Page 28 - The Track Of The Jew Through The Ages - Alfred Rosenberg

The Track of the Jew through the Ages

Trade and usury

The space available does not permit us to examine in greater
detail - in individual cases and in the most disant past, where it was
already manifest - the impulse to trade in the history of the Jewish
m ind. It should only be stated that this disposition was not the result
Of he exclusion of Jews on the part of nations but was always an
t
unchanging driving factor of Jewish life. In itself no criticism can
he made of it, for trade and commerce are indispensable elements
of our life, but indeed much can be objected to the form of the
Jewish commercial spirit, of which later.
The fact is that, already in the time of Solomon, and perhaps
already considerably earlier, busy caravan roads led from Palestine
to Babylon, that Solomon received tribute from the passing
merchants, that he established bazaars in Damascus and other places,
that already in his time horse-trading with Egypt had acquired a
Large scope, and, finally, that, along with the Phoenicians, the famous
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Journey to the mysterious Ophir, the golden land in the distant east,
was undertaken. 18 Along with the high road that ran from Damascus
to the Yisrael plateau to the Gulf of Acco, there were also other
much travelled trade routes. One of them led from Scythopolis to
S ichem, the other through Genaea likewise to Sichem and from there
to Jerusalem. Between this city and the port Eilat there existed a
I rcct, flourishing commerce; another road led to the coastal city of
( i
Jaffa. On these commercial arteries the Jews conducted from
antiquity a lively intermediary business, but many ofthem apparently
had to be occupied differently also to be able to live in the country.
Now when they were led away into exile, new possibilities
were opened up to the Jewish commercial spirit. In a short time
many of them acquired great wealth especially under the tolerant
und agriculturally oriented Persians. And when the lamentations
1 ' Ophir is a land mentioned in the Bible that is supposed to have been abundantly
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rich in gold.]
See K.E. v. Baer, Reden und Aufsdtze, Vol.2. [Karl Ernst von Baer, Reden und
Meinere Aufsatze, 2 vols., St. Petersburg, 1864]. [Baer (1792-1 896) was a biologist,
itftthropologist and geologist who undertook scientific expeditions to the northern
coast of Russia and Scandinavia.]

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