Exercice et train de marchandise : juifs portugais au fil des minutes notariales à Bayonne (1695-1795)

Abstract

Conversos or Portuguese merchants admitted into France by letters patent of Henry II in 1550, the Bayonne Jews had other occupations in addition to trade. The research on notaries’ minutes allowed us to catalogue their numerous occupations – from the doorman to the doctor, from the apothecary to the master of dance – and to classify types of activity – retail trade, big business, banking, public service, brokerage, peddle. It also allowed us to become aware of their expertise in some products (textiles, species, cacao, tobacco), their training in their family business or in Amsterdam Jewish firms (as Amsterdam was the metropolis of the Portuguese Jewish Nations in the West), the practice of trade agreements, as well as the length of their careers as merchants and of the Portuguese firms. The average length of their activities, of a dozen years, is a consequence of the phenomenon of immigration and emigration affecting the Portuguese Jewish Nation of Saint-Esprit-lès-Bayonne. The permanence of some firms, such as the one of Benjamin Louis Nuñes, also reveals a durable positioning in the city of Bayonne.