 | History of the Jews in Spain: Encyclopedia II - History of the Jews in Spain - Marranos 1492-1858
History of the Jews in Spain - Marranos 1492-1858
Main article: Marranos
The history of the Jews henceforth in Spain is that of the Maranos, whose numbers, as has been shown, had been increased by no less than 50,000 during the period of expulsion. As Spain got possession of the New World, the Maranos attempted to find a refuge from the Inquisition in both the East and the West Indies, where they often came in contact with relatives who had remained true to their faith, or had become reconverted in Holland or elsewhere. These formed business alliances with their relatives remaining in Spain, so that a large portion of the shipping and importing industry of that country fell into the hands of the Maranos and their Jewish relatives elsewhere. The wealth thus acquired was often sequestrated into the coffers of the Inquisition; but this treatment led to reprisals on the part of the Maranos abroad, and there can be no doubt that the decline of Spanish commerce in the seventeenth century was due in large measure to the activities of the Maranos of Holland, Italy, and England, who diverted trade from Spain to those countries. When Spain was at war with any of these countries Jewish intermediation was utilized to obtain knowledge of Spanish naval activity (see Intelligencers; Maranos).
In this indirect way the Maranos, who had been the occasion of the expulsion, became a nemesis to the Spanish kingdom. It is, however, incorrect to suppose, as is usually done, that the immediate results of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain were disastrous either to the commerce or to the power of the Iberian kingdom. So far from this being the case, Spain rose to its greatest height immediately after the expulsion of the Jews, the century succeeding that event culminating in the world-power of Philip II., who in 1580 was ruler of the New World, of the Spanish Netherlands, and of Portugal, as well as of Spain. The intellectual loss was perhaps more direct. A large number of Spanish poets and other Jewish writers and thinkers who traced their origin from the exile were lost to Spain, including men like Spinoza, De Silva, Manasseh b. Israel, the Disraelis, and the Montefiores.
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