This book analyzes the literature on Jewish commerce that emerged in Europe between the mid-seventeenth and mid-nineteenth centuries. It argues that much of this literature is only fully intelligible when viewed against the backdrop of broader controversies within contemporary European society over the effects of commerce on inherited political values and institutions. The works examined here are seen to operate on two levels: on the one hand, they are about Jewish economic life (including some written by Jews) and often aim to influence state policy on the local status of the Jews; on the other, they are concerned with the broader impact of economy, especially those aspects commonly identified with Jews (commerce, exchange, brokerage, and financial activities, particularly moneylending) on the political realm.

The period this book covers, roughly from the Peace of Westphalia to the Revolutions of 1848, was decisive for the Jews' acquisition of citizenship in the West and for the intellectual and spiritual modernization of Jewish life. The expulsions of the late Middle Ages had propelled Jews into North Africa, the eastern Mediterranean, as well as Poland and the New World. Despite the hardships they entailed, these shifts had the effect of expanding the Jews' commercial networks, the general benefits of which Jews were eager to advertise. By the late sixteenth century and throughout the seventeenth, as a result of the growth of their reputation as skilled merchants, brokers, and financiers, small Jewish settlements were reestablished in Western Europe.