Great Britain, British Jews, and the international protection of Romanian Jews, 1900-1914: a study of Jewish diplomacy and minority rights

 
53
and that the religious considerations were not the basis for the restriction of 
Jewish rights. 
 Economic factors were perhaps the most crucial factors in Romanian anti-
Semitism. Economic factors were the facets of the Jewish problem that the 
Romanian leaders themselves wanted to emphasise in contemporary discourse. 
The age of capitalism brought two contradictory accusations against European 
Jews. On the one hand, they were believed to be exploiters who gained from the 
current economic circumstances, but, on the other hand, they were seen as 
being enemies of capitalism through their involvement in socialist activities.
104
 
The Jewish influence on the economy was adopted as one of the major 
arguments of anti-Semitism. The success of some rich Jewish bankers and 
tycoons gave rise to the stereotype of a capitalist Jew with international 
economic power, and it was often thought that all Jews were like this. During 
economic depressions, Jews were often blamed.
105
  
 
The Romanians were worried about the rapid increase in the Jewish 
numbers and about the fact that the ethnic Romanian population was 
decreasing in many Moldavian towns — the Jews were ‘suffocating’ the native 
population.
106
 There was an alleged danger of Jewish economic domination, 
especially in artisan trades and commerce. As in the standard theories of 
international Jewish conspiracy, the Romanians believed that local Jews were 
being given financial aid from Jewish banks in Austria, thereby enabling them 
to take control of Moldavian economic life. The Romanians perceived the 
Jewish economic influence as negative and harmful to the development of the 
Romanian (native) economy.
107
 James Parkes has suggested that, as a possible 
solution to the Jewish problem, Jews should have been permitted to disperse 
from their traditional occupations into a wider range of vocations.
108
 To allow 
Jewish employment and to encourage their participation in all sectors of 
economic life would obviously have required a fundamental change of policy. 
 
Nicolas Spulber argues that when traditional societies are drawn into 
world trade currents, many functions in the process are performed by non-
native entrepreneurs. The native elite relies — at least for a certain period — on 
the mobilisation of non-indigenous elements. Despite his central role, or 
perhaps because of it, the foreign entrepreneur provokes the frustrations and 
hatred of the native groups in the society: peasants, the old landed native élites, 
native artisans, and the rising intelligentsia. Finally, when the native middle 
classes develop, the foreign entrepreneurs begin to fall into decline.
109
 
                                                           
104
   Lewis 1986, 110. 
105
   Battenberg 1990, 181-182. 
106
   Lahovary 1902, 29-30; Schuster 1939, 37-38. Schuster’s -like Lahovary’s — attitude is 
anti-Jewish, and his book was written in Nazi-Germany. The Romanian statistics he 
used appear to be fairly reasonable. However, both Schuster and the Romanian 
statisticians tried to prove the dominant position of the Jews in Iaşi, and, therefore, 
the possibility of distorted information has to be taken into account here. 
107
   Michelson 1987, 167-169. 
108
   Parkes 1946, 103. 
109
   Spulber 1966, 138-139. Spulber’s theory applies directly to Romania, as Romania and 
Indonesia were the case studies that he based his generalisations on. 

---

 
54 
 
From the 1850s onwards, the non-indigenous bankers and traders in 
Wallachia (including Jews, Greeks, and Armenians) established connections to 
Constantinople, while their counterparts in Moldavia (mainly Jews) looked to 
the North: Budapest, Vienna, Leipzig, and Moscow. At this stage, Jewish and 
other non-Romanian merchants were the only ones who had the necessary 
experience of international contacts, essential in handling the booming grain 
trade. When the Danubian Principalities opened up to international trade and a 
substantial market for grain exports appeared, the Jews (and other foreigners) 
were often the only ones who had contacts abroad and were therefore able to 
handle the trade. Besides selling the grain abroad, Jews sold imported products 
both to the peasantry and to the nobility. Jewish banking houses dominated in 
the mid-nineteenth century, but began to lose ground in the late 19th century, 
when indigenous banking initiatives started.
110
 
 
The restrictions on Jewish life and economic activities began in earnest 
only after the constitutional system was adopted in Romania. The political life 
of the country was stable, and there were two main parties: the Conservatives 
and the Liberals. The parties used the Jewish question as a tool against one 
another when they tried to gain a parliamentary majority. Anti-Jewish measures 
and promises were utilised when attracting voters. It was also normal to 
attempt to damage the reputation of the other party by accusing it of pro-Jewish 
policies.
111
  
 
The attitudes of the two main Romanian parties towards the Jewish 
question did not diverge very much, and both of them introduced pieces of 
anti-Jewish legislation. The Conservatives, who spoke for the nobility and for 
agricultural interests, were generally a little more favourably disposed towards 
the Jews. They opposed any agricultural and suffrage reforms promoted by the 
Liberals, and they accepted that industrialisation was progressing with the help 
of foreign capital. On the other hand, the Liberals, as representatives of the 
rising Romanian middle classes, saw the anti-Jewish measures as 
fundamentally important. This was connected to the demands for the national 
Romanian economy and the negative view on the power of foreign capital.
112
  
 
Besides the actual anti-Jewish legislation and its ideological and practical 
background, there was yet another element hindering Jewish political rights, 
stemming from the nature of the Romanian political system. The majority of the 
peasants were disenfranchised, since the property qualifications blocked their 
participation in political life. If the Jews had been given political rights, they 
would have acquired considerable political power, based on their occupations, 
education, and property-ownership in towns. They would have formed the 
principal part of the second electoral college, in which the middle classes were 
represented.
113
 The Jews were also accused of trying to dominate Romania 
                                                           
110
   Spulber 1966, 96,101-102, 104. 
111
   Iancu 1978, 126-127; Welter 1989, 11.  
112
   Bernstein 1918, 52-53. 
113
   Joseph 1914, 75.  

---