Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 1.pdf/63

17.

over the English counties in the following proportions (Jacobs, I.e., pp. 143, 14;^): Hfreford

l!.Mkslilrc

1

ltu<'kini.''lia>ii. ...

4

I.lllir.ln

1

Lonilon and

Ciiinliridge

<'iimberIunU

—

li

18U

Mid4llese.

3

Shropsblre Sussex

1

Warwick and 41)

.

Worcester Wiltshire

(ilidicester

«

Ncirfiplk

lliiiiiiwlilre

T

N'orthiunpton

.

2S

Yorkshire

...

21 3 80

Oxford

So larjre was the amount that a separate division of the e.xcheiiuer was cdnstitvited. entitled "Aaron's E.vehe(|uer" (Mado.x. " History of the E.ehe(iuer,"

and was continued till at least years later, for on the pipeof that year most of the debts to Aaron (about

folio ed., lidl, that

]i.

is,

is due to the fact that his manner in which the medieval

Aaron's sifiniticante

tribiiti'il

roll

Aaron ha-Levi ben Moses Aaron Uarkovich of WUna

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

17

career illustrates the

Jewish communities could be orjjanized into a banking association reaching throughout an entire country; while the ultimate fate of the wealth thus acquired shows that, in the last resort, the stale was the arch-usurer and obtained the chief benetit from Jewish usury. Binr.IOGRAPiiY: Jacobs in TV. Jrw. HM. Sue. Kmj. 179; idem, Jciex o/ ^layeri/i A'iii/^dk/, passim.

74')),

AARON MARKOVICH OF 'WILNA

fifteen

(court Jew) of

King Ladislaus IV.

of



ill.

1'>T-

Agent

Poland in

"Aaro.n's llm.-K' ,u i.iM (From • pbotogrsph.)

^i.-lOO) are recorded as still

outstanding tothekinir,

showing that only half the debis had bein paid liy thai linn though, on llic death of Aaron, lasid aiilomalieally, since the payment of inleicst the king, as a Chrislian, coidd not accept iisuiy. The liouse of Aaron of Lincoln still slainls, and is probably the oldest private stone dwi-lling in England till' dale of which can be lixcd with precision (before llHCi). It is on the right hand side of the Slop Hill of Lincoln, on the way up toward the ealhi'dral, and is liirured in Jacobs. /.<•.. opposite p. !M. and in "Tr. Jew. Hisl. Soe. Eng.," iii., opposite p. 1S1 (where accurate details are given). Oi-iginally the liouse had no windows on the ground floor an omission probably inteniled to iucreus>e the facilities for prole<tion or ilefense.

over

c

—

I.

-3

the scvi'nli'eiith century.

The only known docu-

his name occui-s is a letter, datid .lanuary 11. WAX. in tli<' ollieial correspondence beIweeii the Russian and I'olish courts in the reign of .Mikhail Feodorovieh. the lii'st Russian riili-r of the Ronmnof ilynasty. In it Ladislaus asks of the czar permission for Aaron .Markovich. "the kind's agent," lo visit .Moscow for I he purpose of purchasing

ment

in

which

wilh the privilege of exemption from custom duties) certain utensils for the royal household; also that he be allowed lo bike with him. for sab', some (

"precious goods." This rei|Uest, together wilh the fact thai Ladislaus was not very favonibly disliosed toward the Jews (see L.vi>isi,.rs), is evidence of the iiitlueiilial standing of Aaron wilh the Polish king. The c/.ar did not gnmt the re(iuest, a fact