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It has often been claimed that Jews have a penchant for capitalism and capitalist economic activity. With this book, Adam Teller challenges that assumption. Examining how Jews achieved their extraordinary success within the late feudal economy of the eighteenth-century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, he shows that economic success did not necessarily come through any innate entrepreneurial skills, but through identifying and exploiting economic niches in the pre-modern economy—in particular, the monopoly on the sale of grain alcohol.
Jewish economic activity was a key factor in the development of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and it greatly enhanced the incomes, and thereby the social and political status, of the noble magnates, including the powerful Radziwiłł family. In turn, with the magnate's backing, Jews were able to leverage their own economic success into high status in estate society. Over time, relations within Jewish society began to change, putting less value on learning and pedigree and more on wealth and connections with the estate owners.
This groundbreaking book exemplifies how the study of Jewish economic history can shed light on a crucial mechanism of Jewish social integration. In the Polish-Lithuanian setting, Jews were simultaneously a despised religious minority and key economic players, with a consequent standing that few could afford to ignore.
— Glenn Dynner
"This exceptionally important book reveals the inner workings of the early modern Lithuanian seigneurial economy in which Jews came to play a vital role. Based on deep archival research and written with great conceptual clarity, Money, Power, and Influence is one of the finest studies ever written about the dynamics involved in Jews' integration into a particular economic system."
— Jonathan Karp
"Teller's study is an addition to the economic history of Polish Jews. However, it is also an exceptional analysis of 'an estate'—a type of enterprise which constituted the agrarian economy of the late Commonwealth....The story of the Radziwiłł Jews is also the story of the rise of the 'ethnic-controlled economy', particularly in towns. Living in dispersed small towns, Jews replaced the non-existent urban start of Polish society and became important agents of gradual modernization. Thus, Teller's book shows that Jews happened to be successful not only in the capitalist world, but also in feudal, rural society, and this is what makes his study of particular importance."
— Piotr Koryś
"Teller eschews hasty generalization, focusing his attention tightly on Lithuania in the first two-thirds of the eighteenth century, and even more specifically on one large estate....Steeped in the extensive Radziwiłł archive and supplemented by the few surviving local Jewish community records form the period, as well as some memoirs and rabbinic literature, this meticulous case study offers a rich insight into the forces that shaped cross-cultural relations in the demographic heartland of European Jewry."
— Adam Sutcliffe
"Teller's Money, Power, and Influence is an important addition to existing studies on Jews in early modern Poland. It sheds a new light on the political and economic transformations of the state and raises further compelling questions not just about the "Jewish" part of the story but also about the larger contexts."
— Magda Teter
"This is a meticulously researched and analyzed study of Jews, money, and power that shows how economic agency can accrue forms of social power for a marginalized ethnoconfessional minority."
— Ellie R. Schainker
"The innovative, indeed pioneering achievement of this study is its review of the case of one latifundium, the estates of the Radziwiłł family, as reflected in the family's archive, by far the largest accessible archive of its kind....While emphasizing the supreme power of the aristocratic landlord, the author offers fascinating examples of the often considerable room to maneuver enjoyed by Jewish entrepreneurs. The volume, of great benefit for the expert reader, will also complement academic reading lists in European economic history as well as European Jewish social and economic history."
— François Guesnet
"Adam Teller's analysis of the economic and political power of Jews on the Radzwiłł estates is a major contribution to the English-language historiography of pre-partition Poland. Accessible and yet sophisticated, it belongs on the 'must read' list of anyone interested in Polish or Jewish history."
— Theodore R. Weeks
"Beyond the concrete and tremendously important case study of the Radziwiłł estates, the book makes an important contribution to questions concerning the character of Jewish economic activity and of how "a kind of ethnic economy" actually formed and grew....Altogether, this very well-written book shows us how important it is to understand the economic basis of society and its influence on social and cultural developments. It should not only be an essential read for students and scholars of Polish-Jewish and Jewish economic history, but also of Polish and economic history in general, as it provides one fo the best analyses of the workings of the eighteenth-century estate system in the Lithuanian part of the commonwealth, though many conclusions are valid for magnates in the Polish part of the country as well. Additionally, it shows an exemplary case of how an ethnic minority entered and flourished in an economic niche."
— Cornelia Aust
"Money, Power, and Influence in Eighteenth-Century Lithuania: The Jews on the Radziwiłł Estates definitely enriches the social and economic history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and broadens our view on Jewish involvement in the day-to-day economy, and should be a strong stimulus for future research on the issues raised."
— Darius Sakalauskas
"Rather than viewing Jews as a distinct group that lived on its own and maintained a limited relationship with the society around it, Teller shows that Jews were an integral part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and wielded significant economic power that could be leveraged into a very strong political position in society....Well written and meticulously researched, this book is required reading for those interested in Jewish history and the history of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth."
— Lynn Lubamersky
The book makes three main interventions. First is the use of Jewish economic history to understand both the development of Jewish society and its relations with the surrounding world. The methodology of New institutional economics, emphasizing the connection between economic and cultural factors, is employed. Second is the study of the Jews' economic roles in the specific context of magnate estates in eighteenth-century Poland-Lithuania. In this late feudal setting, Jews achieved enormous financial success, which they translated into improved social status and even power. This process is at the heart of the analysis here. Third is the history of the Radziwiłł family and its estates in Lithuania. From a low point at the beginning of the period, the family reached the pinnacle of its power at the end. This rise was based on increased estate incomes, the importance for which of Jewish economic activity is examined here.
Jewish settlement on the Radziwiłł estates in Lithuania grew rapidly from the end of the seventeenth century. The Great Northern War of 1702-1720 did not hit Jewish settlement particularly seriously and may even have encouraged its growth in the period of reconstruction. By 1764, the Jewish population on the family's Lithuanian estates had reached some 20,000—almost 10 percent of the total Jewish population in the Grand Duchy. The dominant form of Jewish settlement was communities in the small agricultural towns, where they made up a large proportion of the population. Finally, by examining the Radziwiłłs' legislation on the issue of Jewish settlement and comparing Radiziwiłł-run estates with others not administered by the family, it becomes evident that Jewish settlement grew and developed as a direct consequence of a conscious policy adopted by the Radziwiłłs and their administration.
Towns were the main setting of Jewish life on the estates, with Jews there contributing greatly to the urban economy and bringing significant revenues to the Radziwiłł administration. The Jews' importance in the economies of both large and small towns was felt most in their domination of trade, and in particular alcohol sales. In terms of direct taxation, individual Jews seem to have paid proportionately less than non-Jews. However, both individual Jews and communities were called on to make extensive unofficial contributions, while communities also made extra payments, such as those for rabbinic licenses. Both the community councils and the rabbis acted as unofficial agents of the administration, responsible for managing the Jewish population and its economic activity. Despite this, wealthy Jews who served the Radziwiłłs directly could exempt themselves from communal jurisdiction, creating a new socioeconomic elite.
The raison d'etre of the estate system was providing the Radziwiłłs with revenue from agricultural activity. There were four main strategies for doing so. The first was direct administration: the family established a complex administrative system, which gave it extensive, though never complete, control over estate management. For immediate income, it could choose to mortgage an estate, making the lender legal owner until the debt was repaid. In case of default, he retained the lands. Another option was giving an estate on leasehold. The lender would receive control, not ownership, of the lands for the term of the lease; estate incomes formed repayment and interest. The fourth strategy: leasing out the incomes from the estate owner's monopolies—most importantly, the manufacture and sale of alcohol. This was the only field in which Jews were deeply engaged in this period. Its profitability made it the growth sector of the estate economy.
The career of the brothers, Szmojło and Gdal Ickowicz, who leased the Radziwiłł holdings from 1740 to 1745, exemplifies the possibilities and risks of estate leasing for Jews. Their success was based on their entrepreneurial skills in using leases to improve their trading activity, and mercantile profits to expand their leaseholds. Their willingness to change the economic status quo by unilaterally increasing customary dues allowed them to improve estate profitability, boosting Hieronim Florian Radziwiłł's revenues. They thus won his confidence, with Szmojło becoming his personal agent. Their highhandedness made the brothers extremely unpopular. A peasant uprising ensued, during which Radziwiłł supported them. For as long as they could provide him with increased revenues, they flourished. Once they could not, they were at his mercy. When he needed income that Szmojło could not find, Radziwiłł arrested him, confiscated his fortune, and left him to die in prison.
It was leases (arendas) on various incomes from monopoly rights that kept estate revenues rising. Alcohol sales were a particularly important way of selling grain on the home market. Prices rose, boosting profits, and leading Radziwiłł to expand the number of leases by investing in tavern building. He also instituted "general arendas" that included all the incomes on a single estate, allowing the wealthy Jewish leaseholders that took them to work alongside his administration as unofficial managers of monopoly incomes. Radziwiłł also used these leaseholders as personal bankers, disbursing money through payment orders drawn on them. The leaseholders gave the separate parts of their leases to less wealthy Jews, who ran individual taverns. To keep revenues up, the administration supported its leaseholders against non-Jewish clients who avoided paying their dues. The Jewish leaseholders thus formed a powerful group in estate society, clearly identified with the Radziwiłł administration.
Jewish merchants were, with Radziwiłł encouragement, the dominant force in local markets. They were particularly important in allowing the estate administration to take advantage of new opportunities in the eighteenth century, which its established systems were unable to do. Trade served the estate economy in three ways: distribution, supply, and revenue generation. The arendarze boosted grain sales in the new economic conditions and Jewish merchants enabled the family to penetrate the new export market in flax and hemp. Jews were extremely important in supplying estate society. This mercantile activity also generated huge revenues in the form of indirect taxation. The importance of Jews in revenue generation is seen in the family's expanding river trade to Königsberg starting in the 1720s. The freight payments Jewish merchants made to ship their goods on family rafts made this newly flourishing trade viable for the Radziwiłłs, giving them easy access to the international market.
The Radziwiłł administration's economic policy provided the framework for the Jews' success. They identified and played key roles in the estate economy by seizing the new opportunities of the eighteenth century. This allowed them to both serve Radziwiłł interests and create an ethnically dominated economic niche in trade and arenda. This proved so important to the estate economy that the administration gave them strong support. They thus increased their market domination, and, by becoming identified with the Radziwiłł administration, amassed power and authority in estate society. This power was, however, contingent on providing the services the administration wanted. The Jews' success in boosting estate revenues helped the Radziwiłłs, like similar magnate families, become the most powerful force in Poland-Lithuania. Jewish economic activity was thus a key factor in the development of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the eighteenth century.