Abstract

The economic role of Ashkenazi and Italian Jews in early modern Italy is traditionally associated with money-lending and second-hand goods retailing. Yet, fiscal and notarial sources show how beneath the surface of the charters signed between the minority and the local authorities, their business was far more diversified. In the northern and central Peninsula Jews had built a strong network based on endogenous and exogenous trust which permitted them to also engage in (inter)regional trade. From the early sixteenth century, when the establishment of the ghettos and changes in the economic system made banking far less lucrative, trading in commodities became a profitable alternative. The case studies of Mantua and the Venetian state show how this process was also strictly intertwined with the local political environment, as Jews had to resort to different sorts of informal and formal relationships with local power structures in order to take part in the grain trade.

摘要

德系犹太人和意大利犹太人在现代早期意大利的经济角色传统上与放债和二手商品零售有关。然而，财政和公证资料显示，在少数人与地方当局签署的章程的表面之下，他们的业务更加多样化。在半岛北部和中部，犹太人建立了一个基于内生和外生信任的强大网络，这使他们也能够参与（跨）区域贸易。从 16 世纪初开始，当隔都的建立和经济体系的变化使银行业的利润大大降低时，商品交易成为一种有利可图的选择。曼图亚和威尼斯国家的案例研究表明，这一过程也与当地政治环境密切相关，