Commercial cosmopolitans: Networks of Jewish merchants between Warsaw and Amsterdam, 1750--1820

The study of commercial networks of Jewish merchants and entrepreneurs across Europe during the transition from the early modern to the modern era sheds new light on the trans-regional and transnational character of European Jewish history. Though Jews have often been cast as pioneers in the development of European capitalism, historians have scarcely begun to scrutinize the actual practices of the Jewish (in this case Ashkenazic) mercantile elite in Central and Eastern Europe during this period. This dissertation draws on archival and other sources in half a dozen languages, including petitions, bills of exchange, notarial records, autobiographical accounts, and Jewish communal records. It explores the use of "strong" and "weak" ties in Jewish commercial networks, their function within European commerce, the impact of differing legal conditions on Jewish economic activities, and Jewish merchants' position within their own local Jewish community. These themes are illustrated through case studies centered around three families from Amsterdam, Frankfurt/Oder, and Warsaw. The dissertation traces the rise of Jewish merchants to army suppliers and the mechanisms employed to satisfy multiple armies at the same time. Trans-regional networks helped Jewish merchants foster relations to multiple state administrations and to provide supplies across state borders. Their attempts to secure or improve their legal position increased their willingness to take greater entrepreneurial risks than did Christian merchants. Eventually, the move into army supplying and especially the extension of credit in this context led to the emergence of a new Jewish banking elite in Warsaw and the Congress Kingdom of Poland in the early nineteenth century. This development was accelerated by Amsterdam's decline as center of Jewish merchant-banking and credit-supply for Central and Eastern Europe. The notion of "commercial cosmopolitans" captures the far-flung connections that members of the Ashkenazic mercantile elite maintained via family and Jewish as well as non-Jewish business partners across Europe. The dissertation highlights the crucial importance of trans-regional connections, mobility, and occupational flexibility for Jewish commerce, even while demonstrating that, as capitalists---as well as in their social and cultural attitudes---Jewish merchants proved to be a rather conservative elite.