Mojżeszowicz, Gordon, Ickowicz: The Jewish Economic Elites in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century)

Abstract

The Jews formed the largest religious-ethnic minority group in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth; 1 it is estimated that they accounted for circa 9 per cent of the country's population in the late eighteenth century. They mostly formed part of urban populations, with a share of 40 per cent to 50 per cent among the country's burghers. The Jews played a signifi cant part in the economic life, monopolising the taproom income leaseholds in private estates, and holding a strong position in trading operations. The history of the Commonwealth's Jewry has enjoyed increasing interest in the last dozen-or-so years, yielding studies on the minority's history and culture, and on its functioning within a Christian society. 2 Yet, even if read cursorily, these studies attest that the Jews