We have already seen that his art consists in collecting and recollecting these treasures into his own hands, as quickly as he can. But the Gold and the Silver in their totality form only an insignificant portion of the riches of the nation. What we call capital does not generally consist of coined metal.
Today we reckon also as capital, landed property, such as cultivated fields, forests, buildings etc. But the Hebrews certainly do not increase this kind of property either.
There is, however, another kind of capital, which plays the most important role of all in modern political economy: this is the Loan Capital those sums, which are lent out in return for the payment of fixed rates of interest. And it cannot be denied that the Hebrew possesses an extraordinary talent for increasing this particular kind of capital.
Let us, first of all, make it quite clear to ourselves of what such capital really consists. Whoever owns a million marks, which brings him in interest, does not possess this million marks in the form of gold and silver coins, lying in his safe, but has lent the million marks out on loan. But even the borrower— the debtor to the man who owns the money — no longer holds the actual money; he has passed it on further in the course of his business. All that is left to him of it is — the obligation to pay interest. He has taken over for himself — and generally also for his descendants for illimitable time — the duty of paying to the creditor, certain sums of money as interest, at certain stated intervals.
[Page 21] Out of all this the fact next emerges, that an equally great debt, on the other side, faces this sum of Loan Capital. Whoever is in a position to call his own a million marks of Loan Capital, and draws interest from the same, must hold other people as his debtors to the extent of a million marks. And thus arises the peculiar equation: the more Loan Capital there is here, the more Debts there are there. An increase of capital of this nature means, in reality, nothing else than an increase of debt.
Loan Capital thus consists of acknowledgment of debt, and of obligation to pay. It takes visible shape in the form of mortgage-deeds, bonds, shares, original or founder-shares, rent charges and similar devices. And, if we boast today that the number of rich people has increased enormously, that millions and thousands of millions are accumulated in the hands of single individuals, we must not forget that the debts and obligations of other people have increased in equal measure.
It is accordingly a bold assumption to maintain, that the general welfare of the nations is promoted by the increase of capital of this kind, i.e. Loan Capital. Whoever speaks of modern Wealth ought, if he is conscientious, to speak at the same time of the monstrous nature of the modern system of creating indebtedness. In whatever direction we look, we see an enormous development of this creation of debt; in the kingdom, in the province, in the parish, in the business, in the family — all are carried on by means of debts. The registered mortgages on land throughout the German Empire are computed at 60 - 70 thousand million marks* (three thousand to three thousand five hundred million pounds sterling).
It is a very remarkable and significant fact that we have n o statistics whatever concerning this so important question of political economy, while we are overwhelmed with statistics on all other matters.
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* According to Jewish computation (v. Gwinner in the Prussian Upper House) the capital value of the land in the German Empire amounts to close upon 300 thousand million marks (Fifteen thousand million pounds sterling) and, according to other authorities, 220—250 thousand million marks (eleven thousand to twelve thousand five hundred million pounds sterling). Certainly, in most districts, the debts on the land are higher than 25 p.c.
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[Page 22] If the above-mentioned sum of debt is approximately correct, it simply means that the nation has to find something like 3000 million marks (one hundred and fifty million pounds sterling) every year in order to pay the burden of interest, placed upon the ground, composing the Fatherland. Who, in the last analysis, provides this sum of money? It is simply the working and productive class of the citizens: the peasant, the craftsman and the workman. These are the powers, which create productive values, and who must, by the excess of their labour, produce the burdens of interest in order to satisfy the owners of Loan Capital.
If we reckon that there are 15 million working-men in the German Empire capable of production, a yearly impost of 200 marks (ten pounds sterling) is laid upon each of them in order to satisfy the owners of Loan Capital. That this crushing impost is not consciously perceived, is simply due to the fact that it is split up and distributed in such a way, that it is almost impossible to check or trace it, and that all kinds of roundabout ways and tricks are utilised, which make it quite impossible for the ordinary man to discover the source of his misery. The Loan Capital, which burdens our land, sucks in its interest by raising the rents of tenements, workshops and business premises, by increasing the price of food-stuffs and other necessary commodities, and by other similar indirect methods. Thus, the productive worker is not directly conscious of this impost, but feels only an inexplicable pressure on all his business activity. He sees that, in spite of all his effort and industry, the fruits of his toil disappear out of his hands, without his being able, at the same time, to discover any satisfactory explanation of this. In spite of all his toil, he cannot make any advance and prosper, becomes discontented with his lot, and vents his resentment in all directions, mostly against those, who are quite innocent of his hard fate. He complains about the high taxes and rates, which form only an insignificant particle when compared with that impost — the interest on Loan Capital.
[Page 23] He grumbles about the increasing cost of living, of rent, of food, of clothing, and of other things, including “bread-usurers” and bad government, and does not seem to have even the faintest idea, that it is just this invisible impost of the interest on Loan Capital, which is oppressing him by making everything dear.
Thus, this modern system of creating capital, by casting an intolerable burden on the entire national life, produces universal oppression and consequently discontent, which is causing an ever-growing resentment between the various classes, which compose the community, without the oppressed people being at all clear as to where the source of the oppression really is.
* * * It is not very probable that the Hebrews invented that work of art — the loaning-out of capital against interest; it is quite likely that it was known and practised before their time.
It is quite certain, however, that they first introduced this branch of business to us in Germany, and, supported by the prohibition against practising usury, enforced by the Christian Church against its members, promoted and developed it to an extraordinary extent. Owing to their peculiar dexterity in always attracting to themselves again the money, which is in circulation, they know how to produce a constant shortage of money amongst the people. In this manner they compel the productive classes to borrow, and to continue borrowing.
The money, which has been gradually collected by commerce and other means, leaves the hands of the Hebrew, for the most part, only as Loan Capital, and continuously creates for him fresh circles of people, pledged to pay him tribute.
Is it then really such a great blessing for a nation if it can be shown, that the Hebrews, living in their midst, possess thousands of millions of marks in the shape of Loan Capital, for which the productive class have to find the interest? What does the saying now mean: wherever the Jews turn, there appear new riches, new capital? Should one not, before all other things, state emphatically: there arise, to a terrifying extent, fresh debts?
[Page 24]
It is not the real wealth of the nations, which is increased by the Jews, but their debts and obligations, which, under the deceitful name of “mobile capital”, accumulate until they amount to sums of incredible magnitude, but which are in reality, only a phantom possession — an imaginary value.
We read, with aversion, the descriptions of the persecutions of the Jews, whic
h are said to have taken place in the Middle Ages: if these were, in all cases, as many people imagine, can be left an open question; at any rate, one ought to explain conscientiously, what led up to these persecutions, and what was the real cause of the same. We can read, in every record, that it was by no means a religious hatred, which incensed the citizens against the Jews, because at all times and in all countries, a remarkable tolerance has been displayed towards the religious rites of the Jews, some of which rites are of a very peculiar nature. No one has prohibited their noisy method of praying; no one has disturbed their Sabbath and Passover festivals. Nobody has prohibited even their Purim, their festival of revenge, which they still celebrate annually, with unquenchable thirst for revenge, in recollection of the massacre of 75,000 Persian enemies of the Jews, by the direction of the minister Mordecai more than 2,000 years ago. What really incensed the people against the Jews were the insatiable hunger for interest, and the unchristian like usury of the latter; by reason of this diabolical greed for money, which stopped at nothing, this slinking, alien race became so repugnant to the ordinary German man, that he considered the Jews capable of anything.
As has been already stated, during the time when the influence of the Church was predominant (from the 11th till the 18th century) Christians were forbidden to practise usury; only the Hebrew was allowed to do this. Thus it naturally came about that everyone, who wanted to borrow money, was obliged to go to the Jews. According to the law, the Hebrews were aliens and on sufferance, and their sojourn, in either town or district, was only permitted when a tax (“Jewtribute”) had been paid to the ruling prince or potentate; but it was precisely
[Page 25] this arrangement, whereby the mild or stern treatment of the Jews depended essentially on the attitude of the ruling house, which relieved the situation to an extraordinary degree for the Jews living in the Empire, which was, at that time, split up politically to an endless extent. Generally speaking, the legislation was very considerate, and allowed the Hebrew to devote himself wholeheartedly to his favourite occupation, viz traffic in Money, and to claim unheard-of rates of interest for his loans. A rate of interest of 30 — yes, even of 50 and 60 per cent per annum, was already known from the 12th to the 15th century, and was so well-established during the 16th and 17th centuries, that it was regarded as nothing out-of-the-way.
Under these circumstances, and owing to the scarcity as well as to the extraordinary fluctuations in the value of money throughout that period, it was an easy matter for the Hebrew always to collect all the money again into their hands, and to force the remaining citizens to raise fresh loans.* A particular trick facilitated the obtaining of an exorbitant rate of interest. Even when the rate of interest was moderate, the debtor had, for the most part, to pledge himself to pay back his debt on a fixed date by weekly or monthly payments of interest.
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* “At the end of the 14th century, the social position of the Jews deteriorated, chiefly on account of their arrogance and usuriousness. Up till then, they had been respected, were qualified to own landed property, and were appreciated as being necessary for the development of the towns. They had, in some instances, even found an entry into the municipal bodies, for instance at Cologne and Worms. In many towns, the highest admissible rate of interest reached 86-2/3 per cent for the year! Ludwig of Bavaria (1314-1347) decided, as a particular favour for the citizens of Frankfort, that the Jewish rate of interest was to be restricted to 32½ per cent. Since the canonical prohibition against the lending of money for interest was enforced sternly and universally against Christians, and the cloisters no longer loaned out money, the money-business remained almost exclusively in the hands of the Jews for a long period.” (Dürr and Klett) History of the World II, page 139) — “Thus a regular monopoly of usury by the Jews established itself, which was only broken into in the 18th century, to the extent that, towards the close of that century, it was permitted to charge generally a 5% rate of interest.”
(Rich. Schröder: “ Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte” II, 15, [German History of Law II, 15].
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[Page 26] In case he was unable to keep to the appointed date, he was bound by the terms of his bond, to pay double the rate of interest from that time onward; often indeed, the whole debt was doubled. The well-meaning debtor, who had the best intention of paying off his debt at the appointed time, entered into such contracts with a light heart, in the certainty that, at the appointed date, money, from other quarters, would be at his disposal. The Hebrew, however, who had a complete understanding with his fellow-tribesmen, and knew accurately what call there was for money, and how much there was in circulation, took good care that his debtor did not get the expected money at the appointed time, and thus he compelled the latter to accept the new and still more onerous conditions. The Hebrew only granted an extension of the term on the condition that his claims, both with regard to interest and capital, should be increased, and as, thanks to the cooperation of Jewish friends, of which we have already spoken, delay in the repayment of the debt was frequently repeated, the Jew was more successful then, than now, in entangling, by means of a comparatively small loan, a whole family in the bondage of debt throughout their lives, or even in expelling them from their house and land.
Thus there is nothing strange in the fact that, already from the time of Charlemagne, unceasing complaints about the Jewish usurer were directed both to the civil and clerical authorities.
The earlier peasant-insurrections also, were not due to the “ Priests” and to the Nobility, but to money-lending Jewry; for example, the Peasants’ Rising at Gotha in 1391, and the Peasants’ Rising at Worms in 1431. Later — when the Jews had drained the extravagant and quarrelsome nobility of their riches, and the latter had made an alliance with the clergy to oppress poor “Hans Karst” *, with tithes and compulsory labour, the peasants turned against all three tormentors.
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* The German Peasant.
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[Page 27] In 1450 the cup-bearer, Erasmus von Erbach, an ancestor of the present Princes von Erbach (in the Odenwald), who personally was quite prosperous, raised his voice thus against the Jews:
“ The poor man is robbed and flayed by the Jews to such an extent that it has become intolerable, and may God have mercy on him. The Jewish usurers settle down, even in the smallest villages, and when they lend five gulden, they take six-fold security and take interest upon interest, and yet again interest, so that the poor man loses all that he possesses.”
How well founded this complaint was, is proved by the testimony of all contemporaries. Elsewhere it is stated that, “ Jewdom sits on the necks of the citizen and of the poor man, and is the cause of the rapidly increasing poverty”. The Jews are referred to as “vultures”, who “do not desist until they have consumed the marrow in the bones, and reduced the citizen to beggary”. (Petition of the Frankfort citizens June 10th 1612). Sombart also mentions in his conscientiously collected material a number of similar expressions of opinion, taken from the same period, which confirm what has been said above.
Thus, it was not religious hatred, which incensed the people against the Jews, but the actual plundering of the masses by a system of charging an immoderate rate of interest. The wealth which the Jews “brought into a land”, was thus of very doubtful value. It was a kind of wealth, which had a dazzling appearance in certain places, whilst everywhere else it produced only poverty and misery.
Thus: the Hebrews did not create new values in the shape of goods, and consequently, actual new wealth; they merely understood, in a masterly fashion, how to obtain possession of the prosperity of other people; they did not produce any new possession, but only brought about a change of possession.
What they produced was merely an appearance of wealth, which in reality consisted only of the debts of those people, who were not Jews.
[Page 28]
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br /> III.
Particular Business Tactics of the Jew.
The commercial practices of the Hebrew require that more light should be directed upon them. It is conceded that the Jew, in matters of business, displays great dexterity, and has at his disposal a particular method of operation, which procures for him the admiration of extensive circles of people.
Many are inclined to ascribe an extremely high degree of cleverness to the Hebrew, because he knows very often how to give a particular turn to his business machinations, which surprises and confounds all concerned. As soon as we look more closely into the matter, and ascertain upon what principles these business measures are founded, we learn to think less highly of the renowned cleverness of the Hebrew. It becomes a matter of a number of tricks, carefully guarded and transmitted by tradition amongst the Hebrews, and with which this dexterous race of traders overreach every man, who thinks in a natural manner. A short story out of actual life will give us an idea of what goes on in this sphere of activity.
A well-to-do elderly married couple had decided to dispense with their footman, and consequently with the latter’s livery as well. The lady of the house offered the garments for sale. A Jew appeared punctually at the appointed time, in order to inspect the livery. After carefully examining the same, he made an offer of 50 marks. The lady was astonished that the dealer was able to offer such a high price, as the suit could not have cost much more, and was, moreover, a kind of clothing — being a uniform with particular badges — for which there would naturally be very little demand. She thought at once that she could do a good business with him, and hurried away to fetch an armful of discarded clothing, which she offered to him as well. The Hebrew examined everything, and offered quite respectable prices.
The Riddle of the Jew's Success Page 3
