AI-powered
podcast player
Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features
The Unthinkable Truth About World Economy
The answer is simple but very politically incorrect. Jews were thrown out of Spain in 1492 and Portugal in 1495. Certain cities became Jewish refuges and not surprisingly they prospered. The great German economist Werner Sombart says that when the senate of Venice decided to expel the Jews in 1550, all the Christian merchants of the city protested against it. They declared that throwing out the Jews would mean financial ruin and they may as well leave Venice along with the Jews. In those days cities were more important than states. You've heard of the phrase right, city-states. Just alone among Italian cities, Livorno on Italy's western coast prospered in the 1500s