body. We don’t believe that. To Jews, your host is nothing more than a piece of bread. So it would be stupid of us to torture a bit of bread, wouldn’t it?”
“So nothing you are accused of is true?”
“Nothing.”
Arnau wanted to believe Raquel, especially when she stared at him wide-eyed, begging him to reject the prejudices the Christians held about her community and its beliefs.
“But you are usurers. That’s something you can’t deny.”
Raquel was about to respond, when they both heard her father’s voice.
“No, we are not usurers,” said Hasdai, interrupting them and sitting down next to his daughter. “At least not in the way it is usually meant.” Arnau waited for him to go on. “Look, until a little more than a century ago, in the year 1230, Christians also lent money and charged interest. Both Jews and Christians did so, until a decree from your Pope Gregory the Ninth forbade Christians to make money in this way. Since then, only Jews and a few other groups such as the Lombards have been able to do so. But for twelve hundred years, you Christians lent money with interest. It’s only been a little more than a hundred years that you haven’t been permitted to officially,” said Hasdai, stressing the word, “and yet you condemn us as usurers.”
“Officially?”
“Yes, officially. There are many Christians who lend money using us as intermediaries. But anyway, I wanted to explain to you why we do it. Throughout history, wherever we Jews have been, we’ve depended on the king. We’ve been expelled from many countries; first from our own lands, then from Egypt; later on, in 1183, from France, and some time afterward, in 1290, from England. Jewish communities were forced to emigrate from one country to another. They had to leave all their possessions behind, and to beg permission to settle from the rulers of the countries where they arrived. In response, the kings, as had happened here in Catalonia, took over the Jewish communities and demanded heavy contributions for their wars and other expenses. If we did not make any profits from our money, we wouldn’t be able to fulfill your kings’ exorbitant demands, and we would end up being thrown out yet again.”
“But it’s not only kings you lend money to,” Arnau insisted.
“No, that’s true. And do you know why?” Arnau shook his head. “Because the kings never repay our loans. On the contrary, they are always asking for more and more money for their wars and other extravagances. We have to make money somehow to lend them, or to make a generous contribution when it turns out not to be a loan.”
“You can’t refuse?”
“They would expel us ... or worse, they wouldn’t defend us from Christians attacking us as they did in this city. We would all die.” This time, Arnau nodded, bringing a smile of satisfaction to Raquel’s face when she saw that her father was succeeding in convincing him. Arnau himself had been a witness to how the enraged Barcelona mob had howled their anger against the Jews. “Anyway, remember that we don’t lend money to any Christians who aren’t either merchants or have permits to buy and sell. Almost a century ago, your King Jaime the Conqueror brought in a law that said that whatever commission or deposit made by a Jew to anyone who was not a merchant was to be considered false, invented by the Jews, which means we cannot make a claim against anyone who isn’t a merchant. We can’t place commissions or deposits with anyone but merchants—otherwise we would never see our money again.”
“What’s the difference?”
“It’s completely different, Arnau. You Christians are proud that you follow the dictates of your religion by not lending money for interest, and it’s true that you don’t do it; not openly, at least. Yet you do lend money, but call it something else. Before the Church forbade loans with interest between Christians, business went on much as it does now between Jews and merchants: there were Christians with a lot of money who lent it to other Christians, the merchants—and they repaid the capital with interest.”
“What happened when it was forbidden to lend with interest?”
“It’s simple. As ever, you Christians found a way round the Church’s prohibition. It was obvious that no Christian was going to lend money to another one without making money, as the Church intended. If that were the case, he might as well keep his money and not run any risk. That was when you Christians invented the idea of the commission. Have you heard about that?”
“Yes,” Arnau admitted. “In the port they talk a lot about commissions when a boat loaded with goods arrives, but the truth is, I’ve never really understood what it means.”
“It’s not hard. A commission is nothing more than a loan with interest ... but in another guise. Someone, usually a money changer, lends money to a merchant for him to buy or sell goods. Once the operation is complete, the merchant has to give back the same amount to the money changer, plus a part of the profits he has made. It’s exactly the same as a loan with interest, but called by another name. The Christian who lends the money is making a profit, which is what the Church wants to prohibit—that profit comes from money and not from work. You Christians carry on doing exactly as you did a hundred years ago, before gaining interest from money was forbidden. Only now you call it something different. And when we Jews lend money for a deal, we are usurers, whereas if a Christian makes money through a commission, that’s fine.”
“Is there really no difference?”
“Just one: in commissions, the person who lends the money runs the same risk over the deal: in other words, if the merchant does not come back or loses his goods—if, for example, his ship is attacked by pirates, then the person making the loan loses too. The same isn’t true of a loan as such, because in that case the merchant would still be obliged to return the money plus interest. In reality though, it’s exactly the same, because a merchant who has lost his goods cannot pay us anyway, and we Jews have to fit in with customary practice: merchants want commissions without risk, and we have to accept them because if we didn’t, we would not make enough money to pay what your kings demand. Do you understand now?”
“We Christians do not give loans with interest, but offer commissions, which comes down to the same thing,” Arnau said.
“Exactly. What your Church is trying to prevent is not interest in itself, but making a profit by using money, not by working for it. And they prohibit loans only to those who are not kings, the nobility, or knights: a Christian can lend any of them what is known as a soft loan, because the Church considers this must be for war, and that makes the interest gained right and proper.”
“But only Christian money changers do that,” Arnau argued. “You can’t judge all Christians by what a few —”
