The Jews first arrived in England in 1066 in the wake of William I’s defeat of King Harold II at Hastings on 14 October. These Jews came from Rouen, 75 miles (121 km) from Falaise in Normandy,where William the Conqueror was born illegitimately as William the Bastard. Although the historical record does not indicate whether they promoted the idea of a military invasion of England, these Jews had at the very least financed it. For this support they were richly rewarded by being allowed to practise usury under royal protection.*
The consequences for the English people were disastrous. By charging rates of interest of 33% per annum on lands mortgaged by nobles and 300% per annum on tools of trade or chattels pledged by workmen, within two generations one quarter of all English lands were in the hands of Jewish usurers. At his death in 1186, Aaron of Lincoln was declared to be the richest man in England and it was estimated that his wealth exceeded that of King Henry II.** Furthermor the Jewish immigrants undermined the ethos of the guilds and exasperated the English merchants by selling a large variety of goods under one roof. They also played a prominent role in the clipping of silver coins and the melting of them into bullion and the plating of tin with silver.
The famous economist, Dr. William Cunningham, compares “the activity of the Jews in England from the eleventh century onward to a sponge, which sucks up all the wealth of the land and thereby hinders all economic development. Interesting too, is the proof that even at this early period the government did everything in its power to make the Jews take up decent trades and honest work and thereby at the same time amalgamate with the rest of the population, but all to no purpose.”
* S.M. Goodson, In Praise of Medieval England, Spearhead, July 2005.
**R. Chazan, The Jews of Medieval Western Christendom 1000-1500, Cambridge University Press, New York, 2006, 159.
Stephen Goodson
History of Central Banking and the Enslavement of Mankind
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