Early Modern Globalization

What can the experience of a minority group like the Jews teach us about roots of globalization? What were the economic, political, and cultural conditions that allowed early modern Jewish merchants to create economic networks stretching from India to the New World? We will answer these questions by examining the connections and interactions between four major Jewish centers: Ottoman Jewry in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Port Jews of Amsterdam and London, Polish-Jewish estate managers in Ukraine, and the Court Jews of central Europe. We will see how European expansion exploited - and was exploited by - these Jewish entrepreneurs. P