in reply to Re^5: A Level Playing Field
in thread A Level Playing Field
I believe that the Jewish expulsion from Portugal was similar.
Note that a major factor behind various Jewish expulsions in the late 1400s was Italian moneylenders. The Biblical prohibition against usery was understood by the Jews to prohibit Jews lending at interest to Jews, but Jews could lend to gentiles. Christians could not so lend, which meant that Christians couldn't get rid of Jews because they needed to borrow money from them. But in the 1400s the fluid state of Italian currencies allowed Christian moneylenders to operate - they didn't charge interest, they just lent in one currency and accepted payment in another. It was a "gamble" because the currency could move and the lender could lose money. However the house odds were...pretty good.
For a long time I was curious what happened to the historically important ban on usery which is so obviously ignored today. The answer turned out to be that Martin Luther thought that it was one of many prohibitions in the Old Testament that didn't apply to Christians. In the Counter-Reformation the Catholic Church agreed (in part because they didn't want to leave Protestant countries with such a large economic advantage).
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Re^7: A Level Playing Field
by jZed (Prior) on Nov 02, 2005 at 14:27 UTC | |
by ysth (Canon) on Nov 03, 2005 at 19:38 UTC | |
by jZed (Prior) on Nov 03, 2005 at 22:47 UTC |