Exploring the food chain: food production and food processing in western Europe, 1850-1990 - Edited by Yves Segers, Jan Bieleman, and Erik Buyst

Abstract

Jews were invited to England by the Norman conquerors in order to introduce a credit economy or at least to help solidify it. Their number never surpassed that of several thousand and by the year 1290 they were all expelled from the country. This is the brief history outlined in Mundill's new book, which is based upon very deep study of the multitude of extant documentary evidence of Jewish financial activities and other related economic transactions. The number of these documents is more than any one scholar could hope to decipher and analyse in a lifetime, but Mundill is one of the few scholars in this area who knows where to look for information, how to focus appropriately on a few events, personalities, and institutions, and above all has the capacity to range widely through politics, jurisprudence, social relations, and manifestations of hatred as well as economics. Mundill advances his study on the solid foundations laid by his predecessors, especially Joseph Jacobs and Cecil Roth of an earlier generation and more recent scholars such as Zefira Rokeah, John Hillaby, and Robert C. Stacy. A particular debt is also owed to Vivian D. Lipman's The Jews of medieval Norwich (1967), one of the most outstanding monographs ever written about a medieval Jewish community.Although England in the twelfth century was the birthplace of the first series of ritual murder allegations against the Jews, it was still a century of exceptional economic success for them. For example, Aron of Lincoln, who is portrayed as never before by Mundill (pp. 21-9), was the head of an empire that was allegedly worth in excess of £22 billion at current values. One of the richest Jews in history, he handled a network of partners and agents that spread over England's regions and beyond. By contrast, the thirteenth century was marked by decay and decline. This was due to the harsh taxation imposed by the monarch-of which the Jews were the 'serves of the chamber'-as well as to the growing competition of non-Jewish financiers, a subject neglected by historians. In a desperate effort to satisfy the ever-increasing demands for taxes on the part of the authorities, many Jews were left only with the small loans market of city dwellers and peasantry. Things went from bad to worse, such that in 1254 Rabbi Elias requested permission for all Jews to leave England in the name of the whole community. The request was immediately denied but the possibility of banishment became a subject of discussion in government circles.It is beyond the ability of this relatively short book to cover all aspects of the history. As a consequence, the profiles of prominent financiers less important than Aron of Lincoln receive no more than short notices, if any, in the discussion. The recent discovery of the cemetery of the Jews of York (the 'Jewburry'), which revealed astounding deviations from traditional Jewish burial customs, is dealt with in a few lines, not even a quarter of a page (p. 57). On the other hand, we are given a detailed study of the relations between Jewish f...