Economic Role of Jews in Medieval Poland

Preface ........................................ . 
Photograph of Yitzhak Schipper ................... . 
Chapter 1 The Times and the Man .............. . 
Under Austrian Rule ............................ . 
Tarn6w at the Turn of the Century ................. . 
The Initial Steps ............................... . 
Involvements in Political and Cultural Actions ....... . 
In Polemics with Other Historians ................. . 
The Early Legal Status of Jews in Poland ........... . 
A Look into the Old History of Tarn6w ............. . 
NOTES ....................................... . 
Chapter 2 The Origin and End of Jewish Capital .. 
Sombart\'s Challenge ............................ . 
Confutation of \"Old Capitalism\" .................. . 
Jewish Landownership .......................... . 
International and Internal Trade .................. . 
The Road to Decline ............................ . 
The Sponge ................................... . 
The End of Jewish Capital ....................... . 
NOTES ....................................... . 

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Chapter 3 Jewish Origins in Poland . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 
The Khazar Kingdom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 
The Trade Routes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 
The Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 

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The Inferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 
The Critique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 
The Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 
NOTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 
Chapter 4 The Factual Image of Jewish 
Moneylending . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 
The Royal Charters and the Jews\' Economic Role . . . . . 118 
Credit Terms and Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 
The Evolution of Jewish Moneylending . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 
The Period of Unrestricted Credit Activities . . . . . . . . 129 
The Statute of Warta and Credit Decline . . . . . . . . . . . 134 
The Relative Reactivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 
NOTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 
Chapter S Occupational Diversity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 
Management and Lease oflndustries and Revenues . . . . 154 
Foreign and Domestic Trade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 
Agriculture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 
Free Professions and Crafts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 
Taxes and Fiscal Obligations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 
NOTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 
Chapter6 Economic Antagonism and Rancor . . . . . 193 
The Motives and Nature of Anti-Jewish Excesses . . . . . . 194 
The Struggle for Residence Rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 
The Struggle for Commercial Rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 
Propitious Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212 
The General Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 
In Foreign Trade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 
In Domestic Trade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220 
NOTES ........................................ 223 
Chapter7 The People\'s Historian .............. . 
History and the Historian\'s Role .................. . 
Facts and Phenomena, Interpretation and Synthesis ... . 
Conjecture and Historical Theory ................. . 

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Method and Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241 
The Economic and Sociocomparative Approach . . . . . . 245 
For the Sake of the People and National Emancipation . 251 
NOTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255 
Postscript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263 
In the Hub of Political Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263 
With Students and Young Historians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266 
In the Ghetto of Warsaw ......................... 268 
A Martyr\'s Fate and Faith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271 
NOTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273 
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277 
Map of Medieval Poland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300 
Index ........................................... 301