(ANGLO-AMERICAN JUDAICA).

One of the Earliest Documents in the English Language to Refer to the Commercial Activity of Jews in America. In this pamphlet, addressed to King James II upon his accesssion to the throne, the author, Samuel Haynes writes that it is not his intent to achieve "a total extirpation of the Jews, or their trade (as some have aimed)," but rather to once again impose upon them Alien Duty or payment of Customs. It seems that King James' immediate predecessor, his deceased brother, King Charles II (ruled1660-1685), had granted several Jews Letters Patents of Denization with a clause inserted that they should pay no more Customs than the English. Haynes argues that the exemption came to an end upon the recent demise of the late King and that the Jewish merchants of Dutch extraction should once again be forced to pay Customs. This would benefit the royal purse as well as give the English merchants an edge over their Jewish competitors. Haynes goes on to describe a Holland-America cartel, whereby the Jewish shippers of Amsterdam or Rotterdam and Barbados, New York and Jamaica collude with one another, to the detriment of the English. In his estimation, the Jewish merchants are able to under-sell the English by as much as twenty percent. The text mentions by name several Jewish merchants involved in trade between England, Holland, New York and Barbados. Prof. Jonathan I. Israel has probed in depth the role played by Dutch Jews in trade between the motherland and the Western Hemisphere. See J.I. Israel, "The Jews of Dutch America" in: P. Bernadini and N. Fiering, eds., The Jews and the Expansion of Europe to the West 1450-1800 (2001), pp. 335-49.