Court Jew

Contribution to the History of Absolutism in Europe

Selma Stern

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000675269
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

The period of court absolutism and early capitalism extended from the end of the Renaissance to the Enlightenment. A new world view was created, along with a new type of individual possessing new economic orientations to the marketplace and new social attitudes deriving from such concerns. The unified political and religious world of medieval Europe broke into parts: national differentiation and religious options abounded. The autonomy of the nation-state created a need for new attitudes toward religious minorities, even despised ones such as the Jews. The court Jew phenomenon, as Selma Stern details, was inextricably linked to these larger developments, including the emancipation of Jews as a whole. Dr. Stern's work is an effort to reconstruct this unusual group of Jews who became politically and economically influential and through that mechanism were able to enhance Jewish community life as a whole. In his very existence the court Jew necessarily enlarged, beyond its original meaning, the concept of free expression in European societies.As the dominating idea of defending one church and one emperor collapsed under the weight of the new European system of power balances, a new conception of the Jew developed, one of a transforming agent in economic and political positions. With trade no longer condemned as sinful, collecting interest for loans no longer prohibited, and the merchant no longer compared to a thief, the Jewish money changer and tradesman came to be viewed in a more favorable light. In this new environment, the claims of Christianity remained supreme, but the rights of religious minorities were considered.At the time of the book's initial appearance, the Saturday Review hailed it as a "picturesque work giving evidence of great writing talent." The reviewer went on to note that "Dr. Stern's work provided exhaustive historical background of European Jewry - from 1650 to 1750 - that period during which the modern European genius emerged." Dr. Stern's work relies heavily upon European archives up to 1938, when the advances of Nazism made further work impossible. As a result, what was started in Europe was completed in America.

CHAPTER I
THE COURT JEW AS COMMISSARY

THE epoch of Court absolutism that extends from about 1640 to 1740 has also been called the epoch of Louis XIV,¹ since the theory of the divine right of kings and the identification of the ruler with the State found its clearest expression and fullest development in this French monarch. Most of the European states were modeled after the French form of government: French culture and the French language became the culture and language of all the European Courts; and the etiquette and ceremony of the Court at Versailles became the pattern for practically every prince.

The period of Louis XIV is, however, also the period during which France sought to win a position of hegemony over almost all the other states and turned Europe into a battlefield during the course of decades. These long wars were for the first time fought with standing armies whose training, maintenance, provisioning and equipping with newly invented weapons, involved the expenditure of huge sums of money.

France’s interest in these struggles lay in her desire to break the power of the Hapsburgs, who since the time of Charles V had ruled in the Old and New Worlds. The European princes fought at times on one side, at times on the other, depending on the amount of money they were promised for their aid and on the size of the booty.

The head of the House of Hapsburg was Leopold I. He was ruler of Austria, Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia and a part of Hungary, and from 1658 on had been Emperor of Germany. The early death of the Crown Prince had suddenly and unexpectedly, and at a most crucial point in Austria history, placed the government in the hands of this eighteen-year-old prince who had been destined for the clergy. The young monarch felt himself entirely unprepared for the difficult task of combating powerful internal and external enemies. His internal enemies consisted of the German princes who, aided by France, the guarantor of German liberty, sought more and more to limit the power of the Emperor in the Reich, and of the Hungarian Magyars who year after year rose in rebellion against Hapsburg domination. His external enemies were the Turks in the south who renewed their attacks, and Louis XIV in the west who threatened the Austrian and South German possessions on the Rhine.

The great question of Leopold I’s reign was whether he could protect the vital interests of his own State as well as those of the German Empire against both their powerful adversaries — whether he would be able to defeat the one without having the other attack him, or resist one without having the other destroy him.

The victory of the Turks would have meant the loss of the southeast corner of Austria, the important Donauraum; the victory of the French would have resulted in the loss of the mouths of the Meuse and the Rhine and would have led to the complete hegemony of Louis XIV in Europe.

Despite the gravity of the situation the weak and irresolute Emperor, who had a propensity for evading issues, hesitated a long time before making up his mind to go to war. For whereas Louis had at his disposal excellent diplomats and generals, the resources of a sound financial system and a flourishing economy, Austria was almost in a state of disintegration. The Hapsburg monarchy was a federation in which the various countries and provinces, each with its own government and constitution, were loosely bound together only through their common ruler.

In the ministry, official opposed official, intrigue followed intrigue. The State finances were in hopeless confusion, crown domains had been leased and the crown jewels pawned. The officials were unreliable and positions could be obtained only by bribery.

When, therefore, Louis XIV attacked the Low Countries in 1666 and, at the same time, the Turks moved against Hungary, the Emperor remained neutral as far as France was concerned and tried to drive the Turks only from his own territory.

A decisive change in Leopold’s attitude occurred only in the year 1673. Louis XIV entered into an alliance with several German princes and renewed his attack on Holland. He quickly overran a number of provinces and seized control of the right bank of the Rhine. If the Emperor did not want still further to weaken his position in the German Empire he had to take some effective action. He allied himself with Spain, Holland and Denmark, thus forming the first great coalition of European nations designed to stem the expansionist tendencies of France and to maintain the European balance of power.

It was at this period that the Emperor decided to entrust the task of provisioning the army and supplying it with munitions to Samuel Oppenheimer of Heidelberg, “Jew of Haydelberg,” as he signed himself. We must suppose that Leopold did not reach this decision easily and that the counsels of his generals and the “Court Chamber” (Hofkammer), as the Finance Ministry was then called, must have, finally prevailed. For Leopold was almost fanatical in his adherence to the Catholic Church and was constantly surrounded by Spanish Jesuits and bigoted priests. Only three years earlier he had driven the Jews from Vienna and Lower Austria and from then on had not allowed a single Jew to reside in the capital of the Empire.

If Leopold now entrusted the important task of War Commissary to a Jew, he did so because there was no Christian merchant who was prepared to assume this difficult position. The Thirty Years’ War had ruined many of the large commercial houses, severed their business relations with the other countries, destroyed their capital and discouraged the merchants from embarking on risky enterprises. The roads in the Empire had become unsafe, wagons were often plundered by soldiers and wares frequently spoiled during the long journey from one country to another and from one front to another. These facts — as well as the countless customs barriers and the disorganized state of currency and weights — all made business ventures unattractive.

There were in addition various psychological factors which dissuaded many merchants from engaging in the business of furnishing army supplies. The war commissary was everywhere an object of great mistrust. He was the scapegoat who was held responsible for the mistakes of the generals, the failure of the State machinery and the depletion of the State treasury. If the soldiers were given poor food, insufficient pay or inferior equipment, the war contractor was blamed. If the harvest was poor and the peasant did not have enough to eat, the large grain purchases of the State purveyors were responsible. If a general was defeated in battle, the fault lay with the war commissary who had not supplied food and munitions in time.

It was, therefore, much easier to obtain a Jewish contractor than a Christian one. The Jew could be attracted by the promise of titles and privileges and, since he possessed no rights, the State could bring various kinds of pressure to bear upon him. Moreover, the Jew seemed to be better qualified for the position of war commissary than the Christian. He was in close contact with his coreligionists throughout Europe. He was therefore able to maintain agents and correspondents in all countries and could receive through them necessary goods and important news. For example, the Jews in Poland, Russia and Lithuania could buy in their countries the mass products which were indispensable for the army and deliver them to the purveyor at the Breslau and Leipzig fairs. The many Jews who lived in the villages of the Empire were likewise in a position to obtain various foodstuffs and to send them to him.

In the wars during the period of Reformation the services rendered by a Prague Jew to Maurice of Saxony had become well known. The famous intercessor for the Jews, Josel of Rosheim, received a royal letter of protection in the year 1548 because he had procured for the king money and provisions in France. During the Thirty Years’ War the Jewish contractors had made themselves indispensable to the Swedish and Imperial armies. “All Jews are commissaries and all commissaries are Jews”: so we read in Moscherosch’s Gesichten des Philanders von Sittenwald, which describes the Thirty Years’ War.

When the army leaders first became aware of Samuel Oppenheimer, he was a finance agent and army contractor in the service of Elector Karl Ludwig of the Palatinate. He was then forty-four years old and came from an old and respected Frankfort family. He was known for his honesty and good credit; the fact that he had close connections with Christian firms was a point in his favor. When the director of the imperial supply commissariat commissioned him at the very beginning of the war against France (1673-1679) to provide the imperial troops with food and ammunition from permanent depots, he joined with several Christian firms into a consortium, a so-called trading company. He seems to have carried out his commission to the satisfaction of the generals and officials. The High Commissioner of the Imperial Army reported to Vienna that his prices were reasonable and that his terms were fair. On another occasion he praised him as being a Jew of means and good credit. He called attention to the valuable services which Oppenheimer had rendered in these campaigns when several years later he supported Oppenheimer’s claims on the treasury.

Oppenheimer’s first connection with the House of Hapsburg ended, however, in bitter disappointment for him. He was, it is true, named Kriegsfactor, but no one in Vienna thought of paying his or his partner’s claims which amounted to 200,000 florins, or of compensating him for the money he had advanced. The paymaster of the War Ministry declared bluntly that he did not have a kreuzer in his pocket. The credit of the Court treasury, which had never been too strong, had been completely exhausted by the demands of the long war. An attempt was made to put Oppenheimer off with worthless promissory notes on State revenues, while he himself had to pay his subcontractors in cash. His creditors began to press him, some even threatening to confiscate his personal property. In this difficult situation Oppenheimer, in 1681, wrote the Emperor a personal letter. This letter, the first of many similar ones, reveals the man’s personality. It is written in an urgent and dramatic style, pleading and demanding at the same time, but without any servility and not without a certain pride in the important services he had rendered. He asks the Emperor not to leave him in the lurch, to see that the money owed him is paid, because otherwise he will be ruined and will surely be forced to go into bankruptcy. For three years he has unsuccessfully tried to collect money due to him and his partner, who had in the meantime died of grief. One of his business associates in Frankfort had already failed. His entire credit, the foundation of his enterprises, was at stake. Far wealthier bankers and merchants would ridicule him and his business associate who, at a time when no one was willing to lend the Emperor a kreuzer, offered him everything they possessed in order to save the army from certain defeat.

Even though the Department of Finance responded to his request by giving him only a small sum of money and a few promissory notes on State taxes, Oppenheimer offered, only a year later, to take over the whole supply commissariat of the Empire and to manage it at his own expense. He was in a position, he explained with proud optimism, to deliver 100,000 hundredweights of flour and any desired quantity of oats anywhere they were needed. No other contractor was able to make these deliveries on as favorable terms as he could. He would supervise everything himself and would not give full authority to a representative as he had formerly done.

He was now aided by the turn of events. Just as the French-Dutch war had given him his start, so the new war with the Turks now enabled him to reach the pinnacle of success. In the same year (1683) in which Kara Mustapha overran the Austrian territories and appeared before the gates of Vienna, frightening the entire West, the Viennese government changed its attitude to its former contractor. Whereas at the beginning of the year he had been held in strict arrest as the result of a denunciation, he was now given the task of supplying a mighty army which was being recruited from all parts of the Empire. Once again the Christian contractors had refused to help. A Bavarian Count had to be turned down because he asked exorbitant prices. Oppenheimer, however, the Department of Finance reported to the Emperor, had offered the best terms.

Despite his open satisfaction at this commission and despite the praiseworthy and almost humble attitude of the Court treasury, Oppenheimer requested with a calm firmness that he first be paid the money due him before he signed the new contract. Now that the thunder of the Turkish cannons could be heard in the city, his demands were met by transferring to him the subsidies from the Empire as well as the proceeds from various sources of State revenue. The Emperor, who had fled to Passau before the advancing Turks, approved the contract, though he felt it was dangerous to give so important and responsible a position to a Jew.

There now followed a period of intense activity. Oppenheimer was able to deliver, immediately after the signing of the contract, 80,000 hundredweights of flour to the garrison at Linz, but had to work day and night to obtain as great a quantity of oats as possible so that the cavalry might not be endangered by a lack of fodder. When, after the liberation of Vienna, the Austrian and imperial troops began to pursue the fleeing enemy, Oppenheimer arranged to have handgrenades, gunpowder, pistols and carbines sent on ships and rafts down the Danube and by means of wagons and horses on the roads. At the same time he secured rafts to move troops from the Empire, transported an army from Hungary to Cracow, transferred cavalry regiments from Brunswick to Bohemia, and supplied all the fortresses in Hungary, Albania, Transylvania and Serbia. His chief problems were besieged Ofen, whose army had to be supplied with provisions, munition, clothing, tobacco, linen and brandy, and newly conquered Belgrade to which he sent a hundred large ships, hospital and camp equipment and materials for shipbuilding.

When, in 1688, Louis XIV began the War of the Palatinate, Oppenheimer again undertook to supply...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• INTRODUCTION TO THE TRANSACTION EDITION
• CONTENTS
• Preface
• Introduction
• CHAPTER I The Commissary
• CHAPTER II The Court Contractor
• CHAPTER III The Financial Agent and Resident
• CHAPTER IV The Cabinet Factor
• CHAPTER V The Commerical Agent
• CHAPTER VI The Master of the Mint
• CHAPTER VII The Shtadlan and Intercessor
• CHAPTER VIII Community Founder and Patron
• CHAPTER IX The Personality of the Court Jew
• CHAPTER X Destinies
• Notes and Bibliography
• Index