COMMERCIAL PEOPLES' SUBORDINATION

KINGS FAVOR OUTSIDERS WHOSE VULNERABILITY FACILITATES CONTROL 

In early medieval Europe only Jews can trade, and only Christians own land.

The king gives permission to trade to Jews, shown by wearing the red and white circles, not to Christians.

Jews pay tribute...

Zoom

Alexander the Great, dressed as a Byzantine emperor, receives Jewish rabbis identified by their headpieces, in the novel Alexander Romance (3rd century BC), manuscript of the 14th century. 

And are useful scapegoats. 

Zoom

Fourteenth-century manuscript shows Jews judged responsible for the Black Death burned alive in Belgium, 1349. That occurred throughout western Europe, and by fanatical Crusaders on the way to Jerusalem.

They are expelled from time to time. When the expanding economy brings the rise of local entrepreneurs, they are definitively banned. 

(In 1305-1311)

Zoom 

Expulsion from England, in 1290

# # #

In Africa, the same thing:

• In animist or Christian kingdoms, rulers impose Muslim merchants, whose different appearance, religion and customs separate them from the population.

• In turn-of-the-18th-century Ashanti (Ghana) the animist ruler welcomes Muslim traders but confiscates the gold of those who are local. At about the same time, the king of Christian Shoa (Ethiopia) lets Muslims trade in goods that he monopolizes, asks few taxes and favors them in disputes. 

-- Confiscates gold: Kwame Arhin, Aspects of the Ashanti northern trade in the 19th century,

 "Africa", XL, 4, 363-373.

Favors to Muslims: Mordechai, Ethiopia, The Era of the Princes, London, 1968, p. 173. 

Complete outsiders have no provisions, guides or contact with the population until they obtain the kings' approval:

 Dutch Ambassadors at the Court of Garcia II, King of Kongo, 1668 / zoom

The Dutch ambassadors' subservience comes from being associated with traders, the only foreigners.  

• Before seeing the Bornu ruler (Northern Nigeria) a British mission is completely isolated, but then "our hut was filled with so many visitors that we could take no rest and the heat was unbearable."

--  Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa in 1821, 1822, 1823 

  by Hugh Clapperton, Denham Dixon, W. Oudney, 1824, Philadelphia, p. 67.

• In Darfur, the merchant W.G. Browne finds his letters of recommendation useless until he has seen the Sultan, "for until then no one knew how to treat me." 

--  Travels in Africa, Egypt and Syria from the year 1792 to 1798 by W.G. Browne, 2nd ed., 1806, p. 212.

• In Bundu (Senegal) the explorer Raffenel leaves the capital without the king's permission and cannot even obtain water... 

-- Anne Raffenel, Voyage dans l'Afrique occidentale exécuté en 1843 et 1844, 1846, Paris, I, p. 55.

-- More citations : Aubin 447, n. 45.

# # #

As the French economy expands Christians replace Jews, and are contained by...

 

• The Church

                                                                                                                                                          Zoom

At the Saint-Denis fair, the abbot dominates the traders and his benediction is an act of authority.

• Stronger kings: European artists present subordination to them when painting other cultures, because that is how their own works.

Marco Polo arriving at the Court of Kublai Khan by Jehan de Grise  / zoom

Flanders, toward 1340.

Same subject, manuscript of Robert Fresher / zoom

England or France, toward 1500.

• Still stronger monarchy:  Louis XIV's  royal gates loom over trade routes (the Saint-Denis and Saint-Martin gates, 1674).

The larger arch, which honors monarchy by hovering over the route that leads to the royal graves, emphasizes the king himself.

Both photos, Claude Abron

But the inscription over the smaller arch announces that the merchants of Paris have financed both monuments, "in homage to the great king."

Merchants stating that they have financed the arc says 

 "We are here!"

and implies change to come.

End of this chapter.

*      *      * 

Next chapter,

III, 2.
Ritualized war, another barrier to growth