Medieval Jewish Traders Summary

Although 21st Century Western society is not using gold coins as currency anymore, it still holds the same over invested attitude towards buying, selling, and the importance of a good business-customer relationship. This book, The Letters of Medieval Jewish Traders written by S.D. Goiten features the retrieved letters of Jewish traders from the High Middle Ages. Although to the regular non-historian, this topic might be slightly bland; to the Historian, remaining letters from what were considered the normal people of society in the Middle Ages is invaluable information for analysis. This is because by understanding the culture and the nature of the relationships between traders and their masters back during the middle ages, a Historian will be able to …show more content…
Traders who do not have the same opportunity are consistently shown to be taken advantage of in these letters. A example of this is the letter of the trader angry with the man in charge his partnership. He is angry at the misinformation he was given and says in this quote, “ Had I known how to sell other people 's goods, I would have chosen first to sell my own and would not have entrusted them to one who keeps them unattended and does with them what he likes.” This quote shows how angry the trader is with the lack of information or the misinformation he was given, and now it has resulted in his product being misused and disrespected. Another example is the previous letter between Qayrawan and Joseph. In the letter, Qayrawan made a lot of profit selling their stock of pearls and yet he gets no share of the profit because Joseph will not allow him. This is unjust because someone of a higher status is making some man work and essentially will not pay him. This is slavery and the Middle Age Trade was corrupt for engaging in such philosophies. Lastly in relation to corruption, the dishonesty in Traders in order to get what they want is