THIS passage from the observations of a French former Jesuit who spent five years in Poland from 1777 reflects the author's perception of the significance of the Jewish presence in Poland as it appeared to an outsider. Some might wonder at the prominence given to Jews, who are usually thought of as a minority population, but who are presented here as comprising one of only three ‘classes’. It should be recalled, though, that in the second half of the eighteenth century Jews in Poland–Lithuania numbered about 750,000; even more significantly they made up about half of the urban population of the country. Since Jews were distributed unevenly, increasing in numbers roughly as one moved from west to east, their prominence and visibility were substantial indeed.

The passage depicts Jews as playing a role analogous to a colonized group in the economy of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. That is, their skills were exploited in the service of the powerful, and the profits drained off for the benefit of the hegemonic group. To be sure, the link between Jews and the more powerful noblemen of Poland–Lithuania was one of the most salient and crucial characteristics of the early modern period. Jews tended to settle in the ‘private’ towns under the jurisdiction and ownership of the great aristocrats, where they received more extensive privileges and more effective protection than in the ‘royal’ towns, and where, generally, the economic situation was more promising. This phenomenon was encouraged by the great magnates themselves because, as Vautrin noted, it served their material interests.