The Riddle of the Jew's Success
Page 11
The extension of the market in shares from 1800 - 1850 is regarded by Sombart as being of equal significance as the expansion of the House of Rothschild:
“ The name of Rothschild means more than the firm; it means all Jewdom as far as the Stock Exchange is concerned; for, only with the help of their compatriots could the Rothschilds reach their position of power, which dominates all others, and obtain the entire mastery of the Stock Exchange.”
This is a complete confirmation of the “ playing into one another’s hands”, which characterises the Jews, and which we have always insisted upon; this is our “Chawrusse” and its secret; this is organised Jewdom, which has turned the Stock Exchange into a cupping-glass to bleed the nations (compare chapter IV).
Sombart says further: “ If, in this way, the sphere of the money-lender was considerably extended, the Rothschilds also took good care to adopt further measures for squeezing the last farthing out of the community. This was brought about by skilfully utilising the Stock Exchange for the purpose of emission or issuing into circulation.”
[Page 92] This step on the part of the Rothschilds soon brought into this kind of activity other, and questionable followers and imitators, in the shape of “Banks of issue or emission.” These deflect German “spare” capital abroad to an incredible extent (but not to our colonies!)* — thereby depriving the home country of the money, which is required for economic purposes, and depressing the value** of our national paper securities, upon which countless citizens depend for the proper and regular payment of their interest. These “banks of issue,” at the same time, secure enormous profits for themselves by their activity, which is absolutely destructive to all national economy, and which is either inadequately taxed, or escapes taxation altogether. Only a severe legal restriction and even, from time to time, an absolute prohibition of the issue of foreign securities, by means of the Stock Exchange, could remedy this nuisance.
Sombart then continues: “ ‘Create a favourable atmosphere’, was the watchword, which, from this moment, dominated all traffic on the Stock Exchange. ‘Creating a favourable atmosphere’, was the aim and object of the unceasing fluctuations in the market-prices, caused by the systematic sale and purchase of shares, just as the Rothschilds manoeuvred when they were about to ‘launch an issue’. In order to obtain command of the Stock Exchange and the Money Market, all possible means, which stood at their disposal, were utilised; all paths, which might lead to the attainment of the desired object, were traversed; every conceivable trick of the Stock Exchange, and of anywhere else, was practised; all levers were put into motion; money was sacrificed both in large and small sums. The Rothschilds practised ‘Agiotage’ (Stock-jobbing) in the narrower sense which the French attach to the word. Up till then, the great banking houses had never done this, at any rate, openly. The Rothschilds employed the expedient of artificially influencing the market by creating a favourable atmosphere, which practice had been introduced by the Amsterdam Jews for a new object viz the launching of shares.”
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* The amount of German “working” capital, invested abroad, was estimated in 1912 at 35 Milliards of marks (France 30, England — colonies excepted — 33 Milliards of marks).
** On the occasion of the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the accession of the Emperor William II., when there was a great deal of grandiloquent talk concerning the “unexampled development” of the German economic life during the past 25 years, the “T-gliche Rundschau” published, side by side, for the purpose of comparison, several Stock Exchange quotations from 1888 and 1913. According to this, the following prices were current:
1888 1913
4% German Imperial Loan 107.00 98.10 3½% 102.00 84.90
4% Prussian Consols 106.90 98.10 3½% 103.50 84.90 Here is proof, in cold, hard figures, of crushing weight, with which to confront those who speak of the “unexampled development of the last 25 years”, and of the blessings conferred on the nation by the “Emission-activity,” or the “Activity in issuing”, of certain “great banks”, which “opens the doors of foreign countries”, but which, however, only causes the empire, our states and cities, and finally our citizens, enormous losses.
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[Page 93] This is a literal quotation from Sombart; and it is the same thing, which the wicked Anti-Semites have been saying for 30 years. This activity of a great banking-house had in view, the placing of golden fetters upon Governments, in order to compel the latter to create more public debts. The Rothschilds have made it their business to burden the different countries with the necessary public debts; with this object in view they understood how to create artificially the occasion for making a public or national debt. According to the latest reports (1913) they have reached Ecuador with their “opening-up activity.” Soon we shall hear the Press tune up, preparatory to bursting into hymns of praise concerning this “land of promise”.
In addition to the fabrication of public bonds and obligations by the gentlemen, who manufacture stocks and shares, the Flotation and Mortgage business soon made an appearance. The industrial undertakings were “financed” and “discounted”, on a miniature scale, in just the same way as the various states were on a large scale. In order to provide new trading values for the Stock Market, it became necessary to buy up the sound businesses of private people, and to convert the same into shareholder companies; that is to say, to float them. Otto Glogau has bequeathed to us a valuable book about the Flotation Swindle in Berlin in the years 1870—1873*.
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* “Der Börsen- und Gründungsschwindel in Berlin” (The Stock Exchange and Flotation-Swindle in Berlin) Leipzig 1877.
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[Page 94] It shows that, in this case also, the Hebrews were always the active spirits, and that it was only for the better concealment of this fact, as far as the public was concerned, that a number of more or less innocent Germans — aristocrats whenever it was possible to procure them — were pushed to the front as dummies.
What Jews, and the companions of Jews, brought to pass on this occasion, belongs to the most impudent of political comedies. When, according to their opinion, they had sufficiently plundered the masses at the time of the Flotations, and saw their erections of swindles on the verge of collapsing, they put up their tribal companion, Lasker, the then leader and particular star of the National Liberal Party, in the Reichstag, to play the part of the suppressor of “Flotations”. He then unearthed, with great tumult, several members of the Conservative Party whom, he asserted, were implicated in “Flotations”, but let the chief culprits, who were his tribal brethren and Liberal Party friends, escape scot-free. Thereby he secured the double advantage of diverting the resentment of the public, who had lost enormous sums, from the real culprits to the opposing political parties, and of posing, at the same time, as the guardian of public morality. The Jew-controlled press also helped, for all it was worth, to fan the universal indignation against the unfortunate scapegoats in the Conservative camp.*
Our professional political economists of the High Schools unfortunately do not report any of these ugly facts, any more than they mention the baneful effect, which the game on the Stock Exchange has on the National Wealth, and on the entire economic and public life: they even lift up their voices in praise of the beneficial development of the Stock Exchange, and all connected with it.
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* The Jewish statistician, Ernst Engels, estimated the losses on the Berlin Stock Exchange alone, during the “Flotation Years”, at 700 million Thalers, and Glogau estimated double.
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[Page 95] Glogau, in his book, which we have already mentioned, calls the learned political economists the chief allies of the “Flotation” gang, because they so disgracefully neglect their duty as instructors and guardians of the people, and he regards it as being beyond doubt that many of these political economists are directly paid for their opinion and instruction by the
Stock Exchange.
Sombart then proceeds to speak of the “commercialisation of Industry”: it would be better to use plain English, and to call it “ converting Industry into material to job and huckster with”. Industry thus becomes a mere object of speculation for the Stock Exchange; Production is a matter of secondary importance. “In the Speculation Banks”, says Sombart, “capitalistic development reaches its highest point. With their help, the commercialisation of the economic life is carried to the extreme, and Stock Exchange organisation becomes complete.” He then says concerning these Speculation Banks:
“ They take part, to a very considerable extent, in speculation, either directly or else by way of the ‘Report’ business, which, it is notorious, has become, at the present moment, the mightiest and most important lever of speculation. By means of loaning speculative securities, the banks are thereby placed in a position, by acquiring other securities at a cheap price, to create the impression that money is plentiful and is accompanied also by a desire to buy. Thus, on the one hand, a power of creating an upward movement in prices is easily acquired, and this power can be reversed just as easily to depress prices, by depreciating the store of available securities. The great banks accordingly, hold the handle, which controls the machine called the Stock Exchange, literally in their hand.” (Page 129) And further: “The heads of the banks, who control the Stock Exchange, tend more and more to become entire masters of the economic life.”
Sombart refers to the notorious “ Crédit mobilier” in Paris as nothing better than a speculation bank. This “bank” was founded by the Portuguese Jews, Isaac and Emil Pereira; other large share-holders in this undertaking are Torlonia of Rome, Salomon Heine of Hamburg, and Oppenheim of Cologne. Sombart also includes in the species of speculation-banks, the Berlin Diskonto-Gesellschaft, founded by David Justus Ludwig Hansemann, and the Berlin HandelsGesellschaft, in close connection with which, stand the Darmstadt Bank, and the Berlin banking firms of Mendelsohn, Bleichröder, Warschauer, and the brothers Schickler.
[Page 96]
The above-mentioned also adds:
“The Jewish elements also preponderate amongst the founders of the Deutsche Bank.” (Page 129) Thus, the international character of the “ Speculation-Banks” is proved, and accordingly the part which they play in the trade and intercourse of the world.
[Page 97]
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IX.
How Sound Business Methods are forced out of the field by the Jews.
Sombart also recognises the Jewish influence upon the mental attitude adopted by the capitalist towards political economy. He acknowledges that, owing to the peculiar Jewish spirit, something of an alien nature is introduced into our life, and he is in a position to understand how it is that, merchants, who are not Jews, and their spokesmen resent these conditions, and display a deep sense of injury, which is quite comprehensible. He perceives in all this a:
“quite natural reaction against the Jewish disposition, which is of a fundamentally different order.” He refers constantly to the pages of history in order to establish how the sound commercial spirit has protested for centuries, in a similar manner, against the disorder caused by the Jews in trade. Everywhere and always the same complaint. Thus, the various trades and professions in the Mark of Brandenburg, in the year 1672, complain:
“that the Jews take away the food from the mouths of the other inhabitants of the land.” The mercantile community of Danzig, in the year 1717, expressed themselves in almost identical terms. In 1740 a petition to the Prince Bishop of Mainz complains:
“that it is a matter of common knowledge that the Jews are the cause of ruin and destruction to the rest of the community.” And it is the same story in every country to which the Jews come. In England also, the sound mercantile community resists the intrusion of the Jewish spirit with similar expressions of opinion. The business people of Toulouse in France complained in the year 1745:
“ We implore you urgently to check the progress of this nation, as there is no doubt whatever that it will wreck the entire trade of Languedoc.”
In Sweden, in Poland, everywhere the same picture.
[Page 98]
A moralist of that period reports with reference to the Jewry of Berlin:
“They support themselves by means of robbery and deceit, which, according to their ideas, are not regarded as crimes.” The behaviour of the Jews was felt universally to be an offence against the good customs of the commercial community. Sombart concedes that, in all this, a battle between two antagonistic views or perceptions of the world is evident. In the settled organisation of society as it used to be, in what are called “the olden times,” man was the centre of interest, and the object of all regulations and laws was to render the existence of the honest worker as secure as it could be made. The production of goods was proportioned to the actual need, and, in the sound development of all businesses, each honest worker and trader received his fair share. Struggling to obtain unlimited profit was regarded as improper and un-Christian; nobody deliberately endeavoured to enrich himself by damaging, or at the expense of, another. A spirit of social harmony pervaded all, each found his own path, and could exist honestly.
Into this state of social harmony the Jew now stepped, with his entirely different mind and irreconcilable disposition. He had nothing to give — neither productive talents nor capacity for honest, straightforward work; consequently he had to secure an existence by cunning. To him, trade was not only — as it was according to the Christian perception — the willing companion of, or the necessary complement to Production and Consumption, but a way and means also for the enrichment of the individual, and for the obtainment of mastery over others. A moderate profit meant nothing to him; he desired great surpluses, which would enable him to heap up capital and thereby become a despot with the power to oppress.
This new tendency naturally brought a very disturbing element into the organic nature of society as it was then constituted. Up till that time all business life and all social cooperation had been based on good-will and trust; now a hostile element stepped between, an element which did not lay claim to be trusted, and did not repose trust in anyone.
[Page 99] The Hebrew considered that he was quite within his rights in abusing the confidence of others; he even despised them on that account, and designated trustfulness as sheer stupidity. This is the bottomless chasm, which separates the Hebrews’ view of life from ours, and across which no bridge will ever be constructed. The contest has always been an unequal one for the two antagonists. The Hebrew arrived as conscious opponent, with no quarter for those who were not Jews; the artless Christian Aryan, however, took pains, in accordance with the teachings of his religious instructors, to see, in the Hebrew, a fellow-man who was to be met, before all others, with trust and love, because he belonged to the nation from which our Saviour was said to be sprung. Thus, heart and home were opened alike, in all directions, to the foreign intruder. The latter knew well how to profit splendidly by this, but not without sneering to himself at the confidence reposed in him, which he regarded as nothing less than stupidity. And, as a matter of fact, it is fit material for derision that the Aryan nations, even up to the present day, fail to grasp the situation.
Certainly there has been a silent conspiracy for centuries on the part of School and Church, on the part of the Law and the Press, to mask this situation, but, now and again, sound national common-sense perceived instinctively that the crime, which the ancient Jews committed against the Saviour, outweighed ten times any merit, which their successors might claim, on account of their descent, and the contemporary Jews were taken for what they really were: mysterious beings, alien in blood and country, usurers, dabblers, spies, cheats and voluptuaries.
* * * The complaints of those, who carried on industry in the olden times, are all pitched in the same key, like the reluctant admissions of the clergy, concerning the spoliation of the departing crusaders in the 13th centur
y, whom the Jews deprived of everything they possessed in exchange for bad equipment and faulty weapons.
[Page 100] Thus we read — very significant with respect to the mania for dealing, which dominates the Jews — in a complaint from the tradespeople of Hannover in the 18th century:
“ The trade in manufactured goods has fallen completely into the hands of the Jews. The Jew, by preference, stocks his shop with foreign hats, shoes, stockings, leather gloves, furniture and readymade clothing of all kinds, and on the other hand, they prefer to export all raw material out of the country” (compare page 42). And again: “the Jews entice away the customers of their neighbours. They lie in waiting everywhere, both for the buyers and the sellers”, a practice which had been regarded hitherto as a gross offence against commercial etiquette. In 1685, the gold workers in Frankfort a.M. complained that the Jews had secretly bought up, under their very noses, and carried off by means of their numerous spies, all the available scrap gold and silver. In 1703, the furriers at Königsberg gave utterance to a similar plaint, to the effect that the Jews, Hirsch and Moses, together with their followers, overreached them in the purchase and sale of furs, and caused them great loss (Sombart page 161).
“ When troops are quartered in the town, they — the Jews — run after the soldiers and officers, and endeavour to entice them into their shops, in order to take away the custom from the other tradespeople.”
Under their influence also, the pedlar or hawker-business develops into a perfect nuisance; in 1672 the various trades and professions in the Mark of Brandenburg complain that “the Jews run from village to village, and round the towns, hawking their wares, and forcing the same upon the inhabitants.”
In Frankfurt on the Oder the complaint was “ that the Jews pursued possible customers in all directions — travellers in their hotels, the nobility in their castles, and the students in their lodgings,” because they are not content, like the other tradespeople, to lay up goods in their store-rooms, but endeavour by importunity to force the sale of their wares, and thereby to deprive the other business people of their share of the local trade. On the occasion of the great fairs also, the Jews overrun all the restaurants and inns, in order to entice all possible customers to themselves.