How interesting! To look at these figures from the experience of actual banking. I believe banking was associated with Jews in pre-modern Europe because medieval Catholicism forbade loaning with interest (“usury”), though everyone want to borrow! So the greedy Jewish banker is an old antisemitic trope that hovers over these figures; the sense of the banker as an outsider, with different values, not to be trusted, yet fulfilling a need. Bulstrode’s ostentatious Christianity battles against this shadow... (Copying comment to @bookpost Middlemarch!)
Fabulous post. Thank you.
Don’t have anything to add at this point, but just a lovely post. I love these, & C19 novels are the best.
Wow. Fascinating, and your writing is world-class brilliant!
Thank you!
How interesting! To look at these figures from the experience of actual banking. I believe banking was associated with Jews in pre-modern Europe because medieval Catholicism forbade loaning with interest (“usury”), though everyone want to borrow! So the greedy Jewish banker is an old antisemitic trope that hovers over these figures; the sense of the banker as an outsider, with different values, not to be trusted, yet fulfilling a need. Bulstrode’s ostentatious Christianity battles against this shadow... (Copying comment to @bookpost Middlemarch!)