I originally planned to contribute an essay to this volume on the occupational structure of Jews in Germany from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries. It may be more stimulating, however, to focus on Jewish economic activity generally. Whereas the occupational structure of the Jews in this period changed relatively little, their economic activity during the era of absolutism took on, at least in part, completely new dimensions. Examples include the multifarious tasks that were transferred to the court Jews (Hoffaktoren) and the early capitalist manufacturers who experimented with previously unknown forms of production.

Furthermore, the assertion that the great majority of Jews supported themselves by means of moneylending and commodity trading, through pawnbroking or as intermediaries, does not reflect the variety of their presence in economic life. From the legal regulations governing Jewish residence or settlement, we know which trades the Jews were allowed to take part in and which trades were barred to them. We know about their exclusion from craft guilds and from corporately organized trade; we also know about their confinement to a small number of trade activities. But we need to know much more about how actual economic activity was carried out in everyday life. I shall first attempt to explore this question using petitions filed by Christian complainants who desired to combat the competition that they saw coming from the Jews.