The Economic History of the Jewish People

Hereafter lies the history of the rapport that exists between the Jewish people, money and the world at large. I am well aware of the subversive nature of this subject. It has unleashed so many controversies and brought about so many massacres as to have become a veritable taboo, a topic that must not be evoked under any circumstance for fear of provoking some age-old catastrophe. Today, no one dares write on this topic, as if centuries of study have served no other purpose than to fuel book burning. The story could lead one to believe in the existence of a united Jewish people: rich, powerful, placed under centralized commandment and responsible for establishing a worldwide power strategy through money. Such a belief would merge with the fantasies that have spread across every century from Trajan to Constantine, from Matthew to Luther, from Marlow to Voltaire, from the Protocol of the Elders of Zion to Mein Kampf, to all that which is propagated today via the anonymity of the Internet. It remains nevertheless in the best interest of modern mankind to understand how those who discovered monotheism also founded the ethics of capitalism, how some became its primary brokers and leading bankers, while others its most unrelenting enemy. Finally, it seems essential that the Jewish people themselves face a part of their history that they may not care for, but of which they have every reason to be proud.