A Millennium of Ledgers

B20　—　Cross-Cutting Theme

Why has the story that 'Jews are good with money' been told for a thousand years?

Supervised by: Mitsuru Hayama　／　Reading time (main text): About 7 min (3,362 characters of text at 500 chars/min; exercises and readings not included)　／　Beyond the text: 6 exercises · 3 readings

What this course teaches you to do

• Be able to state, in the order of the historical sources, upon whom the medieval prohibition of interest forced the business of lending.
• Be able to explain the four roles that Court Jews and court agents played in the finances of the absolutist state.
• Be able to trace the origin of the Rothschild family to the trade in old coins, using the years documented in the archives.
• Be able to state the year and medium of the origin of the "made a fortune at Waterloo" story, and distinguish between rumor and historical source.

Lessons (8)

1. Time Belongs to God — The Prohibition of Interest and Its ImpositionThe prohibition of interest did not eliminate lending, but changed who undertook it. The imposed profession was the beginning of a hated wealth.
2. The norm of literacy — How professions are chosenThere is a hypothesis that the norm of literacy led people to choose urban occupations. This should be read alongside the "imposition" explanation.
3. Royal Patronage and Exploitation — England, 1278Protection and heavy taxes were two sides of the same coin. Numismatics does not forget the year when the pretext of protecting the purity of coinage was turned against a specific group of people.
4. Court Jews — The Finances of Absolutist StatesAbsolutist states entrusted military supply, minting, credit, and tax collection to specific families. The family's status depended on the monarch's life.
5. The Antique Coin Dealer of the Ghetto — Frankfurt 1757The Rothschild family's first merchandise was antique coins. The trust of a prince who believed in their catalogue expanded into the world of finance.
6. The House that Underwrites National Bonds — No Loan, No WarThe house that underwrites national bonds holds the power over war. National bonds, priced daily, turned a country's credit into a number.
7. The Origin of the Rumor — Waterloo and a Pamphlet from 1846The source of "made a fortune at Waterloo" is a pamphlet from 1846. A rumor, when its source is cited, becomes a historical source.
8. Today's numbers — There are no statistics to support "the richest in the world".There are no statistics to support claims of being 'the best in the world'. There are only numbers with an associated year, country, and denominator, and they should be stated as such.

Readings (3)

• Gods and money　Overview: 2,700 years of the world　the Middle Ages　The Ban on Usury and Persecution
  Section 1. The structure in the Middle Ages where the Church forbade interest, forcing lending upon the Jews. In the general introduction, "God and Money".
• The long cross and the expulsion　Britain　the 11th–13th centuries　London and the cities of England
  Section 3. Settlement after the Norman Conquest and royal protection, the mass arrests of 1278. In the chapter on the Pound.
• The costs of the wars with China and Russia　Japan　1904　London
  Section 8. The 1904 dinner party of Jacob Schiff and Takahashi Korekiyo. "The seating arrangement was fabricated" — an example of a legend debunked by historical sources.

Assessment

6 exercises in this course (4 check, 0 compare, 2 written). Progress is recorded by self-assessment.