This was great. First rate. I have always been fascinated with ancient economies

This was so, so wonderful. Your videos are so informative. I am able to apply the knowledge to my community.

Hope that you will cover land-owning Jews in Hungary during the Austro-Hungarian empire. Always looking forward to new installments!

This lecture helped make so much sense for me of the middle ages. Thank you.

I’ve been looking forward to this!

great information

if one produces goods like wheelbarrows or loaves of bread you can't trade a representation, like a picture of the goods or a coupon. With money, on the other hand, representation is used all the time, which opens the possibilities for all kinds of confusion and obfuscation. What kind of money was being lent in medieval times? was it actual gold coins, deposit slips or entries on a ledger?

Thanks for the great lecture. I’ve read that one of the main reasons for the Mahram Rottenberg to try fleeing Ashkenaz was the change of the status of the Jews to Serfs of the king ( עבדי הם ולא עבדים וכו׳) which he held a Jew has no right to except such a status even if it’s meant partly for his protection. R’ Yakov baal Haturim wrote a letter to a colleague to skip Ashkenaz and move to Spain , like his family did for its forbidden for a Jew to live in those lands . He also calls Austria (מדינת אסטרייך) after the Rintfleish massacres ארץ הדמים.

What a fascinating lecture! It's quite sad, but seeing medieval society in terms of taxable entities really makes sense of a lot of things for me. I'll be looking at medieval history a bit differently now. The Jews and the guilds are in some ways on par with one another since they were both revenue streams. I've often read about how Jews were excluded from certain guilds, but never thought about how the king and the pope might have seen Jewishness and guild membership as similar. These aren't things that fit in the same category for me, but perhaps they did for medieval people to some extent.

Thank you for a great education. If I might as a question , could a group of people highly dependent on the king and involved in trade and travel …… could they not have been used as a Intelligence source for the royal family ? Just a thought.

That's interesting that there was a stigma in the middle ages against those working in commerce. As an American I have found myself holding a stigma against Wall Street. I wonder if that's comparable?

*1332* German bishop: Hey you, work as a banker because I can't charge interest and also you have very few job opportunities. Jewish guy: Okay. *1932* German citizen: Why are you overrepresented in the financial industry??? Jewish guy: ...

Didn't Rashi have vineyards ?

Planned economy is always a bad idea.

one of the most incisive arguments for the origins of anti-semitism i have seen.