“I observed,” she says, “that most of the rich tradespeople are Jews. That people are in incredible power in this country. They have many privileges above all the natural Turks themselves, and have formed a very comfortable commonwealth here, being judged by their own laws. They have drawn the whole trade of the empire into their hands, partly by the firm union amongst themselves, partly by the idle temper and want of industry of the Turk. Every Bassa has his Jew, who is his _homme d’affaires_; he is let into all his secrets and does all his business. No bargain is made, no bribes received, no merchandizes disposed of, but what passes through his hands. They are the physicians, the stewards, and the interpreters of all the great men. You may judge how advantageous this is to a people who never fail to make use of the smallest advantages. They have found the secret of making themselves so necessary that they are certain of the protection of the Court whatever Ministry is in power. Even the English, French, and Italian merchants, who are sensible of their artifices, are, however, forced to trust their affairs to their negotiation, nothing of trade being managed without them, and the meanest among them being too important to be disobliged, since the whole body take care of his interests with as much vigour as they would those of the most considerable of their members. They are, many of them, vastly rich.” At the present moment the Jews, thanks to the profound incompetence and sloth of the Turks, the unpopularity, disunion and unrest of the Christian _rayahs_, and their own superior ability and concord, thrive in many parts of the Sultan’s dominions, still preserving the speech of their Spanish persecutors. A few of the refugees from Spain found their way into France and England, while some of those who were subsequently persecuted in Portugal drifted to Holland. But a large number of Spanish Jews set sail for Italy. CHAPTER XII THE RENAISSANCE