were laid to the Jews' door. And
    even if only a minute proportion were in accordance with actual fact,
    that would be enough to make them symptomatic, and they would be
    very useful as supporting the result obtained in other ways. I shall re-turn
    to this question later. Here we will continue the catalogue of rea-sons
    which were urged in explanation of the Jews' lower prices.
    Side by side with those already mentioned was the accusation that
    the commodities sold by the Jews were of an inferior quality. So fre-quently
    is this statement met with that its correctness can hardly be
    doubted. An official report from Magdeburg, a petition from
    Brandenburg, a complaint from Frankfort 100 -- all harp on this same
    string. And the Traders' Lexicon, to which I have already more than
    once referred as a reliable authority, states that Jews sold inferior goods
    "which they know how to polish up, to colour anew, to show off at their
    best, to provide with a fresh cover, smell and taste that even the greatest
    connoisseur is often taken in."
    This is repeated almost verbally in the Report of the merchants of
    Nantes, with which we are by this time so well acquainted. The goods of
    the Jews are really dear, despite their cheapness. For they sell things
    that are out of fashion or that cannot be used any longer. Silk stockings
    they re-dye, pass them through a calender, and then sell them as new.
    But they cannot be worn more than once. The silk weavers of Lyons tell
    the same tale:101 the Jews have ruined the silk industry because, in order.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/105
    to be able to sell at low prices, they order goods of second-rate quality
    only. So, too, the Governor of Bohemia in 1705:102 "The Jews have got
    hold of all manual occupations and all commerce, but as for the most
    part they make only poor stuff, there is no chance for a profitable export
    trade to spring up." The opinion of Wegelin in the Swedish Parliament
    (1815), likewise referred to already, is only in accord with the preced-ing.
    "It is true," he said, "that the Jews alone engaged in calico-printing,
    but they have completely spoiled this branch of industry because of
    their low quality goods -- the so called "Jews' calico."
    This complaint, which started in the early capitalistic period, has
    not yet ceased. The cry of the Christian manufacturers that the Jews cut
    prices has been followed by the corollary that, in order to maintain low
    prices at all costs, Jews lowered the quality of goods.
    Summing up all the facts adduced, we shall perceive that the Jews
    originated the principle of substitution.
    What was called inferior quality in the wares of the Jews was not in
    reality so. It was not as if the articles were of the same sort as those of
    other traders, except that they were worse in quality. It was rather that
    they were new articles, intended for similar use as the old, but made of
    a cheaper material, or by new processes which lessened the cost of pro-duction..
    In other words, the principle of substitution was brought into
    play, and Jews may thus be regarded as the pioneers in its application.
    The most frequent cases occurred in textile fabrics; but other instances
    are also on record -- for example, substitutes for coffee. In one sense,
    too, dyeing must be mentioned in this connexion. Jewish influence aided
    its growth. Originally, the inventors of artificial alizarine used expen-sive
    chemicals to mix with their red colouring matter; the Jews intro-duced
    cheaper materials, and thus gave an impetus to the dyeing indus-try.
    There is yet one other, though less frequent, accusation levelled
    against the Jews. It was that the Jews could sell more cheaply than
    Christians because they gave less weight or short measure.103 They were
    taunted with this in Avignon, where woollen articles were mentioned,
    and in the case of German Jews an actual illustration is given. "The Jew
    is on the look-out for the least advantage. If he measured 10 ells there
    were only 9%. The Christian (customer) is aware of this, but he says to
    himself, 'Jews' measure is short, ten ells are never quite ten, but then the
    Jew sells cheap.'"104
    In all this the point for us to discover is whether, and if so to what.106/Werner Sombart
    extent, the different courses, which were alleged to have been taken by
    the Jewish traders in order to reduce prices, may be traced to some
    general business principle characteristic of the Jews. To my mind, the
    whole case can be summed up by saying that the Jew to a certain extent
    held that in business the means justified the end. His consideration for
    the other traders and his respect for legal enactments and social de-mands
    were not very great, while on the other hand, the idea of value in
    exchange in relation to goods, and the idea that all business activity had
    reference to wealth and to that only -- these became keen. What I have
    elsewhere described as the inherent tendency in capitalism to obtain
    profit, regardless of all else, is here seen in its early origin.
    But we have not yet done with the inventory of methods adopted by
    Jews to lower prices. We now turn to those which were of equal funda-mental
    importance with the others already mentioned, but which dif-fered
    from them materially. While the first brought about only apparent
    reductions, or actual reductions at other people's expense, these pro-duced
    lower prices really and absolutely. What were they? Innovations
    which decreased the total cost of production in some way or other. Ei-ther
    the producer or the dealer was content with less for himself, or the
    actual expenses of production were reduced in that wages were lowered
    or the manufacturing and distributing processes made more efficient.
    That all these means of cheapening commodities were adopted by
    Jews, and by them first, is amply evidenced by records in our posses-sion.
    First, the Jew could sell more cheaply because he was satisfied with
    less than the Christian trader. Unprejudiced observers remarked this
    fact on many occasions, and even the competitors of the Jews admitted
    its truth. Let us once again quote the Magdeburg official report. The
    Jews sell cheaply, "whereby the merchants must suffer loss. For they
    need more than the Jew, and, therefore, must carry on their business in
    accordance with their requirements."105 In another document it is also
    stated that "the Jew is satisfied with a smaller profit than the Chris-tian."
    106 And what did the Polish Jews tell the Christian Poles?107 That if
    they (the Poles) did not live so extravagantly, they would be able to sell
    their goods at the same prices as the Jews. A keen-eyed traveller in
    Germany towards the end of the 18th century came to the same conclu-sion.
    "The reason for the complaint (that Jews sell cheaply) is apparent:
    it lies in the extravagant pride of the haughty shopkeeper, who in his
    dealings requires so much for mere show, that he cannot possibly charge.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/107
    low prices. The Jew, therefore, deserves the gratitude of the public, to
    whom he brings gain by his frugal habits, and forces the shopkeeper
    with his large expenditure either to be more economical, or to go to the
    wall."108 The Report of the Vienna Court Chancery (May 12, 1762) was
    of the same opinion. The Jews can deliver at a lower rate than the Chris-tians
    "because they are more thrifty and live more cheaply." The tale
    was repeated in a Hungarian document of January 9, 1756, wherein the
    proposed reduction by Joseph II of Jewish spirit-licences was discussed.
    It was there pointed out 109 that Jews were able to pay more for their
    licences because of their cheap and poor living.
    No less explicit on the point is Sir Josiah Child for the England of
    his age. 'They are a penurious people, living miserably," he says,110
    "and therefore can, and do afford to trade for less profit than the En-glish."
    By the middle of the 18th century this belief was still current, for
    the cry went up that the Jews by reason of their extreme frugality were
    able to undersell the natives.111 The identical view prevailed in France.
    "It is my firm. belief," said the Intendant of Languedoc,112 in reply to the
    chronic complaints of the traders of Montpellier, "that Jewish commerce...
    does less harm to the merchants of Montpellier than their own lack of
    attention to the requirements of the public, and their rigid determination
    to make as large profits as they can."
    But this is not all. There were people who asserted -- and they must
    have been gifted with no little insight -- that the Jews had discovered
    yet another trick, by means of which they succeeded in obtaining as
    great, or even greater, profits than their Christian neighbours despite
    their comparatively low prices -- they increased their turnover. As late
    as the early part of the 19th century this was regarded as a specifically
    "Jewish practice"113 -- "small profits with a frequent turnover of your
    capital pay incomparably better than big profits and a slow turnover."
    This is no isolated opinion; it occurs very frequently indeed.114
    Small profits, quick returns -- obviously this was a breaking away
    from the preconceived idea of an economic organization of society, where
    one of the cardinal doctrines was to produce for subsistence only. And
    the Jews were the fathers of this new business-principle. Profit was
    considered as something fixed by tradition; hence-forward it was deter-mined
    by each individual trader. That was the great novelty, and again it
    emanated from Jews. It was a Jewish practice to settle the rate of profit
    as each trader thought fit; it was a Jewish practice to decide whether to
    sell at a profit at all, or for a time to do business without making profits.108/Werner Sombart
    in order to earn more afterwards.115
    Lastly, we have still to mention the taunt levelled against Jews, that
    they sought to reduce the cost of production, either by employing the
    cheapest labour, or by utilizing more economical methods.
    With regard to the first, numerous plaints abound. The woollen
    manufacturers of Avignon,118 the merchants of Montpellier,117 the civic
    authorities of Frankfort-on-the-Oder 118 and the Tailors' Craft of the other
    Frankfort are a few cases in point. But none of these disaffected people
    could realize that the Jews were the earliest undertakers in industries
    with capitalistic organizations, and, consequently, utilized new forms of
    production, just as they had utilized them in commerce.
    And here we must not pass over another characteristic of Jewish
    business methods, one, however, which is not mentioned in the literature
    of the early capitalistic period, probably because it was developed at a
    later date. I refer to the conscious endeavour of attracting new custom-ers
    by some device or other -- whether it was the placing of goods for
    sale in a new juxtaposition, or a new system of payment, or a new com-bination
    of departments, or the organization of some new service. It
    would be a most fascinating study to compile a list of all the inventions
    (exclusive, of course, of technical inventions) which trade and com-merce
    owe to the Jews. Let me refer to a few, about which we are toler-ably
    certain that they are of Jewish origin. I say nothing as to whether
    Jews were merely the first to apply them, or whether they were actually
    created by Jews.
    First in order I would mention the trade in old and damaged goods,
    the trade in remnants and rubbish -- the Jews were able "here and there
    to maintain themselves and make a profit out of the commonest articles,
    which before had no value whatever, such as rags, rabbit-skins and
    gall-nuts."119 In short, we may term the Jews the originators of the waste-product
    business. Thus, in the 18th century in Berlin, Jews were the
    first feather-cleaners, the first vermin-killers and the inventors of the so-called
    "white beer."120
    To what extent the general store owes its existence to the Jew it is
    impossible to say. Anyhow, the Jews, in that they held pledges, were the
    first in whose shops might be found a conglomeration of wares. And is
    it not one of the distinguishing marks of a modern store to have for sale
    articles of various kinds, intended for various uses? The result is that
    the owner of the store is but little concerned with what he sells, so long
    as he does sell. His aim is to do business, and this policy is in accor-.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/109
    dance with the Jewish spirit. But apart from that, it is well-known that
    to-day stores in the United States 121 and in Germany 122 are for the most
    part in the hands of Jews.
    An innovation of no little importance in the organization of retail
    trading at the time of its introduction was the system of payment by
    instalments when goods to a large amount or very costly goods were
    sold. In Germany, at any rate, it is possible to say with tolerable cer-tainty,
    that in this, too, Jews were pioneers. "There is a class of shop-keeper
    among Jews," we may read in an early 19th-century writer, "in-dispensable
    to the ordinary man, and of exceeding great benefit to trade.
    They are the people who sell clothes or material for clothes to the ordi-nary
    customer, and receive payment for it in small instalments."123
    Of Jewish origin also are a number of innovations in the catering
    business. Thus, the first coffee-house in England (perhaps the first in
    the world) was opened in Oxford in 1650, or 1651, by a Jew of the name
    of Jacobs.124 It was not until 1652 that London obtained its first coffee-house.
    And to come to a later period, everybody knows that a new era
    dawned in catering when Kempinsky [Kempinsky is the Lyons of Ber-lin.
    -- Trans.] introduced the standardization of consumption and of
    prices as the guiding principles of the business.
    In all these instances it is not so much the innovations themselves
    that interest us, as the tendency to which they bear witness -- that a new
    business ideal had come into existence: the adoption of new tricks. Hence
    my treatment of this subject in the present chapter, which deals with the
    Jewish spirit, Jewish commercial morality and the specifically Jewish
    economic outlook.
    Reviewing the ground we have traversed, we see clearly the strong
    contrast between the Jewish and the non-Jewish outlooks in the early
    capitalistic period. Tradition, the subsistence ideal, the overpowering
    influence of status -- these were the fundamentals of the latter. And the
    former -- wherein lay its novelty? How may it be characterized? I be-lieve
    one all-comprehensive word will serve our purpose, and that word
    is "modern." The Jewish outlook was the "modern" outlook; the Jew
    was actuated in his economic activities in the same way as the modern
    man. Look through the catalogue of "sins" laid at the door of the Jews in
    the 17th and 18th centuries, and you will find nothing in it that the
    trader of to-day does not regard as right and proper, nothing that is not
    taken as a matter of course in every business. Throughout the centuries
    the Jews championed the cause of individual liberty in economic activi-.110/Werner Sombart
    ties against the dominating views of the time. The individual was not to
    be hampered by regulations of any sort, neither as to the extent of his
    production nor as to the strict division between one calling and another:
    he was to be allowed to carve out a position for himself at will, and be
    able to defend it against all comers. He should have the right to push
    forward at the expense of others, if he were so able; and the weapons in
    the struggle were to be cleverness, astuteness, artfulness; in economic
    competition there should be no other consideration but that of overstep-ping
    the law; finally, all economic activities should be regulated by the
    individual alone in the way he thinks best to obtain the most efficient
    results. In other words, the idea of free-trade and of free competition
    was here to the fore; the idea of economic rationalism; in short, the
    modern economic outlook, in the shaping of which Jews have had a
    great, if not a decisive influence. And why? It was they who introduced
    the new ideas into a world organized on a totally different basis.
    Here a pertinent question suggests itself. How are we to explain
    that even before the era of modern capitalism, Jews showed a capacity
    for adopting its principles? The question must be expanded into a much
    larger one. What was it that enabled the Jew to exercise so decisive an
    influence in the process that made modern economic life what it is, an
    influence such as we have observed in the foregoing enquiry?

    Part II. The Aptitude of the Jews of Modern Capitalism


    Chapter 8. The Problem


    Before us lies a great problem. We are to explain why the Jews played
    just the part they did in the economic life of the last two or three centu-ries.
    That this is a problem will be admitted with but few exceptions by
    all. There are a few faddists who deny that the Jews occupied any spe-cial
    position in modern economic life, asserting as they do that there are
    no Jews. These will object. Then, too, there is that other small category
    of people who hold that the Jews were economically of such slight im-port
    that they were without any influence whatever on modern economic
    life. But we shall pay little heed to either class in our considerations,
    which are for all those who think with me that the Jews had a decisive
    influence on the structure of modern economic life.
    I have spoken of the aptitude of the Jews for modern capitalism. If
    our researches are to be fruitful of results we shall have to make two
    things absolutely clear: (1) their aptitude -- for what? and (2) their
    aptitude -- how developed?
    Their aptitude for what? For everything which in the first part of
    the book we have seen them striving to achieve -- founding and pro-moting
    international trade, modern finance, the Stock Exchange and the
    commercialization generally of all economic activities; supporting un-restricted
    intercourse and free competition, and infusing the modern spirit
    into all economic life. Now in my superscription of this part of our
    subject all these activities are summed up in the word "capitalism." In a
    special chapter (the ninth) we shall show that all the single facts that.112/Werner Sombart
    have been mentioned hang together, and that they are kept together by
    means of capitalistic organization. The essentials of the latter, at least in
    their outline, will therefore also have to be dealt with, in order to demon-strate
    the special functions of the individual in the capitalistic system.
    This method will give the death-blow to such vague conceptions, usu-ally
    met with in connexion with the Jewish problem, as "economic ca-pacity,"
    "aptitude for commerce and haggling" or other equally dilet-tante
    phrases, which have already done too much mischief.
    As for the second point, how, by what means, is it possible to achieve
    any result? If any one rescues a drowning man, it may be that it was
    because he happened to be standing at the water's edge, just where a
    boat was tied, or on a bridge, where a life-belt was ready to hand. In a
    word, his accidental presence in a particular spot made it possible for
    him to do the deed, by rowing out in the boat to the man in danger, or by
    throwing the life-belt to him. Or he may have done it because he was the
    only one among the crowd on the shore who had the courage to jump
    into the water, swim out to the sinking man and bring him safely to land.
    In the first case we might term the circumstances "objective," in the
    second "subjective." The same distinction can be applied to the Jews in
    considering their aptitude for capitalism: it may be due to objective or to
    subjective circumstances.
    My immediate business will be to deal with the first set of causes,
    and for many reasons. To begin with, every explanation that is put for-ward
    must be closely scrutinized, in order to make sure that no un-proved
    hypothesis is its basis, and that what has to be proved is not a
    dogma. Dangerous in most cases, it is particularly so in the problem
    before us, in which racial and religious prejudices may work havoc, as,
    indeed, they have done in the writings of the great majority of my pre-cursors
    on this question. I shall do my utmost to avoid their error in this
    respect, and shall be at great pains to see to it that my considerations are
    above criticism. My aim is to discover the play of cause and effect as it
    really was, without any preconceived idea influencing my reasoning,
    and I shall adduce my proofs in such a way, that they may be easily
    followed by all -- by the assimilationist Jew no less than by the Nation-alist;
    by him who pins his faith to the influence of race as by the warm-est
    supporter of the doctrine of environment; by the anti-Semite as by
    his opponent. Hence my starting-point will always have to be from facts
    admitted on all hands. That will preclude any appeal to "special race
    characteristics" or arguments of that ilk..The Jews and Modern Capitalism/113
    Any one who does not admit that the Jews have special gifts may
    demand that the part played by this people in modern economic life
    should be explained without any reference to national peculiarities, but
    rather from the external circumstances in which Jews were placed by
    the accident of history. I shall endeavour to satisfy this demand in the
    tenth chapter.
    Finally, if it becomes apparent that the contribution of the Jews to
    modern economic life cannot be entirely explained by the conditions of
    their historic situation, then will be the time for looking to subjective
    causes, and for considering the Jews' special characteristics. This shall
    be the purpose of the twelfth chapter.

    Chapter 9. What is a Capitalist Undertaker?


    Capitalism 1 is the name given to that economic organization wherein
    regularly two distinct social groups co-operate -- the owners of the
    means of production, who at the same time do the work of managing
    and directing, and the great body of workers who possess nothing but
    their labour. The co-operation is such, that the representatives of capital
    are the subjective agents, that is, they decide as to the "how" and the
    "how much" in the process of production, and they undertake all risks.
    Now what are the mainsprings of the whole system? The first, and
    perhaps the chiefest, is the pursuit of gain or profit. This being the case,
    there is a tendency for undertakings to grow bigger and bigger. Arising
    from that, all economic activities are strictly logical. Whereas in the
    pre-capitalistic period quieta non movere was the watchword and Tra-dition
    the guiding star, now it is constant movement. I characterize the
    whole as "economic rationalism," and this I would term the second
    mainspring of the capitalistic system.
    Economic rationalism expresses itself in three ways. (1) There is a
    plan, in accordance with which all things are ordered aright. And the
    plan covers activities in the distant future. (2) Efficiency is the test ap-plied
    in the choice of all the means of production. (3) Seeing that the
    "cash nexus" regulates all economic activity, and that everywhere and
    always a surplus is sought for, exact calculations become necessary in
    every undertaking.
    Everybody knows that a modern business is not merely, say, the
    production of rails or cotton or electric motors, or the transport of stones
    or of people. Everybody knows that these are but parts in the organiza-.114/Werner Sombart
    tion of the whole. And the characteristics of the undertaker are not that
    he arranges for the carrying out of the processes named. They are to be
    found elsewhere, and for the present we may put it roughly that they are
    a constant buying and selling of the means of production, of labour or of
    commodities. To vary the phrase somewhat, the undertaker makes con-tracts
    concerning exchanges, wherein money is the measure of value.
    When do we speak of having accomplished a successful piece of
    business? Surely when the contract-making has ended well. But what is
    meant precisely by "well"? It certainly has no reference to the quality or
    to the quantity of the goods or services given or received; it refers solely
    and only to the return of the sum of money expended, and to a surplus
    over and above it (profit). It is the aim of the undertaker so to manipu-late
    the factors over which he has control as to bring about this surplus.
    Our next step must be to consider what functions the capitalistic
    undertaker (the subjective economic factor) has in the sphere of capital-ism,
    seeing that our purpose is to show the capacity of the Jews in this
    direction. We shall try to discover what special skill is necessary in
    order to be successful in the competitive struggle. In a word, we shall
    seek for the type.
    To my mind, the best picture of the modern capitalistic undertaker
    is that which paints him as the combination of two radically different
    natures in one person. Like Faust, he may say that two souls dwell
    within his breast; unlike Faust's, however, the two souls do not wish to
    be separated, but rather, on the contrary, desire to work harmoniously
    together. What are these two natures? The one is the undertaker (not in
    the more limited sense of capitalistic undertaker, but quite generally),
    and the other is the trader.
    By the undertaker I mean a man who has an object in view to which
    he devotes his life, an object which requires the cooperation of others
    for its achievement, seeing that its realization is in the world of men.
    The undertaker must thus be differentiated from the artist or the prophet.
    Like them he has a mission; unlike them he feels that he must bring it to
    realization. He is a man, therefore, who peers into the distant future,
    whose every action is planned and done only in so far as it will help the
    great whole. As an instance of an undertaker in this (non-capitalistic)
    sense we may mention an African or a North Pole explorer. The under-taker
    becomes a capitalistic undertaker when he combines his original
    activities with those of the trader.
    And what is a trader? A man whose whole being is set upon doing.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/115
    profitable business; who appraises all activities and all conditions with
    a view to their money value, who turns everything into its gold equiva-lent.
    The world to such a man is one great market-place, with its supply
    and demand, its conjunctures -- good and bad -- and its profits and
    losses. The constant question on his lips is, "What does it cost? What
    can I make out of it?" His last question would in all probability be,
    "What is the price of the universe?" The circle of his thoughts is cir-cumscribed
    by one piece of business, to the successful issue of which he
    devotes all his energies.
    In the combination I have endeavoured to sketch, the undertaker is
    the constant factor, the trader the variant one.
    Constant the undertaker must be, for, having set his heart upon some
    far-distant goal, he is of necessity bound to follow some plan in order to
    reach it. Change in his policy is contrary to his nature. Constancy is the
    basis of his character. But the trader is changeable, for his conduct
    wavers with the conditions of the market. He must be able to vary his
    policy and his aim from one moment to another if the prevailing con-juncture
    so demands it. "Busy-ness" marks him out above all else.
    This theory of the two souls in one body is intended to clarify our
    conception of the capitalistic undertaker. But we must analyse the con-ception
    still further, this time into its actual component parts.
    In the undertaker I perceive the following four types: --
    (1) The Inventor -- not merely in the technical sense, but in that of
    the organizer introducing new forms which bring greater economies into
    production, or transport, or marketing.
    (2) The Discoverer -- of new means of selling his commodities,
    either intensively or extensively. If he finds a new sphere for his activi-ties
    -- let us say he sells bathing-drawers to Eskimos, or gramophones
    to Negroes -- we have a case of extensive discovery; if he creates new
    demands in markets where he already has a footing, we may speak of
    intensive discovery.
    (3) The Conqueror. An undertaker of the right kind is always a
    conqueror, with the determination and will-power to overcome all the
    difficulties that beset his path. He must also be able to risk much, to
    stake his all (that is to say, his fortune, his good name, even his life), if
    need be, to achieve great results for his undertaking. It may be the adop-tion
    of new methods in manufacture, the extension of his business though
    his credit is unstable, and so on.
    (4) The Organizer. Above all else the undertaker must be an orga-.116/Werner Sombart
    nizer; i.e., he must be able so to dispose of large numbers of individuals
    as to bring about the most successful result; must be able to fit the
    round man into the round hole and the square man into the square; must
    be able to give a man just the job for which he is best equipped, so as to
    obtain the maximum of efficiency. To do this satisfactorily demands
    many gifts and much skill. For example, the organizer must be able to
    tell at a glance what a man can do best, and which man among many
    will best suit his purpose. He must be able to let others do his work --
    i.e., to place in positions of trust such persons as will be able to relieve
    him of responsibility. Finally, he must be able to see to it that the human
    factors in the work of production are sufficient for the purpose, both
    quantitatively and qualitatively, and that their relationship to each other
    is harmonious. In short, the management of his business must be the
    most efficient possible.
    Now business organization means a good deal more than the skilful
    choice of men and methods; it means taking into consideration also geo-graphical,
    ethnological and accidentalcircumstances of all sorts. Let me
    illustrate my point. The Westinghouse Electric Company is one of the
    best organized concerns in the United States. When the Company de-cided
    to capture the English market it set up a branch in this country, the
    organization of which was modelled exactly on that of the parent con-cern.
    After a few years, what was the result? The financial break-up of
    the English branch, chiefly because sufficient allowance had not been
    made for the difference in English conditions.
    This leads us to the activities of the trader. A trader has no definite
    calling; he has only certain well-defined functions in the body economic.
    But they are of a very varied kind. For example: to provision ships and
    supply them with men and ammunition, to conquer wild lands in distant
    parts, to drive the natives from hearth and home and seize their goods
    and chattels, to load the ships with these latter and bring them home in
    order to sell them at public auctions to the highest bidder -- all this is a
    form of trading.
    Or, it may be a different form -- as when a dealer obtains a pair of
    old trousers from a needy man of fashion, to whose house he comes in
    vain five times in succession, and then palms those same trousers off on
    a stupid yokel.
    Or, again, it may take the form of arbitrage dealing on the Stock
    Exchange.
    Clearly there are differences in these instances, as there were be-.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/117
    tween trading in modern and in mediaeval times. In the pre-capitalistic
    period, to trade meant to trade on a big scale, as the "royal merchants"
    did in the Italian and German cities, and the trader had to be an under-taker
    (in the general, and not merely in the capitalistic sense). "Each (of
    the citizens of Genoa) has a tower in his house; if civil war breaks out,
    the battlements of these towers are the scenes of conflict. They are mas-ters
    of the sea; they build them ships, called galleys, and roam for plun-der
    in the most distant parts, bringing the spoil back to Genoa. With
    Pisa they live in continual enmity." "Royal merchants" these, if you
    like; but not traders in my sense.
    I regard those as traders who set out with the intention of doing
    good business; who combine within themselves two activities -- calcu-lation
    and negotiation. In a word, the trader must be (1) a speculating
    calculator, and (2) a business man, a negotiator.
    As a speculating calculator, he must buy in the cheapest market and
    sell in the dearest. Which means that he must obtain his labour and his
    raw material at as low a rate as possible, and not waste anything in the
    process of manufacture. And when the commodity is ready for sale, he
    must part with it to the man whose credit is sound, and so forth. For all
    this he must calculate, and he must speculate. By speculation in this
    sense I mean the drawing of several conclusions from particular in-stances
    -- let us call it the power of economic diagnosis, the complete
    survey of the market, the evaluation of all its symptoms, the recognition
    of future possibilities and the choice of that course which will have the
    greatest utility in the long run.
    To this end the dealer must have a hundred eyes, a hundred ears and
    a hundred feelers in all directions. Here he may have to search out a
    needy nobleman, or a State bent on war, in order to offer them a loan at
    the psychological moment; there, to put his hand on a labour group that
    is willing to work a few pence below the prevailing rate of wages; here
    he may have to form a right estimate of the chances that a new article is
    likely to have with the public; there, to appraise the true effect of a
    political crisis on the Stock Exchange. In every case the trader expresses
    the result in terms of money. That is where the calculation comes in. "A
    wonderfullyshrewd calculator" is a term common in the United States
    for an adept in this direction.
    But a discerning eye for a profitable piece of business is not suffi-cient:
    the trader must also possess the capacity for doing business. In
    this, his negotiating powers will come into play, and he will be doing.118/Werner Sombart
    something very much more akin to the work of an arbitrator between
    two litigants. He will talk to his opponent, urge reasons and counter-reasons
    in order to induce him to embark on a certain course. To nego-tiate
    is to fence with intellectual weapons.
    Trading, then, means to negotiate concerning the buying and selling
    of some commodity, be it a share, a loan, or a concern. Trading must be
    the term applied to the activity of the hawker at the back-door, trying to
    sell the cook a "fur" collar, or to that of the Jewish old do' man, who
    talks for an hour to the bucolic driver to persuade him to purchase a pair
    of trousers. But it must be equally applied to the activities of a Nathan
    Rothschild, who negotiated with the representative of the Prussian Gov-ernment
    for a loan of a million. The difference is not one of kind, but of
    extent, for the essence of all trading is negotiation, which need not nec-essarily
    be by word of mouth. The shopkeeper who recommends his
    goods to the public, be his method what you will, is in reality negotiat-ing.
    What is all advertisement but "dumb show" negotiation? The end in
    view is always the same -- to convince the possible buyer of the supe-riority
    of a particular set of goods. The ideal of the seller is realized
    when everybody purchases the article he has recommended.
    To create interest, to win confidence, to stir up a desire to buy --
    such is the end and aim of the successful trader. How he achieves it is of
    little moment. Sufficient that he uses not outward force but inner forces,
    his customers coming to him of their own free will. He wins by sugges-tion,
    and one of the most effective is to arouse in the heart of the buyer
    the feeling that to buy at once will be most advantageous. "We shall
    have snow, boys, said the Finns, for they had Aander (a kind of snow-shoe)
    to sell," we read in the Magnus Barford Saga (1006 A.D.). This is
    the prototype of all traders and the suggestion of the Finns the prototype
    of all advertising -- the weapon with which the trader fights. No longer
    does he dwell in fortified towers, as did his precursor in Genoa in the
    days of Benjamin of Tudela, nor does he wreck the houses of the natives
    with his guns if they refuse to "trade" with him, as did the early East
    India settlers in the 17th century..The Jews and Modern Capitalism/119

    Chapter 10. The Objective Circumstances in the Jewish Aptitude for Modern Capitalism


    Now that we know what a capitalist undertaker is our next question
    must be. What were the outward circumstances that made it possible for
    the Jews to do so much in shaping the capitalistic system? To formulate
    an answer we shall have to review the position of the Jews of Western
    Europe and America from the end of the 15th century until the present
    time -- the period, that is, in which capitalism took form.
    How can that position be best characterized?
    The Governor of Jamaica in a letter he wrote (December 17, 1671)
    to the Secretary of State was happy in his phraseology.1 "He was of
    opinion," he said, "that His Majesty could not have more profitable
    subjects than the Jews: they had great stocks and correspondence."
    These two reasons, indeed, will account in large measure for the head-way
    made by Jews. But we must also bear in mind their peculiar status
    among the peoples with whom they dwelt. They were looked upon as
    strangers and were treated not as full, but as "semi-citizens."
    I would therefore assign four causes for the success of the Jews: (1)
    their dispersion over a wide area, (2) their treatment as strangers, (3)
    their semi-citizenship, and (4) theirwealth.
    Jewish Dispersion over a Wide Area
    The fact of primary significance is that the Jews were scattered all over
    the world. Scattered they had been from the time of the first Exile; they
    were scattered anew after their expulsion from Spain and Portugal, and
    again when great masses of them left Poland. We have already accom-panied
    them on their wanderings during the last two or three centuries,
    and have noted how they settled in Germany and France, in Italy and in
    England, in the Near East and in the Far West, in Holland, in Austria, in
    South Africa and in Eastern Asia.
    One result of these wanderings was that off-shoots of one and the
    same family took root in different centres of economic life and estab-lished
    great world-famed firms with numerous branches in all parts. Let
    us instance a few cases.2
    The Lopez family had its seat in Bordeaux, and branches in Spain,
    England, Antwerp and Toulouse. The Mendes family, well-known bank-ers,
    also hailed from Bordeaux, and were to be found in Portugal, France.120/Werner Sombart
    and Flanders. The Gradis, relatives of the Mendes, were also settled in
    all directions. So, too, the Carceres in Hamburg, in England, in Austria,
    in the West Indies, in Barbados and in Surinam. Other famous families
    with world-wide branches were the Costas (Acostas, D'Acostas), the
    Coneglianos, the Alhadibs, the Sassoons, the Pereires, the Rothschilds.
    We might continue the list ad infinitum; suffice it to say that Jewish
    business concerns that had a footing in at least two places on the face of
    the globe may be counted in hundreds and in thousands.
    What all this means is obvious enough. What Christian business
    houses obtained only after much effort, and even then only to a much
    less degree, the Jews had at the very beginning -- scattered centres from
    which to carry on international commerce and to utilize international
    credit; "great correspondence" in short, the first necessity for all inter-national
    organization.
    Let us recall what I observed about the participation of the Jews in
    Spanish and Portuguese trade, in the trade of the Levant, and in the
    economic growth of America. It was of great consequence that the great
    majority of Jews settling in different parts hailed from Spain; they were
    thus agents in directing colonial trade, and to an even greater extent the
    flow of .silver, into the new channels represented by Holland, England,
    France and Germany.
    Was it not significant that the Jews directed their footsteps just to
    these countries, all on the eve of a great economic revival, and were thus
    the means of allowing them to benefit by Jewish international connexions?
    It is well known that Jews turned away the flow of trade from the lands
    that expelled them to those that gave them a hospitable reception.
    Was it not significant that they were predominant in Leghorn, which
    in the 18th century was spoken of as "one of the great depots in Europe
    for the trade of the Mediterranean,"3 significant that they forged a com-mercial
    chain binding North and South America together, which as-sured
    the North American Colonies of their economic existence, signifi-cant
    above all, that by their control of the Stock Exchanges in the great
    European centres they were the means of internationalizing public credit?
    It was their distribution over a wide area which enabled them to do
    all this.
    An admirable picture of the importance of the Jews from this point
    of view was drawn by a clever observer who made a study of that people
    two hundred years ago. The picture has lost none of its freshness; it may
    be found in the Spectator of September 27, 1712 :4 --.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/121
    They are so disseminated through all the trading Parts of the World,
    that they are become the Instruments by which the most distant
    Nations converse with one another and by which mankind are
    knit together in a general correspondence. They are like the pegs
    and nails in a great building, which though they are but little val-ued
    in themselves, are absolutely necessary to keep the whole frame
    together.
    How the Jews utilized for their own advantage the special knowl-edge
    that their scattered position gave them, how they regulated their
    activities on the Stock Exchange, is related in all detail in a Report of
    the French Ambassador in The Hague, written in the year 1698. 5 Our
    informant is of opinion that the dominance of the Jews on the Amsterdam
    Stock Exchange was due in a large degree to their being so well-in-formed.
    This piece of evidence is of such great value that I shall trans-late
    the whole of the passage: --
    They carry on a correspondence on both these subjects (news and
    commerce) with those they call their brotherhoods (congregues).
    Of these, Venice is considered to be the most important (although
    neither the richest nor the most populous) because it is the link, by
    way of the brotherhood of Salonica, between the East and the West
    as well as the South. Salonica is the governing centre for their
    nation in these two parts of the world and is responsible for them
    to Venice, which together with Amsterdam, rules the northern
    countries (including the merely tolerated community of London,
    and the secret brotherhoods of France). The result of this associa-tion
    is that on the two topics of news and commerce they receive,
    one might almost say, the best information of all that goes on in
    the world, and on this they build up their system every week in
    their assemblies, wisely choosing for this purpose the day after
    Saturday, i.e., the Sunday, when the Christians of all denomina-tions
    are engaged in their religious exercises. These systems, which
    contain the minutest details of news received during the week,
    are, after having been carefully sifted by their rabbis and the heads
    of their congregations, handed over on the Sunday afternoon to
    their Jewish stockbrokers and agents. These are men of great clev-erness,
    who after having arranged a preconcerted plan among them-selves,
    go out separately to spread news which should prove the
    most useful for their own ends; ready to start manipulations on the
    morrow, the Monday morning, according to each individual's dis-.122/Werner Sombart
    position: either selling, buying, or exchanging shares. As they al-ways
    hold a large reserve of these commodities, they can always
    judge of the most propitious moment, taking advantage of the rise
    or fall of the securities, or even sometimes of both, in order to
    carry out their plans.
    Equally beneficial was their dispersion for winning the confidence
    of the great. Indeed, the progress of the Jews to la haute finance was
    almost invariably as follows. In the first instance their linguistic ability
    enabled them to be of service to crowned heads as interpreters, then they
    were sent as intermediaries or special negotiators to foreign courts. Soon
    they were put in charge of their employer's fortunes, at the same time
    being honoured through his graciousness in allowing them to become
    his creditors. From this point it was no long step to the control of the
    State finances, and in later years of the Stock Exchanges.
    It is no far-fetched assumption that already in ancient times their
    knowledge of languages and their acquaintance with foreign civiliza-tions
    must have made them welcome visitors at the courts of kings and
    won for them royal confidence. Think of Joseph in Egypt; of the Alabarch
    Alexander (of whom Josephus tells), the intimate of King Agrippa and
    of the mother of the Emperor Claudius; think of the Jewish Treasurer of
    Queen Candace of Ethiopia, of whom we may read in the Acts of the
    Apostles (viii. 27).
    As for the Court Jews in the Middle Ages, we have definite infor-mation
    that they won their spurs in the capacity of interpreters or nego-tiators.
    We know it of the Jew Isaac, whom Charlemagne sent to the
    court of the Caliph Haroun al Rashid; of Kalonymus, the Jewish friend
    and favourite of the Emperor Otto II; of the famous Chasdai Ibn Shaprut
    (915--70), who achieved honour and renown as the diplomatic represen-tative
    of the Caliph Abdul-Rahman III in his negotiations with the Chris-tian
    courts of Northern Spain.6 Similarly when the Christian princes of
    the Iberian Peninsula required skilful negotiators they sought out Jews.
    Alphonso VI is a good example. Intent on playing off the petty Moham-medan
    rulers against each other, he chose Jewish agents, with their lin-guistic
    abilities and their insight into foreign ways, to send to the courts
    of Toledo, Seville and Granada. In the period which followed, Jewish
    emissaries are met with at all the Spanish courts, including those Jews,
    learned in ethnography, whom James II commissioned to travel into Asia
    in order to supply his spies with information and who tried to discover
    the mythical country of Prester John;7 including also the many interpret-.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/123
    ers and confidential agents associated with the discovery of the New
    World.8
    Considering the importance of the Spanish period in Jewish history
    not only from the general, but also from the special economic point of
    view, these cases are worthy of note in that they clearly show the reason
    for the rise of Jews to influential positions. But they are not limited to
    the Spanish period; they abound in subsequent epochs also. Thus, Jew-ish
    diplomatists were employed by the States-General in their intercourse
    with the Powers; and names like Delmonte, Mesquita 9 and others are
    well-known. Equally famous is the Seigneur Hebraeo, as Richelieu called
    the wealthy Ildefonso Lopez, whom the French statesman sent on a se-cret
    mission to Holland, and on his return bestowed upon him the tide of
    "Conseiller d'Etat ordinaire."10
    Finally, the dispersion of the Jews is noteworthy in another way.
    Their dispersion internationally was, as we have seen, fruitful enough
    of results; but their being scattered in every part of some particular
    country had consequences no less potent. To take one instance -- the
    Jews were army-purveyors (and their activities as such date from the
    days of antiquity, for do we not read that when Belisarius besieged Naples,
    the Jewish inhabitants offered to supply the town with provisions?).11
    One reason was surely that they were able to accumulate large quanti-ties
    of commodities much more easily than the Christians, thanks to
    their connexions in the different centres. "The Jewish undertaker," says
    one 18th-century writer, "is free from these difficulties. All he need do
    is to stir up his brethren in the right place, and at a moment's notice he
    has all the assistance he requires at his disposal."12 In truth, the Jew at
    that time never carried on business "as an isolated individual, but al-ways
    as a member of the most extended trading company in the world."13
    In the words of a petition of the merchants of Paris in the second half of
    the 18th century,14 "they are atoms of molten money which flow and are
    scattered, but which at the least incline reunite into one principal stream."
    The Jews as Aliens
    During the last century or two Jews were almost everywhere strangers
    in the sense of being new-comers. They were never old-established in
    the places where their most successful activities were manifest; nor did
    they arrive in such centres from the vicinity, but rather from distant
    lands, differing in manners and customs, and often in climate too, from
    the countries of their settlements. To Holland, France and England they.124/Werner Sombart
    came from Spain and Portugal and then from Germany; they journeyed
    to Hamburg and Frankfort from other German cities; later on they dis-persed
    all over Germany from Russian Poland.
    The Jews, then, were everywhere colonists, and as such learned the
    lesson of speedy adaptation to their new surroundings. In this they were
    ahead of the European nations, who did not become masters of this art
    until the settlements in America were founded.
    New-comers must have an observant eye in order to find a niche for
    themselves amid the new conditions; they must be very careful of their
    behaviour, so that they may earn their livelihood without let or hin-drance.
    While the natives are still in their warm beds the new-comers
    stand without in the sharp morning air of dawn, and their energy is all
    the keener in consequence. They must concentrate their thoughts to ob-tain
    a foothold, and all their economic activities will be dictated by this
    desire. They must of necessity determine how best to regulate their un-dertakings,
    and what is the shortest cut to their goal -- what branches
    of manufacture or commerce are likely to prove most profitable, with
    what persons business connexions should be established, and on what
    principles business itself should be conducted. What is all this but the
    substitution of economic rationalism for time-honoured Tradition? That
    the Jews did this we have already observed; why they were forced to do
    it becomes apparent when we recall that everywhere they were strang-ers
    in the land, new-comers, immigrants.
    But the Jews were strangers among the nations throughout many
    centuries in yet another sense, which might be termed psychological and
    social. They were strangers because of the inward contrast between them
    and their hosts, because of their almost caste-like separation from the
    peoples in whose midst they dwelt. They, the Jews, looked upon them-selves
    as a peculiar people: and as a peculiar people the nations re-garded
    them. Hence, there was developed in the Jews that conduct and
    that mental attitude which is bound to show itself in dealings with "strang-ers,"
    especially in an age in which the conception of world-citizenship
    was as yet nonexistent. For in all periods of history innocent of humani-tarian
    considerations the mere fact that a "stranger" was being dealt
    with was sufficient to ease the conscience and loosen the bonds of moral
    duty. In intercourse with strangers people were never quite so particu-lar.
    Now the Jews were always brought into contact with strangers, with
    "others," especially in their economic activities, seeing that everywhere
    they were a small minority. And whereas the "others" dealt with a.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/125
    stranger, say, once in ten times or even in a hundred, it was just the
    reverse with the Jews, whose intercourse with strangers was nine out of
    the ten or ninety-nine out of the hundred times. What was the conse-quence?
    The Jew had recourse to the "ethics for strangers" (if I may use
    this term without being misunderstood) far more frequently than the
    non-Jew; for the one it was the rule, whilst for the other it was only the
    exception. Jewish business methods thus came to be based on it.
    Closely interwoven with their status as strangers was the special
    legal position which they occupied everywhere. But this has an impor-tance
    of its own, and we shall therefore assign an independent section to
    it.
    Jews as Semi-Citizens
    At first glance the legal position of the Jews would appear to have had
    an immense influence on their economic activities in that it limited the
    callings to which they might devote themselves, and generally closed the
    avenues to a livelihood. But I believe that the effect of these restrictions
    has been over-estimated. I would even go so far as to say that they were
    of no moment whatever for the economic growth of Jewry. At least, I am
    not aware that any of the traces left by Jews on the development of the
    modern economic system were due to the restraining regulations. That
    these could not have left a very deep impress is obvious, seeing that
    during the period which is of most interest to us the laws affecting Jews
    differed greatly according to locality. For all that we note a remarkable
    similarity in Jewish influence throughout the whole range of the capital-istic
    social order.
    How varied the laws in restraint of Jews were is not always suffi-ciently
    realized. To begin with, there were broad differences between
    those of one country and of another. Thus, while the Jews in Holland
    and England were in a position of almost complete equality with their
    Christian neighbours so far as their economic life was concerned, they
    laboured under great disabilities in other lands. But even in these last
    their treatment was not uniform, for in certain towns and districts they
    enjoyed entire economic freedom, as, for example, in the papal posses-sions
    in France.15 Moreover, even the disabilities varied in number and
    in kind in each country, and sometimes in different parts of the same
    country. In most instances they appeared to be quite arbitrary; nowhere
    was there any underlying principle visible. In one place Jews might not
    be hawkers, and in another they were not allowed to be shopkeepers..126/Werner Sombart
    Here they received permission to be craftsmen; there this right was de-nied
    them. Here they might deal in wool, there they might not. Here they
    might sell leather, there it was forbidden them. Here the sale of alcoholic
    liquors was farmed out to them, there such an idea seemed preposter-ous.
    Here they were encouraged to start factories, there they were strictly
    enjoined to desist from all participation in capitalistic undertakings. Such
    examples might be continued indefinitely.
    Perhaps the best is furnished by Prussia's treatment of her Jews in
    the 18th century. Here in one and the same country the restrictive legis-lation
    for one locality was totally opposed to that of another. The re-vised
    General Privileges of 1750 (Article 2) forbade Jews the exercise
    of handicrafts in many places; yet a royal order of May 21, 1790, per-mitted
    the Jews in Breslau "to exercise all manner of mechanical arts,"
    and went on to say that "it would be a source of much pleasure to Us if
    Christian craftsmen of their own free will took Jewish boys as appren-tices
    and eventually received them into their gilds." A similar enactment
    was made in the General Reglement for the Jews of South-East Prussia,
    dated April 17, 1797 (Article 10).
    Again, while the Jews of Berlin were forbidden (by Articles 13 and
    15 of the General Privileges of 1750) to sell meat, beer and brandy to
    non-Jews, all the native-born Jews of Silesia had complete freedom of
    trade in this respect (in accordance with an Order of February 13, 1769).
    The list of commodities in which they were allowed or forbidden to
    trade seems to have been drawn up with an arbitrariness that passes
    comprehension. Thus, the General Privileges of 1750 allowed the Jews
    to deal in foreign or home leather prepared though undyed, but not in
    raw or dyed leather; in raw calf and sheep skins, but not in raw cow or
    horse hides; in all manner of manufactured woollen and cotton wares,
    but not in raw wool or woollen threads.
    The picture becomes still more bewildering when we take into con-sideration
    the varying legal status of the different classes of Jews. The
    Jewish community of Breslau, for instance, was (until the Order of May
    21, 1790, changed things) composed of four groups: (1) those with "gen-eral
    privileges," (2) those with "privileges," (3) those who were only
    tolerated, and (4) temporary residents.
    The first class included those Jews who were on an equal footing
    with Christians so far as trade and commerce were concerned, and whose
    rights in this respect were hereditary. In the second were comprised
    such Jews as had "special (limited) privileges" given them, wherein they.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/127
    were allowed to trade in certain kinds of goods specifically mentioned.
    But their rights did not pass to their children, though the children re-ceived
    preference when privileges of this kind were being granted. The
    third class was composed of Jews who had the right of living in Breslau,
    but whose economic activities were even more limited than those in the
    second class. As for the fourth, it contained the Jews who received per-mission
    to dwell in the town for a temporary period only.
    But even of such rights as they had they were never sure. In 1769,
    for example, the Silesian Jews who lived in country districts were al-lowed
    to receive in farm the sale of beer, brandy and meat; in 1780 the
    permission was withdrawn; in 1787 it was renewed.
    Yet in all this it must not be forgotten that regulations in restraint of
    industry and commerce during the last two or three centuries were for
    the most part a dead letter; as a matter of fact, capitalistic interests
    found ways and means of getting round them. The simplest method was
    to overstep the law, a course to which as time went on the bureaucratic
    State shut its eyes. But there were lawful means too of circumventing
    inconvenient paragraphs: concessions, privileges, patents, and the whole
    collection of documents granting exceptional treatment which princes
    were always willing to issue if only an additional source of income ac-crued
    therefrom. The Jews were not slow in obtaining such privileges.
    The proviso mentioned in the Prussian Edicts of 1737 and 1750 -- that
    all restraints referring to Jews might be removed by a special royal
    order -- was tacitly held to apply in all cases. Some way out must have
    been possible, else how could the Jews have engaged in those trades
    (e.g., leather, tobacco) which the law forbade them?
    At one point, however, industrial regulations made themselves felt
    as very real checks to the progress of the Jew, and that was wherever
    economic activities were organized on a corporate basis. The gilds were
    closed to them; they were kept back by the crucifix which hung in each
    gild-hall, and round which members assembled. Accordingly, if they
    wished to engage in any industry or trade monopolized by a gild, they
    were forced to do so as "outsiders," interlopers and free traders.
    But a still greater obstacle in their path were the laws regulating
    their position in public life. In all countries there was a remarkable uni-formity
    in these; everywhere the Jew was shut out from public offices,
    central or local, from the Bar, from Parliament, from the Army, from
    the Universities. This applied to the States of Western Europe -- France,
    Holland, England -- and also to America. But there is no need to con-.128/Werner Sombart
    sider with any degree of fullness the legal status of the Jews in the pre-emancipation
    era, seeing that it is fairly generally known. Only this we
    would mention here -- that their condition of semi-citizenship contin-ued
    in most countries right into the 19th century. The United States was
    the first land in which they obtained civil equality; the principle was
    there promulgated in 1783. In France the famous Emancipation Law
    dates from 27th September 1791; in Holland the Batavian National
    Assembly made the Jews full citizens in 1796. But in England it was not
    until 1859 that they were granted complete emancipation, while in the
    German States it took ten years longer. On 3rd July 1869 the North
    German Confederation finally set the seal on their civil equality; Aus-tria
    had already done so in 1867, and Italy followed suit in 1870.
    Equally well-known is it that in many cases the emancipation laws
    have become dead letters. Open any Liberal paper in Germany (to take
    a good instance) and day by day you will find complaints that Jews are
    never given commissions in the Army, that they are excluded from ap-pointments
    to the Bench, and so on.
    This set-back which the Jews received in public life was of great
    use to industry and commerce in that the Jew concentrated all his ability
    and energy on them. The most gifted minds from other social groups
    devoted themselves to the service of the State; among the Jews, in so far
    as they did not spend themselves in the Beth Hamidrash [the Communal
    House of Study], such spirits were forced into business. Now the more
    economic life aimed at profit-making and the more the moneyed inter-ests
    acquired influence, the more were the Jews driven to win for them-selves
    by means of commerce and industry what was denied them by the
    law -- respect and power in the State. It becomes apparent why gold (as
    we have seen) was appraised so highly among Jews.
    But if exclusion from public life was of benefit to the economic
    position of the Jews in one direction, giving them a pull over their Chris-tian
    neighbours, it was equally beneficial in another. It freed the Jews
    from political partisanship. Their attitude towards the State, and the
    particular Government of the day, was wholly unprejudiced. Thanks to
    this, their capacity to become the standard-bearers of the international
    capitalistic system was superior to that of other people. For they sup-plied
    the different States with money, and national conflicts were among
    the chief sources from which Jews derived their profit. Moreover, the
    political colourlessness of their position made it possible for them to
    serve successive dynasties or governments in countries which, like France,.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/129
    were subjected to many political changes. The history of the Rothschilds
    illustrates the point. Thus the Jews, through their inferior civil position,
    were enabled to facilitate the growth of the indifference of capitalism to
    all interests but those of gain. Again, therefore, they promoted and
    strengthened the capitalistic spirit.
    The Wealth of the Jews
    Among the objective conditions which made possible the economic mis-sion
    of the Jews during the last three or four centuries must be reckoned
    that at all times and in all places where their role in economic life was no
    mean one, they disposed of large sums of money. But this assertion says
    nothing about the wealth of the whole body of Jews, so that it is idle to
    urge the objection that at all periods there were poor Jews, and very
    many of them. Any one who has ever set foot in a Jewish congregation
    on the Eastern borders of Germany, or is acquainted with the Jewish
    quarter of New York, knows that well enough. But what I maintain -- a
    more limited proposition -- is that much wealth and great fortunes were
    to be found, and still are to be found, among Jews ever since the 17th
    century. Put in a slightly different way, there were always many wealthy
    Jews, and certainly the Jews on an average were richer than the Chris-tians
    round them. It is beside the mark to say that the richest man in
    Germany or the three richest in America are not Jews.
    A good many of the exiles from the Pyrenean Peninsula must have
    been very wealthy indeed. We are informed that their flight brought with
    it an "exodo de capitaes," a flow of capital from the country. However,
    in many instances they sold their property, receiving foreign bills in
    exchange.16 The richest among the fugitives probably made for Holland.
    At any rate it is recorded that the first settlers in that country -- Manuel
    Lopez Homen, Maria Nunez, Miguel Lopez and others -- had great
    possessions.17 Whether other wealthy Spaniards followed in the 17th
    century, or whether those already resident added to their fortunes, it is
    not easy to discover. But certain it is that the Jews of Holland in the 17th
    and 18th centuries were famed for their riches. True, there are no statis-tics
    to illustrate this, but an abundance of other weighty evidence exists.
    Travellers could not sufficiently admire the splendour and the luxury of
    the houses of these refugees who dwelt in what were really palaces. And
    if you turn to a collection of engravings of that period, do you not very
    soon discover that the most magnificent mansions in, say, Amsterdam
    or The Hague were built by Jews or inhabited by them -- those of.130/Werner Sombart
    Baron Delmonte, of the noble Lord de Pinto, of the Lord d'Acoste and
    others? (At the close of the 17th century de Pinto's fortune was esti-mated
    at 8,000,000 florins.) Of the princely luxury at a Jewish wedding
    in Amsterdam, where one of her daughters married, Gliickel von Hamein
    draws a vivid picture in her Memoirs.18
    It was the same in other lands. For 17th and 18th century France we
    have the generalization of Savary, who knew most things. "We say,"
    these are his very words, "we say that a tradesman is 'as rich as a Jew'
    when he has the reputation of having amassed a large fortune."19
    As for England, actual figures are extant concerning the wealth of
    the rich Sephardim soon after their arrival. A crowd of rich Jews fol-lowed
    in the train of Catharine of Braganza, Charles II's bride, so that
    while in 1661 there were only 35 Jewish families in London, two years
    later no less than 57 new-comers were added to the list. In 1663, as
    appears from the books of Alderman Blackwell, the following was the
    half-yearly turnover of the wealthy Jewish merchants:20 Jacob Aboab,
    £13,085; Samuel de Vega, £18,309; Duarte de Sylva, £41,441; Fran-cisco
    da Sylva, £14,646; Fernando Mendes da Costa, £30,490; Isaac
    Dazevedo, £13,605; George and Domingo Francia, £35,759; and Gomez
    Rodrigues, £13,124.
    The centres of Jewish life in Germany in the 17th and 18th centuries
    were, as we have already observed, Hamburg and Frankfort-on-the-Main.
    For both cities it is possible to compute the wealth of the resident
    Jews by the aid of figures.
    In Hamburg, too, it was Spanish and Portuguese Jews who were the
    first settlers. In 1649, 40 of their families participated in the foundation
    of the Hamburg Bank, which shows that they must have been fairly
    comfortably off. Very soon complaints were made of the increasing wealth
    and influence of the Jews. In 1649 they were blamed for their ostenta-tious
    funerals and for riding in carriages to take the air; in 1650 for
    building houses like palaces. In the same year sumptuary laws forbade
    them too great a show of magnificence.21 Up to the end of the 17th
    century the Sephardic Jews appear to have possessed all the wealth;
    about that time, however, their Ashkenazi brethren also came quickly to
    the fore. Glückel von Hamein states that many German-Jewish families
    which in her youth were in comparative poverty later rose to a state of
    affluence. And Glückel's observations are borne out by figures dating
    from the first quarter of the 18th century.22 In 1729 the Jewish commu-nity
    in Altona was composed of 279 subscribing members, of whom.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/131
    145 were wealthy, possessing between them 5,434,300 mark [£271,715],
    that is, an average of more than 37,000 mark [£1850] per head. The
    Hamburg community had 160 subscribing members, 16 of whom to-gether
    were worth 501,500 mark [£25,075]. These figures appear to be
    below the actual state of things, if we compare them with the particulars
    concerning each individual. In 1725 the following wealthy Jews were
    resident in Hamburg, Altona and Wandsbeck: Joel Solomon, 210,000
    mark; his son-in-law, 50,000; Elias Oppenheimer, 300,000; Moses
    Goldschmidt, 60,000; Alex Papenheim, 60,000; Elias Salomon, 200,000;
    Philip Elias, 50,000; Samuel Schiesser, 60,000; Berend Heyman, 75,000;
    Samson Nathan, 100,000; Moses Hamm, 75,000; Sam Abraham's
    widow, 60,000; Alexander Isaac, 60,000; Meyer Berend, 400,000;
    Salomon Berens, 1,600,000; Isaac Hertz, 150,000; Mangelus Heymann,
    200,000; Nathan Bendix, 100,000; Philip Mangelus, 100,000; Jacob
    Philip, 50,000; Abraham Oppenheimer's widow, 60,000; Zacharias
    Daniel's widow and widowed daughter, 150,000; Simon del Banco,
    150,000; Marx Casten, 200,000; Abraham Lazarus, 150,000; Carsten
    Marx, 60,000; Berend Salomon, 600,000 rthlr.; Meyer Berens, 400,000;
    Abraham von Halle, 150,000; Abraham Nathan, 150,000.
    In view of this list it can scarcely be doubted that there were many
    rich Jews in Hamburg.
    Frankfort presents the same picture; if anything the colours are even
    brighter. The wealth of the Jews begins to accumulate at the end of the
    16th century, and from then onwards it increases steadily. In 1593 there
    were 4 Jews and 54 Christians (making 7.4 per cent.) in Frankfort who
    paid taxes on a fortune of over 15,000 florins; in 1607 thennumber had
    reached 16 (compared with 90 Christians, i.e., 17.7 per cent.).28 In 1618
    the poorest Jew paid taxes on 100 florins, the poorest Christian on 50.
    Again, 300 Jewish families paid as garrison and fortification taxes no
    less than 100,900 florins in the years 1634 to 1650. 24
    The number of taxpayers in the Frankfort Jewish community rose
    to 753 by the end of the 18th century, and together they possessed at
    least 6,000,000 florins. More than half of this was in the hands of the
    twelve wealthiest families:25 Speyer, 604,000 florins; Reiss-Ellissen,
    299,916; Haas,Kann, Stem, 256,500; Schuster, Getz, Amschel, 253,075;
    Goldschmidt, 235,000; May, 211,000; Oppenheimer, 171,500;
    Wertheimer, 138,600; Florsheim, 166,666; Rindskopf, 115,600;
    Rothschild, 109,375; Sichel, 107,000.
    And in Berlin the Jews in the early 18th century were not by any.132/Werner Sombart
    means poor beggars. Of the 120 Jewish families resident in the Prussian
    capital in 1737 only 10 owned less than 1000 thalers, the rest all had
    2000 to 20,000 thaler, and over.26
    That the Jews were among the richest people in the land is thus
    attested, and this state of affairs has continued through the last two or
    three hundred years right down to our own day, except that to-day it is
    perhaps more general and more widespread. And its consequence? It
    can scarcely be overestimated for those countries which offered a ref-uge
    to the wanderers. The nations that profited by the Jews' sojourn
    with them were well equipped to help forward the development of capi-talism.
    Hence it should be specially noticed that the wanderings of the
    Jews had the effect of shifting the centre where the precious metals had
    accumulated. Obviously it could not but influence the trend of economic
    life that Spain and Portugal were emptied of then: gold and England and
    Holland enriched.
    Nor is it difficult to prove that Jewish money called into existence
    all the large undertakings of the 17th century and financed them. Just as
    the expedition of Columbus wouldhave been impossible had the rich
    Jews left Spain a generation earlier, so the great India Companies might
    never have been founded and the great banks which were established in
    the 17th century might not so quickly have attained their stability had it
    not been that the wealth of the Spanish exiles came to the aid of En-gland,
    Holland and Hamburg; in other words, had the Jews been ex-pelled
    from Spain a century later than was actually the case.
    This in fact was why Jewish wealth was so influential. It enabled
    capitalistic undertakings to be started, or at least facilitated the process.
    To establish banks, warehouses, stock and share-broking -- all this was
    easier for the Jew than for the others because his pockets were better
    lined. That, too, was why he became banker to crowned heads. And
    finally, because he had money he was able to lend it. This activity paved
    the way for capitalism to a greater degree than anything else did. For
    modern capitalism is the child of money-lending.
    Money-lending contains the root idea of capitalism; from money-lending
    it received many of its distinguishing features. In money-lend-ing
    all conception of quality vanishes and only the quantitative aspect
    matters. In money-lending the contract becomes the principal element
    of business; the agreement about the quid pro quo, the promise for the
    future, the notion of delivery are its component parts. In money-lending
    there is no thought of producing only for one's needs.In money-lending.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/133
    there is nothing corporeal (i.e., technical), the whole is a purely intellec-tual
    act. In money-lending economic activity as such has no meaning; it
    is no longer a question of exercising body or mind; it is all a question of
    success. Success, therefore, is the only thing that has a meaning. In
    money-lending the possibility is for the first time illustrated that you can
    earn without sweating; that you may get others to work for you without
    recourse to force.
    In fine, the characteristics of money-lending are the characteristics
    of all modern capitalistic economic organizations.
    But historically, too, modern capitalism owes its being to money-lending.
    This was the case wherever it was necessary to lay out money
    for initial expenses, or where a business was started as a limited com-pany.
    For essentially a limited company is in principle nothing but a
    matter of money-lending with the prospect of immediate profit.
    The money-lending activities of the Jews were thus an objective
    factor in enabling the Jews to create, to expand and to assist the capital-istic
    spirit. But our last remarks have already touched upon a further
    problem, going beyond objective considerations. Is there not already a
    specific psychological element in the work of the money-lender? But
    more than this. It may be asked, Can the objective circumstances alone
    entirely explain the economic role of the Jews? Are there not perhaps
    special Jewish characteristics which must be taken into account in our
    chain of reasoning? Before proceeding to this chapter, however, we must
    turn to an influence of extreme importance in this connexion -- to the
    Jewish religion.

    Chapter 11. The Significance of the Jewish Religion in Economic Life


    Introductory Note
    Three reasons have actuated me in devoting a special chapter to the
    consideration of the religion of the Jewish people and the demonstration
    of its enormous influence on Jewish economic activities. First, the Jew-ish
    religion ca be fully appreciated in all its bearings from the economic
    standpoint only when it is studied in detail and by itself; secondly, it
    calls for a special method of treatment; and thirdly, it occupies a posi-tion
    midway between the objective and the subjective factors of Jewish
    development. For, in so far as any religion is the expression of some.134/Werner Sombart
    particular spiritual outlook, it has a "subjective" aspect; in so far as the
    individual is born into it, it has an objective aspect.
    The Importance of Religion for the Jewish People
    That the religion of a people, or of a group within a people, can have
    far-reaching influences on its economic life will not be disputed. Only
    recently Max Weber demonstrated the connexion between Puritanism
    and Capitalism. In fact. Max Weber's researches are responsible for
    this book. For any one who followed them could not but ask himself
    whether all that Weber ascribes to Puritanism might not with equal jus-tice
    be referred to Judaism, and probably in a greater degree; nay, it
    might well be suggested that that which is called Puritanism is in reality
    Judaism. This relationship will be discussed in due course.
    Now, if Puritanism has had an economic influence, how much more
    so has Judaism, seeing that among no other civilized people has religion
    so impregnated all national life. For the Jews religion was not an affair
    of Sundays and Holy Days; it touched everyday life even in its minutest
    action, it regulated all human activities. At every step the Jew asked
    himself. Will this tend to the glory of God or will it profane His name?
    Jewish law defines not merely the relation between man and God, for-mulates
    not merely a metaphysical conception; it lays down rules of
    conduct for all possible relationships, whether between man and man or
    between man and nature. Jewish law, in fact, is as much part of the
    religious system as are Jewish ethics. The Law is from God, and moral
    law and divine ordinances are inseparable in Judaism.1 Hence in reality
    there are no special ethics of Judaism. Jewish ethics are the underlying
    principles of the Jewish religion.2
    No other people has been so careful as the Jews in providing for the
    teaching of religion to even the humblest. As Josephus so well put it:
    Ask the first Jew you meet concerning his "laws" and he will be able to
    tell you them better than his own name. The reason for this may be
    found in the systematic religious instruction given to every Jewish child,
    as well as in the fact that divine service partly consists of the reading
    and explanation of passages from Holy Writ. In the course of the year
    the Torah is read through from beginning to end. Moreover, it is one of
    the primary duties of the Jew to study the Torah. "Thou shalt speak of
    them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way
    and when thou liest down and when thou risest up" (Deut. vi. 5).3
    No other people, too, has walked in God's ways so conscientiously.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/135
    as the Jews; none has striven to carry out its religious behests so thor-oughly.
    It has indeed been asserted that the Jews are the least religious
    of peoples. I shall not stay to weigh the justice of this remark. But cer-tain
    it is that they are the most "God-fearing" people that ever were on
    the face of the earth. They lived always in trembling awe, in awe of
    God's wrath. "My flesh trembleth for fear of Thee, and I am afraid of
    Thy judgments," said the Psalmist (Ps. cxix. 120), and the words may
    be taken as applicable to the Jews in every age. "Happy is the man that
    feareth alway" (Prov. xxviii. 14). "The pious never put away their fear"
    (Tanchuma Chukkath, 24 ).4 One can understand it when one thinks of
    the Jewish God -- fearful, awful, curse-uttering Jehovah. Never in all
    the world's literature, either before or since, has humanity been threat-ened
    with so much evil as Jehovah promises (in the famous 28th chapter
    of Deuteronomy) to those who will not keep His commandments.
    But this mighty influence (the fear of God) did not stand alone.
    Others combined with it, and together they had the tendency of almost
    forcing the Jews to obey the behests of their religion most scrupulously.
    The first of these influences was their national fate. When the Jewish
    State was destroyed the Pharisees and Scribes -- i.e., those who cher-ished
    the traditions of Ezra and strove to make obedience to the Law the
    end and aim of life -- the Pharisees and Scribes came to the head of
    affairs and naturally directed the course of events into channels which
    they favoured. Without a State, without their sanctuary, the Jews, under
    the leadership of the Pharisees, flocked around the Law (that "portable
    Fatherland," as Heine calls it), and became a religious brotherhood,
    guided by a band of pious Scribes, pretty much as the disciples of Loyola
    might gather around them the scattered remnants of a modern State.
    The Pharisees now led the way. Their most distinguished Rabbis looked
    upon themselves as the successors of the ancient Synhedrium, and were
    indeed so regarded, becoming the supreme authority in spiritual and
    temporal affairs for all the Jews in the world.5 The power of the Rabbis
    originated in this fashion, and the vicissitudes of the Jews in the Middle
    Ages only helped to strengthen it. So oppressive did it eventually be-come
    that the Jews themselves at times complained of the burden. For
    the more the Jews were shut off, or shut themselves off, from the people
    among whom they dwelt, the more the authority of the Rabbis increased,
    and the more easily could the Jews be forced to be faithful to the Law.
    But the fulfilment of the Law, which was urged upon them by the Rab-bis,
    must have been a necessity for the Jews for inner reasons: it satis-.136/Werner Sombart
    fied their heart's desire, it appeared the most precious gift that life had
    to offer. And why? Because amid all the persecution and suffering which
    was meted out to the Jews on all sides, that alone enabled them to retain
    their dignity, without which life would have been valueless. For a very
    long period religious teaching was enshrined in the Talmud, and hence
    Jews through many centuries lived in it, for it and through it. The Tal-mud
    was the most precious possession of the Jew; it was the breath of
    his nostrils, it was his very soul. The Talmud became a family history
    for generation after generation, with which each was familiar. "The
    thinker lived in its thought, the poet in its pure idealism. The outer world,
    the world of nature and of man, the powerful ones of the earth and the
    events of the times, were for the Jew during a thousand years accidents,
    phantoms; his only reality was the Talmud."6 The Talmud has been well
    compared (and the comparison to my mind applies equally to all reli-gious
    literature) to an outer shell with which the Jews of the Diaspora
    covered themselves; it protected them against all influences from with-out
    and kept alive their strength within.7
    We see, then, what forces were at work to make the Jews right down
    to modern times a more God-fearing people than any other, to make
    them religious to their inmost core, or, if the word "religious" be ob-jected
    to, to keep alive among high and low a general and strict observa-tion
    of the precepts of their religion. And for our purpose, we must
    regard this characteristic as applicable to all sorts and conditions of
    Jews, the Marannos of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries included. We
    must look upon these too as orthodox Jews. Says the foremost authority
    on that period of Jewish history,8 "The great majority of the Marannos
    were Jews to a much larger extent than is commonly supposed. They
    submitted to force of circumstance and were Christians only outwardly.
    As a matter of fact they lived the Jewish life and observed the tenets of
    the Jewish religion. . . . This admirable constancy will be appreciated to
    the full only when the wealth of material in the Archives of Alcalia de
    Henares, Simancas and other places has been sorted and utilized."
    But among professing Jews the wealthiest were often enough excel-lent
    Talmudic scholars. Was not a knowledge of the Talmud a highway
    to honour, riches and favour among Jews? The most learned Talmudists
    were also the cleverest financiers, medical men, jewellers, merchants.
    We are told, for example, of some of the Spanish Ministers of Finance,
    bankers and court physicians that they devoted to the study of the Holy
    Writ not only the Sabbath day but also two nights of each week. In.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/137
    modern times old Amschel Rothschild, who died in 1855, did the same.
    He lived strictly according to Jewish law and ate no morsel at a stranger's
    table, even though it were the Emperor's. One who knew the Baron well
    says of him that "he was looked upon as the most pious Jew in all
    Frankfort. Never have I seen a man so afflict himself -- beating his
    breast, and crying to Heaven -- as Baron Rothschild did in the syna-gogue
    on the Day of Atonement. The continual praying weakens him so
    that he falls into a faint. Odorous plants from his garden are held to his
    nose to revive him."9 [Sombart in the German text quotes this as an
    occurrence on the Sabbath. It is obvious that the description refers to
    the Day of Atonement. -- Trans.] His nephew William Charles, who
    died in 1901 and who was the last of the Frankfort Rothschilds, ob-served
    all the religious prescriptions in their minutest detail. The pious
    Jew is forbidden to touch any object which under certain circumstances
    has become unclean by having been already touched by some one else.
    And so a servant always walked in front of this Rothschild and wiped
    the door-handles. Moreover, he never touched paper money that had
    been in use before; the notes had to be fresh from the press.
    If this was how a Rothschild lived, it is not surprising to come across
    Jewish commercial travellers who do not touch meat six months in the
    year because they are not absolutely certain that the method of slaugh-tering
    has been in accordance with Jewish law.
    However, if you want to study orthodox Judaism you must go to
    Eastern Europe, where it is still without disintegrating elements -- you
    must go there personally or read the books about it. In Western Europe
    the orthodox Jews are a small minority. But when we speak of the influ-ence
    of the Jewish religion it is the religion that held sway until a gen-eration
    ago that we mean, the religion that led the Jews to so many
    victories.
    The Sources of the Jewish Religion
    Mohammed called the Jews "the people of the Book." He was right.
    There is no other people that lived so thoroughly according to a book.
    Their religion in all its stages was generally incorporated in a book, and
    these books may be looked upon as the sources of the Jewish religion.
    The following is a list of such books, each originating at a particular
    time and supplementing some other.
    1. The Bible, i.e., the Old Testament, until the destruction of the
    Second Temple. It was read in Hebrew in Palestine and in Greek.138/Werner Sombart
    (Septuagint) in the Diaspora.
    2. The Talmud (more especially the Babylonian Talmud), from the
    2nd to the 6th century of the Common Era, the principal depository of
    Jewish religious teaching.
    3. The Code of Maimonides, compiled in the 12th century.
    4. The Code (called the Turim) of Jacob ben Asher (1248--1340).
    5. The Code of Joseph Caro -- the Shulchan Aruch (16th century).
    These "sources" from which the Jewish religion drew its life appear
    in a different light according as they are regarded by scientific research
    or with the eyes of the believing Jew. In the first case they are seen as
    they really are; in the second, they are idealized.
    What are they in reality? The Bible, i.e., the Old Testament, is the
    foundation upon which the entire structure of Judaism was built up. It
    was written by many hands at different periods, thus forming, as it were,
    a piece of literary mosaic.10 The most important portion of the whole is
    the Torah, i.e., the Pentateuch. It received its present shape by the com-mingling
    of two complete works some time in the period after Ezra. The
    one was the old and the new (the Deuteronomic) Law Book (650 B.C.)
    and the other, Ezra's Law Book (440 B.C.).[I.e. Deut. v. 45--xxvi, 69
    (about 650 B.C.) and Exod. xii. 25--31, xxxv to Lev. xv; Numb. i--x; xv--
    xix; xxvii--xxxvi. (about 445 B.C.).] And its special character the Torah
    owes to Ezra and Nehemiah, who introduced a strict legal system. With
    Ezra and the school of Soferim (scribes) that he founded, Judaism in the
    form which it has to-day originated; from that period to the present it
    has remained unchanged.
    Beside the Torah we must mention the so-called Wisdom Literature
    -- the Psalms, Job, Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiasticus and the Proverbs. This
    section of Jewish literature is wholly postexilic; only in that period could
    it have arisen, assuming as it did the existence of the Law, and the pre-vailing
    belief that for obeying the Law God gave Life, for transgressing
    it Death. The Wisdom Literature, unlike the Prophetic Books, was con-cerned
    with practical life. Some of the books contain the crystallized
    wisdom of many generations and are of a comparatively early date. The
    Book of Proverbs, for example, the most useful for our purpose, dates
    from the year 180 B.C.11
    Two streams flow from the Bible. The one, chiefly by way of the
    Septuagint, ran partly into Hellenistic philosophy and partly into Pauline
    Christianity. That does not concern us further.
    The other, chiefly by way of the Hebrew Bible current in Palestine,.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/139
    ran into Jewish "Law," and the course of this we shall have to follow.
    The specifically Jewish development of the Holy Writ already be-gan
    as early as Ezra's day; it was due to the first schools of Soferim
    (scribes), and the later schools of Hillel and Shammai only extended
    and continued the work. The actual "development" consisted of expla-nations
    and amplifications of the Holy Writ, arrived at as the result of
    disputation, the method in vogue in the Hellenistic World. The develop-ment
    was really a tightening of the legal formalism, with the view of
    protecting Judaism against the inroads of Hellenistic Philosophy. Here,
    as always, the Jewish religion was the expression of a reaction against
    disintegrating forces. The Deuteronomic Law was the reaction against
    Baal worship; the Priestly Code against Babylonian influences; the later
    Codes of Maimonides and Rabbenu Asher and Caro against Spanish
    culture; and the teaching of the Tannaim [Tannai -- teacher] in the
    century preceding and that commencing the Common Era against the
    enervating doctrines of Hellenism.12
    The old oral tradition of the "Wise" was codified about the year 200
    A.D. by R. Judah Hanassi (the Prince), usually called Rabbi. His work is
    the Mishna. Following on the Mishna are further explanations and ad-ditions
    which were collected and given a fixed form in the 6th century
    (500-550 A.D.) by the Sdboraim [Saborai -- those who give opinions].
    Those portions which had reference to the Mishna alone were termed
    the Gemara, the authors of which were the Amoraim [Amorai --
    speaker], Mishna and Gemara together form the Talmud, of which there
    are two versions, the Palestinian and the Babylonian. The latter is the
    more important.13
    The Talmud, as edited by the Saboraim, has become the chief de-pository
    of Jewish religious teaching, and its universal authority re-sulted
    from the Mohammedan conquests. To begin with, it became the
    legal and constitutional foundation for Jewish communal life in Babylon,
    at the head of which stood the "Prince of the Captivity" and the Presi-dents
    of the two Talmudic colleges, the Gaonim [Gaon -- Excellency].
    As Islam spread further and further afield the Jewish communities in the
    lands that it conquered came into closer relation with the Gaonate in
    Babylon; they asked advice on religious, ethical and common law ques-tions
    and loyally accepted the decisions, all of which were based on the
    Talmud. Indeed, Babylonian Jewry came to be regarded as the new cen-tre
    of Jewish life.
    As soon as the Gemara was written down, and so received perma-.140/Werner Sombart
    nent form, the development of Judaism ceased. Nevertheless we must
    mention the three codes which in the post-Talmudic period embodied all
    the substance of the religion, first, because they presented it in a some-what
    different garb, and secondly, because in their regulation of the
    religious life they could not but pay some heed to changed conditions.
    All the three codes are recognized by Jews as authoritative side by side
    with the Talmud, and the last, the Shulchan Aruch, is looked upon to-day
    by the orthodox Jew as containing the official version of religious
    duties. What is of interest to us in the case of all the codes is that they
    petrified Jewish religious life still more. Of Maimonides even Graetz
    asserts as much. "A great deal of what in the Talmud is still mutable, he
    changed into unmodifiable law. ... By his codification he robbed Juda-ism
    of the power of developing. . . . Without considering the age in
    which the Talmudic regulations arose, he makes them binding for all
    ages and circumstances." R. Jacob ben Asher went beyond Maimonides,
    and Joseph Caro beyond Jacob ben Asher, reaching the utmost limit.
    His work tends to ultra-particularism and is full of hair-splitting casu-istry.
    The religious life of the Jews "was rounded off and unified by the
    Shulchan Aruch, but at the cost of inwardness and unfettered thought.
    Caro gave Judaism the fixed form which it has retained down to the
    present day."14
    This, then, is the main stream of Jewish religious life; these the
    sources from which Judaism drew its ideas and ideals. There were, of
    course, tributary streams, as, for instance, that of the Apocalyptic lit-erature
    of the pre-Christian era, which stood for a heavenly, a universal,
    an individualistic Judaism;15 or that of the Kabbala, which busied itself
    with symbols and arithmetical figures. But these had small share in the
    general development of Jewish life, and may be neglected so far as their
    effect on historic Judaism is concerned. Nor were they ever recognized
    by "official" Judaism as sources of the Jewish religion.
    So much for the realistic conception of these sources. But what of
    that current in orthodox Jewish circles? In many respects the belief of
    the pious Jew touching the origin of the Jewish system is of much more
    consequence than its real origin. We must therefore try and acquaint
    ourselveswith that belief.
    The traditional view, which every orthodox Jew still holds, is that
    the Jewish system has a twofold birth: partly through Revelation and
    partly in the inspiration of the "Wise." Revelation refers to the written
    and the oral tradition. The former is contained in the holy books of the.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/141
    Bible -- the Canon as it was fixed by the members of the Great Syna-gogue.
    It has three parts 16 : -- the Torah or Pentateuch, the Prophetical
    Books and the "Writings" (the remaining books). The Torah was given
    to Moses on Sinai and he "gradually instructed the people in it during
    their forty years' wandering in the wilderness. ... It was not until the end
    of his life that he finished the written Torah, the five books of Moses,
    and delivered them unto Israel, and we are in duty bound to consider
    every letter, every word of the written Torah as the Revelation of God."17
    The remaining books were also the outcome of divine revelation, or, at
    any rate, were inspired by God. The attitude towards the Prophetical
    literature and the Hagiographa, however, is somewhat freer than that
    towards the Torah.
    The Oral Tradition, or the Oral Torah, is the explanation of the
    written one. This, too, was revealed to Moses on Sinai, but for urgent
    reasons was not allowed to be written down at once. That took place at
    a much later date -- only after the destruction of the second Temple --
    and was embodied in Mishna and Gemara, which thus contain the only
    correct explanation of the Torah, seeing that they were divinely revealed.
    In the Talmud are included also rabbinic ordinances and the Haggada,
    i.e., the interpretation of those portions of Holy Writ other than the legal
    enactments. The interpretation of the latter was called the Halacha, and
    Halacha and Haggada supplemented each other. Beside these were
    placed the collection of decisions, i.e., the three codes already referred
    to.
    What was the significance of all this literature for the religious life
    of the Jews? What was it that the Jew believed, what were the com-mands
    he obeyed?
    In the first place it must be premised that so far as I am aware there
    is no system of dogmas in Judaism.18 Wherever compilation of such a
    system has been attempted it was invariably the work of non-Jews.19
    The nature of the Jewish religion and more especially the construction
    of the Talmud, which is characterized by its lack of order, is inconsis-tent
    with the formulation of any dogmatic system. Nevertheless certain
    principles may be discovered in Judaism, and its spirit will be found
    expressed in Jewish practices. Indeed, it will not be difficult to enumer-ate
    these principles, since they have remained the same from the very
    beginning. What has been termed the "spirit of Ezekiel" has been para-mount
    in Judaism from Ezra's day to ours. It was only developed more
    and more, only taken to its logical conclusions. And so to discover what.142/Werner Sombart
    this "spirit" is we need only refer to the sources of the religion -- the
    Bible, the Talmud and the later Rabbinic literature.
    It is a harder task to determine to what extent this or that doctrine
    still finds acceptance. Does, for example, the Talmudic adage, "Kill
    even the best of the Gentiles," still hold good? Do the other terrible
    aphorisms ferreted out in Jewish religious literature by Pfefferkom,
    Eisenmenger, Rohling, Dr. Justus and the rest of that fraternity, still find
    credence, or are they, as the Rabbis of to-day indignantly protest, en-tirely
    obsolete? It is obvious, of course, that the single doctrines were
    differently expressed in different ages, and if the whole literature, but
    more especially the Talmud, is referred to on particular points, opposite
    views, the "pros" and the "cons," will be found. In other words, it is
    possible to "prove" absolutely anything from the Talmud, and hence the
    thrust and counter-thrust between the anti-Semites and their Jewish and
    non-Jewish opponents from time immemorial; hence the fact that what
    the one proved to be black by reference to the Talmud the others proved
    to be white on the same authority. There is nothing surprising in this
    when it is remembered that to a great extent the Talmud is nothing else
    than a collection of controversies of the different Rabbinical scholars.
    To discover the religious ordinances which regulated actual life we
    must make a distinction which, to my mind, is very real -- the distinc-tion
    between the man who by personal study strives to find out the law
    for himself, and the one who accepts it on the authority of another. In
    the case of the first, the thing that matters is that some opinion or other
    is found expressed. It is of no consequence that its very opposite may
    also be there. For the pious Jew who obtains edification by the study of
    his literature the one view was enough. It may have been the spur to a
    particular course of action; or it may have provided him with an addi-tional
    reason for persisting in a course upon which he had already en-tered.
    The sanction of the book was sufficient in either event, most of all
    if it was the Bible or, better still, the Torah. Since all was of divine
    origin, one passage was as binding as another. This held good whether
    applied to the Bible, to the Talmud or to the later Rabbinic writings.
    The matter assumes a different aspect if the individual does not, or
    cannot, study the sources himself but relies on the direction of his spiri-tual
    adviser or on books recommended by him. Such a one is confronted
    with only one opinion, arrived at by the proper interpretation of contra-dictory
    texts. Obviously these views must have varied from time to time,
    in accordance with the Rabbinic traditions in each epoch. Hence, to find.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/143
    the laws that in any period were binding we much search for its Rab-binic
    traditions -- no great task since the publication of the Rabbinic
    law-books. From the llth to the 14th century we have the Yad Hachawka
    ["Strong Hand"] of Maimonides, from the 14th to the 16th the Tur of R.
    Jacob ben Asher, and after the 16th the Shulchan Aruch of Caro. Each
    of these gives the accepted teachings of the age, each is the decisive
    authority. For the last three hundred years the Shulchan Aruch has thus
    laid down the law wherever there were differences of opinion. As the
    text-book I have already quoted says, "First and foremost the Shulchan
    Aruch of R. Joseph Caro, together with the notes of R. Moses Isserlein
    and the other glosses, is recognized by all Israel as the Code on which
    we model our ritual observances." The Law is also summed up in the
    613 precepts which Maimonides derived from the Torah and when even
    to-day are still in force. "According to the tradition of our Teachers (of
    blessed memory) God gave Israel by the hand of Moses 613 precepts,
    248 positive and 365 negative. All these are binding to all eternity; only
    those which have reference to the Jewish State and agricultural life in
    Palestine and to the Temple service in Jerusalem are excepted, as they
    cannot be carried out by the Jews of the Diaspora. We can obey 369
    precepts, 126 positive and 243 negative; and in addition the seven Rab-binic
    commands."20
    The lives of Orthodox Jews were governed by these manuals during
    the last century and still are so to-day, in so far as the guidance of the
    Rabbinic law was followed and opinions based on a personal study of
    the sources were not formed. From the manuals we have mentioned,
    therefore, we must gather the ordinances which were decisive for each
    individual instance in religious life. Hence Reformed Judaism is of no
    concern to us, and books trimmed to suit modern ideas, such as the great
    majority of the latest expositions of the "Ethics of Judaism," are abso-lutely
    useless for our purpose -- which is to show the connexion be-tween
    capitalism and genuine Jewish teaching, and its significance in
    modern economic life.
    The Fundamental Ideas of the Jewish Religion
    Let me avow it right away: I think that the Jewish religion has the same
    leading ideas as Capitalism. I see the same spirit in the one as in the
    other.
    In trying to understand the Jewish religion -- which, by the way,
    must not be confused with the religion of Israel (the two are in a sense.144/Werner Sombart
    opposites) -- we must never forget that a Safer was its author, a rigidly
    minded scribe, whose work was completed by a band of scribes after
    him. Not a prophet, mark you; not a seer, nor a visionary nor a mighty
    king; a Safer it was. Nor must we forget how it came into being: not as
    an irresistible force, not as the expression of the deepest needs of con-trite
    souls, not as the embodiment of the feelings of divinely inspired
    votaries. No; it came into being on a deliberate plan, by clever deduc-tions,
    and diplomatic policy which was based on the cry "Its religion
    must be preserved for the people." The same calm consideration, the
    same attention to the ultimate goal were responsible in the centuries that
    followed for the addition of line to line and precept to precept. That
    which did not fit in with the scheme of the Soferim from before the days
    of Ezra and that which grew up afterwards, fell away.
    The traces of the peculiar circumstances which gave it birth are still
    visible in the Jewish religion. In all its reasoning it appeals to us as a
    creation of the intellect, a thing of thought and purpose projected into
    the world of organisms, mechanically and artfully wrought, destined to
    destroy and to conquer Nature's realm and to reign itself in her stead.
    Just so does Capitalism appear on the scene; like the Jewish religion, an
    alien element in the midst of the natural, created world; like it, too,
    something schemed and planned in the midst of teeming life. This sheaf
    of salient features is bound together in one word: Rationalism. Ratio-nalism
    is the characteristic trait of Judaism as of Capitalism; Rational-ism
    or Intellectualism -- both deadly foes alike to irresponsible mysti-cism
    and to that creative power which draws its artistic inspiration from
    the passion world of the senses.
    The Jewish religion knows no mysteries, and is perhaps the only
    religion on the face of the globe that does not know them. It knows not
    the ecstatic condition wherein the worshipper feels himself at one with
    the Godhead, the condition which all other religions extol as the highest
    and holiest. Think of the Soma libation among the Hindoos, think of
    entranced Indra himself, of the Homa sacrifice of the Persians, of
    Dionysus, the Oracle of Greece and of the Sibylline books, to which
    even the staid Romans went for advice, only because they were written
    by women who in a state of frenzy prophesied the future.
    Down to the latest days of the Roman Empire the characteristic of
    religious life which remained the same in all aspects of heathenism con-tinued
    to manifest itself -- the characteristic which spread far and wide
    and infected large masses of people, of working yourself up by sheer.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/145
    force to a pitch of bodily or mental excitement, often becoming baccha-nalian
    madness, and then regarding this as the deity's doing and as part
    of his service. It was a generally accepted belief that certain sudden
    impulses or bursts of passion or resolutions were roused in the soul of a
    man by some god or other; and conduct of which a man was ashamed or
    which he regretted, was usually ascribed to the influence of a god.21 "It
    was the god who drove me to it" -- so, in Plautus's comedy, the young
    man who had seduced a maiden excused himself to his father.
    The same thing must have been experienced by Mohammed in his
    morbid condition when his fits of ecstasy were upon him, and there is a
    good deal of mysticism in Islam. At least Mohammedanism has its howl-ing
    dervishes.
    And in Christianity, too, so far as it was not Judaism, room was
    found for emotional feeling -- witness the doctrine of the Trinity, the
    sweet cult of Mariolatry, the use of incense, the communion. But Juda-ism
    looks with proud disdain on these fantastic, mystical elements, con-demning
    them all. When the faithful of other religions hold converse
    with God in blissful convulsions, in the Jewish synagogue, called a Shool
    [i.e., School] not without significance, the Torah is publicly read. So
    Ezra ordained, and so it is done most punctiliously. "Ever since the
    destruction of the State, study became the soul of Judaism, and religious
    observances without knowledge of the ordinances which enjoined them
    was considered as being of little worth. The central feature of public
    service on Sabbaths and Holy Days was the lesson read from the Law
    and the Prophets, the translation of the passages by the Targumists [In-terpreters]
    and the homiletic explanation of them by the Haggadists
    [Preachers]."
    Radix stultitiae, cui frigida sabbata cordi
    Sed cor frigidus relligione sua
    Septima quaeque dies turpi damnato vetemo
    Tanquam lassati mollis imago dei.
    [The Sabbath -- monstrous folly! -- fills the need
    Of hearts still icier than their icy creed,
    Each seventh day in shameful sloth they nod,
    And ape the languor of their weary God.]
    Such was the Roman view.22
    Judaism then looked askance at mysteries. With no different eye did
    it regard the holy enthusiasm for the divine in the world of feeling. Astarte,.146/Werner Sombart
    Daphne, Isis and Osiris, Aphrodite, Fricka and the Holy Virgin -- it
    would have none of them. It banished all pictorial art from its cult. "And
    the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the sound
    of words but ye saw no form" (Deut. iv. 12). "Cursed be the man that
    maketh a graven or molten image, an abomination unto the Lord, the
    work of the hands of the craftsman. . . ." (Deut. xxvii. 15). The com-mand,
    "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image" finds accep-tance
    to-day, and the pious Jew has no statues made, nor does he set
    them up in his house.23
    The kinship between Judaism and Capitalism is further illustrated
    by the legally regulated relationship -- I had almost said the business-like
    connexion, except that the term has a disagreeable connotation --
    between God and Israel. The whole religious system is in reality nothing
    but a contract between Jehovah and His chosen people, a contract with
    all its consequences and all its duties. God promises something and gives
    something, and the righteous must give Him something in return. In-deed,
    there was no community of interest between God and man which
    could not be expressed in these terms -- that man performs some duty
    enjoined by the Torah and receives from God a quid pro quo. Accord-ingly,
    no man should approach God in prayer without bringing with him
    something of his own or of his ancestors' by way of return i for what
    he is about to ask.24
    The contract usually sets forth that man is rewarded for duties per-formed
    and punished for duties neglected; the rewards and punishments
    being received partly in this and partly in the next world. Two conse-quences
    must of necessity follow: first, a constant weighing up of the
    loss and gain which any action needs must bring, and secondly, a com-plicated
    system of bookkeeping, as it were, for each individual person.
    The whole of this conception is excellently well illustrated by the
    words of Rabbi [164--200 A.D.]: "Which is the right course for a man to
    choose? That which he feels to be honourable to himself and which also
    brings him honour from mankind. Be heedful of a light precept as of a
    grave one, for you do not know what reward a precept brings. Reckon
    the loss incurred by the fulfilment of a precept against the reward se-cured
    by its observance, and the gain gotten by a transgression against
    the loss it involves. Reflect on three things and you will not come within
    the power of sin. Know what is above thee -- a seeing eye, and a hear-ing
    ear, and all your deeds written in a book."25 So that whether one is
    accounted "righteous" or "wicked" depends on the balance of commands.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/147
    performed against commands neglected. Obviously this necessitates the
    keeping of accounts, and each man therefore has his own, in which his
    words and his deeds, even the words spoken in jest, are all carefully
    registered. According to one authority (Ruth Rabba, 33a) the prophet
    Elijah keeps these accounts; according to another (Esther Rabba, 86a)
    the duty is assigned to angels.
    Every man has thus an account in heaven: Israel a particularly large
    one (Sifra, 446). And one of the ways of preparing for death is to have
    your "account" ready (Kohelet Rabba, Tic). Sometimes "extracts" from
    the accounts are forthcoming (by request). When the angels brought an
    accusation against Ishmael, God asked, "What is his position at present?
    Is he a righteous man or a wicked?" (i.e., do the commands performed
    outweigh those neglected?). And the angels replied, "He is a righteous
    man." When Mar Ukba died, he asked for a statement of his account (of
    the money he had given to charity). It totalled 7000 zuzim. As he was
    afraid that this would not suffice for his salvation he gave away half of
    his fortune in order to be on the safe side (Kethuboth, 25; Baba Bathra,
    7). The final decision as to the righteousness or wickedness of any man
    is made after his death. The account is then closed, and the grand total
    drawn up. The result is inserted in a document (Shetar) which is handed
    to each individual after it has been read out.26
    It is not difficult to perceive that the keeping of these accounts was
    no easy matter. In Biblical times, so long as rewards and punishments
    were meted out in the life on earth, the task was no great one. But in the
    period that followed, when rewards and punishments were granted partly
    in this life and partly in life everlasting, the question grew to be trouble-some,
    and in the Rabbinic theology an intricate and artistic system of
    bookkeeping was evolved. This distinguished between the capital sum
    or the principal, and the fruits or the interest, the former being reserved
    for the future world, the latter for this. And in order that the reward
    which is laid up in heaven for the righteous may not be diminished, God
    does not lessen the stock when He grants him ordinary earthly benefits.
    Only when he receives extraordinary, i.e., miraculous, benefits on earth
    does the righteous man suffer a diminution of his heavenly reward.
    Moreover, the righteous is punished for his sins at once on earth, as the
    wicked is rewarded for his good deeds, so that the one may have only
    rewards in heaven and the other only chastisements.27
    Another conception is bound up with this of divine bookkeeping
    and is closely akin to a second fundamental trait of capitalism -- the.148/Werner Sombart
    conception of profit. Sin or goodness is regarded as something apart
    from the sinner. Every sin, according to Rabbinic theology, is consid-ered
    singly and by itself. "Punishment is according to the object and not
    the subject of the sin."28 The quantity of the broken commandments
    alone counts. No consideration whatever is had for the personality of
    the sinner or his ethical state, just as a sum of money is separated from
    persons, just as it is capable of being added to another abstract sum of
    money. The ceaseless striving of the righteous after well-being in this
    and the next world must needs therefore take the form of a constant
    endeavour to increase his rewards. Now, as he is never able to tell whether
    at a particular state of his conscience he is worthy of God's goodness or
    whether in his "account" the rewards or the punishments are more nu-merous,
    it must be his aim to add reward after reward to his account by
    constantly doing good deeds to the end of his days. The limited concep-tion
    of all personal values thus finds no admission into the world of his
    religious ideas and its place is taken by the endlessness of a pure quan-titative
    ideal.
    Parallel with this tendency there runs through Jewish moral theol-ogy
    another which regards the getting of money as a means to an end.
    The conception is frequently found in books of religious edification, the
    authors of which realizing but seldom that in their warnings against the
    acquisition of too much wealth they are glorifying this very practice.
    Usually the treatment of the subject is under the heading "covetous-ness,"
    forbidden by the tenth commandment. "A true Israelite," remarks
    one of the most popular of modern "helps to faith,"29 "avoids covetous-ness.
    He looks upon all his possessions only as a means of doing what is
    pleasing in the sight of God. For is not the entire purpose of his life to
    use all his possessions, all enjoyment as the means to this end? Indeed it
    is a duty ... to obtain possessions and to increase one's enjoyments, not
    as an end in themselves but as a means to do God's will on earth."
    But if it is urged that this is no conclusive proof of the connexion
    between the religious idea and the principle of getting gain, a glance at
    the peculiar ordering of divine service will soon be convincing. At one
    stage in the service there is a veritable public auction. The honorary
    offices connected with the reading of the law are given to the highest
    bidder. Before the scrolls are taken from the Ark, the beadle walks round
    the central platform (the Almemor) and cries out:
    "Who will buy Hazoa vehachnosa? (i.e., the act of taking the scrolls
    from the Ark and of replacing them). Who will buy Hagboha? (the act.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/149
    of raising the scroll in the sight of the people). Who will buy Gelilah?"
    (the act of rolling up the scroll when the reading is finished). These
    honours are knocked down to the highest bidder, and the money given to
    the synagogue poor-box. It need hardly be said that to-day this practice
    has long been eliminated from synagogue worship. In days of long ago
    it was quite general.30 Again, the words of some of the Talmudic doc-tors,
    who at times dispute over the most difficult economic questions
    with all the skill of experienced merchants, cannot but have a curious
    connotation, and must needs lead to the conclusion that they preached
    the getting of gain. It would be fascinating to collect those passages of
    the Talmud wherein the modern practice of making profit is recom-mended
    by this or that Rabbi, in many cases themselves great traders. I
    will quote an instance or two. "R. Isaac also taught that a man should
    always have his money in circulation." It was R. Isaac, too, who gave
    this piece of good advice. A man should divide his fortune into three
    parts, investing one in landed property, one in moveable goods, and
    holding the third as ready cash (Baba Mezia, 42a). "Rav once said to
    his son. Come let me instruct thee in worldly matters. Sell your goods
    even while the dust is yet upon your feet." (What is this but a recom-mendation
    to have a quick turnover?) "First open your purse and then
    unloose the sack of wheat. . . . Have you got dates in the box? Hasten at
    once to the brewer" (Pesachim, 113a).
    What is the meaning of this parallelism between the Jewish religion
    and capitalism? Is it a mere chance? A stupid joke perpetrated by Fate?
    Is the one the effect of the other, or are both traceable to the same causes?
    Questions such as these naturally suggest themselves to us, and I hope
    to answer them as we proceed. Here it will suffice to have called atten-tion
    to them. Our next step will be the comparatively simpler one of
    showing how individual customs, conceptions, opinions and regulations
    of the Jewish religion influenced the economic conduct of Jews, of show-ing
    whether they facilitated the extension of capitalism by the Jews,
    and, if so, to what degree. We shall limit ourselves in this to primary
    psychological motives, avoiding all speculative difficulties. Our first
    problem will be to discover the goal set up by the Jewish religion and its
    influence on economic life, and the next section is devoted to it.150/Werner Sombart
    The Idea of Rewards and Punishments
    The idea of contract, which is part and parcel of the underlying prin-ciples
    of Judaism, must perforce have the corollary that whoever carries
    out the contract receives reward, whoever breaks it receives punish-ment.
    In other words, the legal and ethical assumption that the good
    prosper and the evil suffer punishment was in all ages a concept of the
    Jewish religion. All that changed was the interpretation of prosperity
    and punishment.
    The oldest form of Judaism knows nothing of another world. So,
    weal and woe can come only in this world. If God desires to punish or to
    reward, He must do so during man's lifetime. The righteous therefore is
    prosperous here, and the wicked here suffer punishment. Obey my pre-cepts,
    says the Lord, "so that thou mayest live long and prosper in the
    land which the Lord thy God hath given unto thee." Hence the bitter cry
    of Job, "Wherefore do the wicked live, becomeold, yea, wax mighty in
    power? . . . But my way He hath fenced up, that I cannot pass ... He hath
    broken me down on every side ... He hath also kindled His wrath against
    me" [Job xxi. 7; xix. 8, 10, 11]. "Why hath all this evil come upon me,
    seeing that I walked in His path continually?"
    A little after Ezra's time the idea of another world (Olam Habo)
    finds currency in Judaism, the idea, too, of the immortality of the soul
    and of the resurrection of the body. These beliefs were of foreign origin,
    coming probably from Persia. But like all other alien elements in Juda-ism
    they, too, were given an ethical meaning, in accordance with the
    genius of the religion. The doctrine grew up that only the righteous and
    the pious would rise up after death. The belief in eternity was thus made
    by the Soferim to fit in with the old teaching of rewards and punish-ments,
    in order to heighten the feeling of moral responsibility, i.e., of the
    fear of the judgment of God."
    The idea of prosperity on earth is now extended. It is no longer the
    only reward of a good life, for a reward in the world to come is added to
    it. Still, God's blessing in this world is no small part of the total reward.
    Moreover, the very fact that a man is prosperous here was proof posi-tive
    that his life was pleasing to God, and that therefore he might expect
    reward in the next world also. Then, too, the idea of a blind fate is no
    longer troublesome. What appeared as such is now regarded as God's
    punishment on earth to the righteous for his transgressions, so that his
    heavenly recompense may suffer no diminution.
    The "doctrine of possession" (if the term may be allowed in connexion.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/151
    with the Jewish religion) received some such shape as this, more espe-cially
    through the Wisdom Literature. The great aim of life is to obey
    God's commandments. Earthly happiness apart from God has no exist-ence.
    Hence it is folly to seek to obtain earthly possessions for their own
    sake. But to obtain them in order to use them for divine ends, so that
    they become at one and the same time the outward symbols and guaran-tees
    of God's pleasure, as signs of His blessing -- such a course is wise.
    Now earthly possessions in this view of them include a well-appointed
    house and material well-being -- in a word, wealth.
    Look through Jewish literature, more especially through the Holy
    Writ and the Talmud, and you will find, it is true, a few passages wherein
    poverty is lauded as something higher and nobler than riches. But on the
    other hand you will come across hundreds of passages in which riches
    are called the blessing of the Lord, and only their misuse or their dan-gers
    warned against. Here and there, too, we may read that riches alone
    do not necessarily bring happiness, other things are essential in addition
    (such as health, for example), that there are "goods" (in the broadest use
    of the word) more valuable or as valuable as riches. But in all this
    nothing is said against riches; and never is it stated that they are an
    abomination to the Lord.
    I once gave expression to this view in a public lecture, and it was
    severely criticized on all sides. Just this point more than any other was
    controverted -- the statement that riches are in the Jewish religion ac-counted
    as a valuable good. Many of my critics, among them several
    distinguished Jewish rabbis, went to the trouble of compiling lists of
    passages from the Bible and Talmud which confuted my opinion. I ad-mit
    that there are many places in the Bible and the Talmud which regard
    wealth as a danger to the righteous, and in which poverty is extolled.
    There are some half-dozen of them in the Bible; the Talmud has rather
    more. But the important thing is that each of these passages may be
    capped by ten others, which breathe a totally different spirit. In such
    cases numbers surely count.
    I put the question to myself in this way. Let us imagine old Amschel
    Rothschild on a Friday evening, after having "earned" a million on the
    Stock Exchange, turning to his Bible for edification. What will he find
    there touching his earnings and their effect on the refinement of his soul,
    an effect which the pious old Jew most certainly desired on the eve of
    the Sabbath? Will the million bum his conscience? Or will he not be
    able to say, and rightly say, "God's blessing rested upon me this week. I.152/Werner Sombart
    thank Thee, Lord, for having graciously granted the light of Thy coun-tenance
    to Thy servant. In order to find favour in Thy sight I shall give
    much to charity, and keep Thy commandments even more strictly than
    hitherto"? Such would be his words if he knew his Bible, and he did
    know it.
    For his eye would rest complacently on many a passage in the Holy
    Writ. In his beloved Torah he would be able to read again and again of
    the blessing of God. "And He will love thee and bless thee and multiply
    thee. He will also bless the fruit of thy body and the fruit of thy ground,
    thy corn and thy wine and thine oil ... thou shalt be blessed above all
    peoples" (Deut. vii. 13-15). And how moved he would be when he reached
    the words, "For the Lord, thy God, will bless thee, as He promised thee:
    and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow" (Deut.
    xv. 6). Then suppose he turns to the Psalms, what would he find there?
    O fear the Lord, ye His saints: for there is no want to them that
    fear Him (Psa. xxxiv. 10).
    Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord.... Wealth and riches are
    in his house (Psa. xc. 1--3).
    Our garners are full, affording all manner of store, our sheep bring
    forth thousands and ten thousands in our fields (Psa. cxliv. 13).
    He would rejoice with Job when on concluding the story of his trials
    he found that his latter end was more blessed than his beginning, and
    that "he had 14,000 sheep, 6000 camels, 1000 yoke of oxen and 1000
    she-asses" and the rest. (Happily our friend Amschel knew nothing of
    modern Biblical criticism, and was not aware therefore that this par-ticular
    portion of Job is a later interpolation in the story.)
    The prophets also promised Israel earthly rewards if it kept to God's
    way and walked therein. If Amschel turned to the 60th chapter of Isaiah
    he would find the prophecy that one day the Gentiles should bring their
    gold and silver to Israel.
    But perhaps Amschel's favourite book would be Proverbs,32 "which
    expresses in a most pregnant form the ideas of life current in Israel" (as
    a rabbi wrote to me who quoted this book in proof of my error, Prov.
    xxii. 1, 2; xxiii. 4; xxviii. 20, 21; xxx. 8). Here he would be warned that
    riches alone do not bring happiness (xxii. 1, 2), that God must not be
    denied amid great wealth (xxx. 8), that "he that maketh haste to be rich
    shall not be unpunished" (xxviii. 20). (Perhaps he will say to himself
    that he does not "hasten" to be rich.) The only verse that may disquieten.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/153
    him is when he reads "Weary not thyself to be rich; cease from thine
    own wisdom" (xxiii. 4). But only for a moment, for his mind will be
    eased when he observes the connexion with the preceding passage. Pos-sibly
    these six little words may not after all trouble him much when he
    remembers the numerous passages in this very book which commend
    riches. So numerous indeed that it may be said they give the tone to the
    whole of Proverbs.33 A few only shall be quoted: --
    Length of days are in her right hand; in her left are riches and
    honour (iii. 16).
    Riches and honour are with me; yea, durable riches and righteous-ness"
    (viii. 18).
    The rich man's wealth is his strong city (x. 15).
    Their riches are a crown unto the wise (xiv. 24).
    The reward of humility and the fear of the Lord is riches and
    honour and life (xxii. 4).
    The Wisdom Literature included Ecclesiastes and the Wisdom of
    Solomon. The first 34 certainly does not breathe a uniform spirit; the
    many accretions of later times make it full of contradictions. Yet even
    here the pious Jew found never a passage which taught him to despise
    wealth. On the contrary, wealth is highly valued.
    Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and
    hath given him power to eat thereof . . . this is the gift of God (v.
    19).
    A feast is made for laughter and wine maketh glad the life: and
    money answereth all things (x. 19).
    The Wisdom of Solomon likewise praises riches. No less does the
    Book of Jesus, the son of Sirach, that fund of wise saws, which old
    Amschel must have conned with delight. If any Rabbi had told him that
    Ben Sirach's books regard the wealthy man almost as a sinner and wealth
    as the source of evil, instancing chapters x--xiii in proof, Amschel would
    have replied, "My dear Rabbi, you are mistaken. Those passages are a
    warning against the dangers of wealth. But a rich man who avoids the
    dangers is thereby the more righteous. 'Blessed is the rich that is found
    without blemish ... his goods shall be established and the congregation
    shall declare his alms' (xxxi. 8, 11). And why, my dear Rabbi" (so
    Amschel might continue), "do you not mention the passages which speak.154/Werner Sombart
    of the man who has amassed millions, passages like the following?
    Better is he that laboureth and aboundeth in all things, than he
    that boasteth himself and wanteth bread (x. 27).
    The poor man is honoured for his skill, and the rich man is
    honoured for his riches (x. 30).
    Prosperity and adversity, life and death, poverty and riches come
    of the Lord' (xi. 14).
    Gold and silver make the foot stand sure (xl. 25). Riches and
    strength lift up the heart (xl. 26). Better it is to die than to beg (xl.
    28).
    "Should I be ashamed of my millions, my dear Rabbi" (Amschel
    would conclude the imaginary conversation), "should I not rather look
    upon them as God's blessing? Recall what the wise Jesus ben Sirach
    said of great King Solomon (xlvii. 18): "By the name of the Lord God,
    which is called the Lord God of Israel, thou didst gather gold as tin, and
    didst multiply silver as lead.' I also will go, Rabbi, and in the name of
    the Lord God will gather gold as tin and silver as lead."
    In the Talmud the passages that express the same point of view are
    frequent enough. Riches are a blessing if only their owner walk in God's
    ways, and poverty is a curse. Hardly ever are riches despised. Let us
    quote a few Talmudic sayings on the subject.
    Seven characteristics are there which are "comely to the righteous
    and comely to the world." One of them is riches (Aboth. vi. 8).
    In prayer a man should turn to Him who owns wealth and posses-sions.
    ... In reality both come not from business, but according to
    merit" (Kidushin, lxxxiiia).
    R. Eleazer said, "The righteous love their money more than their
    bodies" (Sota, xiia).
    Rabba honoured the wealthy, so did R. Akiba (Erubin, lxxxvia).
    In time of scarcity a man learns to value wealth best (Aboth de
    Rabbi Nathan).
    Doctrines concerning wealth such as these could not but encourage
    a worldly view of life. This the Jewish view was, despite the belief in
    another world. There were indeed attempts at ascetic movements in Ju-daism
    (e.g., in the 9th century the Karaites combined to live the life of
    monks; [Sombart is mistaken in this. The characteristic of the Karaites
    was that they accepted and lived by the letter of the Torah. -- Trans.].The Jews and Modern Capitalism/155
    in the 11th century Bachja ibn Pakuda preached asceticism in Spain),
    but none of them ever took root. Judaism even in times of great afflic-tion
    was always optimistic. In this the Jews differ from the Christians,
    whose religion has tried to rob them all it could of earthly joys. As often
    as riches are lauded in the Old Testament they are damned in the New,
    wherein poverty is praised. The whole outlook of the Essenes, turning
    its back upon the world and the flesh, was incorporated in the Gospels.
    One can easily recall passage after passage to this effect. (Cf. Matt. vi.
    24; x. 9, 10; xix. 23, 24.) "It is easier for a camel to go through a
    needle's eye than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God." This
    is the keynote of Christianity on the point, and the difference between it
    and Judaism is clear enough. There is no single parallel to the saying of
    Jesus in the whole of the Old Testament, and probably also none in the
    entire body of Rabbinic literature.
    There is no need to expatiate on the different attitude of the good
    Jew and the good Christian towards economic activities. The Christian
    is forced by all manner of mental gymnastics to interpret away the Essene
    conception of riches from his Scriptures. And what anxious moments
    must the rich Christian live through as he thinks of heaven locked against
    him! Compare with him the position of the rich Jew, who, as we have
    seen, "in the name of the Lord God" gathers gold as tin and silver as
    lead.
    It is well known that the religion of the Christians stood in the way
    of their economic activities. It is equally well known that the Jews were
    never faced with this hindrance. The more pious a Jew was and the more
    acquainted with his religious literature, the more he was spurred by the
    teachings of that literature to extend his economic activities. A beautiful
    illustration of the way religion and business were fused in the mind of
    pious Jews may be found in the delightful Memoirs of Glückel von
    Hamein, to which we have already referred. "Praise be to God, who
    gives and takes, the faithful God, who always made good our losses,"
    she says. And again, "My husband sent me a long, comforting letter,
    urging me to calm my soul, for God, whose name be blessed, would
    restore to us what we had lost. And so it was."
    The Rationalization of Life
    Since Judaism rests upon a contract between God and His people, i.e.,
    upon a two-sided legal agreement, each party must have definite re-sponsibilities.
    What were those of the Jews?.156/Werner Sombart
    Again and again was the answer to this question given by God
    through His servant Moses. Again and again the Israelite was informed
    that two great duties were his. He was to be holy and to obey God's law.
    (Cf. Exod. xix. 6; Deut. iv. 56.) God did not require sacrifices of him;
    He demanded obedience (Jer. vii. 22, 23).
    Now it is generally known that in the course of events the Jews
    came to regard righteousness as a minute fulfilment of the Law. The
    inward holiness that may have existed in early days soon vanished be-fore
    formalism and legalism. Holiness and observation of the Law be-came
    interchangeable terms. It is generally known, too, that this legal-ism
    was a device of the Rabbis to protect the Jews against the influences
    first, of Hellenism, then of Christianity, and finally, when the Second
    Temple was destroyed, to maintain by its means the national conscious-ness.
    The struggle with Hellenism resulted in Pharisaism; the struggle
    with Pauline Christianity whichaimed at replacing the Law by faith,
    transformed the religion of the Pharisees into that of the Talmud, and
    the old policy of the Scribes "to encompass the whole of life with regu-lation"
    made greater progress than ever. In their political isolation the
    Jewish communities submitted entirely to the new hierarchy. They de-sired
    to see the end attained and so accepted the means. The school and
    the Law outlasted the Temple and the State, and Pharisaic Rabbinism
    had unlimited sway. Righteousness henceforth meant living in strict ac-cordance
    with the Law. Piety, under the influence of the legally minded
    Scribes, was given a legal connotation. Religion became the common
    law. In the Mishna all this finds admirable expression. The commands
    of the Pentateuch and the commands deduced from these are all divine
    ordinances which must be obeyed without questioning. More and more
    stress is laid on externals, and between important and insignificant com-mands
    there is less and less differentiation.35
    So it remained for two thousand years; so it is to-day. Strict ortho-doxy
    still holds fast to this formalism and the principles of Judaism
    know no change. The Torah is as binding to-day in its every word as
    when it was given to Moses on Sinai.36 Its laws and ordinances must be
    observed by the faithful, whether they be light or grave, whether they
    appear to have rhyme or reason or no. And they must be strictly ob-served,
    and only because God gave them. This implicit obedience makes
    the righteous, makes the saint. "Saintly or holy in the Torah sense is he
    who is able to fulfil the revealed will of God without any struggle and
    with the same joy as carrying out his own will. This holiness, this com-.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/157
    plete fusion of the will of man with the divine will, is a lofty goal attain-able
    in its entirety by a few only. Hence the law of holiness refers in the
    first instance to the striving towards this goal. The striving all can do; it
    demands a constant self-watchfulness and self-education, an endless
    struggle against what is low and vulgar, what is sensual and bestial.
    And obedience to the behests of the Torah is the surest ladder on which
    to climb to higher and higher degrees of holiness."37
    These words show clearly enough how holiness and legalism are
    connected; they show that the highest aim of Israel still is to be a king-dom
    of priests and a holy nation; and that the path to that end is a strict
    obedience to God's commandments. Once this becomes apparent, we
    can imagine the importance the Jewish religion has for the whole of life.
    In the long run, external legalism does not remain external; it exercises
    a constant influence on the inner life, which obtains its peculiar charac-ter
    from the observance of the law.
    The psychological process which led to the shaping of Judaism ap-pears
    to me to be this. At first God's behests were those that mattered,
    regardless of their contents. But slowly the contents must needs make
    themselves manifest to the observer, and a clearly defined ideal of Life
    evolved itself from the word of God. To follow this ideal, to be righ-teous,
    to be holy was the heart's desire of each believer.
    Before continuing, let us strive to obtain some notion of what the
    pious Jew meant, and means, by holiness in the material sense.
    Let us recall what was said in the last section about the "worldli-ness"
    of the Jewish religion. In accordance with this it can scarcely be
    holy to deny the natural instincts or to crush them, as other religions
    teach -- e.g.. Buddhism or Primitive Christianity. Other-worldly as-ceticism
    was always antagonistic to Judaism. "The soul which has been
    given thee -- preserve it, never kill it" -- that is the Talmudic maxim on
    which to build up the conduct of life and which found currency at all
    times.38
    The negation of life cannot therefore be holiness. Nor can the exer-cise
    of man's passions and appetites be holiness. For if it were, it could
    not be put as an ideal before the righteous; it would then be accessible to
    everybody. There remains therefore only one other possibility -- to live
    your life of set purpose in accordance with some ideal plan based on
    supernatural rules, and either utilizing the desires within you or crush-ing
    them. In fine, holiness is the rationalization of life. You decide to
    replace the natural existence with its desires and inclinations by the.158/Werner Sombart
    moral life. To be holy is to become refined, and to realize this is to
    overcome all your natural tendencies by means of moral obedience.39
    A rugged Dualism -- the terrible Dualism which is part and parcel
    of our constitution -- characterizes the Jewish conception of ethical
    worth. Nature is not unholy, neither is she holy. She is not yet holy. She
    may become holy through us. All the seeds of sin are in her; the serpent
    still lurks in the grass as he did long ago in the Garden of Eden. "God
    certainly created the evil inclination, but he also created the Torah, the
    moral law, an an antidote to it."40 The whole of human life is one great
    warfare against the inimical forces of Nature: that is the guiding prin-ciple
    of Jewish moral theology, and it is in accordance with it that the
    system of rules and regulations was instituted by which life might be
    rationalized, de-naturalized, refined and hallowed without the necessity
    of renouncing or stifling it. In this we see the marked difference between
    the Christian (Essene) and the Jewish (Pharisaic) ideas of morality. The
    former leads quite logically away from the world into the silent hermit-age
    and the monastery (if not to death); the latter binds its faithful ad-herent
    with a thousand chains to the individual and social life. Chris-tianity
    makes its devotee into a monk, Judaism into a rationalist; the
    first ends in asceticism outside the world; the second in asceticism within
    it (taking asceticism to mean the subjugation of what is natural in man).
    We shall gain a clearer insight of what Jewish Ethics (and therefore
    also the Jewish religion) stands for if we examine its regulations one by
    one.
    The effect of Law is twofold. Its very existence has an influence; so
    have its contents.
    That there is a law at all, that it is a duty to obey it, impels one to
    think about one's actions and to accomplish them in harmony with the
    dictates of reason. In front of every desire a warning finger-post is set;
    every natural impulse is nullified by the thousand and one milestones
    and danger-signals in the shape of directions to the pious. Now, since
    obedience to a multifariousness of rules (the well-known commands
    compiled by Maimonides numbered 365 -- of which 243 are still cur-rent
    -- and his prohibitions 248) is well-nigh impossible without a pretty
    good knowledge of what they are, the system includes the command to
    study the Holy Writ, and especially the Torah. This very study itself is
    made a means of rendering life holy. "If the evil inclination seizes hold
    of you, march him off to the House of Study," counsels the Talmud.
    The view that all the enactments were for the purpose of ennobling.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/159
    the life of the faithful was accepted at all times, and is still held to-day
    by many orthodox Jews.
    God wished to refine Israel, therefore He increased the number of
    the commandments (Makkoth, 23b).
    The commandments were given by God to ennoble man kind
    (Vajikra Rabba, 13).41
    It would have been better for a man never to have been born, but
    once he is in the world let him continually examine his actions
    (Erubin, 13b).
    Every night a man should critically examine his deeds of the day
    (Magen Abraham on Orach Chajim, 239, § 7).42
    "Observe" and "remember" were ordained in a single utterance."43
    Deum respice et cura 44 is still the motto of the Jew. If he meets a
    king or sees a dwarf or a Negro, passes a ruined building or takes his
    medicine or his bath, notes the coming storm or hears its roaring thun-der,
    rises in the morning and puts on his clothes or eats his food, enters
    his house or leaves it, greets a friend or meets a foe -- for every emer-gency
    there is an ordinance which must be obeyed.
    Now what of the contents of the ordinances? All of them aim at the
    subjugation of the merely animal instincts in man, at the bridling of his
    desires and inclinations and at the replacing of impulses by thoughtful
    action; in short, at the "ethical tempering of man."
    You must think nothing, speak nothing, do nothing without first
    considering what the law about it is, and then apply it to the great pur-pose
    of sanctification. You must therefore do nothing merely for its own
    sake, spontaneously, or from natural instinct. You must not enjoy Na-ture
    for the sheer pleasure of it.
    You may do so only if you think thereby of the wisdom and the
    goodness of God. In the spring when the trees put on their blossom the
    pious Jew says, "Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, . . . who hast made
    Thy world lacking in nought, but hast provided therein goodly creatures
    and trees wherewith to give delight to the children of men." At the sight
    of the rainbow he brings to mind the Covenant with God. On high moun-tains,
    in vast deserts, beside mighty rivers -- in a word, wherever his
    heart is deeply moved by Nature's wonders -- he expresses his feelings
    in the benediction, "Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, .. . who hast
    made the Creation."
    You must not enjoy art for its own sake. Works of plastic art should.160/Werner Sombart
    be avoided, for they may easily lead to a breach of the second com-mandment.
    But even the poet's art is not looked upon with favour, ex-cept
    it refer to God. All reading is good, provided it has some practical
    end in view. "It is best to read the books of the Torah or such as refer to
    them. If we desire to read for recreation, let us choose books that are
    able to teach us something useful. Among the books written for amuse-ment
    and to while away the time there are some that may awake sinful
    wishes within us. The reading of these books is forbidden."45
    You must not indulge in harmless pleasures. "The seat of the scorn-ful
    [Psa. i. I], -- the theatres and circuses of the heathen are meant."
    Song, dance and wine, save when they are connected with religious cer-emonial,
    are taboo. "Rabbi Dosa ben Hyrkanus used to say. Morning
    sleep and midday wine and childish talk and attending the houses where
    the ignorant foregather put a man out of the world."46 "He that loveth
    pleasure shall be a poor man; he that loveth wine and oil shall not be
    rich" (Prov. xxi. 17).
    If this be so, those qualities which may lead a man to "unseemly"
    conduct are useless or even harmful. Such are enthusiasm (for while a
    man is in this state he may do something useless),47 kindness of heart
    (you must exercise kindness only because the idea of benevolence actu-ates
    you; you must never let pity carry you away, so that the nobility
    and dignity of the ideal law may always be before you);48 a sensual
    temperament ("the source of passion -- and of sin -- is in sensual-ity"),
    49 ingenuousness, in short anything that marks the natural (and
    therefore unholy) man.
    The cardinal virtues of the pious are, on the other hand, self-control
    and circumspection, a love of order and of work, moderation and
    abstemiousness, chastity and sobriety.
    Self-control and circumspection especially and in regard to your
    words is a constant theme of the moralists. "In the multitude of words
    there wanteth not transgression: but he that refraineth his lips doth wisely"
    (Prov. x. 19).50
    No less insistent was the later tradition. "Raba held that whoso
    carries on an unnecessary conversation transgresses a command" (Joma,
    19b). "Our sanctification," says a modern book for popular edification,
    "depends to a large extent on the control of our tongues, on the power of
    holding our peace. The gift of speech . . . was given to man for holy
    purposes. Hence all unnecessary talk is forbidden by our wise men."51
    But self-control and circumspection generally are urged on the pi-.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/161
    ous Jew.
    Who is the strongest of the strong? He who controls his passions
    (Aboth de R. Nathan, xxiii. 1).
    The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness: but every
    one that is hasty hasteth only to want (Prov. xxi. 5).
    He that hasteth with his feet sinneth (Prov. xix. 2).
    And as for industry and thrift, innumerable are the exhortations to
    that end.
    The Jew must wake the day, not the day the Jew -- so taught the
    Rabbis, as a homily on Psalm lvii. 9. 52
    It is just the strongest instincts of man that must be curbed, directed
    into right channels, deprived of their natural force and made to serve
    useful ends. In short, they must be rationalized.
    Take the instinct which desires to satisfy hunger. It is forbidden to
    appease the appetite merely because it happens to be there; it should be
    appeased only for the body's sake. And when the good man sits down to
    eat, let him do so according to the precepts of his Maker. Hence the
    large number of rules concerning food; hence the command to be seri-ous
    at meals -- to begin and to close with prayer; hence the advice to be
    moderate and the appeal to banish the pleasure of feeding. "It is only
    through God's goodness that you are enabled to use His creatures as
    food, and therefore if your entire eating and drinking is not to be beastly,
    it must be hallowed; it must be looked upon as the getting of strength for
    His service."53 "The Jew should make the satisfaction of his appetite for
    food a sacrament; should regard his table as an altar and the food thereon
    as sacrifice, which he enjoys only in order to obtain more strength for
    the fulfilment of his duties."54 (Jewish cooking, by the way, is excellent.)
    Finally -- and this of course matters most -- just like hunger, Love
    also must be rationalized, that is to say, its natural expression must be
    held in check. Nowhere more than in the erotic sphere does the hard
    dualism show itself so well. The world, and certainly the civilized na-tions,
    owes this conception of the sexual to the Jews (through the agency
    of Christianity, which was infected with the idea). All earlier religions
    saw something divine in the expression of sex, and regarded sexual in-tercourse
    as of the nature of a heavenly revelation. All of them were
    acquainted with Phallus-worship in a grosser or finer form. None of
    them condemned what is sensuous, or looked upon women as a source
    of sin. But the Jews from Ezra's day to this held, and hold, the opposite.162/Werner Sombart
    view.
    To sanctify himself, to make himself worthy of his converse with
    God, Moses "drew not nigh unto his wife." And Job mentions as being
    in his favour that he made a covenant with his eyes not to look upon a
    maid. The whole Wisdom Literature abounds in warnings against women,
    [Sombart instances Prov. v. 3--4. But does not the passage clearly refer
    to bad women? -- Trans.] and the same spirit dominates the Talmud.
    "Better to die than to be guilty of unchastity" (Sanhedrim, 75a). Indeed,
    the three capital crimes for which even death does not atone are murder,
    idol-worship and adultery. "Hast thou business with women? See to it
    that thou art not with them alone" (Kiddushin, 82a). This dread runs
    through all the codes. The Eben Ha-ezer condemns to death by stoning
    any one who has had guilty intercourse with a woman related to him
    within the prohibited degrees. The very clothes or the little finger of a
    woman of such close consanguinity must not be looked at "to get plea-sure
    from it." It is forbidden a man to allow himself to be waited on by
    a woman, or to embrace his aunt or his grown-up sister.
    Teachers of to-day are no less explicit. "Guard yourself against any
    contact with impurity," says one of the most popular of them. "Look at
    nothing, hear nothing, read nothing, think of nothing which may in any
    wise occupy your thoughts unchastely or make you familiar with what
    is not clean. Do not walk in the street behind a woman; if you cannot
    help yourself, look not at her with desire. [Cf. Robert Louis Stevenson:
    'To remember the faces of women without desire, ... is not this to know
    both wisdom and virtue?" -- Trans.] Do not let your eye rest longingly
    on a woman's hair, nor your ears on her voice; do not take pleasure in
    her form; yea, a woman's very clothes should not be looked at if you
    know who has worn them. In all things go out of the way of Opportu-nity.
    . . . The two sexes should not jest together. Even in make-believe
    little pressures of the hand, winking of the eyes, embracing and kissing
    are sinful."55
    Warnings such as these were not neglected, as may be seen from the
    autobiographies of pious Jews, some of which may now be read in mod-ern
    languages.56
    But the point of it all must not be overlooked. Other religions also
    show signs of being terrified at women. Ever since the notion became
    prevalent that woman brought sin into the world there have always been
    morbid souls who spent their lives exciting themselves with all manner
    of lascivious imaginings but avoiding woman as though she were the.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/163
    devil incarnate. In other religions the man fled to the hermit's cave in the
    wilderness or to a monastery. In either case, his religion forced "chas-tity"
    upon him, with all the horrid resultants well known to students of
    monastic life. Not so Judaism. Judaism does not forbid sexual inter-course;
    it rationalizes it. Not that it does not regard sexual intercourse
    as sinful. Sinful it must always be, but its sinfulness may to some extent
    be removed by sanctification. Hence Judaismadvocates early marriages
    and regulates the relationship between husband and wife as something
    "ever in the great Taskmaster's eye."
    "A man should not be without a wife, nor a woman without a hus-band;
    but both shall see to it that God's spirit is in their union." That is
    the motto, and in accordance with it the Talmud and the later codes have
    multiplied rules and regulations for the guidance of married couples. In
    the 11th century (to mention but a few) R. Eleazar ben Nathan compiled
    a special code on the subject, the Eben Ha-ezer, and in the 13th century
    R. Nachman wrote a famous work on the sanctification of marriage.57
    The laws of the Eben Ha-ezer were incorporated in the Shulchan Aruch
    and together with the glosses upon them receive recognition to-day. The
    main ideas throughout are those we have already considered: hallow thy
    body's strength in accordance with God's will; be careful of thy man-hood;
    be God's servant at all times.58
    Such was the Jewish view of marriage, which has continued for
    more than two thousand years. It is well illustrated by that touching
    story in the Book of Tobit, which may form a fitting conclusion to our
    considerations under this head.
    And after that they were both shut in together, Tobias rose out of
    the bed, and said, Sister, arise, and let us pray that God would
    have pity on us.
    Then began Tobias to say. Blessed art Thou, O God of our fathers,
    and blessed is Thy holy and glorious name for ever; let the heav-ens
    bless Thee, and all Thy creatures.
    Thou madest Adam, and gavest him Eve his wife for an helper
    and stay: of them came mankind: Thou hast said, It is not good
    that man should be alone; let us make unto him an aid like unto
    himself.
    And now, O Lord, I take not this my sister for lust, but uprightly
    therefore mercifully ordain that we may become aged together.
    And she said with him. Amen.
    So they slept both that night. -- Tobit vii. 4-9..164/Werner Sombart
    It may be asked. Why have I treated this aspect of Jewish life at
    such great length? My answer is simple. I really believe that the ratio-nalization
    of life, and especially of the sexual life, which the Jewish
    religion effects cannot be too highly estimated for its influence on eco-nomic
    activities. If religion is at all to be accounted a factor in Jewish
    economic life, then certainly the rationalization of conduct is its best
    expression,
    To begin with, a number of good qualities or virtues which are in-dispensable
    to any economic order owe their existence to rationalization
    -- e.g., industry, neatness, thrift. But the whole of life, if lived in accor-dance
    with the ordinances of the "Wise," ministers to the needs of wealth-getting.
    Sobriety, moderation and piety are surely qualities which stand
    the business man in good stead. In short, the whole ideal of conduct
    preached in Holy Writ and in Rabbinic literature has something of the
    morality of the small shopkeeper about it -- to be content with one
    wife, to pay your debts punctually, to go to church or synagogue on
    Sunday or Saturday (as the case may be) and to look down with immea-surable
    scorn on the sinful world around.
    But Jewish moral teaching did not spend itself in the mere produc-tion
    of this type of the small respectable shopkeeper. It may even be
    questioned whether the type is altogether its work. At any rate, it is not
    of much consequence for economic development. Middle-class respect-ability
    as a matter of fact owes its origin to the narrow outlook of the
    petty trading class. Hence it can have but little to do with capitalism,
    except in so far as the qualities which that class possessed were the
    foundation on which capitalism could be built up. But capitalism did
    not grow out of the qualities, and therefore we must search in other
    directions for the causes which made the Jews pioneers of capitalism.
    The fast that suggests itself is the cultivation of family life among
    Jews, calling forth as it did energies so necessary to economic growth.
    The cultivation and refinement of family life was undoubtedly the work
    of the Jewish Rabbis, assisted, it must be added, by the vicissitudes of
    the Jewish people. In Judaism woman was fast held in that high esteem
    which is the prime postulate for the existence of a sound family life and
    all that it means for man's conduct. The Rabbis by thenlaws and regu-lations
    affecting marriages, the marital relationship and the education
    of children and the rest, did all that was humanly possible in the way of
    outward limitation and influence to establish family life in all its purity..The Jews and Modern Capitalism/165
    That marriage is considered more sacred among pious Jews than among
    people of other denominations is demonstrated by the statistics of ille-gitimate
    births. These are considerably fewer among Jews than among
    Christians.59
    ILLEGITIMATE BIRTHS PER THOUSAND
    Year Country General Jews
    1904 Prussia 2.51 0.66
    1905 Wiirtemberg 2.83 0.16
    1907 Hesse 2.18 0.13
    1908 Bavaria 4.25 0.56
    1901 Russia 1.29 0.14
    If the figures for Russia be looked into a little more carefully it will
    be seen that illegitimate births among Jews vary very much from those
    among non-Jews. At the same time it must not be forgotten that there is
    a slight lowering of the standard in sexual morality among Jews. Thus,
    the following table shows the percentage of illegitimate births in Russia.
    ILLEGITIMATE BIRTHS PER HUNDRED IN RUSSIA
    Year Greek Orthodox Catholics Protestants Jews
    1868 2.96 3.45 3.49 0.19
    1878 3.13 3.29 3.85 0.25
    1898 2.66 3.53 3.86 0.37
    1901 2.49 3.57 3.76 0.46
    Such then was one result of the family life current among Jews and
    introduced by them. The man contributed to it the best that was in him,
    and in return he drew from it invigorating strength, courage, and an
    inducement to maintain and to expand his position in life. Family life of
    this kind generated centres for masculine energy large enough to set in
    motion such a mighty economic system as capitalism. For this system
    calls for great energy, and we can scarcely imagine it being produced
    except through the agency of psychological influences which appeal not
    only to the social instincts but also to the family ideal.
    It may perhaps be necessary to look below the psychological influ-ences
    to the physical ones. How curiously moulded must the constitu-tion
    of the Jew have become through the rationalization of his married
    life! We see this phenomenon -- that a people with strong sexual incli-nations
    (Tacitus speaks of it as proiectissima ad libidinem gens) is.166/Werner Sombart
    forced by its religion to hold them in complete restraint. Extra-marital
    connexions are absolutely forbidden; every one must content himself
    with one wife, but even with her intercourse is restricted.
    The result of all this is obvious. Enormous funds of energy were
    prevented from finding an outlet in one direction and they turned to
    others. Knowing as we do the condition of the Jews throughout the Com-mon
    Era, we shall not be wrong in assuming that economic activities
    were their chief channel. But we may go further. It is possible to prove
    that, quite generally, restrained sexual desires and the chase of profits
    go hand in hand. For the present we have had but little scientific inves-tigation
    of this fact, so important for all modern sociological problems.60
    That a lordly way of life is usually accompanied by lavishness of money
    and of love, whereas such qualities as niggardliness, avarice and a set-ting
    of much store by money are the ubiquitous partners of a stunted
    sexual life -- these are everyday experiences, and though it would be
    presumptuous to attempt to solve this most interesting problem with the
    aid of observations which must perforce be limited, yet for the purpose
    of my argument they ought not to be omitted, at least as an hypothesis.
    We see then that a good deal of capitalistic capacity which the Jews
    possessed was due in large measure to the sexual restraint put upon
    them by their religious teachers. The effect of the rationalization of the
    whole of life on the physical and intellectual powers of the Jew must
    still be gone into by scientists;61 at present we have only beginnings of
    such studies. I refer to the influence of the very wise regulations of
    sexual intercourse, of eating and drinking and so on. (Incidentally it is
    worthy of note that Jewish law has long restricted the marriage of the
    unfit.)
    One other point in conclusion. The rationalization of life accus-tomed
    the Jew to a mode of living contrary to (or side by side with)
    Nature and therefore also to an economic system like the capitalistic,
    which is likewise contrary to (or side by side with) Nature. What in
    reality is the idea of making profit, what is economic rationalism, but
    the application to economic activities of the rules by which the Jewish
    religion shaped Jewish life? Before capitalism could develop the natural
    man had to be changed out of all recognition, and a rationalistically
    minded mechanism introduced in his stead. There had to be a transvalu-ation
    of all economic values. And what was the result? The homo
    capitalisticus, who is closely related to the homo Judceus, both belong-ing
    to the same species, homines rationalistic! artificiales..The Jews and Modern Capitalism/167
    And so the rationalization of Jewish life by the Jewish religion, if it
    did not actually produce the Jewish capacity for capitalism, certainly
    increased and heightened it.
    Israel and the Nations
    One of the causes to which the Jew owed his economic progress was, as
    the reader will remember, the fact that Israel was for generations a
    stranger and an alien. If we seek to account for this aloofness we shall
    find its roots in the ordinances of the Jewish religion, shall find that this
    religion always maintained and broadened the line of separation. As
    Leroy-Beaulieu, who has studied this aspect of Jewish history with great
    success, has so well said, "La loi leur donnait l'ésprit de clan." The very
    fact that they had their Law forced the Jews to live apart from the Gen-tiles.
    For if they desired to observe the Law they needs must keep to
    themselves. The Jews created the Ghetto, which from the non-Jewish
    point of view was a concession and a privilege and not the result of
    enmity.
    But the Jews wished to live separated from the rest because they felt
    themselves superior to the common people round them. They were the
    Chosen Race, a People of Priests. The Rabbis did all that was required
    to fan the flame of pride -- from Ezra, who forbade intermarriage as a
    profanation of Jewish purity, down to this very day, when the pious Jew
    says every morning, "Blessed art Thou, O Lord, King of the Universe,
    who has not made me a Gentile (stranger)."
    And so they lived separate and apart all through the centuries of the
    Diaspora, despite the Diaspora and (thanks to the bands which the Law
    laid upon them) because of the Diaspora -- separate and apart, and
    therefore a group by themselves, or, if you will, a group by themselves
    and therefore separate and apart.
    A group by themselves -- they were that already at the time of the
    Babylonian Exile, which in reality established the internationalism of
    the Jew. Many of them, especially the wealthier ones, remained behind
    in Babylon of their own free will, but they retained their Judaism and
    professed it zealously. They kept up a lively intercourse with their brethren
    who had returned home, took a sympathetic interest in their fortunes,
    rendered them assistance and sent them new settlers from time to time.62
    The bonds of union were in no wise relaxed in the Hellenistic
    Diaspora. "They kept closely together in the cities and throughout the
    world. No matter where they pitched their tents, their connexion with.168/Werner Sombart
    Zion was upheld. In the heart of the wilderness they had a native land
    where they were at home ... By means of the Diaspora they entered into
    the world. In the Hellenistic cities they adopted the Greek tongue and
    Greek manners even if only as the outer garb of their Jewishness"
    (Wellhausen).
    So it continued throughout the centuries of their exile. If 0anything
    the bond became strengthened. "Scis quanta concordia" -- "You know
    how they hang together!" cries Cicero.63 So it was; so it still is. "All the
    Jewries in the Empire and beyond," we read of the rebellion of the year
    130 A.D., "were stirred and more or less openly supported the insurgents
    on the banks of the Jordan."64 Is it any different to-day when a Jew is
    expelled from some Russian town or other?
    A group by themselves and therefore separate and apart -- this is
    true from earliest antiquity. All nations were struck by their hatred of
    others, of which they were for the fast time accused by Hekateus of
    Abdera (300 B.C.) . Many other ancient writers repeat the indictment,65
    almost always in the same words. Perhaps the best known passage is in
    Tacitus:
    "Apud eos fides obstinata, misericordia in promptu. Sed adversus
    omnes alias hostile odium. Separati epulis discreti cubilibus,
    proiectissima ad libidinem gens, alienarum concubitu abstinent"
    (Historia, V, i. 5). [Amongst themselves they are doggedly faithful and
    quick to pity, but all strangers they hate as enemies. They neither eat nor
    intermarry with strangers; they are a people of strong passions, yet they
    withhold themselves from other men's wives.]
    Jewish apologetics never attempted to combat these views:66 there
    must therefore have been some foundation for them.
    It is true that the Jews kept together so closely and shut themselves
    off very often on account of the unfriendly treatment they received at the
    hands of their hosts. But it was not so originally. The Jews wanted to
    live secluded from their neighbours because of their religion. That this
    was so appears from their attitude in those lands where they were well
    treated. Witness one or two instances in the ancient world, of which I
    have just given illustrations [Tacitus, etc.]. Witness the same tendency
    in the Middle Ages. Take Arabia in the first century. The Jews there at
    the period named lived according to the religion which the Tanaim and
    Amor aim had formulated -- keeping the dietary laws and festivals, the
    great White Fast and the Sabbath. "Although they could not complain
    of anything in this hospitable country they yet longed for the return to.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/169
    the Holy Land and awaited the advent of the Messiah every day. . . .
    They were in direct communication with the Jews of Palestine."67 Or
    take Moorish Spain. While the Christians who lived among the Mo-hammedans
    forgot their mother tongue (Gothic Latin), no longer under-stood
    their sacred books, and were rather ashamed of their Christianity,
    the Spanish Jews were more and more devoted to their national lan-guage,
    their Holy Writ and their ancient religion.68 This attitude was
    clearly reflected in the Jewish poetry and philosophy of the period, the
    greatest perhaps that mediaeval Jewry can boast. In the midst of an
    Arabic-Spanish world in which they lived and enjoyed the respect of
    their fellow-citizens, they were strictly "national," that is religious; they
    drew poetic inspiration from the Messianic hopes and were filled with
    an unconquerable longing for Zion.69 One need only mention the great
    Jehuda Halevy, whose Odes to Zion are the highest expression of the
    genius of neo-Hebrew poetry.
    Like a cloud sailing in the blue of the sky above, Judaism winds its
    way through history, refreshed by the memories of its hoary and holy
    past as by a soft breeze. To this very day the pious Jew blesses his
    children with the words, "The Lord make thee as Ephraim and
    Manasseh."
    What was the effect on economic life of this seclusion and separa-tion
    of the Jewish social organism? Directly the Jews stepped outside
    the Ghetto gates their intercourse was with strangers. We have already
    dealt with the point elsewhere; my reason for calling attention to it again
    is to show that this attitude was a direct consequence of the teaching of
    Judaism, that in treating the people among whom they lived as "others,"
    the Jews were but obeying a divine behest. Here, too, their conduct was
    hallowed, and it received a sanction from the peculiar system of laws
    relating to "strangers."
    The most important and most frequently discussed legal ordinance
    in this system was that affecting the taking of interest. In the old Jewish
    theocracy,70 as in every society in early civilization, loans without inter-est
    were the regular means of rendering assistance by a man to his
    neighbour. But it may be observed that even in the earliest collection of
    laws interest was allowed to be taken from "strangers."
    The Jewish code was no exception. The best example of this may be
    found in Deuteronomy xxiii. 20. Other passages in the Torah that have
    reference to interest are Exodus xxii. 25 and Leviticus xxv. 37. They all
    form the theme of a lively discussion which has been carried on from the.170/Werner Sombart
    days of the Tanaim down to the present. The chief instance and at the
    same time the crux of the matter is in the Talmud, in Baha Mew, 70b,
    and my own feeling is that for the most part it is an attempt to discount
    the very clear statement of the Torah by all manner of sophistries. For
    what does the verse in Deuteronomy say? "Unto a foreigner thou mayest
    lend upon usury; but unto thy brother thou shall not lend upon usury."
    The only doubt is in the wording of the original, which may mean with
    equal grammatical exactitude, "thou mayest lendupon usury" or "thou
    shalt lend upon usury." (It need hardly be added that "usury" with the
    translators was nothing more or less than our "interest.")
    In either case, the pious Jew was allowed to take interest from non-Jews
    -- that is the significant thing as far as we are concerned. Right
    through the Middle Ages he was not oppressed by the burden of the
    anti-usury prohibition which weighed upon the Christian. The Jewish
    law on the subject was never to my knowledge questioned by the Rab-bis.
    71 On the other hand, there were periods when the "mayest" in the
    Deuteronomic passage was read as "shalt," periods when the Jew was
    urged to become a money-lender.
    The authors who have dealt with this subject in modern times ap-pear
    to have overlooked the fact that the Deuteronomic command has
    been received as one of the laws that regulate the life of the Jew, and that
    Tradition sanctions money-lending to a stranger on payment of interest
    Of the 613 commandments, this is the 198th and may be found likewise
    in the Shulchan Aruch. Modem Rabbis 72 to whom the perfectly clear
    ordinance in Deuteronomy is somewhat inconvenient (one cannot quite
    understand why), attempt to explain it away by asserting that "strang-ers"
    in the passage is intended not for all non-Jews but only for heathens
    or idol-worshippers. If this be so, let it not be forgotten that there never
    was any very distinct conception as to who was, and who was not, an
    idol-worshipper. Besides, the pious Jew who has committed the 198th
    command to memory is not likely to draw the fine distinction urged by
    the learned Rabbis. Sufficient for him that the man to whom he lent
    money was no Jew, no "brother," no neighbour, but a Gentile.
    Now think of the position in which the pious Jew and the pious
    Christian respectively found themselves in the period in which money-lending
    first became a need in Europe, and which eventually gave birth
    to capitalism. The good Christian who had been addicted to usury was
    full of remorse as he lay a-dying, ready at the eleventh hour to cast from
    him the ill-gotten gains which scorched his soul. And the good Jew? la.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/171
    the evening of his days he gazed upon his well-filled caskets and coffers,
    overflowing with sequins of which he had relieved the miserable Chris-tians
    or Mohammedans. It was a sight which warmed his heart, for
    every penny was almost like a sacrifice which he had brought to his
    Heavenly Father.
    Apart from this particular question, the stranger was accorded spe-cial
    consideration in the Jewish legal code. Duties towards him were
    never as binding as towards your "neighbour," your fellow-Jew. Only
    ignorance or a desire to distort facts will assert the contrary. True, the
    conception of law and morality as it affected the "stranger" varied from
    age to age. But there was no change in the fundamental idea that you
    owed less consideration to the stranger than to one of your own people.
    That has remained the same from the day when the Torah first became
    current to our own. That is the impression that is conveyed by an un-prejudiced
    study of the law concerning strangers in the Holy Writ, the
    Talmud, the Codes and the Responsa literature. There certainly are pas-sages
    in the Torah which breathe equality between the home-born and
    the stranger (Exod. xii. 49, xxiii. 9; Lev. xix. 33, 34, xxv. 44-6; Deufc
    x. 18, 19). But in a question of fudacha (legal enactment) such as this
    is, the oral tradition cannot be neglected. Secondly, the passages in-stanced
    above all refer to the Ger, the non-Jew who had settled in Pales-tine,
    seeing that the Jews knew the heart of a Ger, "for ye were Gerim in
    the land of Egypt." [In the sentence about interest the word used is
    Nacharl, some one from another nation.] As time went on it was but
    natural that there should be an increase of the cases in Jewish law in
    which the non-Jew was at a disadvantage as compared with the Jew. So
    much so that in the latest code they occupy a good deal of space.73
    What was the importance in economic life of the laws concerning
    strangers? It was twofold. First, intercourse with strangers was bereft
    of all considerations, and commercial morality (if I may put it so) be-came
    elastic. I admit that there was no absolute necessity for this to
    come about, but all the conditions were given for it to do so, and it must
    have been an everyday occurrence in certain circles. "If a non-Jew makes
    an error in a statement of account, the Jew may use it to his own advan-tage;
    it is not incumbent upon him to point it out" So we may read in the
    Tur, and though Joseph Caro did not include this in his law-book, it
    crept in later as a gloss from the pen of Isserlein. Is it not obvious that
    the good Jew must needs draw the conclusion that he was not bound to
    be so particular in his intercourse with non-Jews? With Jews he will.172/Werner Sombart
    scrupulously see to it that he has just weights and a just measure;74 but
    as for his dealings with non-Jews, his conscience will be at ease even
    though he may obtain an unfair advantage. It is not to be denied that in
    some cases honesty towards non-Jews was inculcated.75 But to think
    that this should have been necessary! Besides, this is the actual wording
    of the law: "It is permissible to take advantage of a non-Jew, for it is
    written. Thou shalt not take advantage of thy brother." (The context
    refers not to overreaching, but only to the asking of higher prices from a
    non-Jew.)
    This conception must have been firmly rooted in those districts (e.g.,
    in Eastern Europe) where the study of the Talmud and the casuistry it
    engendered were universal. The effect it had on the commerce of the
    Jew has been described by Graetz, surely no prejudiced witness. "To
    twist a phrase out of its meaning, to use all the tricks of the clever
    advocate, to play upon words, and to condemn what they did not know
    . . . such were the characteristics of the Polish Jew. . . Honesty and right-thinking
    he lost as completely as simplicity and truthfulness. He made
    himself master of all the gymnastics of the Schools and applied them to
    obtain advantage over any one less cunning than himself. He took a
    delight in cheating and overreaching, which gave him a sort of joy of
    victory. But his own people he could not treat in this way: they were as
    knowing as he. It was the non-Jew who, to his loss, felt the consequences
    of the Talmudically trained mind of the Polish Jew."76
    In the second place, the differential treatment of non-Jews in Jewish
    commercial law resulted in the complete transformation of the idea of
    commerce and industry generally in the direction of more freedom. If
    we have called the Jews the Fathers of Free Trade, and therefore the
    pioneers of capitalism, let us note here that they were prepared for this
    role by the free-trading spirit of the commercial and industrial law, which
    received an enormous impetus towards a policy of laissez-faire by its
    attitude towards strangers. Clearly, intercourse with strangers could not
    but loosen the bonds of personal duties and replace them by economic
    freedom. Let us glance at this in greater detail.
    The theory of price in the Talmud and the Codes, in so far as it
    affected trade between Jew and Jew, is exactly parallel to the scholastic
    doctrine of justum pretium which was prevalent in Europe throughout
    the Middle Ages. But as between Jew and non-Jew, there was no just
    price. Price was formed as it is to-day, by "the higgling of the market."77
    Be that as it may, the important thing to observe is that already in.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/173
    the Talmud, and still more distinctly in the Shulchan Aruch, concep-tions
    of the freedom of industry and enterprise, so entirely alien to the
    Christian law of Mediaeval Europe, are met with. It is a subject deserv-ing
    of close study and should be taken up by a specialist. For my part, I
    can do no more here than refer to a few instances. But few though they
    be, they seem to me to be conclusive evidence on the point in question.
    My first reference is to a passage in the Talmud which fully recognizes
    free competition among sellers.
    Mishna. -- R. Judah was of opinion that a shopkeeper should not
    distribute nuts among children, because by so doing he gets them
    into the habit of coming to him. But the Rabbis allow it. More-over,
    it is not lawful to spoil prices. But the Rabbis say, "Blessed
    be his memory."
    Gemara. -- The question at once arises, what was the reason for
    the attitude of the Rabbis in the first case? The answer is that the
    shopkeeper may say to his competitor, "I give the children nuts,
    you can give them plums." And what is the reason of the Rabbis
    in the second case? The Mishna forbids price alteration, and yet
    they say, "Blessed be his memory." The answer is, they bless his
    memory because he reduces prices (Baba Mew, 60a and b).
    In the Codes the reasons have been omitted, and the dry statement
    of law only is found. "A shopkeeper is allowed to make presents of nuts
    and other things to the children who come to purchase in his shop, in
    order to win their custom. Moreover, he may sell at a price below the
    current one, and the competing tradesmen can do nothing" (Choshen
    Mishpat, 225, §18).
    Similarly, in the laws regulating the conduct of traders who bring
    their goods to the market town, the following may be read: "Should the
    strangers sell more cheaply than the native dealers, or should their goods
    be of a better quality, the natives may not prevent them, for the Jewish
    public derives benefit therefrom" (Choshen Mishpat, 156, §7).
    Once more. "If a Jew is prepared to lend money to a non-Jew at a
    lower rate of interest than some one else, the latter can do nothing against
    it" (Choshen Mishpat, 156, §5).
    Finally, Jewish law favours industrial laissez-faire. So we find in
    the Shulchan Aruch: "If any one commenced a handicraft in his street
    and none of his neighbours protested, and then one of the other residents
    in the street wishes to carry on the same calling, the first may not com-.174/Werner Sombart
    plain that the new-comer is taking the bread out of his mouth, and try to
    prevent him" (Choshen Mishpat, 156, §5).
    Clearly, then, free trade and industrial freedom were in accordance
    with Jewish law, and therefore in accordance with God's will. What a
    mighty motive power in economic life!
    Judaism and Puritanism
    I have already mentioned that Max Weber's study of the importance of
    Puritanism for the capitalistic system was the impetus that sent me to
    consider the importance of the Jew, especially as I felt that the dominat-ing
    ideas of Puritanism which were so powerful in capitalism were more
    perfectly developed in Judaism, and were also of course of much earlier
    date.
    A complete comparison of the two "isms" is not within my province
    here. But I believe that if it were made, it would be seen that there is an
    almost unique identity of view between Judaism and Puritanism, at least,
    on those points which we have investigated. In both will be found the
    preponderance of religious interests, the idea of divine rewards and pun-ishments,
    asceticism within the world, the close relationship between
    religion and business, the arithmetical conception of sin, and, above all,
    the rationalization of life.
    Let me refer to an instance or two. Take the attitude of Judaism and
    Puritanism to the problem of sex. In one of the best hotels of Philadel-phia
    I found a notice in my room to this effect: "Visitors who may have
    to transact business with ladies are respectfully requested to leave the
    door of their room open while the lady is with them." What is this but
    the old dictum of the Talmud (Kiddushin, 82a), "Hast thou business
    with women? See to it that thou art not with them alone"?
    Again, is not the English Sunday the Jewish Sabbath?
    I would also recall the words of Heine,78 who had a clear insight
    into most things. "Are not," he asks in his Confessions, "Are not the
    Protestant Scots Hebrews, with their Biblical names, their Jerusalem,
    pharisaistic cant? And is not their religion a Judaism which allows you
    to eat pork?"
    Puritanism is Judaism.
    Whether the first was influenced by the second, and if so, how, are
    most difficult questions to answer. It is well known, of course, that in
    the Reformation period there was close intercourse between Jews and
    certain Christian sects, that the study of Hebrew and the Hebrew Scrip-.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/175
    tures became fashionable, and that the Jews in England in the 17th cen-tury
    were held in very high esteem by the Puritans. Leading men in
    England like Oliver Cromwell built up their religious views on the Old
    Testament, and Cromwell himself dreamed of a reconciliation between
    the Old and the New Testaments, and of a confederation between the
    Chosen People of God and the Puritan English. A Puritan preacher of
    the day, Nathaniel Holmes by name, wished for nothing better than, in
    accordance with the letter of the prophetic message, to become a servant
    of God's people and to serve them on bended knee. Public life became
    Hebraic in tone no less than the sermons in churches. And if only speeches
    in Parliament had been in Hebrew, you might have believed yourself in
    Palestine. The "Levellers," who called themselves "Jews" (in oppositionto
    their opponents whom they termed "Amalekites"), advocated the adop-tion
    of the Torah as the norm of English legislation. Cromwell's officers
    suggested to him to appoint seventy members of his Privy Council ac-cording
    to the number of the members of the Synhedrin. To the Parlia-ment
    of 1653 General Thomas Harrison, the Anabaptist, was returned,
    and he and his party clamoured for the introduction of the Mosaic legis-lation
    into England. In 1649 it was moved in the House of Commons
    that the Lord's Day should be observed on Saturday instead of on Sun-day.
    On the banners of the victorious Puritans was inscribed "The Lion
    of Judah."79 It is significant that not only the Bible, but the Rabbinical
    literature as well, was extensively read in large circles of the clergy and
    laity.
    Altogether, then, there appears to be sufficient evidence for the de-duction
    of Puritan doctrines from Jewish sources. The specialists must
    decide. Here I have been able to do no more than give a hint or two. And
    in conclusion I would draw attention to a little humorous publication,
    which appeared in the year 1608 and the contents of which would seem
    to demonstrate the close connexion between Judaism and Calvinism
    (which is only Puritanism). It is called, Der Calvinische Judenspiegel
    (the Calvinistic Jewish Mirror), and on page 33 a comparison is drawn
    between the two religions in the following droll fashion. [The old Ger-man
    is delightful.] "If I am to say on my honour why I am become a
    Calvinist, I shall have to confess that the one and only reason which
    persuaded me was that among all the religions I could find none which
    agreed so much with Judaism, and its view of life and faith. (Here fol-low
    a number of parallel statements, partly serious and partly satirical).
    8. The Jews hate the name of Mary and tolerate her only when she is.176/Werner Sombart
    made of gold and silver, or when her image is impressed on coins. So do
    we. We too like Mary farthings and crowns, to which we pay all due
    respect, for they are useful in business. 9. The Jews everywhere are at
    pains to cheat the people. So are we. For that very reason we left our
    country to wander in other lands where we are not known in our true
    colours, so that by our deceit and cunning ... we might lead astray the
    ignorant yokels, cheat them and bring them to us...."

    Chapter 12. Jewish Characteristics


    The Problem
    The decision to deal in a work of a scientific character with the problem
    suggested by the title of the present chapter has not been arrived at
    without a great effort. For it has of late become the fashion to seize upon
    anything even but faintly savouring of the psychology of nations as the
    plaything for the lighter moods of dilettanti, whilst descriptions of the
    Jewish genius have been hailed as the newest form of political sport by
    coarser spirits, whose rude instincts cannot but give offence to all those
    who, in our gross age, have managed to preserve a modicum of good
    taste and impartiality. Unjustifiable juggling with categories in race psy-chology
    has already led to the conclusion that it is impossible to arrive
    at any scientific results in this field of study. Read the books of P. Hertz,
    Jean Finot and others 1 and you will lay them down with the feeling that
    it is useless to attempt to find common psychological characteristics
    among any conglomeration of humans; that French esprit is a myth --
    in fact that there are no Frenchmen, just as there are no Jews. But cross
    the street, and lo and behold, you are face to face with a specific type;
    read a book or stand before a picture and almost unconsciously you say.
    How very German, how thoroughly French!
    Is this only the imagining of our fancy?2
    Nay more. If we think for a moment of human history we must
    needs construct for ourselves the hypothesis of a sort of "collective soul."
    When, for example, we talk of the Jewish religion we are bound to con-nect
    it with the Jewish people whose genius gave it birth. Or, when we
    say the Jews had an influence on modern economic development, it fol-lows
    surely that there must have been something essentially Jewish that
    brought it about. Otherwise we might as well assert that it would have
    made no difference to the economic history of Western Europe if Eski-.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/177
    mos had taken the place of Jews, or perhaps even gorillas would have
    done equally well!
    This reductio ad absurdum shows plainly enough that there must
    be some specifically Jewish characteristic. But let us consider the mat-ter
    from a slightly different point of view. Let us glance at the objective
    circumstances in the Jewish aptitude for modern capitalism. There was
    first, as we have seen, the dispersion of the Jews over a wide area. Now
    without recourse to subjective forces the Diaspora can be as little ex-plained
    as the effects of the Diaspora. And one thing is evident. The
    dispersion of a people in itself does not necessarily have either eco-nomic
    or cultural results; nay, very often dispersion may lead to fusion
    and ultimate disappearance.
    It has been claimed -- and with truth -- that it was the dispersion
    of the Jews which fitted them to become intermediaries. Granted, but
    did it also tend to make of them negotiators and private advisers of
    princes, callings which have from time immemorial been the stcpping-stones
    of the interpreter to higher posts? Were the capacities essential to
    these new offices not inherent in the Jews themselves?
    We have admitted that the dispersion of the Jews was responsible
    for no little of their success in international commerce and credit. But is
    not the postulate to this success the fact that the Jews everywhere kept
    together? What would have happened if, like so many other scattered
    races, they had not maintained their bonds of union?
    Lastly, let us not forget that the Jews came among just those peoples
    who happened to be mature enough to receive capitalism. But even so, if
    Jewish influence was strong (and it is so still) in Holland, in England, in
    Germany, in Austria-Hungary -- stronger far than their influence on
    the Spaniards, Italians, Greeks or Arabs -- it was in a large measure
    due to the contrasts between them and their hosts. For it would seem
    that the more slow-witted, the more thick-skulled, the more ignorant of
    business a people is, the more effective is Jewish influence on their eco-nomic
    life. And can this be satisfactorily accounted for except through
    special Jewish peculiarities?
    No matter what was the origin of their innate dissimilarity from
    their hosts, the salient point is that this strangeness should have ob-tained
    lasting influence in economic life. Once more it is impossible to
    fathom this without the assumption of inherent Jewish characteristics.
    That a people or a tribe is hated and persecuted does not furnish suffi-cient
    reason for spurring them on to redoubled efforts in their activities..178/Werner Sombart
    On the contrary, in most cases this contempt and ill-treatment but serve
    to destroy morals and initiative. Only where man is possessed of excep-tional
    qualities do these become, under the stress of circumstances, the
    source of regenerated energy.
    Again, look at their semi-citizenship. Does not the identical argu-ment
    hold good here also? It is so obvious as to become almost a truism.
    Nowhere did the Jews enjoy the same advantages as their fellow-citi-zens,
    and yet everywhere they achieved economically much more than
    the rest of the population. There can be but one explanation for this --
    the specifically Jewish characteristics.
    On the other hand, the legal position of the Jews varied in different
    countries and at different times. In some States they were allowed to
    engage in certain occupations; in others these same occupations were
    forbidden them; in others again, such as England, they were on a per-fectly
    equal footing with the rest of the people in this respect. And yet
    they devoted themselves almost everywhere to particular callings. In
    England and America they began their commercial mission by becom-ing
    bullion-merchants or storekeepers. And can this be accounted for in
    any other way than by once more pointing to their peculiar characteris-tics?
    As for the wealth of the Jews, that alone will hardly suffice to ex-plain
    their great achievements in the sphere of economic activities. A
    man who possesses vast sums must have a number of intellectual quali-ties
    in addition, if his money is to be usefully employed in the capitalis-tic
    sense. That surely requires no proof.
    Jewish characteristics must therefore exist. It remains only to dis-cover
    what they are.
    Our first thought of the Jews as a unit will naturally be associated
    with their religion. But before we proceed another step I should like to
    premise that on the one hand I shall limit the group lumped together
    under the Jewish religion, and on the other hand, I shall enlarge it. I shall
    limit it by only considering the Jews since their expulsion from Spain
    and Portugal, that is, from the end of the Middle Ages. I shall enlarge it
    by including within the circle of my observations the descendants of
    Jews, even if they themselves have left the faith.
    Moreover, I should like to touch upon the arguments urged against
    the existence of Jewish peculiarities.
    (1) It has been remarked that the Jews of Western Europe and
    America have to a large extent assimilated with the peoples among whom.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/179
    they dwell. This need not be denied, even if specifically Jewish charac-teristics
    were as clear as daylight. Is it not possible for social groups to
    intermingle? A man may be a German, have all the characteristics of a
    German, and yet be an individual in the group "international proletariat!"
    Or take another instance. Are not the German Swiss at one and the same
    time Swiss and German?
    (2) The Jews in the Diaspora, it is maintained, are not a "nation" or
    a "people" in the commonly accepted meaning of the term,3 since they
    are not a political, cultural or linguistic community. The reply to this
    objection is that there are many other qualifications besides those men-tioned
    (e.g., a common origin) which must be considered. But speaking
    generally, it is as well not to press a definition too closely.
    (3) The differences between the Jews themselves have been made
    much of. It has been said that there is no homogeneity among Jews, that
    one section is bitterly opposed to the other. The Western Jews are differ-ent
    from the Eastern Jews, the Sephardim from the Ashkenazim, the
    Orthodox from the Liberals, the everyday Jew from the Sabbath Jew (to
    use a phrase of Marx). This also there is no need to deny. But it does not
    by any means preclude the possibility of common Jewish characteris-tics.
    Is it so difficult to conceive of wheels within wheels? Cannot a
    large group contain lesser groups side by side? Think of the many groups
    to which an Englishman may belong. He may be a Catholic or a Protes-tant,
    a farmer or a professor, a northerner or a southerner and Heaven
    only knows what else besides. But he remains an Englishman all the
    same. So with the Jew. He may belong to one circle within the whole,
    may possess certain characteristics that mark all individuals in that circle,
    but he retains the specifically Jewish characteristics nevertheless.
    Finally, I must make it plain that I have no intention of outlining all
    Jewish characteristics. I propose to deal with those only that have refer-ence
    to economic life. I shall not content myself with the old-fashioned
    expressions, such as the Jewish "commercialism," the "bartering spirit"
    and the like. I say nothing of the practice of some to include the desire
    for profit as a characteristic of a social group. The desire for profit is
    human -- all too human. In fact, I must reject all previous analyses of
    the Jewish soul (in so far as they touch economic life), and for the fol-lowing
    reasons. First, what the Jew was well-fitted for was never clearly
    enough designated. "For trade" is much too vague a term to be of the
    slightest use. I have therefore tried to show, in a special chapter, the
    circle of economic activities for which Jews are specifically fitted. Sec-.180/Werner Sombart
    ondly, mere description is not explanation. If I want to prove that a man
    has all the capabilities necessary to make him an admirable speculator
    on the Stock Exchange, it will not be enough if I say that he will make a
    fine jobber. It is like saying indigence is due to poverty. Yet that is how
    Jewish economic talents have been treated. Our method will be differ-ent.
    We shall try to discover certain properties of the soul which are
    congenial to the exercise of economic functions in a capitalistic organ-ism.
    And now, having cleared the way, I shall proceed to demonstrate
    what the real Jewish peculiarities are.
    An Attempt at a Solution
    It is surprising to find that despite the enormity of the problem there is
    yet a great degree of unanimity in the different views about the Jews. In
    literature no less than in actual life, unprejudiced observers agree on
    one or other point of importance. Read Jellinek or Fromer, Chamberlain
    or Marx, Heine or Goethe, Leroy-Beaulieu or Picciotto -- read the pi-ous
    or the non-conforming Jew, the anti-Semitic or the philo-Semitic
    non-Jew -- and you get the impression that all of them are conscious of
    the same peculiarities. This is comforting to one who is about to de-scribe
    the Jewish genius once more. At any rate, he will say nothing that
    other people might not have said, even though his standpoint be slightly
    different. In my own case I shall attempt to show the connexion between
    the characteristics and the natural gifts of the Jews and the capitalistic
    economic system. I shall first try to sketch a detailed picture of Jewish
    qualities and then proceed to bring them into relation with capitalism.
    Unlike most other writers on the subject I will begin by noting a
    Jewish quality which, though mentioned often enough, never received
    the recognition which its importance merited. I refer to the extreme in-tellectuality
    of the Jew. Intellectual interests and intellectual skill are
    more strongly developed in him than physical (manual) powers. Of the
    Jew it may certainly be said, "l'intelligence prime le corps." Everyday
    experience proves it again and again, and many a fact might be cited in
    its support. No other people has valued the learned man, the scholar, so
    highly as the Jews. "The wise man takes precedence of the king, and a
    bastard who is a scholar of a high-priest who is an ignoramus." So the
    Talmud has it. Any one who is acquainted with Jewish students knows
    well enough that this over-rating of mere knowledge is not yet a thing of
    the past. And if you could not become "wise," at least it was your duty.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/181
    to be educated. At all times instruction was compulsory in Israel. In
    truth, to learn was a religious duty; and in Eastern Europe the syna-gogue
    is still called the Shool (Schule, School). Study and worship went
    hand in hand; nay, study was worship and ignorance was a deadly sin. A
    man who could not read was a boor in this world and damned in the
    next. In the popular sayings of the Ghetto, nothing had so much scorn
    poured upon it as foolishness. "Better injustice than folly," and "Ein
    Narr ist ein Gezar" (A fool is a misfortune) are both well known.4
    The most valuable individual is the intellectual individual; human-ity
    at its best is intellectuality at its highest. Listen to what a sensible
    Jew has to say when he pictures the ideal man, the superman if you like,
    of the future. He takes it all as a matter of course; those who are differ-ently
    constituted must surely tremble at the prospect. "In the place of
    the blind instincts . . . civilized man will possess intellect conscious of
    purpose. It should be every one's unswerving ideal to crush the instincts
    and replace them by will-power, and to substitute reflection for mere
    impulse. The individual only becomes a man in the fullest sense of the
    word when his natural predisposition is under the control of his reason-ing
    powers. And when the process of emancipation from the instincts is
    complete we have the perfect genius with his absolute inner freedom
    from the domination of natural laws. Civilization should have but one
    aim -- to liberate man from all that is mystic, from the vague impul-siveness
    of all instinctive action, and to cultivate the purely rational side
    of his being."5 Only think. Genius, the very essence of instinctive ex-pression,
    conceived as the highest form of the rational and the intellec-tual!
    One consequence of this high evaluation of the intellect was the
    esteem in which callings were held according as they demanded more
    "headwork" or more "handwork." The former were almost in all ages
    placed higher than the latter. It is true that there may have been, and still
    may be, Jewish communities in which hard bodily labour is done every
    day, but this hardly applies to the Jews of Western Europe. Even in
    Talmud times Jews preferred those callings which necessitated a lesser
    expenditure of physical energy. As Rabbi said, "The world needs both
    the seller of spices and the tanner, but happy be who is a seller of spices."
    Or again, "R. Men: used to say, A man should have his son taught a
    clean and easy handicraft" (Kiddushin, 82b).
    The Jews were quite alive to their predominant quality and always
    recognized that there was a great gulf between their intellectuality and.182/Werner Sombart
    the brute force of their neighbours. One or two sayings popular among
    Polish Jews express the contrast with no little humour. "God help a man
    against Gentile hands and Jewish heads." "Heaven protect us against
    Jewish mooch (brains) and Gentile koach (physical force)." Mooch v.
    Koach -- that is the Jewish problem in a nutshell. It ought to be the
    motto of this book.
    The predominance of intellectual interests could not but lead in a
    people so gifted as the Jews to intellectual skill. "Say what you like
    about a Jew, you cannot say he is a fool." "A gallant Greek, a stupid
    Jew, an honest Gipsy -- all are unthinkable" is a popular saying among
    Roumanians. And a Spanish proverb has it, "A hare that is slow and a
    Jew who is a fool: both are equally probable."6 Who that has had deal-ings
    with Jews but will not confirm that on an average they possess a
    greater degree of understanding, that they are more intelligent than other
    people? I might even call it astuteness or sagacity, as was remarked by
    one of the keenest observers of Jews 7 a century or more ago, who char-acterized
    them as "intellectual and endowed with great genius for things
    of the present age," though, he added, "to a less degree than in the past."
    "The Jewish mind is an instrument of precision; it has the exactness
    of a pair of scales": most people will agree with this judgment of Leroy-Beaulieu.
    And when H. S. Chamberlain speaks of the under-develop-ment
    of Jewish "understanding" he must surely be using the term in a
    special sense. He cannot possibly mean by it quick thought, precise
    analysis, exact dissection, speedy combination, the power of seeing the
    point at once, of suggesting analogies, distinguishing between synony-mous
    things, of drawing final conclusions. The Jew is able to do all this,
    and Jellinek, who rightly lays stress 8 on this side of the Jewish charac-ter,
    points out that Hebrew is particularly rich in expressions for activi-ties
    demanding qualities of the mind. It has no fewer than eleven words
    for seeking or researching, thirty-four for distinguishing or separating,
    and fifteen for combining.
    There is no doubt that these mental gifts make the Jews prominent
    as chess-players, as mathematicians 9 and in all calculating work. These
    activities postulate a strong capacity for abstract thought and also a
    special kind of imagination, which Wundt has so happily christened the
    combinatory. Their skill as physicians (ability at diagnosis)10 may also
    be traced to their calculating, dissecting and combining minds, which
    "like lightning, illuminate dark places in a flash."
    It is not unknown that often enough Jewish mental ability degener-.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/183
    ates into hair-splitting. (When the mill has no corn to grind it grinds
    itself.) But this does not matter so much as another fact. The intellectu-ality
    of the Jew is so strong that it tends to develop at the expense of
    other mental qualities, and the mind is apt to become one-sided. Let us
    take a few instances. The Jew lacks the quality of instinctive under-standing;
    he responds less to feeling than to intellect. We can scarcely
    think of a Jewish mystic like Jacob Bohme, and the contrast becomes
    still more striking when we remember the sort of mysticism found in the
    Kabbala. In the same way all romance is alien to this particular view of
    life; the Jew cannot well sympathize with losing oneself in the world, in
    mankind or in nature. It is the difference between frenzied enthusiasm
    and sober, matter-of-fact thought.
    Akin to this characteristic is that of a certain lack of impression-ability,
    a certain lack of receptive and creative genius. When I was in
    Breslau a Jewish student from the far East of Siberia came to me one
    day "to study Karl Marx." It took him nearly three weeks to reach
    Breslau, and on the very day after his arrival he called on me and bor-rowed
    one of Marx's works. A few days later he came again, discussed
    with me what he had read, brought back the book and borrowed an-other.
    This continued for a few months. Then he returned to his native
    village. The young man had received absolutely no impressions from
    his new surroundings; he had made no acquaintances, never taken a
    walk, hardly knew in fact where it was that he was staying. The life of
    Breslau passed him by completely. No doubt it was the same before he
    came to Breslau, and will be the same throughout the future. He will
    walk through the world without seeing it. But he had made himself ac-quainted
    with Marx. Is this a typical case? I think so. You may meet
    with it every day. Are we not continually struck by the Jew's love for the
    inconcrete, his tendency away from the sensuous, his constant abiding
    in a world of abstractions? And is it only accidental that there are far
    fewer Jewish painters than literary men or professors? Even in the case
    of Jewish artists is there not something intellectual about their work?
    Never was word more truly spoken than when Friedrich Naumann com-pared
    Max Liebermann [the famous Jewish painter] with Spinoza, say-ing,
    "He paints with his brain."
    The Jew certainly sees remarkably clearly, but he does not see much.
    He does not think of his environment as something alive, and that is why
    he has lost the true conception of life, of its oneness, of its being an
    organism, a natural growth. In short, he has lost the true conception of.184/Werner Sombart
    the personal side of life. General experience must surely support this
    view; but if other proofs are demanded they will be found in the pecu-liarities
    of Jewish law, which, as we have already seen, abolished per-sonal
    relationships and replaced them by impersonal, abstract connexions
    or activities or aims.
    As a matter of fact, one may find among Jews an extraordinary
    knowledge of men. They are able with their keen intellects to probe, as
    it were, into every pore, and to see the inside of a man as only Rontgen
    rays would show him. They muster all his qualities and abilities, they
    note his excellences and his weaknesses; they detect at once for what he
    is best fitted. But seldom do they see the whole man, and thus they often
    make the mistake of ascribing actions to him which are an abomination
    to his inmost soul. Moreover, they seldom appraise a man according to
    his personality, but rather according to some perceptible characteristic
    and achievement.
    Hence their lack of sympathy for every status where the nexus is a
    personal one. The Jews' whole being is opposed to all that is usually
    understood by chivalry, to all sentimentality, knight-errantry, feudal-ism,
    patriarchalism. Nor does he comprehend a social order based on
    relationships such as these. "Estates of the realm" and craft organiza-tions
    are a loathing to him. Politically he is an individualist. A constitu-tional
    State in which all human intercourse is regulated by clearly de-fined
    legal principles suits him well.[Is not this the general modern ten-dency?
    Cf. Sir H. Maine's dictum: The progress of Society is from
    status to contract. -- Trans.] He is the born representative of a "lib-eral"
    view of life in which there are no living men and women of flesh
    and blood with distinct personalities, but only citizens with rights and
    duties. And these do not differ in different nations, but form part of
    mankind, which is but the sum-total of an immense number of amor-phous
    units. Just as so many Jews do not see themselves -- do they not
    deny their obvious characteristics and assert that there is no difference
    between them and Englishmen or Germans or Frenchmen? -- so they
    do not see other people as living beings but only as subjects, citizens, or
    some other such abstract conception. It comes to this, that they behold
    the world not with their "soul" but with their intellect. The result is that
    they are easily led to believe that whatever can be neatly set down on
    paper and ordered aright by the aid of the intellect must of necessity be
    capable of proper settlement in actual life. How many Jews still hold
    that the Jewish Question is only a political one, and are convinced that a.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/185
    liberal regime is all that is required to remove the differences between
    the Jew and his neighbour. It is nothing short of astounding to read the
    opinion of so soundly learned a man as the author of one of the newest
    books on the Jewish Question that the whole of the anti-Semitic move-ment
    during the last thirty years was the result of the works of Marr and
    Duhring. "The thousand victims of the pogroms and the million sturdy
    workers who emigrated from their homes are but a striking illustration
    of the power of -- Eugen Duhring" (!).11 Is not this opposing ink and
    blood, understanding and instinct, an abstraction and a reality?
    The conception of the universe in the mind of such an intellectual
    people must perforce have been that of a structure well-ordered in ac-cordance
    with reason. By the aid of reason, therefore, they sought to
    understand the world; they were rationalists, both in theory and in prac-tice.
    Now as soon as a strong consciousness of the ego attaches itself to
    the predominating intellectuality in the thinking being, he will tend to
    group the world round that ego. In other words, he will look at the world
    from the point of view of end, or goal, or purpose. His outlook will be
    Ideological, or that of practical rationalism. No peculiarity is so fully
    developed in the Jew as this, and there is complete unanimity of opinion
    on the subject. Most other observers start out with the teleology of the
    Jew; I for my part regard it as the result of his extreme intellectuality, in
    which I believe all the other Jewish peculiarities are rooted. In saying
    this, however, I do not in the least wish to minimize the very great 'im-portance
    of this Jewish characteristic.
    Take any expression of the Jewish genius and you will be certain to
    find in it this teleological tendency, which has sometimes been called
    extreme subjectivity. Whether or no the Indo-Germanic races are objec-tive
    and the Semitic subjective,12 certain it is that the Jews are the most
    subjective of peoples. The Jew never loses himself in the outer world,
    never sinks in the depth of the cosmos, never soars in the endless realms
    of thought, but, as Jellinek well puts it, dives below the surface to seek
    for pearls. He brings everything into relation with his ego. He is for ever
    asking why, what for, what will it bring? Cui bono? His greatest inter-est
    is always in the result of a thing, not in the thing itself. It is un-Jewish
    to regard any activity, be it what you will, as an end in itself; un-Jewish
    to live your life without having any purpose, to leave all to chance;
    un-Jewish to get harmless pleasure out of Nature. The Jew has taken all
    that is in Nature and made of it "the loose pages of a text-book of ethics.186/Werner Sombart
    which shall advance the higher moral life." The Jewish religion, as we
    have already seen, is teleological in its aim; in each of its regulations it
    has the ethical norm in view. The entire universe, in the Jew's eyes, is
    something that was made in accordance with a plan. This is one of the
    differences between Judaism and heathenism, as Heine saw long ago.
    "They (the heathens) all have an endless, eternal 'past,' which is in the
    world and develops with it by the laws of necessity; but the God of the
    Jews was outside the world, which He created as an act of free-will."
    No term is more familiar to the ear of the Jew than Tachlis, which
    means purpose, aim, end or goal. If you are to do anything it must have
    a tachlis; life itself, whether as a whole or in its single activities, must
    have some tachlis, and so must the universe. Those who assert that the
    meaning of Life, of the World, is not tachlis but tragedy, the Jew will
    reckon as foolish visionaries.
    How deeply the teleological view of things is embedded in the na-ture
    of the Jew may be seen in the case of those of them who, like the
    Chassidim, pay no attention to the needs of practical life because "there
    is no purpose in them." There is no purpose in making a living, and so
    they let their wives and children starve, and devote themselves to the
    study of their sacred books. But we may see it also in all those Jews
    who, with a soul-weariness within them and a faint smile on their coun-tenances,
    understanding and forgiving everything, stand and gaze at life
    from their own heights, far above this world. I have in my mind such
    choice spirits among the literary men of our day as George Hirschfeld,
    Arthur Schnitzler and George Hermann. The great charm of their work
    lies in this world-aloofness with which they look down on our hustle and
    bustle, in the quiet melancholy pervading all their poetry, in their senti-ment.
    Their very lack of will-power is only strength of will in a kind of
    negative form. Through all their ballads sounds the same soft plaint of
    grief: how purposeless and therefore how sad is the world! Nature her-self
    is tinged with this sorrow; autumn always lurks in ambush though
    wood and meadow be bright with gay spring blossoms; the wind plays
    among the fallen leaves and the sun's golden glory, be it never so beau-tiful,
    must go down at last. Subjectivity and the conception that all things
    must have an aim (and the two are the same) rob the poetry of Jewish
    writers of naiveté, freshness and directness, because Jewish poets are
    unable simply to enjoy the phenomena of this world, whether it be hu-man
    fate or Nature's vagaries; they must needs cogitate upon it and turn
    it about and about. Nowhere is the air scented with the primrose and the.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/187
    violet, nowhere gleams the spray of the rivulet in the wood. But to make
    up for lack of these they possess the wonderful aroma of old wine and
    the magic charm of a pair of beautiful eyes gazing sadly into the dis-tance.
    When this attitude of mind that seeks for a purpose in all things is
    united with a strong will, with a large fund of energy (as is generally the
    case with the Jew), it ceases to be merely a point of view; it becomes a
    policy. The man sets himself a goal and makes for it, allowing nothing
    whatever to turn him aside from his course; he is determined, if you like,
    stiff-necked. Heine in characterizing his people called it stubbornness,
    and Goethe said that the essence of the Jewish character was energy and
    the pursuit of direct ends.
    My next point is mobility, but I am not quite sure whether this can
    be ascribed to all Jews or only to the Ashkenazi (German) Jews. Writers
    who have sung the praises of the Sephardim (Spanish Jews) always lay
    stress on a certain dignified air which they have, a certain supercilious-ness
    of bearing.13 Their German brethren, on the other hand, have al-ways
    been described as lively, active and somewhat excitable.14 Even
    to-day you may meet with many Spanish Jews, especially in the Orient,
    who strike you as being dignified, thoughtful and self-restrained, who
    do not in the least appear to have that mobility, moral or physical, which
    is so often noticeable in European Jews. But mobility of mind -- quick
    perception and mental versatility -- all Jews possess.
    These four elements, intellectuality, teleology, energy and mobility,
    are the corner-stones of Jewish character, so complicated in its nature. I
    believe that all the qualities of the Jew may be easily traced to one or
    more of these elements. Take two which are of special import in eco-nomic
    life -- extreme activity and adaptability.
    The Jew is active, or if you will, industrious. In the words of Goethe,
    "No Jew, not even the most insignificant, but is busy towards the achieve-ment
    of some worldly, temporary or momentary aim." This activity of-ten
    enough degenerates into restlessness. He must for ever be up and
    doing, for ever managing something and carrying it to fruition. He is
    always on the move, and does not care much if he makes himself a
    nuisance to those who would rest if they could. All musical and social
    "affairs" in our large towns are run by Jews. The Jew is the born trum-peter
    of progress and of its manifold blessings. And why? Because of
    his practical-mindedness andhis mobility combined with his intellectu-ality.
    The last more especially, because it never strikes deep root. All.188/Werner Sombart
    intellectuality is in the long run shallowness; never does it allow of probing
    to the very roots of a matter, never of reaching down to the depths of the
    soul, or of the universe. Hence intellectuality makes it easy to go from
    one extreme to the other. That is why you find among Jews fanatical
    orthodoxy and unenlightened doubt side by side; they both spring from
    one source.
    But to this shallow intellectuality the Jew owes perhaps the most
    valuable of his characteristics -- his adaptability -- which is unique in
    history. The Jews were always a stiff-necked people, and their adapt-ability
    no less than their capacity to maintain their national traits are
    both due to the one cause. Their adaptability enabled them to submit for
    the time being, if circumstances so demanded, to the laws of necessity,
    only to hark back to their wonted ways when better days came. From of
    old the Jewish character was at one and the same time resistant and
    submissive, and though these traits may appear contradictory they only
    seem so. As Leroy-Beaulieu well said, "The Jew is at once the most
    stubborn and the most pliant of men, the most self-willed and the most
    malleable."
    The leaders and the "wise" men of the Jewish people were in all
    ages fully alive to the importance, nay the necessity, of this flexibility
    and elasticity, if Israel was to continue, and they were therefore never
    tired of insisting upon it. Jewish literature abounds in instances. "Be as
    pliant as the reed which the wind blows in this direction and in that, for
    the Torah can be observed only by him that is of a contrite spirit. Why is
    the Torah likened unto water? To tell you that just as water never flows
    up to the heights but rather runs down to the depths, so too the Torah
    does not abide with the haughty but only with the lowly."15 Or again,
    "When the fox is in authority bow down before him."16 Once more,
    "Bend before the wave and it passes over you; oppose it, and it will
    sweep you away."17 Finally, a supplication from the Prayer Book runs
    as follows: "May my soul be as the dust to every one."
    It was in this spirit that the Rabbis counselled their flocks to pretend
    to accept the dominant faiths in those countries where their existence
    depended on the renunciation of their own. The advice was followed to
    a large extent, and in the words of Fromer, "The Jewish race, by simu-lating
    death from time to time, was able to live on and on."
    There are very few, if any, make-believe Christians or Moslems to-day.
    Nevertheless, the remarkable power of the Jew to adapt himself to
    his environment has more scope than ever. The Jew of Western Europe.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/189
    and America to-day no longer wishes to maintain his religion and his
    national character intact; on the contrary, he wishes, in so far as the
    nationalist spirit has not yet awakened in him, to lose his characteristics
    and to assimilate with the people in whose midst his lot happens to be
    cast. And lo, this too he can successfully achieve.
    Perhaps the clearest illustration of the way in which Jewish traits
    manifest themselves is the fact that the Jew in England becomes like an
    Englishman, in France like a Frenchman, and so forth. And if he does
    not really become like an Englishman or a Frenchman, he appears to be
    like one. That a Felix Mendelssohn should write German music, that a
    Jacques Offenbach French and a Sousa Yankee-doodle; that Lord
    Beaconsfield should set up as an Englishman, Gambetta as a French-man,
    Lassalle as a German; in short, that Jewish talent should so often
    have nothing Jewish about it, but be in accord with its environment, has
    curiously enough again and again been urged as evidence that there are
    no specifically Jewish characteristics, whereas in truth it proves the very
    opposite in a striking fashion. It proves that the Jews have the gift of
    adaptability in an eminently high degree. The Jew might go from one
    planet to another, but his strangeness amid the new surroundings would
    not continue for long. He quickly feels his way and adapts himself with
    ease. He is German where he wants to be German, and Italian if that
    suits him better. He does everything and dabbles in everything, and with
    success. He can be a pure Magyar in Hungary, he can belong to the
    Irredenta in Italy, and be an anti-Semite in France (Drumont!). He is an
    adept in seizing upon anything which is still germinating, and bringing
    it with all speed to its full bloom.18 All this his adaptability enables him
    to do.
    I have already said that this peculiar capacity for adaptation is rooted
    in the four elements of the Jewish character. But perhaps the rationalism
    of the Jew is responsible for it to a greater degree than the other three.
    Because of his rationalism he is able to look at everything from without.
    If the Jew is anything, it is not because he must but because he deter-mines
    to be so. Any convictions he may have do not spring from his
    inmost soul; they are formulated by his intellect. His standpoint is not
    on solid earth but an imaginary castle in the air. He is not organically
    original but mechanically rational. He lacks depth of feeling and strength
    of instinct. That is why he is what he is, but he can also be different.
    That Lord Beaconsfield was a Conservative was due to some accident
    or other, or some political conjuncture; but Stein and Bismarck and.190/Werner Sombart
    Carlyle were Conservatives because they could not help it; it was in
    their blood. Had Marx or Lassalle been born in another age, or in an-other
    environment, they might quite easily have become Conservatives
    instead of Radicals. As a matter of fact, Lassalle was already coquet-ting
    with the idea of becoming a reactionary, and no doubt he would
    have played the part of a Prussian Junker as brilliantly as that of social-ist
    agitator.
    The driving power in Jewish adaptability is of course the idea of a
    purpose, or a goal, as the end of all things. Once the Jew has made up
    his mind what line he will follow, the rest is comparatively easy, and his
    mobility only makes his success more sure.
    How mobile the Jew can be is positively astounding. He is able to
    give himself the personal appearance he most desires. As in days of old
    through simulating death he was able to defend himself, so now by colour
    adaptation or other forms of mimicry. The best illustrations may be
    drawn from the United States, where the Jew of the second or third
    generation is with difficulty distinguished from the non-Jew. You can
    tell the German after no matter how many generations; so with the Irish,
    the Swede, the Slav. But the Jew, in so far as his racial physical features
    allow of it, has been successful in imitating the Yankee type, especially
    in regard to outward marks such as clothing, bearing and the peculiar
    method of hairdressing.
    Easier still, on account of his mental and moral mobility, is it for the
    Jew to make the intellectual atmosphere of his environment his own. His
    mental mobility enables him quickly to seize upon the "tone" of any
    circle, quickly to notice what it is that matters, quickly to feel his way
    into things. And his moral mobility? That helps him to remove trouble-some
    hindrances, either ethical or aesthetical, from his path. And he can
    do this with all the more facility because he has only to a small degree
    what may be termed personal dignity. It means little to him to be untrue
    to himself, if it is a question of attaining the wished-for goal.
    Is this picture faithful of life? The obvious adaptability of the Jew
    to the changing conditions of the struggle for existence is surely proof
    enough. But there is further proof in some of the special gifts which
    Jews possess. I refer to their undoubted talent for journalism, for the
    Bar, for the stage, and all of it is traceable to their adaptability.
    Adolf Jellinek, in the book we have referred to more than once, has
    drawn a clever little sketch showing the connexion between the two.
    "The journalist," he says, "must be quick, mobile, lively, enthusiastic,.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/191
    able to analyze quickly and as quickly to put two and two together; must
    be able to enter in medias res, to have the gist of any question of the day
    or the central fact of a debate in his mind's eye; must be able to deal
    with his subject in clear and well-marked outlines, to describe it epi-grammatically,
    antithetically, sententiously, in short arresting sentences,
    to breathe life into it by means of a certain amount of pathos, to give it
    colour by means of esprit, to make it spicy by means of seasoning." Are
    not all these Jewish traits?
    The actor's calling, no less than the barrister's, depends for success
    on his ability to place himself quickly in a strange world of ideas, to take
    a right view of men and conditions without much difficulty, to form a
    correct estimate of them and to use them for his own end. The Jew's gift
    of subjectivity stands him here in good stead, for by its aid he can easily
    put himself in the position of another, take thought for him and defend
    him. To be sure, jurisprudence is the bulk of the contents of Jewish
    literature!
    Jewish Characteristics as Applied to Capitalism
    Now comes the question, how and in what way did the Jewish charac-teristics
    enable Jews to become financiers and speculators, indeed, to
    engage as successfully in economic activities within the framework of
    the capitalistic system as to be mathematicians, statisticians, physicians,
    journalists, actors and advocates? To what extent, that is, does a special
    talent for capitalistic enterprise spring from the elements in the Jewish
    character?
    Speaking generally, we may say in this connexion what we have
    already remarked about capitalism and the Jewish religion, that the fun-damental
    ideas of capitalism and those of the Jewish character show a
    singular similarity. Hence we have the triple parallelism between Jewish
    character, the Jewish religion and capitalism. What was it we found as
    the all-controlling trait of the Jewish people? Was it not extreme intel-lectuality?
    And is not intellectuality the quality which differentiates the
    capitalistic system from all others? Organizing ability springs from in-tellectuality,
    and in the capitalistic system we find the separation be-tween
    head and hands, between the work of directing and that of manu-facturing.
    "For the greatest work to be completely done, you need of
    hands a thousand, of mind but only one." That sums up the capitalistic
    state of things.
    The purest form of capitalism is that wherein abstract ideas are.192/Werner Sombart
    most clearly expressed. That they are part and parcel of the Jewish
    character we have already seen; there is no occasion to labour the close
    kinship in this respect between capitalism and the Jew. Again, the qual-ity
    of abstraction in capitalism manifests itself in the substitution of all
    qualitative differences by merely quantitative ones (value in exchange).
    Before capitalism came, exchange was a many-sided, multicoloured and
    technical process; now it is just one specialized act -- that of the dealer:
    before there were many relationships between buyer and seller; there is
    only one now -- the commercial. The tendency of capitalism has been
    to do away with different manners, customs, pretty local and national
    contrasts, and to set up in their stead the dead level of the cosmopolitan
    town. In short, there has been a tendency towards uniformity, and in this
    capitalism and Liberalism have much in common. Liberalism we have
    already shown to be a near relative of Judaism, and so we have the
    kindred trio of Capitalism, Liberalism, and Judaism.
    How is the inner resemblance between the first and the last best
    manifested? Is it not through the agency of money, by means of which
    capitalism succeeds so well in its policy of bringing about a drab unifor-mity?
    Money is the common denominator, in terms of which all values
    are expressed; at the same time it is the be-all and end-all of economic
    activity in a capitalistic system. Hence one of the conspicuous things in
    such a system is success. Is it otherwise with the Jew? Does he not also
    make the increase of capital his chief aim? And not only because the
    abstractness of capital is congenial to the soul of the Jew, but also be-cause
    the 'great regard in which (in the capitalistic system) money is
    held strikes another sympathetic note in the Jewish character -- its tele-ology.
    Gold becomes the great means, and its value arises fromthe fact
    that you can utilize it for many ends. It needs but little skill to show that
    a nature intent on working towards some goal should feel itself drawn to
    something which has value only because it is a means to an end. More-over,
    the teleology of the Jew brings it about that he prizes success.
    (Another point of similarity, therefore, with capitalism.) Because he rates
    success so highly he sacrifices to-day for to-morrow, and his mobility
    only helps him to do it all the better. Here again we may observe a
    likeness to capitalism. Capitalism is constantly on the look-out for some-thing
    new, for some way of expanding, for abstaining to-day for the
    sake of to-morrow. Think of our whole system of credit. Does not this
    characteristic show itself there clearly enough? Now remember also that
    the Jews were very much at home in the organization of credit -- in.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/193
    which values or services which may, or can, become effective some time
    in the future are made available to-day. Human thought can plainly
    picture future experiences and future needs, and credit offers the oppor-tunity
    through present economic activities of producing future values.
    That credit is extensively found in modern life scarcely requires point-ing
    out. The reason too is obvious: it offers golden chances. True, we
    must give up the joys that spring from "completely throwing ourselves
    into the present."19 But what of that? The Jewish character and capital-ism
    have one more point in common -- practical rationalism, by which
    I mean the shaping of all activities in accordance with reason.
    To make the whole parallelism even more plain, let me illustrate it
    by concrete instances. The Jew is well fitted for the part of undertaker
    because of his strength of will and his habit of making for some goal or
    other. His intellectual mobility is accountable for his readiness to dis-cover
    new methods of production and new possibilities of marketing.
    He is an adept at forming new organizations, and in these his peculiar
    capacity for finding out what a man is best fitted for stands him in good
    stead. And since in the world of capitalism there is nothing organic or
    natural but only what is mechanical or artificial, the Jew's lack of un-derstanding
    of the former is of no consequence. Even undertaking on a
    large scale is itself artificial and mechanical; you may extend a concern
    or contract it; you may change it according to circumstances. That is
    why Jews are so successful as organizers of large capitalistic undertak-ings.
    Again, the Jew can easily grasp impersonal relationships. We have
    already noted that he has the feeling of personal dependence only in a
    slight measure. Hence, he does not care for your hoary "patriarchalism,"
    and pays little attention to the dash of sentimentality which is still some-times
    found in labour contracts. In all relations between sellers and buy-ers,
    and between employers and employed, he reduces everything to the
    legal and purely business basis. In the struggle of the workers to obtain
    collective agreements between themselves and the masters, which shall
    regulate the conditions of their labour, the Jew is almost invariably on
    the side of the first.
    But if the Jew is well fitted to be an undertaker, still more is he cut
    out for the part of the trader. His qualities in this respect are almost
    innumerable.
    The trader lives in figures, and in figures the Jew has always been in
    his element. His love of the abstract has made calculation easy for him;
    it is his strong point. Now a calculating talent combined with a capacity.194/Werner Sombart
    for working always with some aim in view has already won half the
    battle for the trader. He is enabled to weigh aright the chances, the pos-sibilities
    and the advantages of any given situation, to eliminate every-thing
    that is useless, and to appraise the whole in terms of figures. Give
    this sober calculator a strong dose of imagination and you have the
    perfect speculator before you. To take stock of any given state of things
    with lightning speed, to see a thousand eventualities, to seize upon the
    most valuable and to act in accordance with that -- such, as we have
    already pointed out, is the aim of the dealer. For all this the Jew hasthe
    necessary gifts of mind. I should like expressly to emphasize the close
    kinship between the activities of the clever speculator and those of the
    clever physician who can successfully diagnose a disease. The Jew, be-cause
    of his qualities, is eminently fitted for both.
    A good dealer must be a good negotiator. What cleverer negotiators
    are there than the Jews, whose ability in this direction has long been
    recognized and utilized? To adapt yourself to the needs of a market, to
    meet any specified form of demand, is the one prime essential for the
    dealer. That the Jew with his adaptability can do this as well as any
    other is obvious. The second is the power of suggestion, and in this also
    the Jew is well qualified by his ability to think himself into the situation
    of another.
    Wherever we look the conclusion forces itself upon us that the com-bination
    of no other set of qualities is so well fitted, as are those of the
    Jew, for realizing the best capitalistic results. There is no need for me to
    take the parallelism further; the intelligent reader can easily do so for
    himself. I would only direct his attention to one point more before leav-ing
    the subject -- the parallel between the feverish restlessness of Stock
    Exchange business, always intent on upsetting the tendency towards an
    equilibrium, and the restless nature of the Jew.
    In another place I have sought to characterize the ideal undertaker
    in three words -- he must be wide-awake, clever and resourceful. Wide-awake:
    that is to say, quick of comprehension, sure in judgment, must
    think twice before speaking once, and be able to seize upon the right
    moment.
    Clever: that is to say, he must possess a knowledge of the world,
    must be certain of himself in his judgment and in his treatment of men,
    certain in his judgment on a given conjuncture; and above all, acquainted
    with the weaknesses and mistakes of those around him.
    Resourceful: that is to say, full of ideas. The capitalistic undertaker.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/195
    must have three additional qualities: he must be active, sober and thor-ough.
    By sober, I mean free from passion, from sentiment, from unprac-tical
    idealism. By thorough, I mean reliable, conscientious, orderly, neat
    and frugal.
    I believe this rough sketch will, in broad outline, stand for the capi-talistic
    undertaker no less than for the Jew.

    Part III. The Origin of the Jewish Genius


    Chapter 13. The Race Problem


    Prefatory Note
    Strictly speaking the task I had set myself has now been completed. I
    have tried to show the importance of the Jews in modern economic life
    in all its aspects, and the connexion between Capitalism and "Jewishness."
    In other words, I have endeavoured to point out why it was that the Jews
    have been able to play, and still continue to play, so significant a part in
    economic life; endeavoured to show that their great achievements were
    due partly to objective circumstances, and partly to their inherent char-acteristics.
    But here new questions crop up in plenty, and I must not pass them
    by unanswered, if I desire my most valued readers may not lay aside my
    book with a feeling of dissatisfaction. It is obvious that any one who has
    accompanied me to the point where I maintain that specifically Jewish
    characteristics exist, and that they will account for the great influence
    of the Jews in the body economic, must be bound to ask. What is the
    true nature of these characteristics? How have they come about? What
    will their ultimate effect be?
    The answers to these questions may vary considerably. The Jewish
    characteristics we have noted may be nothing else but, as it were, a
    function without a corresponding organism; may be only surface phe-nomena,
    skin-deep, without any root at all in the human beings that give
    expression to them; may be but as a feather on a coat -- easily blown
    away; something which vanishes with the disappearance of the person..The Jews and Modern Capitalism/197
    Or they may become hardened into a habit and be deep-seated, but
    yet not sufficiently powerful to be hereditary. Contrariwise, they may be
    so marked as to pass from one generation to another. In this case, the
    question presents itself, when did they arise? Were these characteristics
    always in the Jew, were they in his blood, or have they only been ac-quired
    in the course of his history -- either in what is termed ancient
    times, or later? Again, all hereditary qualities may last for ever, or be
    only a temporary nature -- may be, that is, permanent or only transient.
    Seeing that we are dealing with a social group, it will be necessary here,
    too, to answer the question. Is the group a racial entity? In a word, are
    the Jews a subdivision of mankind, differing by blood-kinship from other
    people? Finally, in a problem of this sort we must deal with the possibil-ity
    that the peculiar characteristics of the group may be due to admix-tures
    with other groups, or to selection within the group itself.
    The problem is many-sided: of that there can be little doubt. And
    the worst of it is that modern science can give no certain replies to the
    questions propounded. Attempts have of course been made, but they are
    not without prejudice, and any one even only superficially acquainted
    with the subject will be faced by more problems and puzzles than by
    solutions.
    The most pressing need of the moment, so it seems to me -- one
    which alone will be able to withdraw the Jewish Problem from the semi-darkness
    in which it is enshrouded -- is to obtain a clear conception of
    the questions at issue, and to bring some order into the abundant mate-rial
    at hand. It is almost as though at the point where the general Jewish
    Question intersects the race problem, a thousand devils had been let
    loose to confuse the mind of men. As one authority 1 recently urged with
    regard to the doctrines of heredity: what is most needed is an exact
    precision concerning elementals. The same is the case to an enormous
    extent with the question of whether the Jews are a race or not, and
    perhaps an outsider may contribute something to this end, just because
    he stands apart from the specialists. This thought emboldens me to at-tempt
    to give a resume of all that is current to-day regarding Jews as a
    race -- of all that is certain,and of the thousand and one theories, to say
    nothing of the numerous false hypotheses..198/Werner Sombart
    The Anthropology of the Jews
    Touching the origin of the Jews and their anthropology and ethnology,
    opinions at the present day are pretty well agreed as to the essential
    facts. It is generally assumed 2 that Israel, like Judah, arose from the
    admixture of different Oriental peoples. When, in the 15th century B.C.,
    the Hebrews, then a Bedouin tribe, wished to settle in Palestine they
    found there an old population long since established -- Canaanites,
    who were probably hegemonic, Hittites, Perizites, Hivites and Jebusites
    (Judg. iii. 5). Recent research has come to the conclusion, opposed to
    the older view, that the Israelitish clans largely intermarried with these
    peoples.
    Later, when a portion of the population went into the Babylonian
    Exile, the admixture of races continued in Palestine. And as for the
    exiles (whose history in this connexion is of vital importance), we learn
    much from the latest cuneiform inscriptions concerning their attitude
    toward intermarriage. The inscriptions show, "without doubt," that there
    was a gradual fusion between the Jews and the Babylonians. The immi-grants
    called their children by Babylonian names, and the Babylonians
    theirs by Persian, Hebrew and Aramaic names.3
    Nothing like so clear are the views as to the relationship to each
    other of the peoples and clans of which the Jews were composed; still
    less as to how they can be distinguished from other similar groups; and
    least of all how they are to be called. A very heated controversy has
    recently raged about the term "Semites," with the result that in anthro-pological
    circles the word is no longer used. The Semite controversy,
    like that on the Aryans, only shows how vicious it is to allow linguistic
    concepts to interfere in the anthropological divisions of mankind. It is
    generally accepted that the Semites are all those peoples whose speech
    is Semitic, but that anthropologically they belong to different and differ-ing
    groups.4
    My own view is that the controversy as to the exact demarcation of
    the civilized Oriental peoples is a little futile. Nor does our ignorance on
    this point much matter. One thing however is certain -- that all of them,
    the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Phoenicians and the
    Jews, by virtue of their origin and earliest history, belong to one class,
    which may perhaps be termed "Desert" or "Desert-edge" Peoples. The
    assumption that a fair, blue-eyed tribe from the North intermingled with
    these is now almost unanimously regarded as a fable. The theory of the
    ubiquity of the Germans" will have to be but coldly entertained as long.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/199
    as no more convincing proofs are forthcoming than the reddish hair of
    Saul, or the dolichocephalic skull of the mummy of Rameses II.
    What, then, was the anthropological history of the group of peoples
    in which the Jews originated? A common answer as regards the Jews
    was that they continued to mix with their non-Jewish neighbours in the
    Diaspora as they had done before. Renan, Loeb, Neubauer and others
    believe that the modern Jews are in large measure the descendants of
    heathen proselytes in the Hellenistic Age, or of marriages between Jews
    and non-Jews in the early centuries of the Common Era. The existence
    of fair Jews (to the extent of 13 per cent), especially in Eastern Europe,
    lent probability to this opinion. But to-day, so far as I can make out, the
    entirely opposite view generally prevails -- that from the days of Ezra
    to these the Jews have kept strictly apart. For more than two thousand
    years they have been untouched by other peoples; they have remained
    ethnically pure. That drops of alien blood came into the Jewish body
    corporate through the long centuries of their dispersion no one will deny.
    But so small have these outside elements been that they have not influ-enced
    to any appreciable degree the ethnical purity of the Jewish people.
    It seems pretty clear now that in the past the number of proselytes
    admitted into Judaism was considerably overestimated. There is no doubt
    that in the Hellenistic and early Christian periods Judaism won adher-ents
    among the heathen peoples. (The subsequent centuries were of no
    consequence at all, with the exception of one case only.) Both the Ro-man
    and the Jewish Law made provision for such converts.. But we
    may assume with certainty that all of them were the so-called "Pros-elytes
    of the Gate" -- that is, they worshipped God in accordance with
    Jewish teaching, but they were not circumcised, nor were they allowed
    to marry Jewesses. Nearly all of them eventually drifted into Christian-ity.
    As a matter of fact, in the time of Pius circumcision was again
    allowed to the Jews, but the rite was expressly forbidden to be per-formed
    on proselytes. In this way conversion to Judaism was made a
    punishable offence. This in all probability was not the intention of the
    framers of the prohibition, but its effect was soon recognized, and it was
    extended.6 For Severus "forbade conversion to Judaism on pain of grave
    penalties."
    But even if we allow foreign admixtures among the Jews in the
    early Christian Age, it could never have amounted to very much when
    we think of the millions of Jews who presumably existed at the time, and
    anyhow the stranger elements came from peoples closely akin to the.200/Werner Sombart
    Jews.
    As for the centuries that followed the entry of the Jews into Euro-pean
    history, we may take it that proselytizing ceased almost entirely.
    Throughout the Middle Ages therefore the Jews received but little of
    non-Jewish blood. The remarkable conversion of the Chozars in the 8th
    century cannot be regarded as an exception to this statement, for their
    realm was never very extensive. In the 10th century it was limited to a
    very small area in the western part of the Crimea, and in the 11th the
    tiny Jewish State disappeared altogether. Only a small remnant of the
    Chozars live in Kieff as Karaites. Hence, even if the whole of the Chozars
    professed Judaism, the ethnical purity of the Jews could have been af-fected
    but little. As a matter of fact, however, it is very doubtful whether
    any others than the ruling family, or the upper classes, became Jews.7
    Mixed marriages thus remain as the only possible source whence
    Jewish blood might be made impure. Certainly marriages between Jews
    and non-Jews must have occurred in some periods of Jewish history.
    Mixed marriages were probably numerous -- a not extravagant as-sumption
    -- in those epochs in which the band of Jewish solidarity was
    somewhat loosened -- say, the last pre-Christian century, or the 12th
    and 13th in Spain. Even so, such relaxations never lasted for any con-siderable
    time; Jewish orthodoxy soon regained the upper hand, to the
    exclusion of non-Jews. What the Pharisees achieved in the first-named
    period resulted in the second from the Maimonides schism, and this had
    such reactionary consequences that marriages with Christian and Mo-hammedan
    women were annulled.8
    But there are indications that such marriages were to be found. They
    were expressly forbidden at the early Spanish Councils. For instance,
    the 16th Canon of the Council of Elovia (304) provides that "the daugh-ters
    of Catholics shall not be given in marriage to heretics, except they
    return to the Church. The same applies to Jews and schismatics." The
    64th Canon of the Third Council of Toledo (589) forbids Jews to have
    Christian women either as wives or mistresses; and if any children spring
    from such unions they must be baptized. Once more, the 63rd Canon of
    the Fourth Council of Toledo (633) makes it incumbent upon Jews who
    have Christian wives to accept Christianity if they wish to continue to
    live with them.9 It seems hardly likely, however, that marriages against
    which these canons were issued were very numerous. And anyhow, as
    the children of such marriages were lost to Judaism, Jewish racial pu-rity
    could not have suffered much by them..The Jews and Modern Capitalism/201
    Similarly, it is improbable that there was any admixture of Jews
    with the Northern peoples. There was an opinion current that the Jews
    in Germany up to the time of the Crusades lived among their Christian
    neighbours, and had free intercourse with them in every direction. But
    this view is hardly credible, and Brann, one of the best authorities on
    German Jewish history, has declared the assumption of even the least
    degree of assimilation at this period to be "an airy fancy, which must
    vanish into nothingness when the inner life of the Jews of those days is
    understood."10
    There remain the fair Jews. They have been regarded as a proof of
    Jewish admixture with the fair races of the North. But no scholar of
    repute looks upon these as the outcome of legitimate unions between
    Jews and their Slav neighbours. On the other hand, one hypothesis 11 has
    found credence -- that the fair Jews are the children of illegitimate
    unions between Jews and Russians, either in the ordinary way or forc-ibly
    on the occasion of pogroms. But the weakness of this assumption is
    obvious. Even if it did explain the existence of fair Jews in Russia, it
    would be of no use at all for accounting for fair Jews in Germany, in
    Southern lands, in North Africa and in Palestine.
    There is really no necessity to look for an explanation of the fair
    Jews in the admixture of races. All dark peoples produce a number of
    variants, and this is a case in point.12
    We come back then to the fact that for some twenty centuries the
    Jews have kept themselves ethnically pure. One proof of this is found in
    the similarity of the anthropological characteristics of the Jews all over
    the globe, and, moreover, in that the similarity has been remarkably
    constant through the centuries. "Differences in treatment or environ-ment
    have not been able to blur a common type, and the Jews more than
    any other race stand as a proof that the influence of heredity is much
    more powerful than that of environment" (E. Auerbach).
    The anthropological homogeneity of the Jewish stock at the present
    time has been established by numerous anatomical experiments and
    measurements.13 The only doubtful question is whether the ancient con-trast
    between Ashkenazim [German Jews] and Sephardim [Spanish Jews]
    extends to their anthropology. There are two conflicting opinions on the
    subject,14 but I believe the basis of either is not sufficiently conclusive to
    justify an independent judgment. It must be added, though, that per-sonal
    observation would seem to warrant the belief that there was some
    anthropological difference between the two. Look at your spare, elegant.202/Werner Sombart
    Spanish Jew, with his small hands and feet and his thin, hooked nose,
    and then at his German brother, stout and bow-legged, with his broad,
    fleshy Hittite nose. Do they not appear as two distinct types to the ordi-nary
    observer? There is as yet no scientific ground to explain the differ-ence.
    Another controversial argument is whether the Jews of to-day are a
    separate entity, distinct from their neighbours physiologically and patho-logically.
    There can be no doubt that from this point of view Jews do
    exhibit certain peculiarities in many respects -- early puberty, little li-ability
    to cancer, especially cancer of the womb, strong disposition for
    diabetes, insanity, and so forth. There are people, however, who cannot
    look upon these things as physiological and pathological Jewish traits,
    but explain them as resultants of the social position of the Jews, of their
    religious practices, and so on.15 Here also the ground has not been suf-ficiently
    prepared to warrant a definite statement.
    It is different with the physiognomy of the Jew. Physiognomy, as is
    well known, is the outcome of two causes -- of certain facial forms and
    of their particular expression. You cannot weigh or measure either, and
    therefore this is a matter that must be left entirely to common observa-tion.
    Now, just as the colour-blind distinguish no colours, so those who
    cannot see differences in men's faces know nothing of physiognomy.
    When, therefore, some writers 16 say that in the case of three-quarters of
    cultivated and wealthy Jews they cannot with certainty tell that they are
    Jews merely from their faces, then there is nothing to urge in reply. But
    a keen observer will most decidedly be able to tell. Jewish physiognomy
    is still a reality, and few will deny it. Undoubtedly there are individuals
    among Jews who do not look one whit Jewish. But there are also very
    many individuals among Gentiles who look very Jewish. I should not
    like to go so far as some do,17 and say that the Hapsburgs because of
    their heavy lips, or the Louis of France because of their hooked noses,
    were Jewish-looking. But among Oriental peoples (including possibly
    the Japanese) we do come across Jewish types. This in no wise detracts
    from the anthropological unity of the Jews. If it proves anything, it only
    points to a common origin of the Jews and the Oriental peoples. (It
    might be mentioned, by the way, that the lost Ten Tribes have been
    located in Japan -- a somewhat fantastic conjecture, but having some-thing
    in its favour in the striking similarity of the Japanese and Jewish
    types.) To consider the Jewish physiognomy as an expression of deca-dence,
    or to account for it, as Ripley does, as a result of Ghetto life, is.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/203
    not very conclusive in face of the undeniable Jewish types depicted on
    the monuments of ancient Egypt and Babylonia. Look at the picture of
    Jewish captives in the epoch of Shishak (973 B.C.), or of the Jewish
    ambassadors at the court of Salmanasar 18 (884 B.C.), and you will be
    convinced that from those days to our own, a period of nearly three
    thousand years, few changes have marked the Jewish type of counte-nance.
    This is but another proof of the proposition that the Jewish stock
    is an anthropological entity, and that its characteristics have been con-stant
    through the ages in a most extraordinary fashion.
    The Jewish "Race"
    In view of all this, may we speak of a Jewish race? The answer would
    depend on the connotation of the word "race." But to define it is not
    easy, for there are probably as many definitions as there are writers on
    it.19 It is, of course, open to any one to say. Such and such things I look
    upon as the mark of race, and if I apply my standard the Jews are or are
    not a race, as the case may be. But a procedure of this kind is more of
    the nature of a game. What is needed is a scientific definition. But how?
    Many methods have been tried -- anthropological differences, skull
    measurements, biological experiments and their application -- but all
    with no absolute result. It would, however, be a fallacy to conclude that
    because hitherto no satisfactory classification of the human species has
    been achieved, therefore no anthropological differences really exist. An
    Eskimo is different from a Negro, and the South Italian from the Nor-wegian.
    We do not require anthropology to tell us that.
    So with the Jews. It may be difficult to class them, but anthropo-logical
    peculiarities of their own they surely have. When therefore one
    distinguished scholar 20 writes: "I recognize only a Jewish religious com-munity;
    of a Jewish race I know nothing," we must regard it as a hasty
    expression uttered in the heat of the moment. The objection to it is that
    we can easily place a "Jewish national community" with a common
    history beside the "Jewish religious community."
    So with anthropological characteristics which mark off the Jew from
    the non-Jew. I am firmly of opinion that the Jews, no matter where they
    may be found, are an anthropological group differing from, let us say,
    the Swede or the negro. "A religious community" will not suffice.
    After all, is it not a controversy about words? Some will have it that
    there is no Jewish race. Well and good. But they admit Jewish anthropo-logical
    peculiarities. It is a thousand pities that there is no satisfactory.204/Werner Sombart
    term by which to describe them. "A people" will not serve, for the defi-nitions
    of "people" are no less numerous than those of "race." But what
    does the name matter? The thing certainly is there, and I should have no
    hesitation in speaking of the Jewish race, or, if you will, of the Jewish
    "race."
    Let me conclude this section with one or two wise words written by
    Arthur Ruppin,21 that excellent authority on the Jew, words that appear
    to me to be among the best that have been uttered on the subject: "The
    term 'race' should not be stretched too far. If we include in it such
    groups as developed their special anthropological characteristics in pre-historic
    times, and have since kept themselves without admixture with
    other groups, then in reality there are no 'races' among white-skinned
    peoples, seeing that all of them have intermingled over and over again.
    As for the Jews, whether they had common racial features in prehistoric
    times and have preserved them through the centuries, is a detail of no
    great significance. What does matter is this -- that it is certain that
    those who professed the Jewish religion formed a well-defined group
    distinct from their surroundings, even as late as the end of the 18th
    century, after many generations of strict avoidance of marriage with
    non-Jews. The community which has descended from this group may be
    called, for lack of a better name, a race, more particularly, 'the Jewish
    race.'"
    How the Jewish Genius Remained Constant
    The question of greatest interest in these anthropological considerations
    is to discover whether any connexion exists between the somatic char-acteristics
    of the Jew and his intellectual qualities. We want to make
    sure whether the latter are in his blood, so to say, i.e., whether they are
    racial or no. To discover this it will be necessary to see whether the
    characteristics we have observed in modern Jews were to be found among
    Jews in ancient times also; whether they reach back to their earliest
    history, or whether they appeared at a later date, and if so, when.
    The result will be that we shall observe that Jewish intellectual quali-ties
    have remained constant, that certain characteristics, certain pecu-liar
    features of the Jewish soul may be traced as far back as the forma-tion
    of the Jewish ethnical group. We cannot prove all this directly,
    because we have no reliable accounts of the Jewish popular character
    dating from early times. What we do possess are brief and scanty ex-pressions
    of opinions, valuable, however, as far as they go. It is of great.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/205
    interest, for example, to note that the Pentateuch (in four places --
    Exod. xxxii. 9, xxxiv. 9; Deut. ix. 13 and 27) asserts of the Jews what
    Tacitus said of them later -- that they are a stiff-necked people. No less
    interesting is Cicero's statement that they hang together most frater-nally,
    or Marcus Aurelius's that they are a restless people, to whom he
    cries, "O ye Marcomanni, O ye Quadi, O ye Sarmatae, at length have I
    found a race more restless than you!"; or finally Juan de la Huarte's that
    their intellect is keen and well fitted for worldly things.
    The first point to note is: --
    (1) The attitude of the Jews to the peoples among whom they dwelt
    all through the Diaspora. In the last century or so we have seen this to be
    one of aloofness. Before capitalism came and set them free, Jews were
    looked upon as "strangers," as "semi-citizens." They were hated and
    persecuted in all lands, but everywhere they knew how to preserve and
    maintain themselves.
    How was it in antiquity? How later? The same spectacle confronts
    us, ever since the Jews came into contact with other peoples. Every-where
    there was opposition, persecution and ill-treatment. To begin with
    the Egyptians: "They abhorred the children of Israel" (Exod. i. 12).
    Paul of Tarsus went so far as to say that the Jews "were contrary to all
    men" (1 Thess. ii. 15). In the Hellenistic period, in Imperial Rome --
    the same story of hate and plunder and death. Philo and Josephus both
    record dreadful Jewish pogroms in Alexandria in the first century of our
    era. "Hatred of the Jew and ill-treatment of him are as old as the Diaspora
    itself" (Mommsen).
    Under the Caesars their lot was no different: "I am just sick of these
    filthy, noisy Jews," said Marcus Aurelius. Then, in the time of Theodoric,
    massacres and wholesale plundering were the order of the day, as later
    in the 7th century under the Longobards. And the East was like the
    West; the 6th century in Babylon was as dark as the 7th in Northern
    Italy. Even in the Pyrenean Peninsula, where they enjoyed much that
    was good, the end was bitter: Christian and Moslem both laid hands
    upon them.
    These instances might be multiplied. They are all expressions of
    hatred of the Jew in Christian and non-Christian environments alike.
    Can the phenomenon be explained without the assumption of the exist-ence
    of Jewish characteristics, which remained constant no matter where
    the Jew was placed? The answer must surely be in the affirmative. The
    hatred of the Jew could not have been the result of a passing mood on.206/Werner Sombart
    the part of all these peoples.
    Then again, everywhere and at all times the Jews were semi-citi-zens.
    Sometimes indeed they were not in this category because the law
    placed them there. On the contrary. There were many cases in antiquity
    where Jews were assigned privileged positions, by virtue of which they
    were excused certain duties of the citizen (e.g., military service), or had
    exceptional advantages in regard to legal enactments. Nevertheless they
    took no full share in the life of the State in which they were domiciled.
    The Greek inhabitants of Caesarea, a city on Jewish soil and built under
    Jewish rule, denied citizen rights to the Jews, and Burnus, Nero's minis-ter,
    upheld their decision.22 There was little change in this respect during
    the Middle Ages.
    How are we to account for this generally prevailing treatment? Dif-fering
    States adopted a similar policy towards the Jew: does it not seem
    clear that it was due to some special characteristic of his? If you like,
    say it was the strict adherence to the letter of the Jewish religion. But
    something it must have been.
    And yet, despite all oppression, the Jew was not crushed. He knew
    how to maintain himself from the oldest times onward. Perhaps it was
    because of the curious mixture of stubbornness and elasticity which we
    have noted in Jews of modern days. They might be crushed never so
    relentlessly, but like a Jack-in-the-box they were soon up again. How
    they withstood the onslaught of the Roman Emperors, who used all the
    weapons at their command to stamp them out! Despite their efforts,
    there was again in the 3rd century a Patriarch at Jerusalem recognized
    by the government, with a jurisdiction of his own. In antiquity, in the
    Middle Ages, in this our own time, the peoples have summed up their
    judgment of the Jew in the one word -- stubborn: "ostinato come un
    ebreo."
    The peculiar mixture of determination and elasticity is most won-derfully
    exhibited by the Jews in their bearing towards governments,
    where their religion was concerned. To it they owed most of their en-emies;
    because of it they suffered hardships untold. Yet they would not
    give up their beloved faith. And when pressure was severe, many Jews
    pretended to have forsworn their religion only to be able to carry out its
    precepts in secret. We know of this conduct in connexion with the
    Marannos, but it is as old as the Diaspora itself. When you read of the
    thousands of crypto-Jewish heathens, crypto-Jewish Mohammedans,
    crypto-Jewish Christians, you are astounded at this unique event in hu-.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/207
    man history. The more so as it was the most religious Jews, teachers and
    leaders, who had recourse to the sham conversions in order to save their
    lives. Recall the case of R. Eleazar ben Parta, who was active under
    Hadrian as a pretended heathen;23 that of Ismael ibn Negrela, who, as
    R. Samuel, held discourses on the Talmud and answered questions of
    religious practice, and as Vizier of the Mohammedan King Habus, be-gan
    his master's ordinances with the formula Chamdu-l-Illahi and ended
    them with urging those to whom they were addressed to live according
    to the laws of Islam;24 that of the great Maimonides, who sought to give
    excellent reasons for his pretended conversion to Mohammedanism;25
    that of Sabbatti Zevi, the false Messiah, who though he acknowledged
    Mahomet yet did not lose the respect of his followers; that of the Nea-politan
    Jew Basilus, who made a pretence of having his sons baptized in
    order to be able to carry on the trade in slaves under their name,26 since
    this branch of commerce was forbidden the Jews; that of the thousands
    and thousands of Marannos who, after the expulsion of the Jews from
    the Pyrenean Peninsula, appeared to all the world as Christians and
    returned to the faith of their fathers at the very first opportunity that
    presented itself. What remarkable people must these have been who
    combined such determination with such elasticity!
    We have thus noted that many Jewish characteristics developed to
    their fullest in the Diaspora. But
    (2) Is the Diaspora itself explicable as a result of only outward
    circumstances? Does it not itself rather bear witness to special charac-teristics?
    Or to put the question somewhat differently, would it have
    been possible to scatter any other people over the face of the earth as the
    Jews were scattered?
    The experience of exile the Jews tasted in quite early days. Most
    people have heard of Tiglath-Pileser, who dragged a part of the Jewish
    population to Media and Assyria; of the later Babylonian Exile; of
    Ptolemy Lagi, who forced very many Jews to settle in Egypt and planted
    a Jewish colony in Cyrene; of Antiochus the Great, who brought two
    thousand Jewish families from Babylon and peopled with them the cen-tre
    of Asia Minor, Phrygia and Lydia. Mommsen calls the settlement of
    Jews outside Palestine "an invention of Alexander or of his generals."
    In all these cases the temptation is strong to ascribe the dispersion
    of the Jews to outward circumstances, seeing that in most of the cases
    the Jews were carried away from their homes against their will. There
    appears to be nothing therefore in these dispersions that would point to.208/Werner Sombart
    inherent Jewish characteristics. Such a conclusion would be hasty. Is
    there not this possibility -- that if the Jews had not possessed certain
    qualities they might never have been transplanted? The enforced settle-ments
    must have had some purpose. Either they were beneficial to the
    land from which the Jews were taken, or (what was more probable) to
    the land or the town where they were settled. Either they were feared in
    their own country as firebrands of sedition, or they were accounted such
    valuable citizens for their wealth or their industry that they were made
    the nucleus of new settlements, or they were held to be so trusty that
    they were utilized by rulers to strengthen their hold on turbulent centres
    (as was done by Ptolemy Lagi in Cyrene).
    But many Jews may have forsaken Palestine for what might be termed
    economic reasons: there was not sufficient room for the maintenance of
    an increasing population. Considering the size and the productiveness
    of Palestine, emigration on these grounds must have been of frequent
    occurrence. But this points to a national characteristic -- viz., an in-creasing
    population due, as is known, to physiological and psychologi-cal
    causes alike. Furthermore, that economic pressure led to emigration
    was traceable to another national peculiarity. In this respect the Jews
    have been compared to the Swiss. They, too, leave their homes because
    the country is unable efficiently to maintain them all. But they only
    emigrate because they have the energy and the determination to do bet-ter
    for themselves. The Hindoo does not emigrate. If the population
    increases, he is content with his smaller portion of rice.
    But to regard all Jewish dispersion as enforced is probably one-sided.
    We cannot possibly explain so general a phenomenon, which
    moreover remains the same through the ages, without assuming a vol-untary
    migration. What precisely this was due to -- whether to a
    migrative instinct, or to inability to remain on one piece of soil for long
    -- does not much matter. But some special characteristic will have to be
    associated with this people to account for their travelling so easily from
    land to land, no less than for their settlement in large cities, a proclivity
    shown by the Jews already in very early times. Herzfeld, who has com-piled
    probably the most complete list of Jewish settlements in the Helle-nistic
    Age, draws attention to the striking fact that of the settlements 52
    are in towns, and of these 39 were wealthy commercial centres.27
    It would appear from all this that Jewish characteristics were by no
    means developed in the Diaspora, or as the Jewish historians assume, in
    the Middle Ages, but that the Diaspora itself was the result of these.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/209
    characteristics. The characteristics were there first, at least in embryo.
    (3) So, too, with their religion. When it is asserted that the Jew of
    to-day is a product of his religion, that he has been made what he is,
    almost artificially, by means of a well thought-out policy of some man
    or group of men, and not organically, I am ready to admit the statement.
    My own presentation of this very subject in a previous chapter attempted
    to show what enormous influence the Jewish religion had, more espe-cially
    on the economic activity of the Jew. But I want to oppose the view
    promulgated by H. S. Chamberlain with all my power. I want to make it
    clear that the religion of the Jew would have been impossible but for the
    special characteristics of the Jew. The fact that some man, or group of
    men, was able to give expression to such wonderful thoughts necessar-ily
    postulates that the individual or the group was specially gifted. Again,
    that the whole people should accept their teachings not merely by way
    of lip-service, but with deep and sincere inwardness -- can we explain
    this except by the supposition of special national characteristics? To-day
    we can no longer free ourselves from the opinion that every people
    has, in the long run, the religion best suited for it, and that if it adopts
    another religion it keeps on changing it to suit it to its needs.
    I believe, therefore, that we may deduce the special characteristics
    of the Jewish people from the special characteristics of the Jewish reli-gion.
    From this standpoint many traits of the Jewish character adduced
    from Jewish legends may be placed very far back, certainly as early as
    the Babylonian Exile. That I shall proceed in this as the authors of anti-Semitic
    catechisms do, and infer from the somewhat questionable story
    of Isaac, Jacob and Esau, and their cheating of each other, a tendency
    on the part of the Jews for swindling, need not be feared. No one, I hope,
    will flunk so badly of me. Cheating is an element found in all mytholo-gies.
    We need only cast our eyes on Olympus or Valhalla to see the gods
    cheating and swindling each other in the most shameless fashion. No.
    What I mean is that the fundamental characteristics of the Jewish reli-gious
    system which we have already examined -- Intellectuality, Ratio-nalism,
    Teleology -- are also the characteristics of the Jewish people,
    and they must have been in existence (I would repeat, at least in em-bryo)
    even before the religion was developed.
    (4) My next point is the remarkable similarity in the economic ac-tivities
    of the Jews throughout almost all the centuries of history. In
    asserting that this is a proof that Jewish characteristics were constant, I
    am setting myself in opposition to the prevailing views. I differ not only.210/Werner Sombart
    from those who believe that the economic activities of the Jews have
    changed in the course of time, but also from those who agree with me
    that it was a constant factor in their development. From the latter I
    differ because we do no agree as to what those activities were.
    What is the generally accepted view of Jewish economic history? I
    believe it may be traced to Heine, and is something to this effect. Origi-nally
    the Jews were an agricultural people. Even in the Diaspora, it is
    said, the Jews tilled the soil, avoiding all other pursuits. But in the 6th
    and 7th centuries of our era they were forced to sell their holdings and
    had, willy-nilly, to look out for other means of livelihood. What did they
    do? They devoted themselves to trade, and for something like five cen-turies
    continued in this calling. Again Fate pressed heavily upon them,
    for the Crusades engendered much anti-Jewish feeling in commercial
    circles, and the growing trading class in each country organized them-selves
    into gilds, and excluded the Jews from the markets, which they
    retained as the exclusive preserves of members of their corporations.
    Once more the Jews had to cast about for new occupations. All channels
    were closed to them; the only possibility left was to become money-lenders.
    So they became money-lenders, and before long enjoyed privi-leges
    as such because the usury laws meted out special treatment to
    them.
    Such is the almost semi-official view prevalent in Jewish circles,
    certainly among assimilationists, but also among a goodly number of
    Jewish nationalists.
    There is another view to which some historians, Jewish and Gentile
    (among the former Herzfeld), have given currency. It is that the Jews
    have always been a commercial people, from the age of King Solomon
    onwards, throughout the Diaspora, down to our own times.
    I regard both views as wrong, certainly as one-sided, and I hope to
    give my reasons in a sketch of the economic history of the Jews which I
    shall furnish.
    From the period of the Kings to the end of the national indepen-dence
    -- we may even say up to the codification of the Talmud -- the
    Jewish people were a self-contained, self-sufficing economic unit. Its
    surplus commodities it sent to foreign lands, and its constituent units
    produced all they needed, or at best, supplemented their own work by
    simple bartering with their neighbours. We should describe the whole
    by saying that we had here single economic units satisfying their own
    wants, with which was connected a certain amount of hired labour; there.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/211
    was something of the nature I of the manorial system, and there were
    some handicrafts. Where these are found little trade is possible. But
    how about the numerous merchants in Palestine, of whom we read in the
    time of the Kings? How account for them? To speak of merchants in the
    ordinary interpretation of the term is to misunderstand the nature of the
    economic organization of the country .in Solomon's day. It was nothing
    but an extensive manorial system, something like that of Charlemagne,
    and obviously required the distribution of commodities. But this was
    not commerce. "The chief officers (they corresponded to the villici) that
    were over Solomon's work were 550. .. . And King Solomon made a
    navy of ships in Ezion-geber. . . . And Hiram sent in the navy his ser-vants,
    shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of
    Solomon. And they came to Ophir and they fetched from thence gold,
    four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to King Solomon" (1
    Kings ix. 23, 26--28).
    This and similar passages have been taken to denote a flourishing
    international commercial intercourse, even a monopoly of trade. But
    there is no need of this explanation at all. It is perfectly simple when we
    think of the royal household as a manor on a large scale, from which the
    servants, in company with those from another large manor, were sent
    forth to distant lands in order to bring back commodities that were needed
    at the King's court. The economic independence of the royal household
    further appears in the story of the building of the Temple. Solomon asks
    Hiram to send him "a man cunning to work in gold, and in silver and in
    brass, and in iron and in purple, and in crimson and in blue, and that can
    skill to grave all manner of gravings, to be with the cunning men that are
    with me. . . . Send me also cedar-trees, fir-trees and algum-trees, out of
    Lebanon: for I know that thy servants can skill to cut timber in Leba-non;
    and behold my servants will be with thy servants. . . . And behold
    I will give to thy servants, the hewers that cut timber, twenty thousand
    measures of beaten wheat, and twenty thousand measures of barley, and
    twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil" (2
    Chron. ii. 7ff.). The same applies to a later passage in the same book (2
    Chron. viii. 4), "And Solomon built Tadmor in the wilderness and all
    the store cities which he built in Hamath." Store cities tell of the manor
    and its wealth in kind rather than of commerce.
    The other passages on which the theory is based that an extensive
    trade was carried on in later times hardly warrant this deduction.28 True,
    we learn that the Babylonian exiles were wealthy (Ezra i. 46; Zech. vi..212/Werner Sombart
    10, 11), but no indication is given of their callings. There is not one iota
    of evidence in the Bible for the contention of Graetz that they had ob-tained
    their riches in commerce. Perhaps the cuneiform inscriptions
    brought from Nippur may support such an assumption. But to refer the
    prophecy of Ezekiel about the destruction of Tyre (Ezek. xxvi. 2) to
    jealousy of the Phoenicians, and then on that basis to establish the sug-gestion
    that even in the pre-Exilic period Palestine was largely a trading
    country, appears to me to be somewhat bold.
    That we cannot be too careful in reasoning of this kind is made
    abundantly manifest by the interpretation put upon the famous passage
    in Proverbs (vii. 19, 20), where the wiles of the adulteress are described.
    "For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey; he hath
    taken a bag of money with him: he will come back at the full moon."
    Was the husband a merchant? Perhaps, but he may have been a farmer
    who had left home to pay his rent to the bailiff in a distant town, and at
    the same time to buy a couple of oxen there.
    There is no clear proof, therefore, for the existence of commerce as
    a specialized calling. On the other hand, there are passages which sup-port
    my view that the manorial system was prevalent even at a later
    period. Take, for example, Nehemiah ii. 8, where the letter is mentioned
    in which Asaph, the keeper of the King's forest, is asked to give timber
    to make beams for the gate of the castle. The injunction in Leviticus
    (xix. 35, 36) about just weights and measures does not in itself militate
    against this theory.
    But this does not mean that there were no traders. There must have
    been, even in the period of the Kings, but they were only retail dealers.
    Do we not read of them in the Book of Kings (1 Kings xx. 34), where
    the defeated Benbadad. King of Syria, offers Ahab to build streets for
    bazaars in Damascus as his father had done in Samaria? Or in Nehemiah
    (iii. 32), where we are told that the goldsmiths and the merchants built
    their shops in a particular quarter? How this last statement can be con-strued
    to mean that there must have been highly respected merchant
    gilds (Bertholet) I cannot understand. You can almost see the small shop-keepers
    at the Sheep Gate.
    That there was an international exchange of commodities, even in
    the earliest times, cannot of course be denied. There must have been
    extensive trade and great merchants, who exchanged the surplus pro-duce
    of Palestine for the articles of luxury which they brought with
    them.29 "Judah, and the land of Israel, they were thy (Tyre's) traffickers:.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/213
    they traded for thy merchandise wheat of Minnith and pannag [a kind of
    confection] and honey and oil and balm" [Ezek. xxvii. 17]. But the ex-traordinary
    thing is that these great merchants were never Jews, but
    always foreigners. The caravans that crossed the country were led by
    Midianites, Sabaeans, Dedanites, men of Keder, but not by Jews.30 Even
    retail trade, when the Proverbs were written, was in the hands of
    Canaanites. Ousted from trade in their own land, the Jews were hardly
    likely to have had any influence in the international trade of those times.
    The great international merchants were Phoenicians, Syrians or Greeks.31
    "Absolute proofs that Jewish emigration was chiefly for commercial
    ends are wanting entirely."32 In view of all this I see no reason for re-garding
    the passage in Josephus, which describes the position of the
    Jews in his days, as prejudiced and one-sided. It was in all probability
    true to fact. What does he say? "As for ourselves, therefore, we neither
    inhabit a maritime country, nor do we delight in merchandise" (Contra
    Apion, i. 12).
    The centuries that followed brought little change in these condi-tions.
    In the Talmud those sayings predominate that would point to the
    prevalence among Jews, at least in the East, of small independent eco-nomic
    units, each sufficient for its own needs. It would be a mistake to
    speak of commercial activity. Granted we hear 33 that man accounted
    blessed who is able to become a spice-seller, and need not do laborious
    work. But surely the retail trader is meant, and not the great merchant.
    In fact trade, and more particularly over-sea trade, found little favour
    with the Rabbis. Some even go so far as to damn all manner of markets,
    pinning their faith to that economic organization where there is no need
    for the exchange of commodities. "R. Achai ben Joshia used to say,
    Unto whom may he be likened who buys fruit in the market? Unto a
    little child whose mother has died, which, when taken to the houses of
    other mothers who feed their own babes, yet remains unsatisfied. Whoso
    buys bread in the market is like to a man who digs the grave in which he
    will be buried."34 Rab (175--247) constantly impressed upon his second
    son that "better was a small measure from the field than a large one
    from the vat" (i.e., warehouse).35 Or again, "The Rabbis taught: four
    kinds of grain bring no blessing -- the payment of a scribe, the fee of an
    interpreter, the earnings that flow from orphans' property and the prof-its
    derived from over-sea trade." Why the latter? "Because miracles do
    not happen every day."36
    So much for the East. What of the West? Here, too, the Jews were.214/Werner Sombart
    not great merchants. Throughout the Imperial period and the succeed-ing
    early Middle Ages the Jew, like the Syrian, if he were a "trader" was
    only a poor chapman, a mere grasshopper who got entangled between
    the feet of the royal merchants of Rome, just like the small Polish dealer
    of the 17th and 18th centuries, who made himself a nuisance to the
    merchants of that day. All that we can discover regarding Jewish trade
    in the early mediaeval period fits beautifully into the picture. The Jews,
    in short, were never merchants so long as commerce, and especially
    inter-municipal and inter-national commerce, remained partly a rob-bing
    expedition and partly an adventure -- that is to say, until modern
    times.
    If this is so -- if the Jews never were a trading people from of old
    -- are those correct who hold that they were agriculturists? Certainly,
    in so far as their economic organization was the manorial one. But that
    is not all. The occupation to which Jews devoted themselves in later
    times and which, in the view of Jewish historians, was forced upon them
    against their will, was well-known and practised even in the earliest
    periods. I refer to money-lending, and I attach the greatest importance
    to the establishment of this fact. The economic history of the Jews
    throughout the centuries makes it appear that money-lending always
    played a very great, nay, an extraordinarily great, part in the economic
    life of the people. We meet with it in all phases of Jewish history, in the
    age of national independence as in the Diaspora. Indeed, a community
    of peasant proprietors is fine game for money-lenders. Always the credi-tors
    are Jews, anyhow after the Exodus. In Egypt it appears the Jews
    were the debtors, and when they left, as the official report narrates, they
    carried away what had been lent to them. "And I will give this people
    favour in the sight of the Egyptians, and it shall come to pass when ye
    go, ye shall not go empty" (Exod. iii. 21). "And the Lord gave the people
    favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they
    asked . . ." (Exod. xii. 36). Thereafter the position changed. Israel be-came
    the creditor and other peoples became its debtors. Thus the prom-ise
    made by God was fulfilled, the promise that may rightly be called the
    motto of Jewish economic history, the promise which indeed expresses
    the fortunes of the Jewish people in one sentence: "The Lord thy God
    will bless thee as He promised thee: and thou shalt lend unto many
    nations, but thou shaltnot borrow" (Deut. xv. 6).37
    The oldest passage which points to a highly developed system of
    borrowing in ancient Israel is that in Nehemiah (vi. 15): --.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/215
    Then there arose a great cry of the people and of their wives against
    their brethren the Jews. For there were that said. We, our sons and
    our daughters, are many: let us get corn, that we may eat and live.
    Some also there were that said, We are mortgaging our fields, and
    our vineyards and our houses: let us get corn because of the dearth.
    There were also that said. We have borrowed money for the king's
    tribute upon our fields and our vineyards. Yet now our flesh is as
    the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children: and lo, we
    bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants, and
    some of our daughters are brought into bondage already: neither
    is it in our power to help it, for other men have our fields and our
    vineyards. And I was very angry when I heard their cry and these
    words. Then I consulted with myself and contended with the nobles
    and the rulers, and said unto them, Ye exact usury, every one of
    his brother. . . . Restore, I pray you, to them even this day their
    fields, their vineyards, their olive-yards and their houses, also the
    hundredth part of the money, and of the corn, the wine and the oil,
    that ye exact of them.
    The picture here drawn is clear enough. The people were divided
    into two sections, an upper wealthy class, which became rich by money-lending,
    and the great mass of agricultural labourers whom they ex-ploited.
    This state of affairs must have continued, in despite of Nehemiah
    and other reformers, throughout the whole history of the Jews in Pales-tine
    and Babylon. We need only refer to the Talmud for proof. In some
    of the Tractates, after the study of the Torah nothing occupies so much
    space as money-lending. The world of ideas which the Rabbis had was
    crammed full with money business. A decision of Rabina (488--556),
    one of the last of the Amoraim (Baba Mezia, 70b), sounds almost like
    the creation of a money-lending monopoly for the Rabbis. Throughout
    the three Tractates called Baba, there are numerous examples from the
    business of money-lending and from the rise and fall of interest, and
    numerous discussions about money and problems of money-lending.
    The unprejudiced reader of the Talmud cannot but come to this conclu-sion:
    in the Talmudic world there must have been a good deal of money-lending.
    With the Diaspora the business only extended. How far money-lending
    was regulated among the Jews in the Egyptian Diaspora, four or
    five centuries before the Common Era, may be seen from the Oxford
    Papyrus (MS. Aram. cl. P)38 : --.216/Werner Sombart
    ... Son of Jatma ... you gave me money ... 1000 segel of silver. And
    I am ready to pay by way of interest 2 hallur of silver / per month
    for each segel until the day whereon I repay the money to you. The
    interest / for your money is thus to amount to 2000 hallur every
    month. And if in any month I pay you no / interest, then the amount
    of interest shall be added to the principal and shall bear interest
    itself. I undertake to pay you month by month / out of my salary
    which I receive from the Treasury, and you will give me a receipt
    (?) for the whole / sum and for the interest that I will pay you. And
    if I have not repaid the whole of your / money by the month of
    Roth in the year . . . then your money shall be doubled (?) / and
    also the interest I have yet to pay, and month by month I must be
    made to pay the same / until the day I repay you the whole / Wit-ness,
    etc.
    In the Hellenistic and Imperial periods rich Jews were found sup-plying
    crowned heads with money, and the poorer Jews lent to the lower
    classes. The Romans were not unacquainted with Jewish business.39 It
    was the same in the pre-Islamic period among the Arabs, to whom the
    Jews lent money at interest, and who regarded this business as being
    natural to the Jew, as being in his blood.40
    When the Jews first appeared on the scene in Western Europe it was
    as money-lenders. We have already noted that they acted as financiers
    to the Merovingians, which means, of course, mainly as creditors.41
    They went further in Spain; there, where they had complete freedom of
    movement, the common people were soon in their debt. Long before
    there was a Jewish (i.e., money-lending) question in other States, the
    legislative authorities in Castile were dealing with the problem of debts
    owing to Jews, and dealing with it in such a way as to show that it was
    of no small practical importance.42 That money-lending became the prin-cipal
    calling of the Jews after the Crusades will be admitted on all hands.
    We come, then, to this conclusion, that from the earliest times money-lending
    was a prime factor in the economic history of the Jews.
    The time has really arrived when the myth that the Jews were forced
    to have recourse to money-lending in mediaeval Europe, chiefly after
    the Crusades, because they were debarred from any other means of live-lihood,
    should be finally disposed of. The history of Jewish money-lending
    in the two thousand years before the Crusades ought surely to
    set this fable at rest once and for all. The official version that Jews could.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/217
    not devote themselves to anything but money-lending, even if they would,
    is incorrect. The door was by no means always shut in their faces; the
    fact is they preferred to engage in money-lending. This has been proved
    by Professor Bücher for Frankfort-on-the-Main, and the same may be
    done for other towns as well. The Jews had a natural tendency towards
    this particular business, and both in the Middle Ages and after rulers
    were at pains to induce Jews to enter into other callings, but in vain.
    Edward I made the attempt in England;43 it was also tried in the 18th
    century in the Province of Posen,44 where the authorities sought to di-rect
    the Jews to change their means of livelihood by offering them boun-ties
    if they would. Despite this, and despite the possibility of being able
    to become handicraftsmen and peasants like all others, there were, in
    1797, in the southern towns of Prussia, 4164 Jewish craftsmen side by
    side with 11,000 to 12,000 Jewish traders. The significance of these
    figures is borne in upon us when we note that though the Jewish popu-lation
    formed 5 or 6 per cent. of the whole, the Christian traders totalled
    17,000 or 18,000.
    It may be urged, however, that the practice of usury, even when it is
    carried on quite voluntarily, need not be accounted for by special racial
    attributes. Human inclinations of a general kind will amply explain it.
    Wherever in the midst of a people a group of moneyed men dwell side
    by side with others who need cash, be it for consumption, be it for
    production, it soon comes about, especially where the legal conditions
    governing money-lending are of a primitive kind, that the one class be-comes
    the debtors and the other the creditors.
    True. Wherever rich and poor lived together, the latter borrowed
    from the former, even when there was as yet no money in existence -- in
    which case the debts were in kind. In the earliest stages of civilization,
    when the two classes felt themselves members of the same brotherhood,
    the lending was without interest. Later, especially when some intercourse
    with strangers sprang up, the borrower paid the lender a certain quan-tity
    of corn or oil or (where a money economy had already established
    itself) gold over and above the principal, and the custom of giving inter-est
    gradually became universal.
    In this there is no difference between the ancient, the mediaeval or
    the modern world. All three were acquainted with money-lending and
    "usury," which was never confined to the members of any one race or
    religion. Think of the agrarian reforms in Greece and Rome, which prove
    conclusively that the economic conditions in these countries at certain.218/Werner Sombart
    times were exactly like those in Palestine in the days of Nehemiah.[Cf.
    A. E. Zimmern, The Greek Commonwealth, p. 111 ff. -- Trans.] In the
    ancient world the temples were the centres of the money-lending busi-ness,
    for in them were stored vast quantities of treasure. If at the Jerusa-lem
    Temple money-lending was carried on -- what is by no means es-tablished:
    the Talmudic tractate (Shekalim) which deals with Temple
    taxes clearly forbids the utilization of what remained over from certain
    sacrifices for purposes of business -- I say if such were the case, then
    there was nothing extraordinary in this: all temples in antiquity lent
    money. The temples of Babylonia, we are informed,45 were like so many
    great business houses. The temples at Delphi, at Delos, at Ephesus, at
    Samos were no different.46 And in the Middle Ages the churches, the
    monasteries, the houses of the various Knights and other religious or-ders
    took the place of the ancient temples in this respect. Despite the
    prohibitions of the Church against usury, they were the centres of a
    brisk trade in money. Is it any different to-day? The German peasant on
    the marshes of the North Sea coast who has managed to make a little
    money knows of nothing better to do with it than to lend it at interest to
    a needy neighbour.
    To increase one's fortune by means of interest on loans is so easy
    and pleasant, that everybody who is able makes the attempt. Every pe-riod
    wherein the demand for money is great gives opportunity enough
    (the periods, that is, of the so-called credit crises -- regularly followed,
    by the way, in recent European history by Jewish persecutions).
    Everybody, then, does it -- gladly does it. The desire to take inter-est
    on money is pretty generally prevalent. But is the ability to do so?
    This leads me to my next proof in support of the view that Jewish char-acteristics
    have remained constant --
    (5) The capacity of the Jew for money-dealing.
    It is well-known that in the Middle Ages many authorities, whether
    individual rulers or corporations, almost begged the Jews to come to
    their city in order to carry on money-lending. All sorts of privileges
    were held out to them. The Bishop of Speyer is a case in point. He
    thought it would give his city a certain cachet to count a number of rich
    Jews among its inhabitants. Some of the cities of Italy in the 15th and
    16th centuries actually made agreements with the wealthiest Jewish
    money-lenders that they should come and establish loanbanks and pawn-shops.
    47
    Why should these requests have been made, and these privileges.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/219
    offered? Why should just Jews and no others have been invited to found
    money-lending concerns? No doubt to some extent it was because good
    Christian men were not willing to soil their souls by the nefarious trade,
    and Jews were called in to stand between them and damnation. But was
    this all? Does it not appear rather that the Jews had a special capacity
    for the business? They were the cleverest, the most gifted money-lend-ers,
    and that is why they were in demand. How else should we be able to
    account for their success, which for centuries brought them so much
    riches? Anybody can be a lender, but not everybody can be a successful
    lender. For that special capacities and attributes are necessary.
    Turn to the pages of the Talmud and you will find that money-lending
    was no mere dilettante business with the Jews. They made an art
    of it; they probably invented (certainly they utilized) the highly orga-nized
    machinery of lending.
    The time has come, it seems to me, for a trained economist to deal
    thoroughly with the economic side of the Talmud and of Rabbinic litera-ture
    generally. I hope this book may act as some spur to this end. All I
    can do here is to point the way, so that some successor of mine may find
    it the more easily. I shall briefly note some of the passages which appear
    to me to bear witness to an extensive acquaintance with economic prob-lems,
    and more particularly those bearing on credit. When we recall the
    period in which the Talmud came into being (200 B.C. to 500 A.D.) and
    compare what it contains in the field of economics with all the economic
    ideas and conceptions that the ancient and the mediaeval worlds have
    handed down to us, it seems nothing short of marvellous. Some of the
    Rabbis speak as though they had mastered Ricardo and Marx, or, to say
    the least, had been brokers on the Stock Exchange for several years, or
    counsel in many an important money-lending case. Let me cite an in-stance
    or two.
    (a) A profound acquaintance with the nature of the precious metals.
    "R. Chisda said. There are seven kinds of gold: ordinary gold, best gold,
    gold of Ophir (1 Kings x. 11), fine gold (1 Kings v. 18), drawn gold,
    heavy gold and Parvayin gold" (Joma, 45a).
    (b) The idea that money is a common denominator in terms of which
    commodities are exchanged is fully developed. The best proof of this is
    the legal decision that the act of purchasing becomes complete not as
    soon as the price has been paid, but when the commodity is delivered.
    The whole of the 4th section of Baba Mezia is illustrative of this point.
    (c) There is a clear conception of the difference between credit for.220/Werner Sombart
    production and for consumption. In the case of the first, interest is per-mitted;
    not so, from a Jew, in the case of the second. "If A rents a field
    from B at a rental of 10 measures of wheat and then requests B to lend
    him 200 zuz for the improvement of the field, promising a total payment
    of 12 measures of wheat -- that is permissible. But may you offer to
    give more in renting a shop or hiring a ship? Rab Nachman (235--320),
    on the authority of Rabba bar Abuha, was of opinion that sometimes it
    was permissible to give more for a shop in order to be able to hang
    pictures up in it, and for a ship too, in order to place a mast on it. The
    pictures in the shop will attract many people and so increase profits,
    and the mast on the ship will enhance the ship's value" (Baba Mezia,
    69b).
    (d) Law and rules of practice point to an extraordinarily developed
    system of credit agreements. After reading the 4th and 5th sections of
    Baba Mezia you feel as though you had just laid down the report of an
    Enquiry into Money-lending in Hesse twenty or thirty years ago, where
    a thousand and one gins and traps were introduced into money-lending
    compacts. The Prosbol, too (by means of which it was possible to en-sure
    the existence of a debt even over the year of release), is a sign of a
    highly organized system of lending (Section 10 of Sheviith).
    (e) The treatment of deposits is handled in a way which shows prac-tical
    knowledge of the subject. "If any one deposits moneys with a banker,
    the latter may not make any use of them if they are in one bundle. If,
    however, they are loose, he may, and if they are lost he is held respon-sible.
    But if the moneys are deposited with a private individual, whether
    they are in one bundle or loose, he may make no use of them whatever;
    and if they should be lost he is not bound to replace them. R. Meir (100--
    160) held that a shopkeeper was regarded as a private individual in this
    respect; but R. Judah (136--200) was of the contrary opinion, and said
    that the shopkeeper was like the banker. ..." (Baba Mezia, 43a).
    (f) Finally I would mention the Jewish gift for figures. The Talmud-ists
    all had it, but it was to be found in earlier ages also. The exact
    statistical lists in the Bible and the later literature must have struck
    every one. One French writer remarks on the topic: "The race possessed
    a singular capacity for calculation -- a genius, so to say, for num-bers."
    48
    Apart from all these considerations, the very success of the Jews in
    their money-lending activities effectively demonstrates a special capac-ity
    for the business. And the success was manifested in.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/221
    (6) Jewish wealth.
    That ever since the race began some Jews amassed huge fortunes
    can be easily shown, nor can it be doubted that the average wealth of all
    Jews was fairly high. In all ages and in all lands Jewish riches were
    proverbial.
    We may begin with King Solomon, whose wealth was renowned
    even among wealthy Oriental potentates -- although he did not acquire
    it by successful trading (though you never can tell!). Later we read that
    some of the Jewish exiles in Babylon were in a short time able to send
    gold and silver to Jerusalem (Zech. vi. 10, 11). That Jews played a great
    part in the economic life of the Euphrates country during the Exile ap-pears
    from the commercial contracts dug up at Nippur.49 Those who
    returned with Ezra brought great opulence with them (Ezra i. 6--11),
    and in the subsequent period the wealth of the priests was notorious.50
    Noticeable are the large number of rich men, some of them very rich,
    among the Talmudic Rabbis. It would not be difficult to compile quite a
    respectable list of such of them as were renowned for their wealth. Cer-tainly,
    in any view, the rich Rabbis were in the majority.51
    In the Hellenistic Diaspora likewise the impression cannot be avoided
    that the standard of wealth among Jews was pretty high. Wherever Jews
    and Greeks lived side by side, as in Caesarea,52 the former were the
    more opulent. There must have been a specially great number of wealthy
    Jews among those of Alexandria. Of very rich Alabarchs we are actu-ally
    told, and we have already mentioned the position of the Alexandrian
    Jews as financiers of crowned heads.
    It was not one whit otherwise in the early Middle Ages. We have it
    on record that many Jews in those days were blessed with the good
    things of the world in abundance. In Spain they offered money to Reccared
    if he would annul anti-Jewish legislation,"53 and in the early period of
    Mohammedan rule we learn that the Arabs envied them their wealth.54
    Cordova, in the 9th century, had "several thousand (?) Jewish families
    who were well off."55 And more to the same effect.56
    There is no need to labour the statement that in the later Middle
    Ages the Jews were wealthy. It is a generally accepted fact.57 And for
    what is called the modern period I have myself adduced proofs enough
    in this book.
    We shall be justified in the conclusion, therefore, that from King
    Solomon to Bamey Bamato Jewish opulence runs through history like a
    golden thread, without ever once snapping. Is this merely accidental? If.222/Werner Sombart
    not, what was it due to -- subjective or objective causes?
    Objective factors, i.e., outward forces, have certainly been hinted at
    to explain Jewish wealth. In the first place, the Jews were early taught to
    look for their chief happiness in the possession of money; in the second,
    the insecurity of their position forced them to accumulate their wealth in
    easily movable forms -- in gold or ornaments, which they could take
    about with them, which they could hide or carry off without much diffi-culty.
    These causes undoubtedly go a good way to account for the growth
    of Jewish wealth, but they by no means suffice to explain it completely.
    We must not forget that the outward forces referred to above, in order to
    produce the result they did, could not but have influenced a people pos-sessing
    certain special gifts. But let that pass. Again, the facts instanced
    could only have been of any effect in the Diaspora. Let that also pass.
    The great weakness of this explanation is that it tells us merely why the
    Jews had any desire to become wealthy, and, incidentally, that then"
    wealth took a particular form. The desire in this case is of little moment;
    it does not make clear why it was realized. Hence we must look for other
    causes. Besides, the desire to become rich has been universal ever since
    Alberich robbed the Maidens of the Rhine-gold.
    Another explanation has therefore been suggested for Jewish wealth.
    The Jews, it has been rightly pointed out, for centuries occupied a posi-tion
    of inequality with their Christian neighbours, and therefore had less
    occasion to spend as much as the latter. The conception of social status,
    with varying standards of comfort for each, was unknown among them,
    and therefore also the thousand and one artificial wants that were asso-ciated
    with the idea. "It is certain," remarks a writer who has dealt with
    this aspect of the problem in a most delicate fashion,58 "that a Jew,
    compared with a Christian of the same income, was bound to become
    the richer of the two, seeing that the Christian had very many opportu-nities
    of spending money which were denied to the Jew, for the simple
    reason that the former belonged to the ruling class, and the latter was
    only tolerated. As for the rich Jew, his circumstances were different
    from those of the Christian, for he had no need to consider what was
    demanded in his social class. Thus, any luxuries he cared to enjoy were
    not necessarily in accordance with his status."
    Doubtless this is one explanation of the wealth of the Jews, and will
    account also for the specifically Jewish economic standpoint, which we
    have noted above. To it were due such ideas as that of free competition,
    that your expenses should be limited by your income -- a conception.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/223
    utterly foreign to a feudal society -- and that saving, associated with
    Jews from earliest times, was good. Let me recall an old German prov-erb:
    --
    Selten sind sieben Dinge:
    Eine Nonne, die nicht singe,
    Ein Madchen ohne Liebe,
    Ein Jahnnarkt ohne Diebe,
    Ein Geissbock ohne Bart,
    Ein Jude der nicht spart,
    Ein Kornhaus ohne Mause,
    Und ein Kosak ohne Lause.
    [Rare are seven things:
    A nun who never sings,
    A maid without a lover,
    A fair without a robber,
    A goat of beard bereft,
    A Jew that knows no thrift,
    A granary without mice,
    And a Cossack without lice.]
    To the saving habit of the Jews may be traced the tendency to accu-mulate
    capital. One sometimes hears it said that Jewish money remains
    in a business longer than Christian money, and increases more quickly
    to boot. In olden times the Jew could not enter the charmed circle of the
    feudal landed gentry, and so his money was not spent in keeping up the
    appearances demanded by his status. If he saved, his money had per-force
    to be invested in commercial enterprise, unless, of course, he lent
    it out directly at interest, as the Jews of Hamburg of the 17th century
    were in the habit of doing. Glückel von Hamem and her friends, when-ever
    they had any surplus, always lent it out on security. The money
    fructified and increased.
    All these considerations are valuable as far as they go. But they do
    not go far enough satisfactorily to explain the phenomenon of Jewish
    wealth. It is all very well pointing to objective forces in any problem.
    We must not forget, however, that those forces might not effect the par-ticular
    result they did if the men and women whom they influenced were
    not constituted in a particular way. A people does not become thrifty
    because of the stress of outward circumstances alone. The merest tyro
    knows that. Besides, nowadays, when the Ghetto walls have long since
    fallen, and the Jew enjoys perfect equality when he may become a landed.224/Werner Sombart
    proprietor and regulate his life in accordance with the most rigid re-quirements
    -- nowadays, too, I say, Jews are thriftier than Christians.
    Look at a few statistics. In Baden, in the years 1895 to 1903, capital
    increased in the case of Protestants from 100 to 128.3 per cent, in the
    case of Jews from 100 to 138.2 per cent. This is striking enough, but it
    becomes even moreso when we remember that during the same period
    the incomes of Protestants grew from 100 to 146.6 per cent, those of
    Jews from 100 to 144.5 percent.
    When all is said the possible causes hitherto mentioned would only
    explain why already existing wealth was increased. Not one can satis-factorily
    answer the question, How was it in the first place obtained?
    There is only one answer. Wealth is got by those who have a talent for it.
    From the wealth of the Jews, therefore, may be deduced special Jewish
    characteristics or attributes.
    Is the Jewish Genius Natural or Artificial?
    What is the result of all our considerations in the previous section? That
    in all probability the anthropological character of the Jews, no less than
    their intellectual attributes, has remained constant for thousands of years.
    What does this prove? Are we to conclude that the Jewish genius is
    rooted in race? Those who have a dogmatic faith in race unhesitatingly
    say yes. We however, who are trying to proceed scientifically, must say
    no. Nothing as yet has been proved.
    A brief reference to the methods of some of the believers in the race-theory
    59 will show how unreliable their conclusions are. They start out
    with the assumption that the Jews are a race. Since every race must
    have specific characteristics, Jews have theirs. In other words, their
    specific characteristics are rooted in their race. But for this there is no
    actual proof. If the truth must be told, we know nothing whatever of the
    connexion between somatic or anthropological features and intellectual
    capacities.
    What the race-theorists have produced is a new sort of religion to
    replace the old Jewish or Christian religion. What else is the theory of
    an Aryan, or German, "mission" in the world but a modern form of the
    "chosen people" belief? All well and good, but let no one be deceived
    into imagining that this is science. It is faith, and faith and science had
    best be kept apart.
    As we have said, there is no certain connexion between somatic
    attributes and intellectual capacities. The constancy of each may be.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/225
    purely accidental; it may arise anew in every generation or may be car-ried
    on by the aid of tradition. And among a people who were attached
    to tradition as the Jews were, this assumption seems likely enough. The
    Jews were shut off from others, they possessed a strong love of family,
    their religious practices were scrupulously observed, the Talmud was
    energetically studied in every generation -- all these supplied, as it were,
    the machinery for carrying on certain peculiarities from one generation
    to another merely by education alone.
    This is one view. Yet Jewish characteristics may spring from the
    blood. Again, there are those who would trace them to environment.
    The Jewish religion, Ghetto life, the dealing in money for so many cen-turies
    have all three been instanced to account for the specifically Jew-ish
    type of character. There may be something in this. Only possibly, as
    I have tried to show, these influences instead of being causes may be
    results.
    I propose in the next chapter to analyse the Jewish genius, laying
    special stress on the following points in the order given: (1) The original
    aptitudes of those races from which the Jews sprang as exhibited in their
    mode of life. (2) How the various elements mingled. (3) Which of these
    aptitudes survived under the influences of Jewish history. Finally, if
    these considerations should prove insufficient, we shall venture the hy-pothesis:
    (4) that certain characteristics grew up in the course of his-tory.
    We shall see, however, that there will be no need to have recourse
    to this hypothesis, since the Jewish genius can be adequately explained
    along the first three lines. If this be so, then one result will have been
    established: that the Jewish characteristics are rooted in the blood of the
    race, and are not in any wise due to educative processes.

    Chapter 14. The Vicissitudes of the Jewish People


    If any one wished in a sentence to account for the importance of the
    Jews in the world's civilization, and more particularly in economic life,
    he could do so by saying that it was due to the transplanting of an
    Oriental people among Northern races, and the culture union of the two.
    A similar assertion has been made regarding the civilizations of the
    classical world, of the Greek more especially, and also of that of the
    Italian Renaissance. It has been suggested that they resulted from the
    mixture of Northern peoples, who had wandered into a Southern envi-ronment,
    with the autochthonous inhabitants -- a brilliant hypothesis,.226/Werner Sombart
    not without an element of truth in it.
    But the statement concerning the Jews is no hypothesis: it is an
    established fact, capable of abundant proof. The capitalistic civilization
    of our age is the fruit of the union between the Jews, a Southern people
    pushing into the North, and the Northern tribes, indigenous there. The
    Jews contributed an extraordinary capacity for commerce, and the North-ern
    peoples, above all the Germans, an equally remarkable ability for
    technical inventions.
    It is clear, therefore, what we must have in view in our consider-ations
    of the Jewish genius and its enormous influence. Not whether the
    Jews were Semites, or Hittites, or of some other stock, not whether they
    are "pure," or "mixed," is the important thing, but that they are an
    Oriental folk transplanted into an environment both climatically and
    ethnically strange, wherein their best powers come to fruition.
    They are an Oriental people -- that is to say, one of those peoples
    whose habitat was in that part of the globe lying between the Atlas
    Mountains in the West, and the Persian Gulf in the East; one of those
    races baked by the sun in the dry, burning climate of the great deserts of
    North Africa, Arabia and Asia Minor, or of their border-lands; the races
    which brought their special characteristics to maturity amid their pecu-liar
    environment which had never altered since the Ice Age, a period of
    some twelve or sixteen thousand years.
    The whole of this region, from which the Jews also hailed, is an
    extensive sandy desert, with here and there an oasis where man and
    beast can dwell. In the larger of these watered valleys arose, as is well
    known, the earliest civilizations of the world -- in Egypt, in Mesopotamia
    and in Palestine. All three are comparatively small fertile patches; all
    are true oases in the desert, and theirs was an essentially oasis civiliza-tion.
    The cultivable area of Egypt was about as large as the Prussian
    Province of Saxony is to-day [about 5,500,000 acres, according to the
    Statesman's Year Book]; Mesopotamia at its widest extent was only
    about half the size of the Plain of Lombardy [about 4500 square miles,
    according to the same authority]; Palestine, the land of the whole people
    of Israel, was smaller still, being no larger than perhaps Baden (about
    5000 square miles]; while Judsea, the Southern Kingdom, and therefore
    the home of the Jews, was as extensive as the Duchies of Anhalt and
    Saxe-Coburg and Gotha together [about 1600 square miles]. But these
    oases, and Palestine more especially, were themselves broken by deserts,
    Judaea being particularly badly treated by Nature. Its southern end ex-.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/227
    tended past Hebron and Beersheba, right into the modern sandy waste.
    All agriculture in these countries was the tillage of oases. What
    does this mean? It means that the soil collected by almost artificial means,
    and that the great aim of the farmer was to gather the water necessary
    for the growth of vegetation. This was the case in Palestine, where the
    cultivation of the soil depended on the water-supply. Drought is the
    scourge that the farmer fears most. Every year he trembles lest the arid
    waste should stretch its arms and embrace his strip of land, tended with
    so much care and tribulation. Every moment he is in dread lest the desert
    send him its scorching winds, or its locust swarms. And above all, he
    fears the desert wastes because of the marauding bands who may fall
    upon him, robbing, killing, pillaging as they cross the country, some-times
    even taking possession of his holding if the fancy seize them. These
    children of the desert, whom we now call Bedouins, and of whom the
    oasis-dwellers were once themselves a part, were nomadic shepherds.
    Their raids hastened the rise of strong cities with stout walls, behind
    which the inhabitants of the plain could take refuge. Sometimes the
    desert crept right into them, and so at all times they were filled with the
    spirit of the sandy wastes.
    Such a tribe of restless wandering Bedouins were the Hebrews, when
    about the year 1200 B.C. they fell upon Canaan, plundering and killing
    as they went, and finally deciding to settle there, and rest from all their
    wanderings. Which meant, that if possible they would do nothing, but
    that the natives would work for them -- the aim of every conquering
    people. Such was Jehovah's promise: "I will lead you unto the land
    which I promised you, a land of great and goodly cities which thou
    buildedst not, and houses full of all good things which thou filledst not,
    and cisterns hewn out which thou hewedst not, and vineyards and olive-trees
    which thou plantedst not, and thou shalt eat and be full" (Deut. vi.
    10, 11).
    Once there, what did the Hebrews do in this promised land? What
    sort of economic organization did they establish? We cannot, of course,
    speak as to the details,1 but one or two things we may imagine. Prob-ably,
    as we have seen, the powerful and mighty among them after hav-ing
    conquered large tracts of land instituted a sort of feudal society. Part
    of the produce of the land they took for themselves, either by way of rent
    in kind, by farming it out to tax-collectors, or by means of the credit
    nexus. In any case, a large number of Hebrews lived in the towns, re-ceiving
    rent or interest from the subject population who worked on the.228/Werner Sombart
    soil, either as "colonists," or "free peasants," or whatever term was
    used in the Orient for this class. Some of the conquering tribes may
    have become impoverished and themselves sunk to the level of unfree
    farmers, but they were hardly the influential ones. This position was
    held by those who inhabited the West Jordan lands, principally Judah,
    sections of Simeon and Levi and others. In those districts cattle farming
    only was possible: "Judah's teeth are white with milk." Other tribes,
    such as Reuben and Gad, remained east of the Jordan as semi-nomads,
    rearing cattle, and half the tribe of Manasseh crossed the Jordan to re-turn
    thither. But all the tribes alike must have been impregnated with the
    nomadic spirit. Were this not the case, it would be exceedingly difficult
    to understand the rise and growth of the Jewish religious system.
    It should not be forgotten that the Holy Scriptures of the Jews in
    which their religion is embodied, especially the Pentateuch, is the litera-ture
    of a nomadic people. Their God, who triumphs over the false gods,
    is a desert and pastoral divinity. The traditions of the nomad state were
    maintained by Ezra and Nehemiah in the conscious re-establishment of
    the Jehovah cult, in doing which they paid no heed to the intervening
    period of agriculture. The Priestly Code "takescare not to mention the
    settled life in Canaan. . . it strictly limits itself to the wanderings in the
    wilderness, and in all seriousness wants to be regarded as a desert Code."2
    Open the historical books or the majority of the Prophets, that desert
    choir, include the Psalms also, and you everywhere find metaphors and
    similes taken from shepherd life. Only occasionally do you meet with
    the peasant "sitting contentedly at the door of his house in the shade of
    the fig-tree." Jehovah is the good Shepherd (Psa. 23) who will gather
    the remnants of Israel "as a flock in the midst of their pasture" (Micah
    ii. 12). And what does the Sabbatical year mean but that you cease
    being a peasant for the time being, and become an Israelite of the old
    sort? Israel never quite gave up its division into families and clans; it
    was always composed of tribes, like most shepherd peoples. There seems
    to be little doubt that even as late as the 5th century B.C. there must have
    been a strong dash of the nomads, certainly in the ruling classes, but
    probably also in the great mass of the people. Else how would it have
    been possible to saddle them for any length of time with a nomadic
    religion?
    It may be asked. Were not the nomad tendencies of those days per-chance
    a harking back to an earlier state? Did not perhaps the old wan-dering
    instincts, which in the previous centuries had been lulled to sleep,.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/229
    awake again under the influences of the Exile? It is quite likely, and
    what is more, the vicissitudes of the Jewish people since the Babylonian
    Exile could not but arouse any slumbering desert and nomad feelings
    within them. On this point I would lay especial stress. Hence, even if we
    were inclined to assume that the Children of Israel lived a settled life for
    five hundred years after the conquest of Canaan, it is perfectly clear that
    all the powers on earth seemed to have conspired together not to allow
    this state to become permanent. Scarcely had the plant taken root (so far
    as it could in so hot a country) than it was pulled up. The Jew's inherent
    "Nomadism" or "Saharaism" (if I may coin the words) was always kept
    alive through selection or adaptation. Throughout the centuries, there-fore,
    Israel has remained a desert and nomadic people.
    There is nothing new in this conclusion. But one does not establish
    it without some scruple of conscience. Why? Because anti-Semitic pam-phleteers
    rudely pounce upon it and make capital out of it for their
    abuse. That, of course, can be no reason for doubting its truth, or ne-glecting
    to take cognizance of it as an explanation of Jewish character-istics.
    What should be done to oppose the prejudiced scribblers is to
    analyse the problem most carefully, and present an illuminating view of
    its importance. Up to the present little has been achieved in this direc-tion;
    what has been done has been childish and spitefully distorted. No
    wonder that the idea that the Jew has always been a nomad has been
    received with scorn and jest by some people. It would have been much
    more to the point if these same people had been able to prove that it was
    wrong. This has never yet been seriously attempted. The chain of rea-soning
    which runs: Agriculture was practised in Palestine in olden times;
    the Jews lived in Palestine then; therefore the Jews were agriculturists,
    is on the face of it a little weak. And another point. The term nomad is
    not meant to imply obloquy or disgrace. At most, objection may be
    taken to the robbing. But why should there be any dishonour attached to
    a brave Bedouin tribe which, under such a doughty leader as, say, King
    David, lived on plunder? Why should they appear less worthy, or call
    forth less sympathy, than an agricultural tribe of Negroes somewhere in
    the wilds of Africa? It is obvious, of course, that when I use the term
    "nomad" as applied to later Jewish history, I want it to bear not its
    secondary meaning, which it has acquired in the lapse of time, but its
    original connotation in all its pristine strength.
    Having cleared the air a little, let us now attempt to prove that our
    conclusion is true. Throughout the centuries Israel has remained a desert.230/Werner Sombart
    and nomadic people, either by the process of selection or of adaptation.
    We have already mentioned the possible effect of the Exile in call-ing
    forth slumbering nomadic instincts. In reality, if the truth be told, we
    can form no clear conception of what the Exile meant, neither of the
    journey into it, nor of the return home. It only seems possible on the
    assumption that the Jews then were still nomads or semi-nomads. One
    can scarcely conceive the conquest of an agricultural people; whereas
    the forcible 'transplanting of nomad tribes is not unknown to-day.3
    Moreover, the assumption seems to be supported by the story of the
    Captivity. "And he carried away all Jerusalem and all the princes and
    all the mighty men of valour, even ten thousand captives, and all the
    craftsmen and the smiths; none remained save the poorest sort of the
    people of the land." And after the second expedition of the Babylonians,
    "the captain of the guard left of the poorest of the land to be vine-dress-ers
    and husbandmen" (2 Kings xxiv. 14 and xxv. 12). Jeremiah's ver-sion
    of the story agrees with this (Jer. xxxix. 10).
    Whoever the exiles may have been, it is pretty certain that the ac-tual
    agriculturists were not among them. These remained behind even
    after the second batch of exiles had been carried away captive. The
    passage in Jeremiah would seem to lend probability to my view that the
    soil was tilled by unfree villeins who, when their lords were led to
    Babylon, became independent husbandmen. It is not assuming too much
    to regard these men as the descendants of the original inhabitants whom
    the Hebrews had conquered. From the age of the Captivity, therefore,
    the population of Judaea had a thinner stream of Jewish blood in their
    veins than the Babylonian exiles, who were more or less the Jewish
    aristocracy, the cream of the people, as it were. This was indeed the
    view that obtained currency in later times. Even in Judaea itself it was
    admitted that the Babylonian Jews were of the very best stock, and an
    old Jewish saying helped to confirm the belief. "The Jews in the Roman
    Diaspora compared as to their descent with those in Judaea are like the
    mixed dough to the pure flour, but Judaea itself is only dough compared
    with Babylon."4 And R. Ezekiel (220--299) excuses that good man, Ezra,
    for having returned to Palestine by saying that he took the families of
    doubtful origin away with him, and so left those that remained free from
    the danger of mixing with them(!).5
    We come then to this conclusion. The Exile was a kind of selective
    process whereby the best elements of Jewry, never favourable to an
    economy of settled life, were forced to revivethe inherent nomad in-.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/231
    stincts within them, and to gain their livelihood as townsmen, i.e., trad-ers.
    This does not mean that none of them became husbandmen. Far
    from it. The Babylonian Talmud certainly makes it appear that some
    devoted themselves to agriculture, but the conditions must have been
    those prevalent in Palestine, where an aristocracy of wealth lived in the
    towns on the work of (non-Jewish?) peasants. Such at any rate is the
    impression of the typical state of affairs. But there were exceptions too.
    Do we not read of many an ancient Rabbi who himself walked behind
    the plough? What is of consequence, however, is that the prevailing
    conditions in the Exile were by no means exceptional. On the contrary,
    they were normal. Even before the Exile many Jews had settled in Egypt
    and other lands in a kind of voluntary Diaspora. Those who left Pales-tine
    were no doubt the men in whom the old nomadic instincts were not
    yet quite dead, and their self-imposed exile only called them forth the
    more. We never find these wandering Jews, be their origin Judaea or
    Palestine, establishing agricultural colonies or independent settlements
    of any sort, as most other emigrants did. But what do we find? That
    Jewish settlers scattered themselves in all corners of the inhabited globe
    among foreign nations, preferably in the large towns, where they sought
    their livelihood.6 We never hear of their return to their native hearth
    after having saved up sufficient money to keep them in affluence, as the
    Swiss, Hungarian or Italian emigrants do to-day. The only bonds that
    bound them with home were religious. If they ever do go back, it is only
    at the annual Passover pilgrimage, like real nomads that they are.
    Little by little Palestine ceased to be the centre of Jewish life, and
    Jews became more and more scattered. Even as late as the destruction
    of the Second Temple (70 A.D.), the Jews in the Diaspora outnumbered
    those in Judaea. Perhaps there was some reason for this. That the coun-try,
    even when it was most densely populated, could maintain more than
    a million, or a million and a half souls is scarcely likely. (Today the
    inhabitants number at most 650,000.) As for Judaea, it had no more
    than 225,000 inhabitants, and Jerusalem no more than 25,000. 7 There
    certainly was a larger number outside Palestine already at the com-mencement
    of the Common Era. In the Egypt of the Ptolemies it is said
    that out of a total population of seven or eight millions, one million were
    Jews.8 Nor was Egypt unique in this respect. It would have been diffi-cult
    indeed to name one spot which, in the words of Strabo quoted by
    Josephus, was not inhabited and dominated (!) by Jews. Philo gives a
    list of countries that had a Jewish population in his day, and adds that.232/Werner Sombart
    they were settled in numerous cities of Europe, Asia, Lybia, on the main-land
    and on islands, on the coast and inland. We hear the same thing
    from a Sibylline Oracle, composed towards the end of the 2nd century,9
    while Jerome informs us that they were to be found "from sea to sea,
    from the British to the Atlantic Oceans, from the West to the South,
    from the North to the East, the world through."10 How densely packed
    they were in the Rome of the early Empire may be gathered from the
    account of the visit of King Herod to the capital of the Caesars, wherein
    we are told that no less than 8000 Jews resident in Rome accompanied
    him to Augustus. Again, in the year 19 A.D., 4000 freedmen of military
    age who "professed the Egyptian and Jewish superstition" were sen-tenced
    to be deported to Sardinia."
    But enough. No matter how many Jews were in the Diaspora in the
    pre-Christian age, so much is certain, that when the Second Temple fell,
    Israel was already scattered over the face of the earth.12 Nor did the ant-heap
    become quiescent in the Middle Ages; for Jewish wanderings con-tinued
    apace. That, too, is certain.
    What direction did the wanderings take? About the end of the 5th
    century Babylon was emptied, at first slowly and then with speed, the
    Jews migrating to all points of the globe -- to Arabia, India and Eu-rope.
    Again in the 13th century streams of emigrants from England,
    France and Germany journeyed partly to the Pyrenean Peninsula, where
    there was already a large number of Jews from Palestine and Babylon,
    and partly to the kingdoms of Eastern Europe, which were likewise not
    without their Jewish inhabitants, who had settled there as far back as
    the 8th century, having arrived from the Byzantine Empire via the Black
    Sea. Then, towards the end of the Middle Ages, Spain and Portugal on
    the one hand and Russia and Poland on the other were the two great
    basins outside the Orient wherein the Jews had settled. From each of
    these the wandering commenced afresh; we have already seen what course
    it took. The Spanish Jews first, then, after the Cossack pogroms in the
    17th century, the Russian Jews began to disperse over the earth. This
    process of emigration from Russia and Poland was a steady one, until
    towards the end of the 19th century there was a volcanic eruption and
    hundreds of thousands sought a refuge in the New World.13
    So this people was driven from place to place -- tribe of the wan-dering
    foot whose fate has been so touchingly expressed in the legend of
    the Wandering Jew.14 The constant insecurity of their position made it
    impossible for them to think of settling down on the soil. As a matter of.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/233
    fact, however, they seldom had any inclination that way. All that we
    know of Jewish life in the Diaspora points to the conclusion that only an
    insignificant number of Jews devoted themselves to agriculture even in
    those lands where no difficulties were placed in their path. Perhaps Po-land
    in the 16th century is the best instance. There they appear to have
    taken up farming. But even in Poland they showed a preference for city
    life. For every 500 Christian merchants in the Polish towns of the period
    there were to be found 3200 Jewish merchants.15
    Yes, they became town-dwellers -- whether voluntarily or by stress
    of circumstances is of no consequence -- and town-dwellers they have
    remained. More than half the Jews of the world to-day are to be found in
    cities with over 50,000 inhabitants. In Germany this applies to about
    43.6 per cent. of the Jews (1900), in Italy, Switzerland, Holland and
    Denmark to about four-fifths, and to all the Jews of England and the
    United States.
    Now the modern city is nothing else but a great desert, as far re-moved
    from the warm earth as the desert is, and like it forcing its inhab-itants
    to become nomads. The old nomadic instincts have thus through
    the centuries been called forth in the Jew by the process of adapting
    himself to his environment, while the principle of selection has only
    tended to strengthen those instincts. It is clear that in the constant changes
    to which the Jews were subjected, not those among them that had an
    inclination to the comfortable, settled life of the farmer were the ones
    likely to survive, but rather those in whom the nomadic instincts were
    strong.
    This hot-blooded, restless people that had wandered not forty, but
    four thousand years in the wilderness came at last to its Canaan, to its
    promised land, where it should be able to repose from all its travels --
    it came to the Northern countries, meeting nations there who, while the
    Jews were hurrying from one oasis to another, had dwelt on their soil
    and smelt of the earth, who differed from the Jews as a horse of the
    Ardennes differs from a fiery Arab charger.
    It will soon be of little moment whether the nations of Northern,
    Central and Eastern Europe are called Aryans or by some other name.
    The latest researches, it is true, would make it appear that most of them
    were indeed Aryans.16 But the name tells us nothing. What is of impor-tance
    is that they were all peoples from the cold North, and never able to
    acclimatize themselves in the warm lands of the South.17 To consider
    them as Aryans is misleading. For then we shall have to include the dark.234/Werner Sombart
    Indian too, and obviously the fair, blue-eyed Europeans have little in
    common with him, except perhaps their language. In other respects they
    have peculiarities all their own. What these are may easily be seen by
    looking at those peoples as they are to-day, and if we had to characterize
    them in one word which should be in contrast to desert it would be
    forest. Forest and desert are indeed the two great opposites which sum
    up differences in countries and their inhabitants. Forests are of the North
    -- those Northern forests with the murmur of their brooks, where the
    mist clings fast to the tree-trunks and the toads have their habitation "in
    the dank moss and the wet stones," where in winter the faint sunlight
    glistens on the rime and in summer the song of birds is everywhere. To
    be sure, there were forests on Lebanon's height, as there are forests to-day
    in the South of Italy. But who that has set foot in a Southern forest
    will not at once perceive that it has small affinity with the forests of the
    North, will not at once realize that "even in Italy the forest tells the heart
    and the eye something very different from the Alpine forest, or that on
    the Baltic shore? The South Italian forest is full of harmonies, perme-ated
    with clear light and ineffable blue, pliant and yet vigorous in its
    aiming skyward and in its bending before the moaning wind; it seems a
    sacred grove" (Hehn). But our Northern forests -- they have a charm
    and a mystery about them at once intimate and fearful. Desert and for-est,
    sand and marsh -- those are the great opposites, depending in the
    long run on differences in the moisture of the air, and so creating dis-similar
    environments for the activities of man. In the one case the Fata
    Morgana is Nature's symbol, in the other the cloud of mist.
    In olden times the characteristics of the Northern climes were even
    more strongly marked than to-day. The Romans' picture of Germany
    shows us a rude land, covered with bogs and dense forests, a land of
    leaden skies, with a misty and moist atmosphere, whose winters are
    long and wildly stormy. For thousands of years peoples and races (our
    ancestors) dwelt in the damp woods, the bogs, the mists, the ice and the
    snow and the rain. They hewed down the woods, made the land habit-able
    and pitched then" tents where axe and plough had gained for them
    a strip of the wilds. From the very fast they seemed to be rooted in the
    soil; from the very first it would seem that tillage was never quite ab-sent.
    But even if we try to imagine these Northern folk as "nomads,"
    theirs is a very different kind of life from that of a Bedouin tribe. We feel
    that they are more tied to the hearth than even an agricultural people in
    an oasis-land. The Northerners are settlers even when they only breed.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/235
    cattle; the Bedouins are always nomads, even though they till the soil.
    This is so because man is brought into closer touch with Nature in
    the North than in the hot countries. Man is part and parcel of Nature
    even if he only beats the woods as a huntsman, or as a shepherd breaks
    a path through the thickets for his flocks. I am inclined to say, even at
    the risk of being ridiculed as a modern mystic, that in the North there
    are between Nature and even the most prosaic of men tender bonds of
    love and friendship, unknown to the Southerner. In the South, as has
    been rightly observed, man regards Nature only as an instrument in the
    work of civilization. Even when he is a tiller of the soil, he is a stranger
    to Nature. In the South there is no country life, no living in and with
    Nature, no attachment to bush and tree, heath and meadow, wild crea-ture
    and free bird.
    Is it not clear that these varying and varied environments must pro-duce
    different results, must influence men in different ways? Would it
    be too much to assume that the Jewish characteristics as we have seen
    them have been affected by, nay, have even received their peculiar im-press
    from the thousands of years of wandering in the wilderness? The
    answer of course is yes, and if in the following pages I try to prove it, I
    must nevertheless admit that the present state of our knowledge of biol-ogy
    is inadequate to show how environment has bearing on the anatomi-cal
    and physiological character of man, and therefore also on his psy-chical
    disposition. The direction which our inquiries under this head
    should take has been laid down by Juan Huarte de San Juan, that wise
    old 16th-century Spanish physician whom I have already mentioned, in
    his splendid book, Examen de ingenios, in which he makes a serious
    attempt (the first of its kind) to give a biological and psychological ex-planation
    of Jewish characteristics by referring to the vicissitudes of the
    Jewish people. The ideas of this profound thinker, who treated of some
    of the problems of human selection in a manner which for that period
    was certainly remarkable, appear to me to be worth saving from an
    undeserved oblivion, and I shall here give them in outline.18
    Huarte mentions four causes which contributed to make the Jews
    what they are: (1) A hot climate. (2) An unfruitful soil. (3) The peculiar
    food of the people during their forty years' wandering in the wilderness:
    they subsisted on Manna; the water they drank was exceedingly pure,
    and the air they breathed very rare. In such circumstances there was a
    tendency (as Aristotle had already pointed out) for children to be born
    who were keen of intellect (hombre de muy agudo ingenio). (4) "When.236/Werner Sombart
    the Children of Israel entered into possession of the Promised Land they
    were faced with so many difficulties, scarcity, hostile raids, conquests
    and tribulations of all sorts, that the misery of it had the effect of adding
    to their intellectual genius a fiery, dry and parched temperament. . . .
    Continual melancholy and a never-ending wretchedness together resulted
    in collecting the blood in the brain, the liver and the heart, and a process
    of blood consuming and burning ensued. . . . This produced much burnt
    black gall (melancolia por adustion). Of this almost all the Jews still
    have a great deal and it results ... in craft, cunning and spite (solercia,
    astucia, versacia, malicia)." The author then proceeds to answer the
    objection, that in the three thousand years since their feeding on Manna
    the Jews very probably lost the characteristics they then acquired, by
    saying that once certain tendencies enter into the system they become
    second nature and are passed on for many generations. He is ready to
    admit, however, that possibly the Jews are not quite as sagacious as
    they used to be.
    Into the depths to which the Madrid physician descends I cannot
    take the reader. We should not find anything but unproved theories there.
    We shall therefore remain above ground and content ourselves with not-ing
    the connexion between Jewish psychological qualities and the vicis-situdes
    of the Jewish people.
    The intellectuality of the Jew, we saw, was his most striking at-tribute,
    the one which embraced many others. It can be very easily ac-counted
    for when we recall that from the very earliest period of their
    history, when they tended their flocks beside the still waters, the Jews
    never had to perform hard manual labour. The curse that fell on Adam
    and Eve when they were expelled from the Garden of Eden, that man
    should eat bread in the sweat of his face, did not at any time bear heavily
    on the Jew -- that is, if we take the words in their literal meaning and
    exclude mental worry and anxiety. Shepherd life calls for care, combi-nation
    and organization, and all subsequent vocations which the Jews
    adopted (whether voluntarily or forcibly is of no consequence) demanded
    but little bodily work, though much mental effort. The family history of
    most of us leads through two or three generations to the plough or the
    anvil or the spinning-wheel. Not so with the Jews. For centuries and
    more they were for the most part never peasants or craftsmen, never
    makers of anything, but only thinkers -- brain-workers. It was there-fore
    only to be expected that certain gifts and capacities should be de-veloped
    in them in the course of time. Given the Jewish mode of life, an.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/237
    exceptional intellectuality cannot but be deduced from it.
    But more than this: the special Jewish intellectuality is of a kind
    associated with sandy or stony deserts. The Jews are rational, are fond
    of abstraction. Once more we are reminded of the contrast between desert
    and forest, between North and South. The sharp outlines of the land-scape
    in hot, dry countries, their brilliant sunshine and their deep shad-ows,
    their clear, starlit nights and their stunted vegetation -- cannot all
    these be summed up in the one word abstraction? The opposite to this is
    surely what is concrete, as all things of the North are, where the water
    flows abundantly, where the landscape is as varied as it is rich, where
    Nature is prolific in wood and field, and the earth sends up its fra-grance.
    Is it accidental that astronomy and the art of reckoning first
    arose in the hot lands where the nights are ever brilliant, and was devel-oped
    among peoples whose pastoral pursuits taught them to count? Can
    we think of the Sumerians who invented the cuneiform script 19 as a
    Northern people? Or, on the other hand, can we imagine the peasant of
    the misty North as he follows his plough, or the huntsman chasing deer
    in the forest, as either of them able to conceive the abstract idea of
    numbers?
    So with rational thinking and searching after causes. That also leads
    us into the world of the South with its artificially produced, never natu-ral
    vegetation, with the eternal insecurity of Bedouin life as the domi-nating
    factor of existence. And contrariwise, tradition is associated with
    the comfortable, secure and peaceful existence of the Northern farmer
    and with his misty and mysterious surroundings. That the appreciation
    of life and growth should be able to develop, or at least to develop more
    freely, among the luxuriant Nature of the North than among the dead
    vegetation of the South is not at all unlikely. And as the desert, so the
    town, in depriving man of his piece of fruitful mother earth destroys in
    him the feeling of communion with all living things, breaks the bond of
    fellowship between him and animals and plants, and so deadens all true
    understanding of organic Nature. On the other hand, the city sharpens
    his intellectual capacities, enabling him to search, to spy-out, to orga-nize,
    to arrange. To be constantly on the alert is the nature of the nomad;
    to have to be constantly on the alert was what their fate forced on the
    Jews -- to be constantly alive to new possibilities, new goals, new com-binations
    of events; in a word, to order life with some end in view.
    The Jew is adaptable and mobile. Adaptability and mobility are the
    principal qualities the nomad must possess if he is to survive the struggle.238/Werner Sombart
    for existence. Your settled peasant could not make any use of these
    virtues. "The law of desert life prescribes the greatest mobility both of
    person and of property. Camel and steed must be able to carry the no-mad
    and all his substance speedily from one halting-place to the next,
    for his stock of provisions is not great and is soon exhausted, and be-sides
    he must be able to flee from the onslaughts of his foe with the
    rapidity of a lightning flash. . . This mobility even in ordinary circum-stances
    necessitates a certain measure of organizing talent on the part of
    the tribal leaders."20 (The soil tiller has no need of this.) "The plough
    and the ox seem lazy things enough when compared with the lance, the
    arrow and the horse of the nomad."21 So too the country when compared
    with the town. Turn to the history of the Jews, and observe how from the
    moment they crossed the Jordan until this very day towns have engen-dered
    in them a high degree of mobility.
    Always then we have the contrast between the nomad and the dweller
    by the hearth, the contrast to which may be ascribed, on the one hand
    determination to reach some goal, on the other, joy in work for what it is
    worth. In the case of the Jews their thousand years' wanderings only
    developed this nomad virtue in them. The promised land throughout
    their journeyings was always before them; it was always something to
    be reached, something to be achieved, something to which they looked
    forward, like a traveller who has no delight in his wandering. The more
    hopeless the present became, the richer were the blessings which the
    future held out; everything that was was accounted as a bubble, all
    reality as without content, all action as senseless; only the result of ac-tion
    -- success, the end in view -- had a value. In this chain of tenden-cies
    the stress laid on results was to a large extent responsible for the
    utilization of money for lending purposes, and, indeed, for the whole of
    the capitalistic nexus. The importance attached by the Jew to results of
    action may have been cause and effect at once of their capitalistic un-dertakings.
    Now, for the attainment of some given end, no less than for mobil-ity,
    a large measure of physical and intellectual energy is essential. The
    first ancestors of the Jews must have been possessed of a great deal, and
    the sojourn of the Jews amid Northern peoples only served to increase it
    still more. It is plainly manifest that the contact with the North perfected
    the inherent powers of the Jew. One need but compare his achievements
    here with those in Southern lands to see the truth of this statement. The
    process of selection, by weeding out the unfit, only made bodily and.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/239
    mental energy still more the possession of a people whose Southern
    origin already inclined them to it.
    As the spirits of the two types of peoples differed, so also their
    respective expressions. Water, wood and fragrant earth have their fairy
    tales, their myths, their songs; so have desert and oasis. Delightful as it
    would be to follow this side-issue, we can here only call attention to it
    and perforce pass on to the consideration of the different economic sys-tem
    associated with each type of people.
    The economic differences may be traced, at bottom, to the contrast
    between the nomadic and the agricultural life, between Saharaism and
    "Sylvanism." From the wood which is cleared, from the marsh which is
    drained, from the soil which the ploughshare turns up arose that eco-nomic
    organization of society which was dominant in Europe before
    Capitalism came -- the feudal, manorial system, resting on the ideas
    that production should be only for consumption, that every man should
    have his niche to work in, and that every society should have differences
    in status. The peasant's holding, strictly marked off as it was from his
    neighbour's, gave prominence to the idea of each man's limited sphere
    of activities, of "the estate to which it had pleased God to call him";
    there he was to remain and work in the traditional way.
    From the endless wastes of sand, from the pastoral pursuits, springs
    the opposite way of life -- Capitalism. Economic activities here are not
    circumscribed for each man, but are those of the breeder (shepherd)
    with his boundless outlook, where to-morrow may undo the work of to-day,
    but where also in a few years' time stock may increase tenfold.
    Sheep and kine multiply quickly, but as quickly they may be decimated
    by hunger or disease. Hence, only in the shepherd's calling, never in the
    farmer's, could the idea of gain have taken root, and the conception of
    unlimited production have become a reality. Only in the shepherd's call-ing
    could the view have become dominant that in economic activities the
    abstract quantity of commodities matters, not whether they are fit or
    sufficient for use. Only in the shepherd's calling was counting a prime
    necessity. Moreover, the rationalism which, as we have seen, is insepa-rable
    from nomadic life, here entered into play, and it is not too much to
    say that "Nomadism" is the progenitor of Capitalism. The relation be-tween
    Capitalism and Judaism thus becomes more clear.
    Now desert and wandering, though they influenced the Jewish char-acter
    in no small degree, were not the only forces which moulded the
    Jewish spirit. There were others, not as effective as the first, but supple-.240/Werner Sombart
    mentary to them.
    The first was money, of which the Jews were the guardians. This
    left its mark on their nature, but at the same time it was in consonance
    with it. For in money, the two factors that go to make up the Jewish
    spirit are united -- desert and wandering, Saharaism and Nomadism.
    Money is as little concrete as the land from which the Jews sprang;
    money is only a mass, a lump, like the flock; it is mobile; it is seldom
    rooted in fruitful soil like the flower or the tree. Their constant concern
    with money distracted the attention of the Jews from a qualitative, natu-ral
    view of life to a quantitative, abstract conception. The Jews fath-omed
    all the secrets that lay hid in money, and found out its magic
    powers. They became lords of money, and, through it, lords of the world
    -- as I tried to describe in the first chapter of this book.
    Did they go in search of money, or was it first forced upon them and
    did they then gradually accustom themselves to the stranger? Both ex-planations,
    it would seem, have much in their favour.
    In the beginning it looks as though a great deal of money flowed
    into their possession almost naturally -- or more correctly stated, the
    precious metals, which they afterwards turned into coin. I believe it has
    never yet been pointed out that large quantities of gold and silver must
    have accumulated in Palestine in the period of the Kings. We are told of
    David that he brought back from his raiding expeditions much of both
    metals, not to mention the tribute he received in gold and silver. "And
    Joram brought with him vessels of silver and vessels of gold and vessels
    of brass; these also did King David dedicate unto the Lord with the
    silver and gold that he dedicated of all the nations which he subdued" (2
    Sam. viii. 10--11).
    The stories we read of the use of gold and silver, both in the making
    of the Tabernacle and in the building of the Temple, border on the fabu-lous,
    and apparently it was no exaggeration to say that "the King made
    silver and gold to be in Jerusalem as stones" (2 Chron. i. 15) -- cer-tainly
    not when we remember the exact statistical information on the
    subject. The voyages of King Solomon's ships to Ophir must have opened
    up a veritable California in those days. No wonder that the prophet
    Isaiah lamented that "their land is full of silver and gold, neither is there
    any end of their treasures" (Isa. ii. 7).
    What happened to all these quantities of the precious metals? The
    Rabbis of the Talmud considered this question and came to the conclu-sion
    that it remained with Israel. "This is what R. Alexandrai taught..The Jews and Modern Capitalism/241
    Three things returned whence they came: Israel, Egypt's money (cf.
    Exod. xii. 35 and 1 Kings xiv. 25) and the tablets of the Ark."22 But of
    course a more convincing proof will hardly be adducible. Be that as it
    may, the important thing is that an enormous supply of the precious
    metals had accumulated in Israel at an early stage in its history. To this
    was added the moneys obtained through the centuries in all parts of the
    world. Nor must we overlook the streams of treasure that were directed
    to Palestine, partly as Temple taxes and partly as the offerings of pious
    pilgrims. Cicero (pro Flacco, c. 28) deplored the large sums that were
    annually taken to Jerusalem from Italy and all the provinces. Both chan-nels
    must have given no small yield, as would appear from several inter-esting
    incidents. Mithridates, for instance, seized 800 talents of the
    Temple taxes and deposited them in the island of Cos. Cicero relates
    that Flaccus captured while on its way to Jerusalem the money which
    the Jews of four cities of Asia Minor (Apamea, Laodicea, Pergamum
    and Adramyttium) had sent, and that the spoil from the first-named city
    alone amounted to a hundred pounds of gold. And then the pilgrims!
    Their number must have been exceedingly large, though it was not quite
    2,700,000, as Josephus reports, and though there were not quite 380
    synagogues in Jerusalem for the convenience of the visitors. Certain it
    is, however, that the pilgrim bands were like reservoirs from which money
    flowed in all directions, and many a man must have become wealthy
    and therefore able to lend money at interest. Perhaps the priests may be
    instanced; we are told that they generally obtained large dowries and
    were not disinclined for a little money-lending business.23
    The next question of importance is whether the Jews themselves
    discovered the secret power of money, whether it was they who insti-tuted
    the mechanism of lending, or whether they learnt it from the
    Babylonians. It seems pretty well established now that money circu-lated
    freely in Babylon prior to the arrival of the Jews, though we have
    no details of any value as to the extent to which money-lending was
    developed. Possibly the seeds of Jewish monetary activities may have
    been germinating with their cousins, the Babylonians. It does not matter
    much which of these kindred peoples first grew golden fruit. The main
    thing is that later events forced money-lending upon the Jews, and so
    made them specialists in it. For their constant wanderings necessitated
    their having their wealth in a form easily portable, and what more adapt-able
    for this than money and jewellery? Money was their sole compan-ion
    when they were thrust naked into the street, and their sole protector.242/Werner Sombart
    when the hand of the oppressor was heavy upon them. So they learned
    to love it, seeing that by its aid alone they could subdue the mighty ones
    of the earth. Money became the means whereby they -- and through
    them all mankind -- might wield power without themselves being strong.
    With the fine threads of money-lending a people who were socially of
    little moment were able to bind the feudal giant, much as the Lilliputians
    did to Gulliver.
    So much then for money as one factor in Jewish development. I
    come now to another, which some regard as of even greater import. I
    refer to the Ghetto.
    The Ghetto undoubtedly influenced the social status of the Jews in a
    very peculiar way: it made of them despised pariahs. Even to-day the
    greater portion of Ghetto Jews belong socially to the lower classes, and
    are so considered by their brethren in faith. At one time in their history
    the contrast between the Ghetto Jew and his liberated brother found
    tangible expression in the attitude of the Sephardim (Spanish Jews) to-wards
    the Ashkenazim (German Jews). The former looked down on the
    latter with contempt, regarding them as importunate beggars who were
    a nuisance. This is the vein of bitter sarcasm in which a German Jew
    wrote to a Portuguese co-religionist about the middle of the 18th cen-tury
    (when the relation between the two sections was most strained)24 :
    "I am aware. Sir, that the Portuguese Jews have nothing in common
    with those of Germany except a religious rite, and that their upbringing
    and their manners utterly differentiate between them as far as social life
    is concerned. I am also aware that the affinity between the two is a
    tradition of very ancient date, and that Vercingentorix, the Gaul, and
    Arminius, the German, were nearer relatives to Herod's father-in-law
    than you are to the Son of Ephraim." Pinto, the Sephardi Jew, expresses
    himself in a similar tone in his well-known reply to the attacks which
    Voltaire made on the Jews as a whole.25 Pinto is anxious that the Span-ish
    Jews should not be put in the same boat as the German Jews; they
    are two distinct nations. "A Jew of London," he says, "as little resembles
    a Jew of Constantinople as the latter does a Chinese Mandarin. A Por-tuguese
    Jew of Bordeaux and a German Jew of Metz have nothing in
    common." "Mons. de Voltaire cannot ignore the delicate scruples of the
    Portuguese and Spanish Jews in not mixing with the Jews of other na-tions,
    either by marriage or otherwise." Pinto proceeds to say that if a
    Sephardi Jew in Holland or England were to make a German Jewess his
    wife, his relatives would disown him and he would not even be given.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/243
    burial in their cemetery.
    This opposition very often found practical expression, more espe-cially
    on the part of the Sephardim, who in their own eyes were the
    aristocracy of Jewry and who were afraid lest their social position should
    be endangered by the arrival of Jews from more easterly countries. Thus,
    in 1761 the Portuguese Jews (or Marannos) of Bordeaux were able to
    get an order passed to the effect that within fourteen days all alien Jews
    were to leave the city. Pinto and Pereira were the prime movers in the
    matter, and they used every endeavour to rid themselves of the "vaga-bonds"
    -- their own co-religionists from Germany and France.26 In
    Hamburg the Sephardim occupied a position of official superiority over
    the German Jews; the latter having to give undertakings to the former
    that no shady commercial practices would be carried on.
    The reason for the dislike between the Sephardim and the
    Ashkenazim, more especially of the former towards the latter, may be
    found in the different social positions occupied by each. But no doubt
    the feeling was strengthened by the distinctly marked aristocratic con-sciousness
    of the Sephardim, who held that they were of purer origin
    than the Ashkenazim, that their blood was bluer, that their family pride
    had always been a spur to them as long as they lived in the Pyrenean
    Peninsula to do noble deeds, and had thus been a protection against all
    things base.27
    We have here possibly touched on a chord which will help us to
    apprize at its true worth the influence of the Ghetto for Jewish life.
    Perhaps the conception of noblesse obligeheld by the Spanish and Por-tuguese
    Jews -- their aim to make the highest virtues theirs -- may
    explain why they had no Ghettos, and will not need to be regarded as an
    effect of Ghetto life. In other words, perhaps a section of the Jews lived
    the Ghetto life because they were by nature inclined that way. It is diffi-cult
    to say why some continued in the Ghetto while others soon freed
    themselves. We have not sufficient information for the decision. Nor
    can we assert without hesitation (though much would seem to point to
    it) that the Sephardim represented the result of a process of social selec-tion
    among Jews. But it is not assuming too much to say that differences
    in their vicissitudes are traceable to differences in their natures. These
    differences must not, however, be made too much of. Their Jewishness
    was little influenced by them. Jews they were all, whether Sephardim or
    Ashkenazim. But in the case of the latter. Ghetto life produced certain
    habits, certain mannerisms which always clung to the Ghetto Jew, and.244/Werner Sombart
    often affected his economic activities. In part they were the habits of
    low social grades generally, but in Jews, with their peculiar tempera-ment,
    they assumed curious features -- a tendency, for instance, to petty
    cheating, obtrusiveness, lack of personal dignity, tactlessness and so on.
    These things must have played some part in the Jewish conquest of the
    feudal economic strongholds; in what way precisely we have already
    had occasion to see.
    But these mere externals must not be exaggerated. In social inter-course
    with Jews they may appear of some importance to this or that
    person; but we doubt whether any great weight should be attached to
    them in considering Jewish economic achievements. Without question
    the Jews could not have won their dominant position in the world by the
    aid of these mannerisms alone.
    Another aspect of Ghetto life is of more consequence. I refer to its
    influence in making the inherent Jewish characteristics more marked
    and more one-sided. If, as we have already observed, these characteris-tics
    sprang from a want of settledness on the part of the Jew, it is obvi-ous
    that the Ghetto only intensified it. But it was already there, already
    innate in the Jew.
    The Ghetto had the same effect in another direction by giving promi-nence
    to, and emphasizing the twin forces which were responsible for
    the constancy in Jewish peculiarities -- religion and pure breeding.
    The religion of a people is, of course, the expression of its soul: that
    has been the view that we have taken in this book. But all the same, an
    exclusive formalistic religion like Judaism must in its turn strongly in-fluence
    its adherents, more especially in the direction of unifying their
    life and giving it a common stamp. How this expressed itself we have
    also considered; I would here only remind the reader of its rationalizing
    tendencies.
    And as with religion so with the physiological side of life, which is
    so closely akin to it. That also intensified the inbreeding of the Jews,
    which they had practised for hundreds of years.
    I have just remarked that with the Jews inbreeding is closely akin to
    religion. One may go even further and say that it is a direct consequence
    of the central idea of the religion, the idea of election. This has been
    demonstrated recently in a series of studies, one of the best of which
    perhaps is by Alfred Nossig, who writes as follows:28 "A striking bio-logical
    result of the idea of election is the existence of the Jews, and
    their power of reproduction, not yet abated. The Mosaic conception of.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/245
    'an everlasting people' would seem to be realizing itself." Dietary and
    marriage laws are safeguards for the continuance of the race. "These
    ethical treasurers of highest worth were of course shielded against de-struction
    through intermixture with less carefully reared races. The re-sult
    of the prohibition of mixed marriages was that the factor which is
    supreme in race culture -- heredity -- was maintained in its pristine
    strength, and the advantages that have been mentioned not merely re-mained
    constant but increased from generation to generation." "Inbreed-ing
    has thus resulted in making Jewish inherited characteristics more
    and more marked and intense, so that it becomes exceedingly difficult to
    oust them by intermixture. For it has been proved that the intensity of
    heredity, like all other organic functions, has become strengthened by
    constant practice."29
    Religion and inbreeding were the two iron hoops that bound the
    Jewish people and kept them as one body through the centuries. Sup-pose
    that the hoops were to become loose, what then? To answer this
    very difficult question was not the task I set myself. For as long as we
    find the Jews exercising their particular influence on economic life --
    and they still do so -- we may take it that the hoops are yet strong. I did
    not in this book intend to go beyond considering that influence, and
    showing the genesis of the Jewish genius which made it possible -- that
    influence which has been so fateful in economic life and for modern
    culture as a whole..Notes and References
    Abbreviations
    Monatsschrift = Monatsschrift für Geschichte und Wissenschaft des
    Judentums.
    J.Q.R. = Jewish Quarterly Review.
    Z.D.S.J. == Zeitschrift für Demographic und Statistik der Juden.
    R.E.J. = Revue des Etudes Juives.
    Chapter 1
    1. Jakob Fromer, Das Wesen des Judentums (1905), p. 144. No author-ity
    cited.
    2. Zeitschrift für Demographie und Statistik der Juden [Z.D.S.J.] iii.,
    140, 145.
    3. J. Thon, "Taufbewegung der Juden in Oesterreich," in Z.D.S.J., iv.,
    6.
    4. Theophile Malvezin, Histoire des Juifs {I Bordeaux (1875), p. 105.
    5. E.g., Lucien Wolf, "Jessurun Family" in Jewish Quarterly Review
    [J.Q.R.J.] i. (1889), 439.
    6. E.g., B. C. Weiss, Histoire des réfugées protest., i. (1853), pp. 164,
    377, 379, 383; ii., 5.
    7. Sigmund Mayer, Die ökonomische Entwicklung der Wiener Juden,
    p. 7.
    Chapter 2
    1. To give the numbers of Jews who were scattered in different lands is
    impossible. Attempts to do this have indeed been made, but the re-sults
    were nothing more than conjectures. Perhaps the best of these is
    I. Loeb, Le nombre des Juifs de Castile et d'Espagne au moyen Age,.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/247
    in Revue des Études Juives, xiv. (1887), p. 161. Loeb bases a good
    many of his calculations on the number of Jews resident in the differ-ent
    localities to-day. Nevertheless I shall give the results of his re-searches.
    He believes there were about 235,000 Jews in Spain and
    Portugal in 1492. The number had remained pretty constant for some
    two hundred years. Of the total, 160,000 lived in Castile (Andalusia,
    Granada, etc.) and 30,000 in Navarre. What happened to all these
    Jews? Loeb maintains that 50,000 were baptized, 20,000 perished as
    a result of the expulsion, and 165,000 emigrated as follows: 90,000
    to Turkey, 2000 to Egypt and Tripoli, 10,000 to Algiers, 20,000 to
    Morocco, 3000 to France, 9000 to Italy, 25,000 to Holland, Ham-burg,
    England and Scandinavia, 5000 to America, and 1000 to vari-ous
    other countries.
    Supplementary to these figures let me quote the report of the well-in-formed
    Venetian Ambassador, who says, "Si giudica in Castilia ed in
    altre province di Spagna il terzo esser Marrani un terzo dico di coloro
    che sono cittadini e mercanti perchè il populo minuto è vero cristiano,
    e cosi la maggior parte delli grandi." Vicenzo Querini (1506) in Alberi,
    Rel. degli Amb., Series I, vol. L, p. 29.
    2. For the fate of the Marannos in Portugal see M. Kayserling, Geschichte
    der Juden in Portugal (1876), pp. 84, 167. Further particulars may
    be found in J. H. Gottheil's The Jews and the Spanish Inquisition, in
    J.Q.R., xv. (1903), p. 182; in Elkan Adier's Auto da Fè and Jew, ib.,
    xiii., xiv., xv. (recently issued in book form).
    3. Cf. B. Sieveking, Genueser Firanzwesen, ii. (1899), p. 167, with
    Schudt, Jüdische Merkwürdigkeiten, i. (1714), p. 128.
    4. Frankfort (Main) was the goal of the Jews expelled from the other
    South-German towns in the 15th and 16th centuries. But Holland
    must also have contributed its quota, as would appear from the close
    commercial relations between Frankfort and Amsterdam in the 17th
    and 18th centuries. According to P. Bothe, Beiträge zur Wirtschafts-und
    Socialgeschichte der Reichsstadt Frankfurt (1906), p. 70, the
    number of Jews in Frankfort increased twenty-fold. In 1612 there
    were about 2800; in 1709 the official census gives 3019, out of a
    total population of 18,000. We are tolerably well informed as to the
    origin of the Jews in Frankfort, thanks to the assiduous industry of A.
    Dietz in his Stammbuch der Frankfurter Juden: Geschichtliche
    Milteilungen über die Frankfurter jüdischen Familien von 1549--1849
    (1907). For the period prior to 1500 see Karl Bücher, Bevölkerung.248/Werner Sombart
    von Frankfurt am Main (1886), pp. 526--601.
    In Hamburg the Jews first settled (ostensibly as Catholics) in 1577 or
    1583. They came from Flanders, Italy, Holland, Spain and Portugal,
    and it was not until the 17th century that immigrants from the East
    (Germany especially) began to arrive. According to Count Galeazzo
    Gualdo Priorato there were some 40 or 50 German-Jewish houses in
    Hamburg in 1663 side by side with the 120 of Portuguese Jews. See
    Zeitschrift für Hamburgische Geschichte, iii., p. 140. For a general
    account of the Jews of Hamburg, see A. Feilehenfeld, Die älteste
    Geschichte der deutschen Juden in Hamburg, in the Monatsschrift
    für Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judentums, vol. 43 (1899); also
    M. Grunwald, Portugiesengräber auf deutscher Erde (1902) and
    Hamburgs deutsche Juden (1904).
    From the end of the 17th century onward the Jews increased rapidly in
    Hamburg. About the middle of the 18th century we hear of a "terrible
    crowd of Jews," estimated (much too highly, of course) at between
    twenty and thirty thousand. Cf. C. L. von Griesheim, Die Stadt Ham-burg
    (1760), p. 47.
    5. Risbeck, Briefe eines reisenden Franzosen über Deutschland an
    seinen Bruder in Paris (1780). Quoted in H. Scheubbe, Aus den
    Tagen unserer Grossväter (1873), pp. 382 ff.
    6. We have a wealth of information about the Jews in Bordeaux in the
    fine work of Malvezin (cf. Chapter 2), which is really invaluable. Of
    the Jews in Marseilles we are told much in Jonas Weyl's "Les juifs
    protégés français aux échelles du Levant et en Barbarie," in Rev. de
    Études Juives, vol. xii. (1886). For the Jews of Rouen see Gosselin,
    "Documents inédites pour servir a l'histoire de la marine normande
    et du commerce rouennais pendant les xvi et xvii siècles" (1876).
    Pigeonneau, who quotes this book in his Histoire du commerce, ii, p.
    123, speaks of course of "the naturalized Spaniards and Portuguese."
    We ought to mention also Maignial, La Question juive en France en
    1789 (1903), a book based on an extensive acquaintance with sources,
    written with skill and judgment. Not only does it present a good ac-count
    of the Jewish Question in France in 1789, but it also shows
    how that problem developed.
    In Paris there were not many Jews before the 19th century, though some
    of them were very influential. A good deal of information will be
    found concerning the Jews of Paris in the 18th century in the books
    of Leon Kahn, Les juifs à Paris depuis le vi siècle (1889); Les juifs.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/249
    sous Louis XV (1892), and Les juifs à Paris au xviii siècle (1894).
    Good as these books are, they do not deal with every aspect of the
    question.
    Much valuable material dealing with the history of the Jews in France
    will be found scattered in the Revue des Études Juives [R.E.J.] (from
    1880 onwards).
    7. The history of the Jews in Holland has been treated by H. J. Koenen,
    Geschiedenes der Joden in Nederland (1843), which has not been
    surpassed. Also worth mentioning are the following: M. Henriques
    Pimentel, Geschiedkundige Aanteekeningen betreffende de
    Portugesche Israeliten in den Haag (1876); S. Back, Die
    Entstehungsgeschichte der portugiesischen Gemeinde in Amsterdam
    (1883); E. Italie, Geschiedenes der Israelitischen Gemeente te
    Rotterdam (1907).
    8. Ranke, Französische Geschichte, vol. iii., p. 350.
    9. Schudt, Jüdische Merkwürdigkeiten. i. (1714), p. 271; cf. also p.
    277.
    10. In addition to the literature mentioned in note 6, see also Carmoly in
    the Revue Orientate (1841) i., 42, 168, 174, and Graetz, Geschichte
    der Juden, vol. 9, pp. 292, 354, 490.
    11. See L. Guiccardino, Totius Belgii Descriptio (1652), p. 129, and cf.
    Ehrenberg, Zeiltalter der Fugger, ii. (1896), p. 3.
    12. Cf. Macaulay's [History] iv., p. 320, and Ehrenberg, op. cit., ii., p.
    303.
    13. The history of the Jews in England has been abundantly and effi-ciently
    dealt with. A mine of information (though it must be used
    with care) will be found in Anglia Judaica, or the History and Antiq-uities
    of the Jews in England, by D'Blossiers Tovey (1738). Among
    later works the pioneer was that of James Picciotto. Sketches of Anglo-Jewish
    History (1875), which is deficient in that it does not always
    mention authorities. H. S. Q. Henriques in his Return of the Jews to
    England (1905) has written on this subject from the legal point of
    view.
    A complete account of the history of the Jews in England will be found
    in Albert M. Hyamson's admirable A History of the Jews in England
    (1908). The author has skilfully utilized the material at his disposal
    in special articles and papers, and has presented a rounded off study
    of the whole subject. The J.Q..R. (first appeared in 1889) contains
    much miscellaneous material. Also the publications of the Anglo-.250/Werner Sombart
    Jewish Historical Exhibition (1888).
    For the Cromwellian period the following may be mentioned: Lucien
    Wolf, The Middle Age of Anglo-Jewish History, 1290--1656, in the
    Publications of the Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition, No. 1. Sig-nificant
    for the position of the Jews in England at the end of the 15th
    century is the fact that a Jew commenced legal proceedings quite
    openly and was confident of winning his case. A century later there
    were Jewish industrial undertakers in England, cf. Calendar of State
    Papers, 1581--90, p. 49 (quoted in L. Wolf's paper). There must
    have been quite a number of Jews in England at the beginning of the
    17th century. A publication of 1625, The Wandering Jew telling for-tunes
    to Englishmen (also quoted in Mr. Wolfs paper), says: "A store
    of Jews we have in England; a few in Court; many i' the city; more in
    the country."
    14. Anglia Judaica, p. 302, "as I have been well inform'd," writes Tovey.
    15. A good instance is that of J. F. Richter, who works out the thesis for
    Nuremberg. For the old Jewish community in Nuremberg, see
    Allgemeine Judenzeitung, 1842, No. 24. Cf. also the Eighth Report
    of the Historische Verein fur Mittelfranken, and M. Brann, "Eine
    Sammlung Fürther Grabschriften," in Gedenkbuch zur Erinnerung
    an David Kaufmann (1900).
    16. A most interesting document in support is given by D. Kaufmann in
    his "Die Vertreibung der Marranen aus Venedig im Jahre 1550," in
    the J.Q.R.. vol. 13 (1901), p. 520.
    17. Hyamson's History of the Jews in England, p. 174.
    18. M. Bloch, Les juifs et la prosperètè publique à trovers l'histoire
    (1899), p. 11. The Ordinance contains the following remarkable words,
    "Vous devez bien prendre garde que la jalousie du commerce portera
    toujours les marchands à être d'avis de les chasser."
    19. Malvezin, Les juifs à Bordeaux, p. 132.
    20. Malvezin, p. 175.
    21. S. Ullmann, Studien zur Geschichte des Juden in Belgien bis zum
    18. Jahrhundert (1909), p. 34
    22. Émile Ouverleaux, "Notes et documents sur les juifs de Belgique,"
    in R.E.J.; vol. 7, p. 262.
    23. Thurloe, Collection of State Papers, iv, p. 333. Cf. also the letter of
    Whalley, p. 308.
    24. J. Müller in his anti-Jewish book, Judaismus (1644). Cf. also Reils,
    "Beiträge zur älteren Geschichte der Juden in Hamburg," in the.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/251
    Zeitschrift des Vereins für Hamburgische Geschichte, vol. 2, p. 412.
    25. Ehrenberg, Grosse Vermögen, p. 146.
    26. M. Grunwald, Hamburgs deutsche Juden bis zur Auflösung der
    Dreigemeinden, 1811 (1904), p. 21.
    27. Arnold Kiesselbach, Die wirtschafts- und rechtsgeschichtliche
    Entwicklung der Seeversicherung in Hamburg (1901), p. 24.
    Chapter 3
    1. Hyamson, p. 178.
    2. Anglia Judaica, p. 292.
    3. Thanks to the work of R. Markgraf, Zur Geschichte der Juden auf
    den Messen in Leipzig vom 1664--1839 (a doctoral dissertation, 1894),
    from which the figures in the text have been taken. For the short
    period 1675--99 Max Freudenthal, "Leipziger Messgäste" in
    Monatsschrift, vol. 45 (1901), p. 460, is even better than Markgraf,
    for he draws from the actual Fair Books, where Markgraf depends
    on the documents in the Leipzig archives, which are of later date.
    Freudenthal shows that between 1671 and 1699, 18,182 Jews visited
    the fairs, apart from those who had special permits. Markgraf, how-ever,
    for the same period has traced only 14,705. Freudenthal's study
    appeared in book form in 1902 under the title of Die jüdischen
    Besucher der Leipziger Messe.
    4. Markgraf, p. 93; Freudenthal, p. 465. Cf. R. Punke, Die Leipziger
    Messen (1897), p. 41.
    5. See, for example. No. 21 of the Judenreglements of the year 1710 in
    C. L. von Griesheim, Die Stadt Hamburg, Anmerkungen und Zugaben
    (1759), p. 95.
    6. E. Baasch, "Hamburgs Seeschiffahrt und Warenhandel" in the
    Zeitschrift des Ver. für Hamburg. Geschichte, vol. 9 (1894), pp. 316,
    324. Cf. A. Feilchenfeld, "Anfang und Blutezeit der
    Portugiesengemeinden," in Hambg. Ztschrift., vol. 10 (1899), p. 199.
    7. Encyclopédie methodique. "Manufactures," i., 403--4.
    8. Cf. H. J. Koenen, Geschiedenes der Joden in Nederland (1843), p.
    176 ff. Also H. Sommershausen, "Die Geschichte der Niederlassung
    der Juden in Holland und den holländischen Kolonien," in
    Monatsschrift, vol. ii.
    9. For jewellery and pearls, see for Hamburg Griesheim, op. cit., p. 119;
    for North Germany I am indebted to Dr. Bernfeld, of Berlin, for in-formation;
    for Holland, see Jewish Encyclopedia, article "Nether-.252/Werner Sombart
    lands"; E. E. Danekamp, Die Amsterdamer Diamantindustrie, quoted
    by N. W. Goldstein in his article in the Z.D.S.J. (vol. iii., p. 178) on
    Die Juden in der Amsterdamer Diamantindustrie; for Italy, see D.
    Kaufmann, "Die Vertreibung der Marranen aus Venedig," in the J.Q.R.
    As for silks, the Jews were for centuries engaged in this industry, which
    they transplanted from Greece into Sicily and later to France and
    Spain. Cf. Graetz v.2 , p. 244. In the 16th century they dominated the
    silk trade in Italy (cf. David Kaufmann, loc. cit.), and in the 18th
    century in France. In 1760 the wardens of the Lyons Silkweavers'
    Guild termed the Jewish nation "la maîresse du commerce de toutes
    les provinces." See J. Godard, L'Ouvrier en Soie (1899), p. 224. In
    1755 there were 14 and in 1759, 22 Jewish silk merchants in Paris.
    See Kahn, Juifs des Paris sous Louis XV, p. 63. It was the same tale
    in Berlin.
    10. How the Jews developed the wholesale textile trade in Vienna may
    be seen from the personal experiences of S. Mayer in his Die
    ökonomische Entstehung der Wiener Juden, p. 8 ff.
    An ordinance of the City Council of Nuremberg, bearing date Decem-ber
    28, 1780, calls silk, velvet and wool "Judenware." Cf. H. Barbeck,
    Geschichte der Juden in Nürnberg und Fürth (1878), p. 71.
    11. For the sugar trade with the Levant, see Lippmann, Geschichte des
    Zuckers (1890), p. 206; D. Kaufmann, loc. cit.; for sugar trade with
    America, see M. Grunwald, Portugiesengräber auf deutscher Erde
    (1902), p. 6 ff.; A. Feilchenfeld, "Anfang und Blütezeit der
    Portugiesengemeinde in Hamburg," in the Zeitschrift des Vereins für
    Hamburg. Geschichte, vol. 10 (1899), p. 211. Cf. also Risbeck, op.
    cit.
    12. "Controlling the Cotton Trade." See art. "America, U.S. of," in
    Jewish Encyclopedia (i. 495).
    13. More especially for Hamburg, see Feilchenfeld, loc. cit.
    14. Moses Lindo, the principal pioneer in the indigo trade, arrived in
    South Carolina in 1756 and invested £120,000 in indigo. Between
    1756 and 1776 the production of indigo increased fivefold. Cf. B. A.
    Elgas, The Jews of South Carolina (1903), see also art. "South Caro-lina,"
    in Jewish Encyclopaedia.
    15. Risbeck, op. cit., vol. ii., under Frankfort.
    16. Quoted by Bloch, op. cit., p. 36.
    17. See Richard Markgraf, op. cit., p. 93.
    18. Cf. Hyamson, pp. 174, 178. Also the report sent by the rulers of.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/253
    Antwerp to the Bishop of Arras, quoted by Ullmann, op. cit., p. 35,
    "they have brought much wealth with them, especially silver, jewels
    and many ducats."
    Chapter 4
    1. When Don Isaac Abarbanel was writing his commentary on the Book
    of Jeremiah (1504) he saw a document brought from India by Portu-guese
    spice merchants wherein it was reported that they had met many
    Jews in that country. Quoted by M. Kayserling, Christopher Colum-bus
    (1894), p. 105. Cf. also Bloch, op. cit., p. 15.
    2. As Manasseh ben Israel mentions in his "Humble Address" to
    Cromwell. For this document, see Jewish Chronicle, November and
    December, 1859. Cf. also de Barrios, Hist. universal Judayca, p. 4.
    3. G. C. Klerk de Reus, Geschichtlicher Überblick der ... niederländisch-ostindischen
    Compagnie (1894), xix. For Coen, see p. xiv.
    4. J. P. J. Du Bois, Vie des Gouverneurs généraux ... ornée de leurs
    portraits en vignettes au naturel (1763).
    5. E.g., Francis Salvador. Cf. art. "Salvador," in Jewish Encycl., also
    Hyamson, p. 264.
    6. In 1569 wealthy Amsterdam Jews furnished the Barentz Expedition.
    Cf. M. Grunwald, Hamburgs deutsche Juden (1904), p. 215.
    7. See art. "South Africa," in the Jewish Encycl.
    8. Dr. J. H. Hertz, The Jew in South Africa (1905).
    9. Art. "Commerce" in Jewish Encycl.
    10. The literature concerning Jews and America is pretty extensive. I
    can only mention the most important works here. To begin with, there
    is the Jewish Encyclopedia (an American publication), which has
    some excellent articles relating to American conditions. Then I must
    mention the Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of America
    (begun in 1895), a veritable mine of information on American Jewish
    (also economic) history, more especially in the colonies in North and
    South America in the 17th and 18th centuries. There are some valu-able
    speeches in The 250th Anniversary of the Settlement of the Jews
    in the U.S.A. (1905).
    Further, see Markeus, The Hebrews in America; C. P. Daly, History of
    the Settlement of the Jews in North America (1893); M. C. Peters,
    The Jews in America (1906). The first two books appear to be out of
    print.
    11. In connexion with the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America,.254/Werner Sombart
    a number of works have made their appearance showing to what
    extent Jews participated in the actual discovery. The best of these is
    M. Kayserling, Christopher Columbus und der Anteil der Juden,
    etc. (1894). Some others are: F. Rivas Puiqcerver, Los Judios y el
    nuevo mundo (1891); L. Modona, Gil Ebrei e la scoperta dell'
    America (1893). Cf. also art. "Discovery of America," in Jewish
    Encycl., and address by Oscar Strauss in the 250th Anniversary,
    etc., p. 69.
    12. M. Kayserling, he. cit., p. 112; Juan Sanchez, of Saragossa, the first
    trader. Cf. also Kayserling's "The Colonization of America by the
    Jews," in the Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of
    America, vol. 2, p. 73.
    13. G. F. Knapp, "Ursprung der Sklaverei in den Colonien," in the Archiv
    für Soziale Politik, ii., p. 129.
    14. Oscar Strauss, loc. cit., p. 71.
    15. Ritter, "Über die geographische Verbreitung des Zuckerrohrs," in
    the Berichten der Berliner Akademie (1839), quoted by Lippmann,
    Geschichte des Zuckers (1890), p. 249.
    16. According to Max J. Kohler, "Phases of Jewish Life in New York
    before 1800," in the Transactions of the Jewish Hist Soc. of America,
    vol. ii., p. 94.
    17. Art. "America," in Jewish Encycl. Cf. G. A. Kohut, "Les juifs dans
    les colonies hollandaises," in the R.E.J. (1895), vol. 31, p. 293.
    18. H. Handelmann, Geschichte von Brasilien (1860), p. 412.
    19. P. M. Netscher, Les Hollandais au Brésil (1853), p. 1. For the
    wealthy Jewish family of Souza, cf. M. Kayserling, Geschichte der
    Juden in Portugal (1867), p. 307; M. Grunwald, Portugiesengraber
    (1902), p. 123.
    20. M. J. Kohler, op. cit.
    21. Art. "America," in Jewish Encycl.
    22. Transactions of Jewish Hist. Society of America, ii. 95. Cf. also
    Netscher, p. 103.
    23. Ibid.
    24. There was no actual expulsion; in fact the treaty of peace of 1654
    granted Jews an amnesty. But the fateful words were added, "Jews
    and other non-Catholics shall receive the same treatment as in Portu-gal."
    That was sufficient. For the treaty, see Aitzema, Historia, etc.
    (1626), quoted by Netscher [see note 191, p. 163.
    25. H. Handelmann, loc. cit; pp. 412--13..The Jews and Modern Capitalism/255
    26. For Jews in Barbados, see John Camden Hatten, The Original Lists,
    etc. (1874), p. 449; Ligon, History of Barbados (1657), quoted by
    Lippmann op. cit., p. 301; Reed, The History of Sugar and Sugar-yielding
    Plants (1866), p. 7; M'Culloch, Dictionary of Commerce,
    ii., p. 1087. Cf. also C. P. Lucas, A Historical Geography of the
    British Colonies, e.g. ii. (1905), 121, 274, 277.
    27. For Jews in Jamaica, see M. Kayserling, "The Jews in Jamaica,"
    etc., in the J.Q.R., vol. 12 (1900), 708 ff.; Hyamson, loc. cit., chap-ter
    xxvi. Numerous extracts from contemporary records will be found
    in Kohler's "Jewish Activity in American Colonial Commerce," in
    Transactions of Jewish Hist. Society of America, vol. 10, p. 59. Cf.
    also the same writer's paper in the Transactions, vol. 2, p. 98.
    28. The letter of the Governor to Secretary of State Lord Arlington,
    quoted by Kayserling in J.Q.R., vol. 12, p. 710.
    29. Monumental inscriptions of the British West Indies, collected by
    Captain J. H. Lawrence Archer, quoted by Kohler, "Phases of Jewish
    Life," op. cit., p. 98.
    30. For Jews in Surinam the most important authority is the Essai sur la
    colonie de Surinam avec l'histoire de la Nation Juive Portugaise y
    établie, etc., 2 vols., Paramaribo (1788). Koenen, in his Geschiedenes
    der Joden in Nederland (1843), p. 313, speaks of this work as "de
    hoofdbron . . . voor de geschiedenes der Joden in die gewesten." I
    have not been able to see a copy. Newer treatises on the subject have
    brought to light a good deal of fresh material. We may mention R.
    Gottheil, "Contributions to the History of the Jews in Surinam," in
    Transactions of Jewish Hist. Society of America, vol. 9, p. 129; J. S.
    Roos, "Additional Notes on the History of the Jews of Surinam,"
    Transactions, vol. 13, p. 127; P. A. Hilfman, "Some Further Notes
    on the History of the Jews in Surinam," Transactions, vol. 16, p. 7.
    For the connexion between Surinam and Guiana see Samuel
    Oppenheimer, "An Early Jewish Colony in Western Guiana, 1658--
    1666, and its relation to the Jews in Surinam," in Transactions, vol.
    16, pp. 95--186. Cf. also Hyamson, ch. xxvi, and Lucas.
    31. For Jews in Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Santo Domingo, see
    Lippmann, op. cit., p. 301; A. Cahen, "Les Juifs de la Martinique au
    xvii sc.," in R.E.J., vol 2; Cahen, "Les Juifs dans les Colonies
    françaises au xviii sc.," in R.E.J., vols. 4 and 5; Handelmann,
    Geschichte der Insel Hayti (1856).
    32. Lucien Wolf in the Jewish Chronicle, Nov. 30, 1894, quoted by.256/Werner Sombart
    Kohler in Transactions, vol. 10, p. 60.
    33. The 250th Anniversary of the Settlement of the Jews in the U.S.
    (1905), p. 18.
    34. The 250th Anniversary, etc.
    35. John Moody, The Truth about the Trusts (1905), pp. 45, 96, etc.
    36. Art. "California," in Jewish Encycl. (which is a particularly good
    one).
    37. There are others who maintain that even before the Brazilian refu-gees
    arrived a number of wealthy Jewish traders from Amsterdam
    settled in the colony of the Hudson. Cf. Albion Morris Dyer, "Points
    in the First Chapter of New York Jewish History," in Transactions of
    Jewish Hist. Soc. of America, vol. 3, p. 41.
    38. The letter is quoted in full by Kohler, "Beginnings of New York
    Jewish History," in Transactions, vol. 1, p. 47.
    39. See Transactions, vol. 1, p. 41; vol. 2, p. 78; vol. 10, p. 63; Kohler,
    "Jews in Newport," Transactions, vol. 6, p. 69. Kohler often quotes
    Judge Daly, Settlement of the Jews in North America (1893).
    40. Address by Governor Pardell, of California, in The 250th Anniver-sary,
    etc., p. 173.
    41. See art. "Alabama," in Jewish Encycl.
    42. See art. "Albany," in Jewish Encycl.
    43. B. Felsenthal, "On the History of the Jews in Chicago," in Transac-tions,
    vol. 2, p. 21; H. Eliassof, 'The Jews of Chicago," in Transac-tions,
    vol. 2, p. 117.
    44. Lewis N. Dembitz, "Jewish Beginnings in Kentucky," in Transac-tions,
    vol. 1, p. 99.
    45. J. H. Hollander, "Some Unpublished Material relating to Dr. Jacob
    Lumbrozo of Maryland," in Transactions, vol. 1.
    46. D. E. Heinemann, "Jewish Beginnings in Michigan before 1850," in
    Transactions, vol. 13, p. 47.
    47. D. Philipson, 'The Jewish Pioneers of the Ohio Valley," in Transac-tions,
    vol. 8, p. 43.
    48. Henry Necarsulmer, "The Early Jewish Settlement at Lancaster,
    Pa.," in Transactions, vol. 3, p. 27.
    49. Henry Cohen, "The Jews in Texas," in Transactions, vol. 4, p. 9;
    Henry Cohen, "Henry Castro, Pioneer and Colonist," in Transac-tions,
    vol. 5, p. 39. Cf. also H. Friedenwald, "Some Newspaper Ad-vertisements
    in the 18th Century," in Transactions, vol. 6.
    50. "Einiges aus dem Leben der amerikanisch-jüdischen Familie.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/257
    Seligman aus Bayersdorf in Bayern," in Brüll's Monatsblättem
    (1906), p. 141.
    51. Leon Huhner, "The Jews of Georgia in Colonial Times," in Trans-actions,
    vol. 10, p. 65; Huhner, "The Jews of South Carolina from
    the Earliest Settlement to the End of the American Revolution," in
    Transactions, vol. 12, p. 39; Chas. C. Jones, "The Settlement of the
    Jews in Georgia," in Transactions, vol. 1, p. 12.
    52. B. A. Elgas, The Jews of South Carolina (1903).
    53. L. Huhner, "Asser Levy, a noted Jewish Burgher of New Amsterdam,"
    in Transactions, vol. 8, p. 13. Cf. also Huhner, "Whence came the
    First Jewish Settlers of New York?" in Transactions, vol. 9, p. 75;
    M. J. Kohler, "Civil Status of the Jews in Colonial New York," in
    Transactions, vol. 6, p. 81.
    54. For Jews who in the 18th century carried on business in their own
    tongue in New York cf. J. A. Doyle, The Colonies under the House
    of Hanover (1907), p. 31.
    55. Chas. C. Jones, "The Settlement of the Jews in Georgia," in Trans-actions,
    vol. 1, pp. 6, 9.
    56. M. Jaffe, "Die Stadt Posen," in Schriften des Vereins für S. P., vol.
    119, ii. 151.
    57. Simon Wolf, "The American Jew as Soldier and Patriot," in Trans-actions,
    vol. 3, p. 39.
    58. According to Dr. Fischell's Chronological Notes of the History of
    the Jews in America.
    Chapter 5
    1. Perhaps our conclusion would have to be a different one if we were to
    recall the fact that the elements of the modern State were already
    developed in the later decades of the Middle Ages, chiefly in Italy
    and Spain, and that Jewish statesmen occupied influential positions
    in both these countries. It is to be regretted that the history of modern
    States has never (so far as I am aware) been written from this point
    of view; I believe much that is profitable would result. Of course
    there is little in common between the writers on the history of the
    Jews in Spain and Portugal, say Lindo, de los Rios, Kayserling,
    Mendes dos Remedies, and those who treat of the rise of the State in
    the Pyrenean Peninsula, say Ranke or Baumgarten.
    2. Lucien Wolf, 'The First English Jewry," in Transactions of the Jew-ish
    Historical Society of England, vol. 2. Cf. Hyamson, pp. 171--3..258/Werner Sombart
    3. Hyamson, p. 269; Picciotto, Sketches of Anglo-Jewish History (1875),
    p. 58.
    4. "Und bedient sich Frankreich jederzeit ihrer Hülffe, bey Krieges-Zeiten
    seine Reuterey beritten zu machen." T. L. Lau, Einrichtung
    der Intraden und Einkünfte der Souveräne, etc. (1719), p. 258.
    5. Quoted by Liebe, Das Judentum (1903), p. 75.
    6. Art. "Banking," in Jewish Encycl.
    7. Mémoire of the Jews of Metz of the 24 March, 1733, given in part by
    Bloch, op. cit., p. 35.
    8. Quoted by Bloch, op. cit., p. 23.
    9. Extracts from the Lettres patentes, in Bloch, op. cit; p. 24.
    10. For the Gradis, see T. Malvezin, op. cit., p. 241; Graetz, Die Familie
    Gradis," in Monatsschrift, vol. 24 (1875), 25 (1875).
    11. M. Capefigue, Banquiers, fournisseurs, etc. (1856), pp. 68, 214,
    etc.
    12. Quoted in Revue de la Révolution françcaise (1892), 16, 1.
    13. Historische Nachlese zu den Nachrichten der Stadt Leipzig, edited
    by M. Heinrich Engelbert Schwartze (1744), p. 122, quoted by
    Alphonse Levy, Geschichte der Juden in Sachsen (1900), p. 58.
    14. Bondy, Zur Geschichte der Juden in Böhmen, vol. i., p. 388.
    15. I quote this from Liebe, Das Judentum (1903), pp. 43, 70, who
    mentions the facts without giving his authorities.
    16. König, Annalen der Juden in den preussischen Staaten, besonders
    in der Mark Brandenburg (1790), pp. 93--4.
    17. The document of 28 June, 1777, given by A. Levy, op. cit., p.74;
    also S. Haenie, Geschichte der Juden im ehmaligen Fürstentum
    Ansbach (1867), p. 70.
    18. Geschichte Philanders von Sittewaldt das ist Straffs-Schriften Hanss
    Wilhelm Moscherosch von Wilstätt (1677), p. 779.
    19. F. von Mensi, Die Finanzen Österreichs von 1701--1740 (1890), p.
    132. Samuel Oppenheimer, "Kaiserlicher Kriegsoberfaktor und Jud"
    (as he was officially styled and as he called himself), saw to the needs
    of the armies in all the campaigns of Prince Eugene (p. 133).
    20. Cf. for instance the petition of the Vienna Court Chancery of May
    12, 1762, given by Wolf, Geschichte der Juden in Wien (1894), p.
    70; Komitätsarchiv Neutra Iratok, xii--3326 (according to informa-tion
    supplied by Mr. Jos. Reizman); Verproviantierung der Festungen
    Raab, Ofen und Komorn durch Breslauer Juden (1716), see Wolf,
    loc. cit., p. 61..The Jews and Modern Capitalism/259
    21. H. Friedenwald, "Jews mentioned in the Journal of the Continental
    Congress," in Transactions of the Jewish Hist Soc. of America, vol.
    i, pp. 65--89.
    22. I have already mentioned the more important works on the history
    (not excepting the economic history) of the Jews in England, France,
    Holland and America (see notes 6, 7, 13 of Chapter1; note 10, Chap-ter
    2); here I would refer to those dealing with the same subject for
    Germany and for Spain. There is no complete study of the history of
    the Jews in Germany, and we are forced therefore to go to local mono-graphs
    and essays in learned periodicals. In any case the economic
    history of the German Jews has been treated in a somewhat step-motherly
    way, and we find little that is useful in such works as L.
    Geyer's Die Geschichte der Juden in Berlin, 1 vols. (1870-71). Re-cently
    Mr. Ludwig Davidsohn, a pupil of mine, went carefully through
    the Berliner Staatsarchiv for the purpose of establishing the economic
    position of the Jews. The results of his labours have not yet been
    printed, but I have been able to use some of them. A good deal may
    be found in Grunwald's Portugiesengraber auf deutscher Erde and
    his Hamburgs deutsche Juden bis zur Auflösing der Dreigemeinde
    (1904). For a particular here and there one may turn (but care is
    needed) to König, op. cit; as also to Die Juden in Osterreich, 2 vols.
    (1842).
    As for learned journals, they are not of much use for economic history.
    The chief of them is the Monatsschrift für Geschichte und
    Wissenschaft des Judentums (begun 1851). Others are the Allgemeine
    Zeitung des Judentums (begun 1837) and Brüll's
    Populanvissenschaftliche Monatsblätter (begun 1888), both with
    more or less propagandist ends in view. The Zeitschrift für
    Demographie und Statistik des Judentums (begun 1905) deals with
    questions of economic history only occasionally.
    Sometimes one comes across papers in the general historic reviews or in
    local journals which shed a flood of light on Jewish economic history.
    But a complete list of these it would be impossible to give here.
    The history of the Jews in Spain has been sufficiently dealt with. But
    unfortunately its economic aspect has been almost entirely neglected.
    I know of no more needful thing than an economic history of the Jews
    in the Pyrenean Peninsula, and I wish that some economic historian
    would undertake to write it. It would most certainly illuminate the
    general economic historyof Europe in a most surprising fashion. For.260/Werner Sombart
    the present, however, we must perforce consult general histories of
    the Jews in Spain, and of these perhaps the best is M. Kayserling's
    Geschichte der Juden in Spanien und Portugal, 2 vols. (1861-7).
    The principal work in Spanish is D. José Amador de Los Rios, Historia
    social, politico y religiosa de los Judios de España y Portugal, 3
    vols. (1875--8), but for our purpose it is of little use. A book of a
    different kind is E. H. Lindo's The History of the Jews of Spain and
    Portugal (1848). It contains extracts from the legal enactments af-fecting
    Jews and the decisions of the Cortes, and thus has a special
    value of its own.
    For Portugal the most important work is now by J. Mendes dos Remedios,
    Os Judeus em Portugal, vol. i. (1895) up to the expulsion.
    It ought to be mentioned also that the volumes of Graetz, Geschichte
    der Juden, which treat of the Spanish period (7 and 8) are of great
    use, because of the abundance of material which they contain. So far
    as my experience goes they have not been surpassed by any later
    work.
    With regard to monographic studies on the position of the Jews in the
    economic life of the Pyrenean Peninsula, I do not know of any. But
    this may be due to my ignorance. Anyhow, the Jewish libraries of
    Breslau and Berlin contain nothing under this head. The work of
    Bento Carqueja, O capitalismo moderno e as suas origens em Por-tugal
    (1908), only just touches the problem so far as the Jews are
    concerned.
    23. H. J. Koenen, op. cit., p. 206.
    24. Cf. art. "Banking" in Jewish Encycl.
    25. For the position of the Jews in English finance during the 17th and
    18th centuries we have many records. Cf. Picciotto, p. 58; Hyamson,
    pp. 171, 217, 240, 264, etc.; Lucien Wolf, The Re-settlement of the
    Jews in England (1888); the same author's "Crypto-Jews under the
    Commonwealth," in Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society
    of England, vol. i. (1895); likewise his "The Jewry of the Restora-tion
    (1660--1664)," reprinted from The Jewish Chronicle (1902).
    26. L. Wolf, The Jewry of the Restoration, p. 11.
    27. G. Martin, La grande Industrie sous Louis XIV (1899), p. 351.
    28. Victor de Swarte, Un banquier du Trésor royal au xviii siecle, Samuel
    Barnard -- sa vie -- sa correspondance, 1651--1739 (1893).
    29. Kahn, Les juifs de Paris au xviii sc. (1894), p. 60.
    30. Graetz, Geschichte der Juden, vol. 10, p. 40..The Jews and Modern Capitalism/261
    31. Wolf, Ferdinand II, Appendix 4, quoted by Graetz, vol. 10, p. 41.
    32. The actual wording from Die Juden in Österreich, vol. 2 (1842), p.
    41.
    33. Die Juden in Österreich, vol. 2, p. 64; F. von Mensi, op. cit., p. 132.
    In the 18th century the most important creditors of the State were (in
    succession) Oppenheimer, Wertheimer, Sinzheimer; the last-named
    had owing to him in 1739 no less than five million gulden. F. von
    Mensi, p. 685. Cf. also David Kaufmann, Urkundliches aus dem
    Leben Samson Wertheimers (1892). For the earlier period, see G.
    Wolf, Ferdinand II und die Juden (1859).
    34. F. von Mensi, p. 148.
    35. G. Liebe, op. cit., p. 84.
    36. Art. "Abensur Daniel," in Jewish Encycl.
    37. A. Levy, "Notes sur l'histoire des Juifs en Saxe," in R.E.J., vol. 26
    (1898), p. 259. For Berend (Behrend) Lehmann, alias Jisachar
    Berman, see B. H. Auerbach, Geschichte der israelitischen Gemeinde
    Halberstadt (1866), p. 43; for his son Lehmann Berend, see p. 85.
    38. Auerbach, loc. cit., p. 82 (for Hanover); see also S. Haenle, op. cit.,
    pp. 64, 70, 89; for more cases of Hofjuden, see L. Müller, "Aus fünf
    Jahrhunderten," in the Zeitschrift des historischen Vereins fur
    Schwaben und Neuburg, vol. 26 (1899), p. 142.
    39. P. von Mensi, p. 409.
    40. Memoiren der Glückel von Hameln [published in the original Yid-dish
    by D. Kaufmann (1896)], German translation (privately printed)
    in 1910, p. 240.
    41. M. Zimmermann, Josef Süss Oppenheimer, ein Finanzmann des 18 ten
    Jahrhunderts (1874).
    42. Address by Louis Marshall in The 250th Anniversary of the Settle-ment
    of the Jews in the U.S., p. 102.
    43. H. Friedenwald, op. cit., p. 63.
    44. W. Graham Sumner, The Financiers and the Finances of the Ameri-can
    Revolution, 2 vols. (1891).
    Chapter 6
    1. For a legal consideration of the question, see Brunner, Endemanns
    Handbuch, vol. 2, p. 147, and Goldschmidt, Universalgeschichte
    des Handelsrechts (1891), p. 386. Cf. also Knies, Der Credit (1876),
    p. 190.
    2. I give the "credit relationship" its most extended meaning in the sense.262/Werner Sombart
    that you create duties between persons by, the one giving an eco-nomic
    value to the other and the second promising a quid pro quo in
    the future.
    3. Cf. F. A. Biener, Wechselrechtliche Abhandlungen (1859), p. 145.
    4. The view of Kuntze and others. See Goldschmidt, op. cit., p. 408.
    5. Goldschmidt, loc. cit., p. 410, who puts the question in the form of a
    query, leaving the answer vague. See on the other hand A. Wahl,
    Traité theor. et pratique des titres au porteur (1891), vol. 1, p. 15.
    6. Cf. Kuntze, "Zur Geschichte der Staatspapiere auf den Inhaber," in
    the Zeitschrift für das ges. Handelsrecht, vol. 5, p. 198; the same
    writer's Inhaber Papiere (1857), pp. 58, 63; Goldschmidt, op. cit.,
    pp. 448--9; Sieveking in Schmollers Jahrbuch (1902); and above all,
    G. Schaps, Zur Geschichte des Wechselindossaments (1892), p. 86.
    Cf. also Biener, op. cit., pp. 121, 137.
    7. Goldschmidt, p. 452; Schaps, p. 92.
    8. The text is given in D. Kaufmann's article in the J.Q.R., vol. 13
    (1901), p. 320, "Die Vertreibung der Marranen aus Venedig im Jahre
    1550."
    19. Graetz, vol. 8, p. 354; vol. 9, p. 328.
    10. So far as I am aware, this question has never yet been asked: What
    part did the Jews play in the Genoese fairs? It will be most difficult to
    give a satisfactory answer, because the Jews in Genoa were forced,
    especially after the Edict of Expulsion in 1550, to keep secret their
    identity. Probably also they changed their names and made a pre-tence
    of accepting Christianity. Nevertheless, it would be worth while
    to make the attempt Anyhow, we have here one instance where in the
    post-mediaeval period a great financial and credit system was devel-oped
    without the clear proof of Jewish influence. It may be, of course,
    that the proof has slipped my observation; in that case I should be
    glad to have my attention drawn to it.
    The best account of the Genoese fairs will be found in Ehrenberg's
    Zeitalter der Fugger, vol. 2, p. 222, and Endemann, Studien in der
    römisch-kanonischen Wirtschafts- und Rechtslehre, vol. 1 (1874),
    p. 156. Endemann bases his conclusions chiefly on Scaccia and R, de
    Turns, while Ehrenberg also relied on documents in the Fugger ar-chives.
    11. Possibly earlier, in the case of the Company of the Pairiers, to whom
    was transferred in the 12th century the mill in Toulouse, du Basacle,
    by means of securities (uchaux or saches). Cf. Edmund Guillard,.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/263
    Les opérations de Bourse (1875), p. 15.
    12. Cf. K. Lehmann, Die geschichtliche Entwickelung des Aktienrechts
    (1895).
    13. J. P. Rieard, Le Negoce d'Amsterdam (1723), pp. 397--400.
    14. This is the conclusion arrived at by Andre E. Sayous, "Le
    fractionnement du capital social de la Compagnie néerland des Indes
    orientales," in Nouv. Rev. Historique du droit franç. et étrangers,
    vol. 25 (1901), pp. 621, 625.
    15. Cf. Endemann, op. cit., vol. 1, p. 457.
    16. See instances -- 1422 in Palermo and 1606 in Bologna -- in
    Goldschmidt, p. 322.
    17. The most important collection of documents concerning the history
    of banking in Venice is still Elia Lattes' La libertà delle banche e
    Venezia dal secolo xiii al xvii secondo i documenti inediti del R.
    Archivio del Frari ec. (1869). The subject has been dealt with by
    Ferrara, "Gli antichi banchi di Venezia" in Nuova Antologia, vol.
    xvi.; E. Nasse, "Das venetianische Bankwesen in 14, 15, und 16
    Jahrhundert," in the Jahrbuch für Nationalökonomie, vol. 34, pp.
    329, 338. To show the share of the Jews in Venetian banking would
    be a welcome piece of work. But it would be most difficult of accom-plishment
    because, so far as I can judge, the Jews in Venice already
    in the 15th century were the most part New Christians, often holding
    high offices and having Christian names.
    18. Macleod, Dictionary of Political Economy, art. "Bank of Venice"
    (? authorities), quoted by A. Andreades, History of the Bank of En-gland
    (1909), p. 28.
    19. "Gallicioli Memorie Venete," ii.. No. 874, in Graetz, vol. 6, p. 284.
    20. S. Luzzato, Dis. circa il state degli Hebrei in Venezia (1638), ch. 1,
    and pp. 9a, 29a. The figures need not be taken too seriously; they are
    only an estimate.
    21. See, for instance, D. Manuel Calmeiro, Historia de la economia
    politico en España, vol. 1, p. 411; vol. 2, p. 497.
    22. See A. Andréades, History of the Bank of England (1909), p. 28.
    That will certainly have to be the conclusion if importance is at-tached
    to the scheme (1658) of Samuel Lambe (printed in Sower's
    Tracts, vol. vi). Andréades actually dates the first idea of the Bank
    from Lambe's scheme. There was a scheme previous to that --
    Balthasar Gerbier's in 1651, and between that year and 1658 Cromwell
    had allowed the Jews to settle in this country. For my own part I.264/Werner Sombart
    cannot admit "the superiority" of Lambe's scheme. But other writers
    also lay stress on the very great share of the Jews in the establishment
    of the Bank of England.
    23. For instances of public debt bonds, see Walter Däbritz, Die
    Staatsschulden Sachsens in der Zeit von 1763 bis 1837, Doctoral
    Dissertation (1906), pp. 14, 55; E. von Philippovich, Die Bank von
    England (1885), p. 26; also, Ehrenberg, Fugger [note 10, Chapter
    6], vol. 2, pp. 141, 299.
    24. Ad. Beer, Das Staatsschuldenwesen und die Ordnung de
    Staatshaushalts unter Maria Theresia (1894), p. 13.
    25. Cf. F. von Mensi, op. cit., p. 34.
    26. Witness a pamphlet little known generally (even Däbritz, op. cit;
    has overlooked it), to which I should like to call attention. It has a
    very long title: "Ephraim justifié. Mémoire historique et raisonné sur
    l'Etat passé, présent et futur des finances de Saxe. Avec le parallele
    de l'Oeconomie prussienne et de l'Oeconomie saxonne. Ouvrage utile
    aux Créaneiers et Correspondans, aux Amis et aux Ennemis de la
    Prusse et de la Saxe. Adressé par le Juif Ephraim de Berlin à son
    Cousin Manassés d'Amsterdam. Eriangen. A l'enseigne de Tout est
    dit.'" 1785.
    27. Cf. (Luzac) Richesse de la Hollande, vol. 2 (1778), p. 200. Also
    vol. 1, p. 366. Luzac, besides his own personal experiences, must
    have also used Fermin, Tableau de Surinam (1778).
    28. Chief among them Kuntze, Die Lehre van den Inhaberpapieren
    (1857), p. 48, which is still unsurpassed. We may mention besides,
    Albert Wahl, Traité théorique et pratique des titres au porteur
    français et étrangers, 2 vols. (1891).
    The best history of mediaeval credit instruments is that of H. Brunner,
    Das französische Inhaberpapier (1879). Cf. also his "Zur Geschichte
    des Inhaberpapiers in Deutschland," in the Zeitschrift für das
    gesammte Handelsrecht, vols. 21 and 23. For Holland, see F. Hecht,
    Geschichte der Inhaberpapier in den Niederlanden (1869), p. 4.
    By the way, it is interesting to note that credit instruments have been
    said to be of Hellenic origin. Cf. Goldschmidt, "Inhaber- Order- und
    exekutorische Urkunden im Klassischen Altertum," in Zeitschrift für
    Rechtsgeschichte Roms, vol. 10 (1889), p. 352.
    But Goldschmidt's view is not generally accepted. Cf. Benedict Prese,
    Aus dem gräko-ägyptischen Rechtsleben (1909), p. 26. Another criti-cism
    of Goldsehmidt's theory may be found in H. Brunner,.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/265
    "Forschungen zur Geschichte des deutschen und französischen
    Rechts," in his Gesammelte Aufsätze (1894), p. 604.
    Brunner also deals with the same problem in his Französische
    Inhaberpapier, pp. 28, 57.
    Made casually by Kuntze, but rejected by Goldschmidt in the Zeitschrift
    für Rechtsgeschichte, vol. 10, p. 355.
    Also rejected by Salvioli, I titoli al portatore nella storia del diritto
    italiano (1883).
    29. Cf. L. Auerbach, Das judische Obligationenrecht, vol. 1 (1871), p.
    270. Other passages from rabbinic literature are given in Hirsch B.
    Fassel, Das mosaisch-rabbinische Zivilrecht, vol. 2, Part 3 (1854),
    § 1390; Frankel, Der gerichtliche Beweis nach mosaischem Recht
    (1846), p. 386; Saalschutz, Mosaisches Recht, 2 vols. (1848), p.
    862.
    30. For the Mamre, cf. L. L'Estocq, Exercitatio de indole et jure instru-ment!
    Judceis usitati cui nomen "Mamre" est (1775), §vii; J. M. G.
    Besekes, Thes. jur. Camb., Part II (1783), pp. 1169, 1176; P. Bloch,
    Der Mamran, der judisch-polnische Wechselbrief.
    31. Ehrenberg, op. cit., vol. 2, p. 141.
    32. Brunner, op. cit., p. 69.
    33. Schaps, op. cit., p. 121.
    34. Ibid.
    35. Cf. F. Hecht, op. cit; p. 44.
    36. Hecht, p. 96.
    37. Dabritz, op. cit., p. 53.
    38. Kuntze, op. cit., p. 85.
    39. Straccha, Tract. de assicur. (1568).
    40. A. Wahl, op. cit., vol. 1, pp. 15, 84.
    41. Hecht, op. cit., p. 37.
    42. Cf. J. H. Bender, Der Verkehr mit Staatspapieren (2 ed., 1830), p.
    167.
    43. "Ex diversis animi motibus in unum consentiunt, id est in unam
    sententiam decurrunt" (Ulp., L. I. §3, D. de pact., 2, 14).
    44. Cf. Goldschmidt, op. cit., p. 393.
    45. I am indebted for what follows above all to L. Auerbach, op. cit.,
    vol. 1, pp. 163, 251, 513. This work (unfortunately uncompleted) is
    written in a most suggestive fashion and deserves to be widely known.
    For it is one of the best accounts of Talmudic law in existence. Of
    much less importance, yet useful nevertheless, are the works of.266/Werner Sombart
    Saalschutz, op. cit.; H. B. Fassel, op. cit.; J. J. M. Rabbinowicz,
    Législation du Talmud, vol. 3 (1878); Frankel, op. cit. On the basis
    of Goldschmidt's translation of the Talmud, J. Kohler attempted a
    "Darstellung des talmudischen Rechts" in Zeitschrift für vergleichende
    Rechtswissenschaft, vol. 20 (1908), pp. 161--264. Cf. the criticism
    of V. Aptowitzer in the Monatsschrift (1908), pp. 37--56.
    46. Otto Stobbe, Die Juden in Deutschland während des mittelalters
    (1866), pp. 119, 242; Sachsenspiegel, III, 7, § 4.
    47. Goldschmidt, op. cit., p. 111.
    48. (Isaac de Pinto) Traité de la circulation du crédit (1771), pp. 64,
    67--68. Cf. also E. Guillard, op. cit., p. 534. See also Dabritz, op.
    cit., p. 18, for illustrations.
    49. Ehrenberg, Fugger, vol. 2, p. 244. We owe most of what we know
    about the history of the Stock Exchanges to Ehrenberg.
    50. Cf. Kaufmann, op. cit.
    51. Van Hemert, Lectuur voor het ontbijt en de Theetafel, VII de . Stuk, p.
    118, quoted by Koenen, op. cit., p. 212.
    52. H. Stephanus, Francofordiense Emporium sive Francofordienses
    Nundinae (1574), p. 24.
    53. Quoted by Ehrenberg, Fugger, vol. 2, p. 248.
    54. Memoirs, p. 297.
    55. Given by M. Grunwald, op. cit., p. 21.
    56. S. Haenle, op. cit; p. 173. Die Juden in Österreich, vol. 2 (1842), p.
    41.
    57. In a report of the Sous-Intendant, M. de Courson, dated 11 June,
    1718, quoted by Malvezin, op. cit.
    58. E. Meyer, "Die Literatur für und wider die Juden in Schweden in
    Jahre 1815," in Monatsschrift, vol. 57 (1907), p. 522.
    59. H. Sieveking, "Die Kapitalistische Entwickelung in den italienischen
    Städten des Mittelalters," in the Vierteljahrsschrift für Soziale- und
    Wirtschaftsgeschichte, vol. 7, p. 85.
    60. Saravia della Calle, "Institutione de' Mercanti," in Compendia
    utilissimo di quelle cose le quali a Nobili e Christiani mercanti
    appartengono (1561), p. 42. Also, art. "Borsenwesen" in
    Handwörterbuch der Staatswissenshaften.
    61. H. Sieveking, Genueser Finanzwesen, vol. i. (1898), pp. 82, 175.
    62. The most reliable sources for the history of Stock Exchange dealing
    in Amsterdam in the first decades of the 17th century are the Plakate
    of the States General, which prohibit this sort of business. Reference.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/267
    should also be made to the controversial pamphlets of the period on
    this topic, more especially those written by the opponent of stock and
    share dealing, Nicolas Muys van Holy. See Laspeyres, Geschichte
    der volkswirtschaftlichen Anschauungen (1863). Not to be omitted
    is also de la Vega's book, about which more in due course. For the
    subsequent period there is much valuable material in books on Com-merce,
    notably J. P. Ricard, Le négoce a'Amsterdam (1723), from
    whom later writers quote. The works of Joseph de Pinto dating from
    the second half of the 18th century [see note 48], are also very useful.
    Of recent books the following may be mentioned: G. C. Klerk de
    Reus, op. cit., S. van Brakel, De Holland, Hand. Comp. der xvii.
    eeuv (1908).
    63. In the periodical De Koopman, vol. 2, pp. 429, 439, quoted by
    Ehrenberg, Fugger, vol. 2, p. 333.
    64. Pinto, De la Circulation, op. cit., p. 84.
    65. Kohler, op. cit.
    66. Israel, op. cit.
    67. Ehrenberg, Fugger, vol. 2, p. 336, gives a fairly lengthy extract
    from this remarkable book.
    68. Extrait d'un mémoire présenté en 1692, from the Archives of the
    French Foreign Office, published in the Revue historique, vol. 44
    (1895). I am indebted to my friend Andre E. Sayous, of Paris, for
    having called my attention to this article.
    69. "The Anatomy of Exchange Alley, or a System of Stock-jobbing"
    (1719). Printed in J. Francis's Stock Exchange (1849), Appendix.
    70. Art. "Brokers" in Jewish Encycl.
    71. J. Piccotto, op. cit., p. 58.
    72. Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce, vol 2 (1755), p.
    554.
    73. Tovey, Anglia Judaica, p. 297.
    74. As would appear from a complaint of the Christian merchants, of
    the year 1685, mentioned by Ehrenberg, Fugger, vol. 2, p. 248.
    75. M. Grunwald, op. cit; p. 6.
    76. Postlethwayt, Dictionary, vol. 1, p. 95.
    77. Joseph Jacobs, "Typical Character of Anglo-Jewish History," in
    J.Q.R., vol. 10 (1898), p. 230.
    78. Ranke, Französische Geschichte, vol. 4 3 , p. 399.
    79. Melon, Essai pol. sur le commerce (1734), éd. Davie, p. 685.
    80. See Ehrenberg, Fugger, vol. 2, p. 142..268/Werner Sombart
    81. (Du Hautchamp) Histoire du système des Finances sous la minorité
    de Louis XV, vol. 1 (1739), p. 184.
    82. Oscar de Vallée, Les Manieurs d'argent (1858), p. 41.
    83. P. A. Cochut, Law, son système et son époque (1853), p. 33.
    84. E. Drumont, La France Juive (1904), vol. 1, p. 259.
    85. All the figures are from Von den Gilde-Dienern Friedrich Wilhelm
    Arendt und Abraham Charles Rousset herausgegebenen
    Verzeichnissen... der gegenwärtigen Aelter-Manner, etc. (1801).
    86. In the Hamburger Münz- und Medaillenvergnügen (1753), p. 143,
    No. 4, there is a coin struck in commemoration of the trade in stocks
    and shares.
    87. Raumburger, in the preface to his Justitia selects Gent. Eur. in
    Cambiis, etc.
    88. Kiesselbech, op. cit., p. 24.
    89. The case is mentioned and discussed by von Gönner, Von
    Staatsschulden, deren Tilgungsanstalten und vom Handel mit
    Staatspapieren (1826), §30.
    90. Dictionary, vol. 2, p. 533. Cf. also the very informing article, "Monied
    Interest," p. 284.
    91. See articles "Monied Interest" and "Paper Credit" in Postlethwayt,
    vol. 2, pp. 284 and 404.
    92. D. Hume, Essays, vol. (1793), p. 110.
    93. Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, ch. 3.
    94. Von Gönner, op. cit., § 31.
    95. Pinto, op. cit: pp. 310--11.
    96. Ehrenberg, Fugger, vol. 2, p. 299.
    97. I must content myself with mentioning the following three works
    which appear to me to be the best: Das Haus Rothschild. Seine
    Geschichte und seine Geschäfte, 1 Parts (1857); John Reeves, The
    Rothschilds: the Financial Rulers of Nations (1887); R. Ehrenberg,
    Grosse Vermögen, etc., vol. 1, "Die Fugger-Rothschild-Krupp" (2nd
    ed., 1905).
    98. J. H. Bender, Der Verkehr mit Staatspapieren (2nd ed., 1830), p.
    145.
    99. E.g., von Gönner, op. cit., p. 60; Bender, p. 142.
    100. Das Haus Rothschild, vol. 2, p. 216.
    101. A. Crump, The Theory of Stock Exchange (1873). Reprinted 1903,
    p. 100.
    102. Von Mensi, op. cit.. p. 54..The Jews and Modern Capitalism/269
    103. Ad. Beer, op. cit., p. 43.
    104. J. H. Bender, op. cit., p. 5.
    105. J. Francis, Stock Exchange, p. 161.
    106. Das Haus Rothschild, vol. 2 (1857), p. 85.
    107. The best books on this period in Germany are, despite their preju-dice
    and one-sidedness. Otto Glagau's Der Börsen- und
    Gröndungsschwindel in Berlin (1876) and Der Börsen- und
    Gründungsschwindel in Deutschland (1877). These books are par-ticularly
    useful for the short historical sketches of the different com-panies,
    giving the names of the founders and the first directors. Cf.
    also the annual issues of Saling's Börsenpapieren, and Rudolf Meyer,
    Die Aktiengesellschaften, 1872--3 (which, however, deal only with
    banks). The figures given in the text were supplied by Mr. Arthur
    Loewenstein, at my request.
    108. M. Wirth, Geschichte der Handelskrisen (3rd ed., 1883), p. 184.
    109. Riesser, Entwicklungsgeschichte der deutschen Grossbanken
    (1905), p. 48.
    110. For a glorification of this policy see J. E. Kuntze, op. cit., p. 23.
    111. A. Beer, op. cit., p. 35.
    112. C. Hegemann, De Entwickelung des franzosischen
    Grossbankbetriebes (1908), p. 9.
    113. Books of reference are given fully in J. Plenge, Gründung und
    Geschichte des Crèdit mobilier (1903).
    114. Model-Loeb, Die Grossen Berliner Effectenbanken (1895), p. 43
    -- an excellent book, from which the information in the text is taken
    in so far as it is not my own personal knowledge.
    115. Cf. R. Ehrenberg, Fondsspekulation (1883), and Adolf Weber,
    Depositenbanken und Spekulationsbanken (1902).
    116. See for instance A. Gomoll, Die Kapitalistische Mausefalle (1908).
    Despite its curious title the book deals seriously with Stock Exchange
    speculations and is one of the best pieces of work recently published.
    117. Mostly from local histories, too numerous to mention here.
    Chapter 7
    1. König, op. cit., p. 97.
    2. "Zur Geschichte der Juden in Danzig," in Monatsschrift, vol. 6 (1857),
    p. 243.
    3. M. Güdemann, "Zur Geschichte der Juden in Magdeburg," in
    Monatsschrift, vol. 14 (1865), p. 370..270/Werner Sombart
    4. Quoted by Liebe, op. cit., pp. 91--2.
    5. Regesten, in Hugo Barbeck's Geschichte der Juden in Nürnberg und
    Fürth (1878), p. 68.
    6. See, for instance, the conduct of the Berlin Retailers' Gild as related
    in Geiger's Geschichte der Juden in Berlin, vol. 2 (1871), pp. 24,
    31.
    7. Josiah Child, Discourse on Trade, 4th ed., p. 152. Child reports the
    prevailing opinion without saying one word by way of criticism. But
    he does make it clear that the accusation levelled against the Jews is
    no crime at all.
    8. See extracts from the polemical pamphlets of the period in Hyamson,
    p. 274.
    9. Given in Leon Brunschvicg, "Les Juifs en Bretagne au 18 sc.," in
    R.E.J.. vol. 33 (1876), pp. 88, 111.
    10. "Les Juifs et les Communautés d'Arts et Métiers," in R.E.J., vol.
    36, p. 75.
    11. M. Maignial, La question juive en France en 1789 (1903), contains
    a great deal of material from which the prevailing feeling among
    French merchants against the Jews in the 17th and 18th centuries
    becomes apparent.
    12. "L'admission de cette espèce d'hommes ne peut être que très
    dangereuse. On peut les comparer à des guêpes qui ne s'introduisent
    dans les ruches que pour tuer les abeilles, leur ouvrir le ventre et en
    tirer le miel qui est dans leurs entrailles: tels sont les juifs." -- Requête
    des marchands et négociants de Paris contre l'admission des Juifs
    (1777), p. 14, quoted by Maignial, op. cit., p. 92.
    13. The opinion of Wegelin is given by Ernst Meyer, op. cit., pp. 513,
    522.
    14. Czacki, Rosprava o Zydach, p. 82; cf. Graetz, vol. 9, p. 443. Al-most
    word for word the same cry is heard from Rumania, cf. Verax,
    La Roumanie et les Juifs (1903).
    15. Maignial, p. 92.
    16. Philander von Sittewaldt, op. cit.
    17. Georg Paul Honn, Betrugs-Lexicon, worinnen die moisten
    Betrügereyen in allen Standen nebst denen darwider guten Theils
    aienenden Mittein endeckt, Dritte Edition (1724).
    18. Allgemeine Schatzkammer der Kaufmannschaft oder vollständiges
    Lexikon aller Handlungen und Gewerbe, vol. 2 (1741) p. 1158.
    19. Charakteristik von Berlin. Stimme ernes Kosmopoliten in der Wüste.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/271
    (1784), p. 203.
    20. J. Savary (OEuvre posthume, continue . . . par Phil-Louis Savary),
    Dictionnaire universel de Commerce, vol. 2 (1726), p. 447.
    21. Allgemeine Schatzkammer, vol. 1 (1741), p. 17.
    22. Allgemeine Schatzkammer, vol. 3 (1742), p. 1325.
    23. This is only the expression of the mediaeval view. It is excellently
    well discussed in R. Eberstadt, Französische Gewerberecht (1899),
    p. 378.
    24. D. Defoe, The Complete English Tradesman, 1st ed., 1726. I have
    used the 2nd edition in 1 vol. (1727), and the 5th edition in 2 vols.
    (1745), published after the author's death. The passage cited in the
    text is from the 1st ed., p. 82.
    25. Allgemeine Schatzkammer, vol. 3, p. 148.
    26. Ibid.. vol. 4, p. 677.
    27. Ibid., vol. 3, p. 1325.
    28. Ibid., vol. 3, p. 1326.
    29. Ibid., vol. 1, p. 1392 -- "Sachsischen Krämer-Ordnungen" Of 1672,
    1682, and 1692, §18.
    30. See the highly instructive Letter (No. 19 in the 2nd ed., correspond-ing
    to No. 22 in the 5th) "Of fine shops and fine shews."
    31. Jules de Bock, Le Journal à trovers les âges (1907), p. 30, quoted
    in F. Kellen, Studien über das Zeitungswesen (1907), p. 253.
    32. Much useful information, especially as regards England, will be
    found in Henry Sampson's History of Advertising from the Earliest
    Times (1875), pp. 76, 83.
    33. M. Postlethwayt, A Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce,
    2 vols. (1741), 2nd ed. (1757), vol. 1, p. 22. Postlethwayt calls his
    work a translation of Savary's Lexicon, but in reality there are so
    many additions in it that it may be regarded as original. It should be
    mentioned by the way that the work is an invaluable source of infor-mation
    concerning economic conditions in England in the 18th cen-tury.
    34. Savary, Dict. du Commerce (1726), Suppl. 1732.
    35. P. Datz, Histoire de la Publicité (1894), p. 161, contains a facsimile
    of the whole of the first issue of Les Petites Affiches.
    36. Allgemeine Schatzkammer, vol. 4, p. 677.
    37. D. Defoe, op. cit., vol. 5 2 , p. 163.
    38. Cf. G. Martin, La grande Industrie sous Louis XV (1900), p. 247.
    39. Josiah Child, A New Discourse of Trade, 4th ed., p. 159..272/Werner Sombart
    040. Such teaching is met with as early as the later 16th century. Saravia
    della Calle, whom I regard as of supreme importance in the history of
    the theory of just price, goes so far as to deduce it from the relation-ship
    of supply and demand. His work, together with that of Venuti
    and Fabiano, is printed in the Compendia utilissimo.
    41. (Mercier) Tableau de Paris, vol. 11 (1788), p. 40.
    42. "A Paris on court, on se presse parce qu'on y est oisif; ici l'on
    marche posément, parce que l'on y est occupé." Quoted by J. Godard,
    L'Ouvrier en Sole, vol. 1 (1899), pp. 38--9.
    43. Memoirs of the Rev. James Fraser, written by himself. Selected
    Biographies, vol. 2, p. 280; Durham's Law Unsealed, p. 324, quoted
    by Buckle, History of Civilization, vol. 2, p. 377.
    44. Durham's Exposition of the Song of Solomon, quoted by Buckle,
    loc. cit.
    45. Allgemeine Schatzkammer, vol. 4 (1742), p. 666.
    46. See, for instance, Mercier, Tableau de Paris, vol. 2, p. 71.
    47. Samuel Lambe, in his scheme for a national bank [see note 22,
    Chapter 6] speaks of the low commercial morality of English mer-chants
    as compared with the reliability of (say) the Dutch
    48. Owen Felltham in his Observations (1652), quoted by Douglas
    Campbell, The Puritan in Holland, England, and America, vol. 2
    (1892), p. 327.
    49. This accusation was levelled against the Jews from the early medi-aeval
    period down almost to this very day. Cf. G. Caro, Sozial- und
    Wirtschaftsgeschichte der Juden, vol. 1 (1908), p. 222; Bloch, op.
    cit., p. 12; article "Juden," in Allgemeine Schatzkammer; von Justi,
    Staatswirtschaft, vol. 1 (1758), p. 150. For Germany more espe-cially,
    see Liebe, Das Judenthum in der deutschen Vergangenheit
    (1903).
    50. According to a Minute Book of the Portuguese community in Ham-burg
    -- A. Feilchenfeld, "Die alteste Geschichte der deutschen Juden
    in Hamburg," in Monatsschrift, vol. 43 (1899), p. 279.
    51. Geyler von Kaiserberg's sermon on the 93rd "Narrengeschwarm,"
    in S. Brandt's Narrenschiff (to be found in the collection called Das
    Kloster, vol. I, p. 722, published by J. Scheible). Cf. Oskar Franke,
    Der Jude in den deutschen Dichtungen des 15, 16, und 17
    Jahrhunderts (1905), especially section 4.
    52. Quoted by A. M. Dyer, op. cit; p. 44.
    53. Will. Ussellinx, quoted by Jameson, in Transactions of the Jewish.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/273
    Historical Society of America, vol. 1, p. 42. For Usselinx, see E.
    Laspeyres, Volkswirtschaftliche Ansichten der Niederlande (1863),
    p. 59.
    54. Savary, op. cit., vol. 2, p. 449.
    55. See Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of America, vol.
    3, p. 44.
    56. Josiah Child, Discourse on Trade, 4th ed., p. 152.
    57. Cf. R. Ehrenberg, Grosse Vermogen, 2nd ed., p. 147.
    58. Annalen der Juden, pp. 106--17.
    59. Liebe, Das Judentum, p. 34.
    60. Risbeck, op. cit. Cf. also Scheube, op. cit., p. 393.
    61. Uber das Verhältniss der Juden zu den Christen in den deutschen
    Handelsstadten (1818), pp. 171, 252, 270, 272.
    62. See R.E.J., vol. 33, p. 111.
    63. H. Bodemeyer, Die Juden. Bin Beitrag zur Hannoverschen
    Rechtsgeschichte (1855), p. 68.
    64. See Albert Wolf, "Etwas über jüdische Kunst und ältere judische
    Künstler," in Mitteilungen zur jüdischen Volkskunde, edited by M.
    Grunwald, vol. 1 (1905), p. 34.
    65. See Ehrenberg, Grosse Vermögen, p. 147.
    66. The documents are printed in Kracauer's "Beiträge zur Geschichte
    der Frankfurter Juden im 30 jährigen Kriege," in Zeitschrift für die
    Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland, vol. 3 (1899), p. 147. Cf.
    Schudt, op. cit: vol. 2, 164.
    67. Ibid.
    68. Ibid.
    69. Annalen der Juden, op. cit., pp. 97, 106--17.
    70. Ibid.
    71. Versuch über die judischen Bewohner der österreichischen
    Monarchie (1804), p. 83. Contains much valuable material.
    72. L. Hoist, Judentum in alien dessen Teilen aus einem
    staatswissenschaftlichen Standpunkte betrachtet (1821), pp. 293--4.
    73. "Les fripiers de Paris qui sont à la plus part Juifs," Noel du Fail,
    Contes d'Eutrapel, xxiv, quoted by G. Fagniez, L'économie sociale
    de la France sous Henry IV (1897), p. 217.
    74. Mercier, Tableau de Paris, vol. 2, p. 253. In Breslau this method of
    attracting custom is not unknown, and is called
    "Ärmelausreissgeschäfte."
    75. Romani, Eines edien Wallachen landwirtschaftliche Reise durch.274/Werner Sombart
    verschiedene Landschaften Europas. Zweyter Theil (1776), p. 150.
    Cf. Schudt, vol. 2, p. 164.
    76. Über das Verhältniss, etc., p. 184.
    77. Jules de Bock, op. cit; p. 30.
    78. Max J. Kohler, op. cit.
    79. Bloch, op. cit., p. 30.
    80. Hyamson, Jews in England, p. 274.
    81. S. Kahn, "Les Juife de Montpellier an 18 siècle," in R.E.J. vol. 33
    (1896), p. 290.
    82. Leon Brunschvicg, op. cit; p. 111.
    83. "Requête des marchands," etc., p. 234.
    84. L. Kahn, Les Juifs de Paris au XVIII sc., p. 71.
    85. Justin Godard, L'Ouvrier en Soie (1899), p. 224.
    86. For Wegelin's view, see Meyer, op. cit., p. 522.
    87. Cf. Czacki, op. cit.; Graetz, op. cit.; and Verax, op. cit.
    88. Annalen, p. 97.
    89. F. Bothe, Beiträge zur Wirtschafts- und Sozial-Geschichte der
    Reichstadt Frankfurt (1906), p. 74.
    90. Bericht der Kriegs- und Domanenkammer über den wirtschafflichen
    Niedergang des Herzogtums Magdeburg (1710), quoted by Liebe,
    Das Judentum, p. 91.
    91. Romani, op. cit; p. 147.
    92. In Geschichte der Juden in der Reichstadt Augsburg (1803), p. 42.
    93. Von Mensi, op. cit., p. 367.
    94. Allgemeine Schatzkamnier, vol. 2, p. 1158.
    95. Will. Usselinx, quoted by Jameson, in Transactions of the Jewish
    Historical Society of America, vol. 1, p. 42. For Ussellinx, see E.
    Laspeyres, Volkswirtschaftliche Ansichten der Niederlande (1863),
    1. 59.
    96. Mercier, op. cit.
    97. R.E.J., vol. 33, p. 111, in Kahn, op. cit.
    98. Lambe, op. cit.
    99. Le cri du citoyen centre les juifs de Metz (18 sc.), quoted by Maignial,
    op. cit.
    100. See Bothe, op. cit., p. 74.
    101. Felltham, op. cit. "Cette nation ne fait fabriquer que des étoffes
    inférieures et de mauvaise qualité."
    102. Quoted by Liebe, Das Judentum. p. 91,
    103. N. Roubin, "La vie commerciale des juifs contadines en Languedoc,".The Jews and Modern Capitalism/275
    in R.E.J. vols. 34, 35, and 36.
    104. Uber das Verhältniss, etc., p. 254.
    105. Liebe, op. cit.
    106. Juden, sind sie der Eandlung schädlich? (1803), p. 25.
    107. Graetz, vol. 9, p. 445.
    108. Romani, op. cit., p. 148.
    109. I am indebted to Mr. Josef Reizman for kindly calling my attention
    to this passage.
    110. Child, Discourse on Trade, p. 152.
    111. Hyamson, p. 274.
    112. R.E.J. vol. 33, p. 290.
    113. L. Hoist, op. cit., p. 290.
    114. See note 61, Chapter 7.
    115. Hoist, op. cit.. p. 288.
    116. R.E.J. vol. 36.
    117. R.E.J. vol. 33, p. 289.
    118. Annalen, p. 90.
    119. From a Memorandum, dated January 9, 1786, of the Hungarian
    Court Chancery; again I am indebted to Mr. Josef Reizman.
    120. Königlichen Staatsarchiv (Mr. Ludwig Davidsohn informed me of
    it).
    121. "In the U.S.A. the most striking characteristic of Jewish commerce
    is found in the large number of department stores held by Jewish
    firms." Art. "Commerce," in Jewish Encycl. (vol. 4, p. 192).
    122. See the lists of firms in J. Hirsch, Das Warenhaus in
    Westdeutschland (1910).
    123. Juden, sind sie der Handlung schädlich?, p. 33.
    124. Henry Sampson, A History of Advertising (1875), p. 68.
    Chapter 9
    1. For a fuller account of the subject of this chapter, see an article of
    mine, "Der Kapitalistische Untemehmer," in Archiv für soziale
    Wissenschaft und Soziale Politik, vol. 29.
    Chapter 10
    1. M. Kayserling, op. cit., p. 708.
    2. An account of the Jewish world-famed firms of his time is given by
    Manasseh ben Israel in his Humble Address to Cromwell. The story
    of the single families may be found in the Jewish Encyclopedia, which.276/Werner Sombart
    is especially good for biographies.
    3. "Lettres écrites de la Suisse, d'Italie," etc., in Encycl. mèth. Manuf.,
    vol. 1, p. 407. Cf. the opinion of Jovet, quoted by Schudt, Jüdische
    Merkwürdigkeiten, vol. 1, p. 228.
    4. The Spectator, No. 495.
    5. Revue Historique, vol. 44 (1890).
    6. Graetz, vol. 5, p. 323.
    7. These instances of Jewish diplomatists are generally known. The num-ber
    could easily be added to. Any one specially interested in this
    question should refer to Graetz, where abundant material will be found
    (e.g., vol. 6, pp. 85, 224; vol. 8. ch. 9, etc.).
    8. M. Kayserling, Christopher Columbus (1894), p. 106.
    9. H. J. Koenen, op. cit; p. 206.
    10. Edmund Bonaffé, Dictionnaire des amateurs français cm XVII siècle
    (1881), p. 191.
    11. Friedlander, Sittengeschichte Roms, vol. 3, p. 577.
    12. (v. Kortum) Über Judentum und Juden (1795), p. 165.
    13. Ibid.. p. 90.
    14. R.E.J., vol. 23 (1891), p. 90.
    15. M. de Maulde, Les juifs dans les Etats français du Saint-Siège (1886).
    The legal position of the Jews generally is treated fully in the current
    Jewish histories, most of which are in reality nothing more than the
    history of the legal position of the Jews. Indeed, a goodly number of
    their authors imagine they are writing economic history when all the
    time it is just legal history they aredealing with. For records, consult
    the article "Juden" in Krünitz (vol. 31) and Sehudt, Jüdische
    Merkwurdigkeiten (specially for Frankfort). For France, see Halphen,
    Recueil des lois, etc., concernant les Israëlites (1851); for Prussia,
    L. von Rönne and Heinrich Simon, Die früheren und gegenwärtigen
    Verhaltnisse der Juden in den sämtlichen Landesteilen des
    preussischen Staates (1843). All the laws quoted in the text I have
    taken from this collection. A. Michaelis, Die Rechtsverhältnisse der
    Juden in Preussen seit dem Beginn des 19 Jahrhunderts: Gesetze,
    Eriasse, Verordnungen, Entscheidungen (1910).
    16. Cf. B. Bento Carqueja, op. cit., pp. 73, 82, 91.
    17. Wagenaar, Beschrijving van Amsterdam, quoted by Koenen, op.
    cit., p. 142. Further, for the wealth of the Dutch Jews (greatly exag-gerated)
    see Schudt, vol. 1 (1714), p. 277; vol. 4 (1717), p. 208. Cf.
    M. Mission, Reise nach Italien (1713), p. 43. Of newer books, M..The Jews and Modern Capitalism/277
    Henriquez Pimentel, op. cit., p. 34.
    18. Memoiren, p. 134.
    19. Savary, Dict.. vol. 2 (1726), p. 448.
    20. Lucien Wolf, The Jewry of the Restoration, 1660--1664, p. 11.
    21. See H. Reils, "Beiträge zur ältesten Geschichte der Juden in Ham-burg,"
    in Zeitschrift des Vereins für hamburgische Geschichte, vol.
    2 (1847), pp. 357, 380, 405; and M. Grunwald, op. cit., pp. 16, 26,
    35.
    22. In M. Grunwald's Hamburgs deutsche Juden, pp. 20, 191.
    23. F. Bothe, Die Enfwickelung der direkten Besteuerung der Reichsstadt
    Frankfurt (1906), p. 166, Tables 10 and 15.
    24. Kraeauer, op. cit., p. 341.
    25. Alexander Dietz, Stammbuch der Frankfurter Juden (1907), p. 408.
    26. L. Geiger, Geschichte der Juden in Berlin (1871), vol. 1, p. 43.
    Chapter 11
    1. M. Lazarus, Ethik des Judentums (1904), pp. 67, 85, etc.[There is an
    English edition of this book issued by the Jewish Publication Society
    of America.]
    2. Hermann Cohen, "Das Problem der jüdischen Sittenlehre. Eine Kritik
    (adverse) von Lazarus' Ethik des Judentums," in Monatsschrift, vol.
    43, p. 385.
    3. Orach Chajim, § 8.
    4. Quoted by F. Weber, Altsynagogale Theologie (1880), p. 273.
    5. J. Wellhausen, Israelitische und jüdische Geschichte, p. 340.
    6. Graetz, vol. 4, p. 411. Graetz also has an excellent appreciation of
    the Talmud (one-sided of course, and optimistic), and its influence in
    Judaism.
    7. J. Fromer, Vom Ghetto zur modernen Kultur (1906), p. 247.
    8. M. Kayserling, Columbus (1894), ch. vi.
    9. Das Haus Rothschild, vol. 1 (1857), p. 186.
    10. This is not the place to enter into an account of the results of Bibli-cal
    criticism. All I can do here is to mention a few books that may
    serve as an introduction to the subject: Zittel, Die Entstehung der
    Bibel (5th ed., 1891); for the history of the Pentateuch, Adalbert
    Merx, Die Bücher Moses und Josua (1907), and Ed. Meyer, Die
    Entstehung des Judentums (1896).
    11. W. Frankenberg, "Die Sprüche, übersetzt und erläutert," in
    Handkommentar wm Alten Testament, herausgegeben von D. W..278/Werner Sombart
    Nowack. On p. 16 there is a list of books for the Wisdom Literature.
    See also Henri Traband, La loi mosaïque, ses origines et son
    développement (1903), p. 77.
    12. Cf. M. Friedlander, Geschichte der jüdischen Apologetik (1903).
    13. Books about the Talmud form a small library in themselves. I can
    only mention one or two to serve as an introduction to the subject.
    The best is H. L. Strack's Einleitung in den Talmud (4th ed., 1908),
    which also contains a pretty full bibliography. For Talmudic Ethics,
    see Salo Stein's Materialien zur Ethik des Talmud (1904). Talmudic
    scholars, however, do not apprize this book very highly. A more re-cent
    book is by J. Fromer, who hasoccupied himself with Talmudic
    and later Jewish literature. See his Die Organization des Judentums
    (1908), which is intended to serve as an Introduction to a big Ency-clopedic
    Dictionary of the Talmud, which Fromer has planned. An-other
    book which deals with the sources is E. Schürer, Geschichte
    des jüdischen Volkes im Zeitalter Jesu Christi, in 3 vols. The first
    (2nd ed., 1890) in § 3 contains an extensive bibliography. In addi-tion,
    the standard Jewish histories, especially Graetz, deal with this
    aspect of Jewish literature.
    To comprehend the spirit of the Talmud it is necessary to read the text
    itself. There is a German translation (almost complete) by Lazarus
    Goldschmidt. The Talmud has this characteristic: that although the
    sections follow each other in some fixed order, yet not one of them is
    strictly limited as regards its subject matter. They all deal with prac-tically
    the whole field of Talmudic subjects. Hence by studying one
    or more of the (63) Tractates, it is comparatively easy to obtain a fair
    notion of the contents of the whole, and certainly, to find one's way
    about in the great sea. Specially to be recommended is the Tractate
    Baba Mezia and its two sister tractates [Baba Kama and Baba
    Bafhra]. There is a good edition of Baba Mezia, with an introduction
    and a translation by Dr. Sammter (1876).
    A special branch of Tahnudic literature is composed of the so-called
    "Minor Tractates," usually found in an appendix to the Talmud, though
    often published separately. These are Derech Erez Rabba (3rd cen-tury),
    Aboth, Aboth de R. Nathan, Derech Erez Zutta (9th century,
    according to Zunz). Zunz calls them Ethical Hagadoth because of
    their obvious intention of teaching practical wisdom. They have had
    no small influence on the development of the Jewish people and are
    therefore of great interest to us here. Next to the Bible, these tractates.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/279
    enjoyed a widespread popularity. They formed the principal reading
    of the layman, unacquainted with the Talmud. They were (are) found
    in Prayer Books and devotional literature. Some of them have been
    issued in German translations. R. Nathan's System der Ethik und
    Moral, translated by Kaim Pollock (1905). Derech Erez Zutta, trans-lated
    by A. Tawrogi (1885). Derech Erez Rabba, translated by M.
    Goldberg (1888). We must also mention the Tosephta, which con-tains
    the teaching not included in the Mishna. This also dates from
    the period of the Tanaim and is arranged like the Mishna.
    Finally, a word as to the Rabbinical commentaries or Midrashim, which
    are partly halachic [i.e., legal] and partly hagadic [i.e., moral and
    edifying]. The oldest of them, mostly halachic, are Mechilta (on
    Exodus), Siphra (on Leviticus), and Siphre (on Numbers and
    Deuteronomy).
    The Targumim are the Aramaic translations of the O.T.
    14. There is no good translation of the Shulchan Aruch. The only avail-able
    one is by Lowe (1837), which is incomplete and one-sided. On
    the other hand, the Orach Chajim and the Jore Deah have been pub-lished
    in a German dress by Rabbi P. Lederer (1906 and 1900), but
    not in a complete form.
    As for works on the Shulchan Aruch, they are mostly of the nature of
    apologetic pamphlets. Anti-Semites have turned to the S. A. for ma-terial
    to attack Jews and Judaism; and Jewish scholars have naturally
    replied. We may mention, for instance, A. Lewin, Der Judenspiegel
    des Dr. Justus (1884), and D. Hoffmann, Der Schulchan Aruch und
    die Rabbiner über das Verhältniss der Juden zu Andersgldäuigen
    (1885). Thus there is no subjective treatment of the Shulchan Aruch,
    though it deserves as thorough a consideration as the Talmud. The
    only strictly scientific book with which I am acquainted and which
    should be mentioned in this connexion is S. Back's Die
    religionsgeschichtliche Literatur der Juden in dem Zeitraume vom
    15-18 Jahrhundert (1893), reprinted from Winter and Wiinsche, Die
    jüldische Literatur seit Abschluss des Kanons, vol. 2. But Back's
    book is not big and his treatment therefore can only be of the nature
    of a sketch.
    15. Paul Volz, Jüdische Eschatologie von Daniel bis Akiba (1903).
    16. Furst, Untersuchungen über den Kanon des Alien Testaments nach
    den Uberlieferungen in Talmud und Midrasch (1868).
    17. L. Stem, Die Vorschriften der Thora, welche Israel in der.280/Werner Sombart
    Zerstreuung w beobachten hat. Ein Lehrbuch der Religion für Schule
    und Famine (4th ed., 1904), p. 28. This book, which may be looked
    upon as a type, gives the view current in strictly orthodox circles.
    18. Cf. Rabbi S. Mandl, Das Wesen des Judentums (1904), p. 14. Mandl
    relies on J. Gutmann, Uber Dogmenbildung und Judentum (1894).
    Cf. also S. Schechter, "The Dogmas of Judaism," in J.Q.R., vol. 1
    (1889), pp. 48, 115. As is well known, Moses Mendelssohn was the
    first to express (in his Jerusalem) the idea that Judaism has no dog-mas,
    with some degree of insistence.
    19. The best that I am acquainted with is Ferdinand Weber's System der
    altsynagogalen palastinensischen Theologie aus Targum, Midrash
    und Talmud (1880).
    20. Stem, op. cit., p. 5.
    21. Döllinger, Heidentum und Judentum (1857), p. 634.
    22. Rutilius Namatianus, "De reditu suo," in Reinach's Textes d'auteurs
    grecs et remains relatifs au judaisme, vol. 1 (1895), p. 358.
    23. Stem, op. cit., p. 49; S. R. Hirsch, Versuche über Jissroëls Pflichlen
    in der Zerstreuung (4th ed., 1909), §711.
    24. Cf. Weber, op. cit., p. 49. Weber has worked out this idea of con-tract
    in Judaism better than any other writer. The treatment in the text
    owes much to him, as will be apparent. I have also utilized his refer-ences.
    In this particular instance, cf. Sifre, 12b, Wajjikra Rabba. c.
    31.
    25. Aboth, II, near the beginning.
    26. Cf. Weber, op. cit., pp. 270, 272.
    27. Ibid., p. 292.
    28. R. Joseph Albo, Ikkarim, a book on the principles of Judaism, dat-ing
    from the 15th century. W. and L. Schlesinger have issued a Ger-man
    translation [of the Hebrew] (1844). This particular problem is
    dealt with in ch. 46.
    29. S. R. Hirsch, op. cit., ch. 13, especially §§ 100 and 105.
    30. J. F. Schroder, Talmudisch-rabbinisches Judentum (1851), p. 47.
    31. Graetz, vol. 2, p. 203 and note 14; J. Bergmann, Jüdische Apologetik
    im neutestamentlichen Zeitalter (1908), p. 120. For the spirit of an-cient
    Judaism, see Wellhausen, op. cit., ch. 15.
    32. H. Deutsch, Die Sprüche Salomons nach der Auffassung in Talmud
    und Midrasch (1885).
    33. J. F. Bruch, Weisheitslehre der Hebräer (1851), p. 135.
    34. Rabbi S. Schiffer, Das Buch Kohelet. Nach der Auffassung der.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/281
    Weisen des Talmud und Midrasch (1884).
    35. Cf. Graetz, vol. 4, p. 233; Wellhausen, op. cit., pp. 250, 339; and
    also the well-known works of Müller, Schürer, and Marti.
    36. Mandl, op. cit., p. 14.
    37. S. R. Hirsch, op. cit., § 448.
    38. A number of similar extracts from Talmudic literature will be found
    in S. Schaffer, Das Recht und seine Stellung zur Moral nach
    talmudischer Sitten- und Rechtslehre (1889), p. 28.
    39. M. Lazarus, op. cit., p. 22. Lazarus has worked out the idea that to
    be holy means to overcome your passions, exceedingly well, though
    he approaches very closely to Kant's system of Ethics.
    40. Kiddushin, 30b, Baba Bathra, 16a.
    41. Cf. Schaffer, op. cit., p. 54.
    42. Cf. Fassel, Tugend- und Rechtslehre des Talmud (1848), p. 38.
    43. Albo's Ikkarim [note 28], ch. 24, deals fully with this.
    44. Cf. S. Back, op. cit.. Preface; also M. Lazarus, op. cit., p. 20.
    45. Stern, op. cit., p. 126.
    46. Aboth de R. Nathan, xxi. 5 [also Aboth, III, 14].
    47. G. F. Oehler, Theologie des A.T. (3rd ed., 1891), p. 878.
    48. Lazarus, op. cit., p. 40.
    49. Aboth de R. Nathan, xvi. 6.
    50. Cf. Eceles. 1, 8; Prov. x. 8; x. 10; x. 31; xiv. 23; xvii. 27, 28; xviii.
    7, 21; xxi. 23; Ecclus. iv. 34 (29); v. 15 (13); ix. 25 (18); xix. 20, 22.
    51. Stern, op. cit.. No. 127a.
    52. Cf. also Prov. xii. 27; xiii. 11; xviii. 19; xxi. 20. For further pas-sages
    in praise of labour, cf. L. K. Amitai, La sociologie selon la
    lègislation juive (1905), p. 90.
    53. Hirsch, op. cit., § 448.
    54. Ibid., § 463; and Stern, op. cit., p. 239.
    55. Hirsch, op. cit., § 443, almost identically expressed by Stem, op.
    cit., Nos. 125, 126.
    56. J. Fromer, op. cit., p. 25.
    57. Iggeret ha-Kodesh, first published in 1556; translated into Latin by
    Gaffareli; cf. Graetz, vol. 7, p. 46.
    58. Hirsch, op. cit., § 263. Cf. also § 264, § 267.
    59. The figures are taken from Hugo Nathansohn, "Die unehelichen
    Geburten bei den Juden," in Z.D.S.J., vol. 6, (1910), p. 102.
    60. We may mention as one of the foremost authorities S. Freud. See his
    Sammlung kleiner Schriften zur Neurosehlehre (2nd series, 1909)..282/Werner Sombart
    61. See Dr. Hoppe, "Die Kriminalitat der Juden und der Alkohol," in
    Z.D.S.J., vol. 3 (1907), p. 38; H. L. Eisenstadt, "Die Renaissance
    der jüdischen Sozialhygiene," in Archiv fur Rassen- und
    Gesellschaftsbiologie, vol. 5 (1908), p. 714; L. Cheinisse, "Die
    Rassenpathologie und der Alkoholismus bei den Juden," in Z.D.S.J.,
    vol. 6 (1910), p. 1. It can be proved with great certainty that the
    Jew's freedom from the evil effects of alcohol (as also from syphilis)
    is due to his religion.
    62. Wellhausen, op. cit., p. 119.
    63. Cicero, Pro Flacco, ch. 28.
    64. Mommsen, Römische Geschichfe, vol. 5, p. 545.
    65. The passages may be found in Felix Stahelin, Der Antisemitismus
    des Altertums (1905). Cf. Reinach, op. cit.
    66. J. Bergmann, op. cit., p. 157.
    67. Graetz, vol. 5, p. 73.
    68. Graetz, vol. 5, p. 321.
    69. Graetz, vol. 6, pp. 140, 161.
    70. A comprehensive account of laws on interest in the old Jewish legal
    system will be found in J. Heici, Das alttestamentliche Zinsverbot
    (Biblische Studien, herausgegeben von O. Bardenhewer, vol. 12, No.
    4, 1907).
    71. Cf. a collection of "Responsa" by Hoffmann, in Schmollers
    Forschungen, vol. 152.
    72. Cf. Fassel, op. cit., p. 193; E. Grunebaum, Die Sittenlehre der Juden
    andern Bekenntnissen gegenuber (2nd ed., 1878), p. 414; the same
    writer's "Der Fremde nach rabbinischen Begriffen," in Geigers
    jüdische Zeitschrift, vols. 9 and 10; D. Hoffmann, op. cit., p. 129;
    Lazarus, op. cit., § 144. Lazarus is curiously incomplete. What he
    says in his third chapter about the duty of Israel towards non-Jews
    does his heart all credit, but it is hardly in accord with historic truth.
    73. Cf. Choshen Mishpat. §§ 188, 194, 227, 231, 259, 266, 272, 283,
    348, 389, etc.
    74. "When he appears before the divine Judge, the first question that
    man is asked is. Have you been straightforward and honest in busi-ness?"
    Sabbath, 31a. This Talmudic quotation is the motto of a little
    book (privately printed) dealing with passages concerning honesty,
    Das Biblisch-rabbinische Handelsgesetz, by Rabbi Stark.
    75. Choshen Mishpat, § 231. The passage given in the text is from §
    227..The Jews and Modern Capitalism/283
    76. Graetz, vol. 10, pp. 62, 81.
    77. Choshen Mishpat, § 227; Baba Mezia, 49b.
    78. In addition, see John G. Dow, "Hebrew and Puritan," in J.Q.R., vol.
    3 (1891), p. 52.
    79. Graetz, vol. 9, pp. 86, 213; vol. 10, p. 87; Hyamson, p. 164; J.Q.R.,
    vol. 3, p. 61.
    Chapter 12
    1. Cf. also R. S. Woodworth, "Racial Differences in Mental Traits," in
    Bulletin mensuel des Institut Solvay (1910), No. 21.
    2. Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu, Israel chez les nations (1893), p. 289; also
    cf. H. St. Chamberlain, Die Grundlagen des 19 Jahrhunderts (3rd
    ed., 1901), p. 457. [An English edition of this book is now to be had.]
    3. I cannot here enter into a disquisition of the various meanings at-tached
    to the terms People, Nation, Nationality. The reader will find
    all that he needs in that excellent study of F. J. Neumann, Volk und
    Nation (1888). See, too. Otto Bauer, Die Nationalitätenfrage und
    die Sozialdemokratie (1907); F. Rosenblüth, Zur Begriffsbestimmung
    von Volk und Nation (1910).
    4. A. Jellinek, Der jüdische Stamm in Sprichwortem (2nd series, 1882),
    pp. 18, 91.
    5. J. Zollschan, Das Rassenproblem writer besonderer Berücksichtigung
    der theoretischen Grundlagen der jüdischen Rassenfrage (1910), p.
    298.
    6. Jellinek, op. cit; (3rd series, 1885), p. 39.
    7. Juan Huarte de San Juan, Examen de ingenios para las Sciencias.
    Pomplona (1575), (Biblioteca de autores Españoles, lxv, p. 469).
    8. Jellinek, op. cit. This book by the well-known Rabbi of Vienna is one
    of the very best that has been written on the Jewish spirit Good, too,
    is the booklet of D. Chwolson, Die semitischen Völker (1872), which
    criticizes Renan's Histoire générale et systeme compare de langues
    Sèmitique (1855). A third writer who in my opinion has looked deep
    into the Jewish soul is Kari Marx, in his Judenfrage (1844). What
    has been said about the Jewish spirit since these men (all Jews!) wrote
    is either a repetition of what they said or a distortion of the truth.
    9. For Jews as mathematicians, see M. Steinschneider in Monatsschrift,
    vols. 49--51 (1905--7).
    10. For Jews as physicians, see M. Kayserling, "Zur Geschichte der
    judischen Aerzte," in Monatsschrift, vols. 8 (1859) and 17 (1868)..284/Werner Sombart
    11. Zollschan, op. cit.. p. 159.
    12. C. Lassen, Indische Altertumskunde, vol. 1 (1847), p. 414.
    13. "Une certaine gravité orgueilleuse et un fierté noble fait le caractère
    distinctif de cette nation," Pinto, "Reflexions," etc., in the Lettres de
    quelques juifs, vol. 1, p. 19.
    14. J. M. Jost, Geschichte des Judentums und seiner Sekten, vol. 3
    (1859), p. 207.
    15. Derech Erez Zutta, ch. viii.
    16. Megilla, 16.
    17. Midrash Rabba to Genesis, 1, 44.
    18. "Développer une chose qui existe en germe, perfectionner ce qui est,
    exprimer tout ce qui tient dans une idée qu'il n'aurait pas trouvée
    seul." -- M. Murel, L'esprit juif (1901), p. 40.
    19. K. Knies, Credit, vol. 1, p. 240; vol. 2, p. 169.
    Chapter 13
    1. F. Martins, "Die Bedeutung der Vererbung fiir Krankheitsenstehung
    und Rassenerhaltung," in Archiv für Rass. und Ges. Biologie, vol. 7
    (1910), p. 477.
    2. Some of the most important of recent works on the ethnology and
    anthropology of the Jews are the following: von Luschan, "Die
    anthropologische Stellung der Juden," in Korrespondemblatt fur
    Anthropologie, vol. 23 (1892); Judt, Die Juden als Rasse (1903).
    On the historic side, much light has been thrown on the problem by
    Ed. Meyer, Die Israeliten und ihre Nachbarstamme (1906). Side by
    side with this excellent book may be placed one somewhat older, A.
    Bertholet, Die Stellung der Israeliten und der Juden w den Fremden
    (1896). That the whole literature on Babylonia must be mentioned
    here goes without saying, i.e., the works of Winkler, Jeremias, and
    others. Recently there appeared a book by W. Erbt, Die Hebräer.
    Kanaan im Zeitalter der hebraischen Wanderung und hebraischen
    Staatengründung (1906).
    3. H. V. Hilprecht, The Babylonian Expedition of the University of
    Pennsylvania. Series A, Cuneiform Texts, vol. 9 (1898), p. 28; the
    same author's Explorations in Bible Lands during the 19th Century
    (1903), p. 409.
    4. Cf. von Luschan, "Zur phys. Anthropologie der Juden," in Z.D.S.J.,
    vol. 1 (1905), p. 1.
    5. The chief exponent of this theory is Ludwig Wilser, who has set forth.The Jews and Modern Capitalism/285
    his view in numerous articles, and at great length in his book. Die
    Germanen (1903). His chief opponent is Zollschan,op. cit., p. 24.
    6. Mommsen, Römische Geschichte, vol. 5, p. 549.
    7. Graetz, vol. 5, pp. 188, 330, 370.
    8. Graetz, vol. 7, p. 63.
    9. All these instances in Undo [see note 22, Chapter 5], p. 10.
    10. In his criticism of Hoeniger, who holds the view expressed in the
    text as applicable to Cologne. Others who have supported Brann are
    Lau, Kuessen, and A. Kober, Studie zur mittelalterlichen Geschichte
    der Juden in Köln am Rhine (1903), p. 13.
    11. Maurice Fishberg, "Zur Frage der Herkunft des blonden Elements
    im Judentum" in Z.D.S.J., vol. 3 (1907), pp. 7, 25. A contrary view
    in the same journal, vol. 3, p. 92, is Elias Auerbach's "Bemerkungen
    zu Fishbergs Theorie," etc.
    12. Cf. F. Sofer, "Uber die Plastizitat der menschlichen Rassen," in
    Archiv für Rass. und Ges. Biologie, vol. 5 (1908), p. 666; E.
    Auerbach, "Die jüdisehe Rassenfrage," in the same journal, vol. 4, p.
    359; also vol. 4, p. 370, where von Luschan expounds an almost
    identical view. Cf. also Zollschan, op. cit; pp. 125, 134, etc.
    13. See the results in Judt, op. cit. Cf. also A. D. Elkind, Die Juden.
    Erne vergleichend-anthropologische Untersuchung (1903). I know
    the book only from the review by Weinberg in Archiv für Rass. und
    Ges. Biologie, vol. 1 (1904), p. 915. Cf. also Elkind's
    "Anthropologische Untersuchungen über die russ.- polnischen Juden,"
    in Z.D.S.J., vol. 2 (1906), pp. 49, 65, and his other essay in vol. 4
    (1908), p. 28; Leo Sofer, "Zur Anthropologische Stellung der Juden,"
    in Pol. anthrop. Revue, vol. 7 (cf. review of this in Z.D.S.J; vol. 4, p.
    160). Cf. E. Auerbach, op. cit., p. 332; Aron Sandier, Anthropologie
    und Zionismus (1904), though his results are not first-hand; Zollschan,
    op. cit., pp. 125, 134, etc.
    14. The theory of "racial differences" between Ashkenazim and
    Sephardim is supported by S. Weissenberg, "Das jüdisehe
    Rassenproblem," in Z.D.S.J.. vol. 1 (1905); M. Fishberg, "Beitrage
    zur phys. Anthropologie der nordafrikanischen Juden," ditto. Oppo-nents
    of the view are most of the authors mentioned in note 13.
    15. For an all-round consideration of this question see Leo Sofer, "Zur
    Biologie und Pathologie der judischen Rasse," in Z.D.S.J.. vol. 2
    (1906), p. 85. For further views, see the issues Biologie, vol. 4 (1907),
    pp. 47, 149: Siegfried Rosenfeld, "Die Sterblichkeit der Juden in Wien.286/Werner Sombart
    und die Ursachen der jüdischen Mindersterblichkeit."
    16. F. Hertz, Moderne Rassen-Theorie (1904), p. 56.
    17. C. H. Stratz, Was sind Juden? Eine ethnographischanthropologische
    Studie (1903), p. 26.
    18. Illustrations in Judt, op. cit., and elsewhere. Cf. also L.
    Messerschmidt, Die Hettiter (1903).
    19. Cf. Hans Friedenthal, Über einen experimentalen Nachweis von
    Blutsverwandtschaft (1900). Also appeared in the author's Arbeiten
    aus dem Gebiete der experimentellen Physiologie (1908); also Carl
    Bruck, "Die biologische Differenzierung von Affenarten und
    menschlichen Rassen durch spezifische Blutreaktion," reprinted from
    the Berliner Klinischen Wochenschrift, vol. 4 (1907), p. 371.
    20. Von Luschan, "Offener Brief an Herrn Dr. Elias Auerbach," in Archiv
    für Rassen und Ges. Biologie. vol. 4 (1907), p. 371.
    21. A. Ruppin, "Die Mischehe," in Z.D.S.J., vol. 4, p. 18.
    22. Mommsen, Römische Geschichte, vol. 5, p. 529.
    23. M. Braunschweiger, Die Lehrer der Mischna (1890), p. 27.
    24. Graetz, vol. 6, p. 22.
    25. Graetz, vol. 6, 320.
    26. Gregor. Ep. ix. 36, in Schipper, p. 16.
    27. Herzfeld, Handelsgeschichte der Juden des Altertums, p. 204.
    28. Herzfeld has perhaps dealt most fully with these questions. But be-sides
    many errors of textual interpretation he is also wrong as re-gards
    the dates of documents. He still maintains the chronology cur-rent
    before the age of criticism, and therefore places most of his sources
    in the pre-exilic period.
    29. For the Talmudic period, see Herzfeld, op. cit., p. 118, where over a
    hundred imports into Palestine are given.
    30. A. Bertholet, op. cit., p. 2.
    31. Cf. Büchsenschutz, Besitz und Erwerb im griechischen Altertum
    (1869), p. 443.
    32. L. Friedlander, Sittengeschichte Roms, vol. 3, p. 571.
    33. Kiddushin, 826.
    34. Aboth de R. Nathan, xxx. 6.
    35. Pesachim, 113a.
    36. Pesachim, 506. Cf. also the articles "Welthandel" and "Handel" in
    J. Hamburger's Real-Encyklopädie des Judentums (1883, 1886) for
    more material under this heading.
    37. A. Bertholet, "Deuteronomium" (1899), in Marti's Kurz..The Jews and Modern Capitalism/287
    Bandkommentar zum A.T. On the passage in the text, Bertholet re-marks
    that it refers to a period in which Israel is scattered all over the
    globe as a people of traders, and is a force in the world because of its
    wealth. Bertholet informs me that he regards the passage xv. 4--6 as a
    later addition to the text, and because the words appear to point to an
    extensive distribution of Israel he would incline to assign them to the
    Greek period after Alexander.
    But for myself I cannot believe that the Jews were then a scattered com-mercial
    people. In order to make quite sure that I had not overlooked
    important passages I wrote to Professor Bertholet to ask him on what
    grounds he based his opinion. In his reply he referred me to Prov. vii.
    19; xii. 11; xiii. 11; xx. 21; xxiii. 4; xxiv. 27; xxviii. 19, 20, 22;
    Ecclus. xxvi. 29--xxvii. 2. These passages deal with the dangers of
    wealth, and I have already discussed them in another connexion. None
    of them, however, appear to me to point to trade on a large scale.
    Certainly Prov. vii. 19 may have reference to a travelling trader, but
    not necessarily. And when we are told of Tobit (to whom also Profes-sor
    Bertholet referred) that he was King Enemessar's "agorastes"
    and as such had a comfortable income, does not that rather point to a
    feudal state of society? Again, Ananias, a merchant at the court of
    Adiabene (of whom Josephus tells), may have been a Hofjude. Of
    course, I do not deny that Jews participated in international trade.
    But I contend that this was not characteristic of them. What was
    characteristic was the business of lending, and of this it may be said,
    as Bertholet does, that Israel was then (in the period after Alexander)
    a power in the earth.
    38. I am indebted to Professor Bertholet for calling my attention to this
    document.
    39. E. Renan, Les Apôtres (1866), p. 289.
    40. J. Wellhausen, Medina vor dem Islam (1889), p. 4.
    41. Cf. Aronius, Regesten zur Geschichte der Juden im frankischen
    und deutschen Reiche bis zum Jahre 1273 (1902), Nos. 45, 62.
    42. Cf. Lindo, op. cit; p. 73.
    43. Statutes of Jewry, in Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and
    Commerce, vol. 1 (1905), p. 204.
    44. Wassermann, "Die Entwickelung der jiidischen Bevolkerung in d.
    Provin. Posen," in Z.D.S.J; vol. 6 (1910), p. 37.
    45. F. Delitzsch, Handel und Wandel in Altbabylon (1910), p. 33. Cf.
    Heici, Alttestamentliches Zinsverbot (1907), p. 32, and especially p..288/Werner Sombart
    54.
    46. Weber, article "Agrargeschichte im Altertum," in Handworterbuch
    der Staatswissenschaften. Cf. also Marquardt, Römische
    Staatsverwaltung, vol. 2, p. 55.
    47. In the years 1436 and 1437 a number of Jewish pawnbrokers were
    invited to Florence by the city council, in order to assist the poor who
    were in need of cash. Cf. M. Ciardemi, Banchieri ebrei in Firenze
    net secolo XV e XVI (1907).
    When the city of Ravenna was about to join itself to the Republic of
    Venice, one of the conditions of its adhesion was that wealthy Jews
    should be sent there to open a loan bank, so that the poverty of the
    population might be lessened. Cf. Graetz, vol. 8, p. 235.
    "We have seen that the business of finance in the period up to 1420 was
    gradually increasing in the bands of the Jews of Rome;
    from 1420 to 1550 circumstances were even more favourable, and hence
    we find a still greater growth. Indeed, it became customary for the
    Italian communes to make regular agreements with Jews concerning
    money-lending." Cf. Theiner, Cod. dipl. 3, 335, in Paul Rieger's
    Geschichte der Juden in Rom (1895), p. 14.
    48. A. Moreau de Jonnes, Statistique des peuples de I'antiquité, vol. 1
    (1851), p. 98. For censuses in the Bible, cf. Max Waldstein in
    Statistische Monatsschrift, Vienna (1881).
    49. A. Jeremias, Das alte Testament im Lichte des alien Orients (2nd
    ed., 1906), p. 534.
    50. F. Buhl, Die sozialen Verhaltnisse der Israeliten (1899), pp. 88,
    128.
    51. Biographies of the Tahnudic Rabbis are frequent enough. Cf. Strack,
    op. cit.: Graetz, in vol. 4; A. Sammter in the Appendix to his transla-tion
    of Baba Mezia (1876) and M. Braunschweiger. Die Lehrer der
    Mishna (1890).
    52. Mommsen, Römische Geschichte, vol. 5, p. 529.
    53. The 58th Canon of the 4th Council of Toledo (633), quoted by Lindo,
    op. cit., p. 14.
    54. J. Wellhausen, op. cit., vol. 4, p. 14.
    55. Cf. Graetz, vol. 5, p. 345.
    56. Cf. Graetz, vol. 5, pp. 11, 39, 50; also the passages in Schipper, op.
    cit., pp. 20, 35; Aronius, op. cit., Nos. 45, 62, 173, 206, 227, etc.
    How Caro, op. cit., p. 83, arrives at the contrary conclusion it is not
    easy to perceive..The Jews and Modern Capitalism/289
    57. For the period up to the 12th century, see the references in Schipper,
    op. cit., also my Moderne Kapitalismus, vol. 1.
    58. K. F. W. Freiherr von Diebitsch, Kosmopolitische, unparteiische
    Gedanken über Juden und Christen (1804), p. 29.
    59. I cannot give a complete bibliography of all the works on biology,
    anthropology, ethnology, etc. Only a few will be mentioned for the
    guidance of the reader.
    The works of Moritz Wagner appear to me to be of great value: Die
    Darwinsche Theorie und das Migrationsgesetz (1868); Uber den
    Einfluss der geographischen Isolierung und Kolonienbildang auf
    die morphologische Veränderung der Organismen (1871); Die
    Enstehung der Arten durch räumliche Sonderung (1889).
    Ludwig Gumploviez, Der Rassenkampf (1883); Die soziologische
    Staatsidee (2nd ed., 1901); Ward, Reine Soziologie, vol. 1; L.
    Woltmann, Politische Anthropologie (1903).
    For the question of heredity, see H. E. Ziegler, Die Vererbungstehre in
    der Biologie (1905); W. Schallmeyer, Vererbung und Auslese (2nd
    ed., 1910); R. Sommer, Familienforschung und Vererbungslehre
    (1907); F. Martius, Das pathologische Vererbungsproblem (1909);
    J. Schultz, Die Maschinentheorie des Lebens (1909); W. Bolsche,
    Das Liebesleben in der Natur (1909).
    Chapter 14
    1. For the social and economic conditions in ancient Palestine there are
    not many books to hand. Perhaps the best is F. Buhl's work [note 50,
    Chapter 13]. A more recent book is Max Lohr's Israels
    Kulturentwickelung (1911).
    2. Wellhausen, Prolog., p. 10; cf. Budde, The Nomadic Ideal in the
    O.T. (1895).
    3. F. Ratzel, Völkerkunde, vol. 3, p. 47.
    4. Kiddushin, 71a. Cf. Graetz, vol. 4, p. 273.
    5. Graetz, vol. 4, p. 321.
    6. For a list of Biblical passages in support, see Herzfeld,
    Handelsgeschichte der Juden des Altertums, note 9.
    7. For this estimation, see Buhl, op. cit., p. 52.
    8. Philo, in Flaccum, 6 (II, 523, Mangey), in Stähelin, op. cit., p. 33.
    9. L. Friedländer, Sittengeschichte Röms, vol. 3, p. 570.
    10. Cassel, in the article "Juden" in Ersch and Gruber, p. 24.
    11. Tacitus, Annal; II, 85; Suetonius and Josephus mention only Jews..290/Werner Sombart
    12. The best accounts of the Diaspora will be found in Graetz, vol. 3, p.
    90; Frankel, "Die Diaspora zur Zeit des zweiten Ternpels," in
    Monatsschrift, vol. 2, p. 309; Herzfeld, op. cit., p. 200, and note 34.
    13. An excellent example of Jewish migration within one particular coun-try
    is furnished by the history of the Jews in the province of Posen. In
    1849 there were 21 localities (out of a total of 131) with a population
    of 30 to 40 per cent. of Jews while in 4 there were 41 to 50 per cent.
    Jews, in 3 over 50 per cent. But in the last half century the Jewish
    population of the Posen province has shrunk considerably. Cf. E. von
    Bergmann, Zur Geschichte der deutschen, polnischen und jüdischen
    Bevölkerung in der Provinz Posen (1883); Zwanzig Jahre deutscher
    Kulturarbeit (1906); B. Breslauer, Die Abwanderung der Juden aus
    der Provinz, Posen (1909). For the expulsion of the Jews from Vienna
    at the close of the 17th century cf. David Kaufmann, Die letzte
    Vertreibung der Juden aus Wien und Niederösterreich; ihre
    Vorgeschichte (1625--1670) und ihre Opfer (1889).
    14. L. Neubaur, Die Sage vom ewigen Juden (2nd ed., 1893).
    15. According to Gratian, Vita Joh. Commendoni, II, c. 15; Victor von
    Karben, De Vita et Moribus Judieorum (1504); Graetz, vol. 9, p. 62.
    16. J. Ranke, Der Mensch, vol. 2, p. 533.
    17. Ratzel, Völkerkunde, vol. 3, p. 743.
    18. Juan Huarte de San Juan, op. cit; p. 409.
    19. F. Delitzsch, op. cit; p. 12.
    20. A. Wahrraund, Das Gesetz des Nomadentums (1887), p. 16.
    21. Ratzel, op. cit.. vol. 3, p. 56.
    22. Pesachim, 87 b. Cf. also 1196.
    23. W. Erbt, Die Hebraer (1906), p. 166.
    24. Ephraim justifié (1758). L'editeur a Mr. Andre de Pinto, Juif
    Portugais, Citoyen et négociant d'Amsterdam.
    25. Pinto, "Réflex, critiques sur le premier chap. du vii tome des oeuvres
    de M. Voltaire (1762)," in the Lettres de quelques juifs, (5th ed.,
    1781), p. 10.
    26. Graetz, vol. 11, p. 54.
    27. "L'idée, ou ils sont généralement, d'être issus de la Tribe de Juda,
    dont ils tiennent que les principales families furent envoyées en
    Espagne du temps de la captivité de Babylone, nepeut que les porter
    à ces distinctions et contribuer à cette élévation de sentimens qu'on
    remarque en eux." -- Pinto, op. cit; p. 17.
    28. A. Nossig, "Die Auserwähltheit der Juden im Lichte der Biologie,".The Jews and Modern Capitalism/291
    in Z.D.S.J., vol. 1. Cf. in same volume essay of Curt Michaelis; also
    his "Prinzipien der natürlichen und sozialen Entwicklungsgeschichte
    der Menschheit" (Natur und Staat, vol. 5) (1904), p. 63.
    29. A. Sandier, op. cit; p. 24.