Judaísmo e Capitalismo: contribuição Judaica Para a formação Do Ethos Capitalista

Abstract

Este estudo intenta expor os fundamentos filosóficos subjacentes ao tema Judaísmo e Capitalismo, pondo em evidência a contribuição prestada pelos agentes económicos e financeiros hispano-portugueses, como os Mendes [Nassi], os Nunes da Costa, os Vega, os Pinto, os Teixeira de Mattos e os Bensaúde, a par dos protestantes e católico-romanos, à formação do ethos capitalista. Tentamos responder às seguintes questões: Qual é o significado da contribuição judaica para o Capitalismo? Qual foi a sua natureza? Terão Judeus e conversos, em particular, os hispano-portugueses, contribuído, com a sua atitude e ética, para a origem e o desenvolvimento do Capitalismo?

Desde a diáspora antiga que os Judeus tinham assumido importância no comércio e empréstimo de dinheiro porque foram excluídos de quase toda a outra actividade económica. A sua riqueza tornou-se proverbial e o seu desempenho histórico resultou em senso comum. As suas características têm sido estereotipadas de modo negativo. Além disso, o judeu continuou proeminente em sectores da vida económica e cultural.

A Igreja de Roma, em diferentes épocas, por intermédio das suas doutrinas, condenou o modo de vida judaico. Estava muito mais preocupada com a usura, o justo preço e as corporações, que com a economia capitalista do lucro, a empresa, o mercado monetário. Contudo, durante a Idade Média, o comércio e a usura tornaram-se familiares não apenas a muitos judeus mas também a muitos cristãos. Estes tinham-se associado em parcerias comerciais de tipo familiar nas cidades. De facto foram mercadores e banqueiros italianos os primeiros a desenvolver a banca, a contabilidade, as técnicas de crédito, e iniciaram o pré-capitalismo com o grande comércio à distância. Os Judeus seguiram-nos, sendo úteis quer à Igreja quer ao Estado.

Neste estudo interessamo-nos pelas teses principais de Marx, da Verstehende Soziologie e da Nouvelle Histoire, a fim de esclarecer algumas especulações como a atitude judaica com respeito ao Capitalismo. Ocupamo-nos dos factores económicos que compõem a participação judaica na sociedade capitalista.

Problematizamos as teses desses e outros autores que estão na base de uma controvérsia secular, sobre as origens do Capitalismo, a sua definição e periodização, as suas incidências axiológicas, os valores morais e as virtudes burguesas. De que modo?

Em primeiro lugar, é feita uma exposição dos Fontes e bibliografia 773 textos bíblicos para fundamentar a justificação de maximizar o ganho pessoal nos negócios. Também a doutrina de Tomás de Aquino sobre a usura foi tida em consideração e, ainda, as perspectivas relacionadas com a Reforma protestante e as correspondentes controvérsias sobre questões económicas e éticas.

Em segundo lugar, comércio e negócio foram objecto da contabilidade e das práticas da economia doméstica. O ethos capitalista, que se baseia na confiança mútua, livre iniciativa e responsabilidade partilhada, legitima tais actividades e encontra fundamento bíblico para isso na ascese e na vocação de cada um. Compreende-se assim que a origem e o desenvolvimento do Capitalismo tenham sido ligados à Reforma protestante dos séculos XVI e XVII por muitos autores, particularmente, por Weber, Troeltsch, Tawney e TrevorRoper. A perspectiva contrária foi esboçada por Fanfani. Nós analisamos estas posições que exageraram e negligenciaram o papel dos Judeus e conversos enquanto minoria, especialmente, os mercadores, accionistas, banqueiros, corretores, intermediários, conselheiros, ensaistas ou literatos hispano-portugueses.

Alternate abstract:

This study proposes to state the philosophical grounds behind the theme of Judaism and Capitalism, which allow us to come to an understanding of the contribution made by the Spanish and Portuguese Jews (Mendes or Nassi, Nunes da Costa, Vega, Pinto, Teixeira, Bensaúde), along with the Protestants and the Roman Catholics, to the Capitalist ethos.

We attempt to answer the following questions: How significant was the Jewish contribution to Capitalism? What was its nature? Did the Jews, in particular the Spanish and Portuguese Jews, contribute, with their attitude and ethics, to the rise and growth of Capitalism?

From the time of diaspora, Jews had assumed an importance in trade and in moneylending because they were excluded from almost every economic activity. Their wealth became proverbial and their historical rôle madCapitalism? e a common sense to all. Their characteristics have been negatively stereotyped. Despite this the Jew remained prominent in the realm of economic and cul¬tural life.

The Roman Catholic Church, through their scholastic doctrines, condemned the Jewish way of life. The Church was much more concerned with usury, just price and guilds, rather than with the Capitalist economics of profit, enterprise, and the money mar¬ket. However, throughout the Middle Ages, trade and usury became familiar not only to many Jews but also to many Christians. These had entered into family trading enterprises in the cities. Indeed the Italian merchants and bankers were the first to develop banking, accounting and credit techniques and started early Capitalism with large scale trade. The Jews followed them, being useful to both Church and State.

In this study we concern ourselves with the main theses of Marx’s works, the theses of the Verstehende Soziologie, and the Nouvelle Histoire, in order to clarify any speculations as to the Jewish attitude towards Capitalism. We deal with the economic factors making up Jewish participation in the Capitalist order.

We question the theses which form the basis of an old controversy about the rise of Capitalism, its definition and chronology, as well as their ethical issues.

First a presantation is made of Biblical texts to argue the justification of maximisation of personal gain in business. The official doctrine of the Roman Catho¬lic Church on usury is considered, particularly that offered by Thomas Aquinas. In addition, the Christian views connected with the Protestant Reformation are reviewed, as well as the writings, the debates and controversies concerning economic and ethical issues.

Secondly, commerce and business were the object of accounting and domestic economy practices. The capitalistic ethos, which is based on mutual trust, free enterprise and shared responsibility, legitimises such activities and there is a biblical support for it through ascesis and one’s calling. The rise of Capitalism has been linked to the Protestant Reforma-tion of the sixteenth and seven¬teenth centuries by many schol¬ars, particularly by Weber, Troeltsch, Tawney and Trevor-Roper. A Roman Catholic counterview is drawn by Fanfani. We argue all these pers-pectives, which overstated and neglected the rôle of Jews as a minority, especially the Spanish and Portuguese merchants, stockholders, bankers, brokers, middle¬men, advisers, essayists or litterati.

Our aim is to also provide a survey of the literature, which will be helpful for further research in this field. We attempt to evaluate the contributions of the subjects and economic agents to the rise and growth of Capitalism, through their works and literature, and put them in their historical context. For this reason their writings are juxtaposed and compared with the con¬tributions of contemporary research done in Portugal and abroad, which results in interesting new comparisons.

Finally, some conclusions are outlined concerning the contribution made by the Spanish and Portuguese Jews to the rise and growth of Capitalism

. An understanding of religious doctrine that can put ethical issues, concerning economic relations, in a philosophical context. Religious ethics have a deep influence on the subjects and the social values, which affects their beliefs and attitudes.

Therefore practising Jews of the diaspora, as well as Huguenots and Puritans, as minorities, conducted their lives and businesses according to their religious ethics and social values. As entrepreneurs these economic and financial agents are assumed to act rationally, organizedly, ethically, in order to achieve their duties according to their faith, and in such a way as to deserve God’s blessing.

We propose to demonstrate that the Jewish and Christian approches to economics and business ethics coTo achieve tntain similarities as well as differences, given the perspectives within each religion. To achieve these goals, in our research we concern ourselves with theoretical and empirical data. We use both the comparative and historical methods. We try to understand the social context and the individual. Studying for instance, the cases of Leon Battista Alberti, Glückel von Hameln, Joseph de la Vega, Teixeira de Mattos, Nunes da Costa, Pinto, Benjamin Franklin, Marx, or Bensaúde, we were not only concerned with their bourgeois way of being, but also with their symbolic meaning, their Sitz im Leben (place in life), i.e. the meaning of their social identity as bourgeois, accepting or refusing the bourgeois moral values and virtues. This study is based on a systematic research of sources and bibliography, which took place in the following institutions: Biblioteca Nacional, Lisboa. Biblioteca João Paulo II, Universidade Católica Portu¬guesa, Lisboa. Biblioteca Joaquim de Carvalho, Universidade de Coimbra. Biblioteca del Instituto Arias Montano, Consejo Superior de Investi¬- gaciones Cientificas, Madrid. Biblioteca del Departamento de Estudios Hebreos y Arameos, Facultad de Filología, Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Biblioteca da la Facultad de Ciencias Economicas y Empresariales, Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana, Universiteit van Amsterdam. De la Fontaine verwey zaal, Universiteit van Amsterdam. Mediatheek, Joods Historisch Museum, Amsterdam. Bibliotheek van de Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen, Universiteit van Amsterdam.