Page:Works of Heinrich Heine 01.djvu/409

Rh It is much to be regretted that our author should in this paper have so much lost sight of his text or subject, or that, as regards these last sentences, his "friend" should, in his lofty scorn for "finance" and "tradesmen," have employed the worn-out, false, and feeble plea that Jews were forced into becoming bankers and men of business. In this fin de siécle, when business is regarded as a great and noble science, and allied to, when not identical with, diplomacy, social science, and philanthropy, it is no discredit to have been the great agents of commerce, even in the days of chivalry. It is very evident, indeed, that the Jews, in common with the Phnicians and all Semitic races, were always keen men of business, even while they were warriors. The buying up of grain by Joseph, and the testimony of Latin writers, indicate that this was recognised long before the Middle Ages. A race who could have invented, or introduced, bills of exchange in the tenth century, but who were in all probability familiar with them in the great banking houses of Assyria during the Captivity, probably required no extreme pressure to make them discount bills. As Heine informed the reader in the paper on Queen Margaret, that all the English chivalry and knighthood was mere greed and managed in the interests of bankers and shopmen, he should in fairness have made this exception when subsequently declaring that gentlemen in the Middle Ages never had anything to do with such repulsive occupations. The Jews were not forced into business, they entered Europe already passed grand-masters of it to their great credit be it spoken and, aided by