A comprehensive study of the New Christian elite of Jewish origin,
prominent traders, merchants, bankers and men of letters between
the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries The New Christian elite of
Jewish origin were at the forefront of early modern globalisation
from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century. Either forced to
convert to Christianity or descended from those who were, these
Iberian traders, merchants, and bankers with links to the academic
world and liberal professions, played a pivotal role in
intercontinental trade for two centuries—only to decline, and
virtually disappear as an ethnic elite, by the mid-1700s. In
Strangers Within, Francisco Bethencourt offers a comprehensive
study of the New Christian trading elite, describing their many
achievements, innovations and migrations. Members of this new elite
were instrumental in opening global trade, investing in plantations
and industries and loaning money to kings, popes, cardinals,
noblemen and religious orders. They lived under constant threat of
the Inquisition for almost three hundred years, yet most of them
stayed in the Iberian world. Others departed to create Sephardic
communities in north Africa, the Ottoman Empire, northern Europe
and the Americas. Drawing on new research in archives and research
libraries in Lisbon, Madrid, Seville, Simancas, Rome, Florence,
Antwerp, London and Lima, Bethencourt traces the international
networks New Christian trading elite families built, the different
religious allegiances they assumed and the wide range of places in
which they carried on their business activities. He describes the
prominent roles they played in Iberian and European culture: Saint
Teresa de Avila had a New Christian background, as had the
philosopher Spinoza. Despite their prominence, after three
centuries, the New Christians disappeared as a recognizable
ethnicity, finally bowing under the accumulated weight of racism
and persecution.
General
| Imprint: |
Princeton University Press
|
| Country of origin: |
United States |
| Release date: |
March 2024 |
| First published: |
2024 |
| Authors: |
Francisco Bethencourt
|
| Dimensions: |
235 x 156mm (L x W) |
| Pages: |
600 |
| ISBN-13: |
978-0-691-20991-3 |
| Categories: |
Books
Promotions
|
| LSN: |
0-691-20991-X |
| Barcode: |
9780691209913 |
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