Page 35 - The Track Of The Jew Through The Ages - Alfred Rosenberg

Alfred Rosenberg

work on the land themselves, but, as Vogelstein-Rieger report: "The
slave-trade was conducted so eagerly (particularly many slaves were
imported from Gallic territories) to acquire suitable work-force for
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the estates possessed by the Jews". The changing and fateful history
of the Jews in Rome cannot be discussed here in greater detail,
these suggestions may suffice to show that it was similar to that in
all countries.
In other Italian cities, the Jews similarly acquired great
wealth and power, so, for example, it was seriously feared in Cesena
that they would, through their capital, become lords of the entire
city, which was not to be wondered at when one learns that the
magistrate was extremely happy when the "Hebrew money-lenders"
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did not take more than 20 percent. In Livorno, the Jews had become
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so powerful that the Christians had to celebrate the Sabbath for
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their sake, and likewise in many other cities.
Venice, Genoa and Florence seem, at least for a time, to
have been an exception, since it is reported that the businessmen of
these cities were not inferior to the Jews in cunning. Indeed, similar
complaints as against the Jews were raised also with regard to the
Lombards, as, for example, in France, where laws were passed
against them. This shows that sometimes even Europeans could be
"not Christians, but baptised Jews", as it was said at that time. But
precisely that the Lombards had to be opposed even as the Hebrews
were proves that usury as such was an extremely prominent factor,
that the defence against it was directed against anyone who
conducted it and that, consequently, the complaint spread throughout
the world against Jewish usury and Jewish betrayal - even when it
rings out where there are not always similar written proofs - has its
well-grounded reason.

3 8
op cit„ Vol.1, p. 147.
39
Vogelstein-Rieger, Vol.1, p. 11 7.
40
[Saturday]
41
Misson, Reise nach Italien, Letter 39, p.1009 [Maximilien Misson (1650(?)-
1722) was a Huguenot exile who accompanied as tutor the grandchildren of the
Duke ofOrmond on their Grand Tour of Holland, Germany and Italy. He recounted
his travels in Nouveau Voyage d'halie (The Hague, 1691), which was translated
into German as Reise nach Italien (Leipzig, 1713)]; Schudt, Judische
Merkwiirdigkeiten, Vol.1, p. .228.
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