Abstract
The article focuses on the trade of Czech Jews during the Thirty Years' War. Their economic activities are examined on the basis of the demographic and legal situation of the Jews in Bohemia and the overall situation in the country after 1620.
Although the individual parts of Bohemia were seized by the war (with varying degrees of intensity) on the one hand, war booms set in at the same time in some areas of trade (e.g. in the wool trade)..The focus of attention is on the work of Jews as buyers of agricultural products from large estates belonging to the nobility and their role in exporting wool to foreign markets and importing groceries. The share of Jews in providing for the military and in granting loans, for example to the ruler or to cities, is also examined.
Although undoubtedly the most visible representative of a war entrepreneur was the court Jew Jacob Bassevi von Treuenburg, after the Battle of Weissen Berg a whole series of other Jewish entrepreneurs worked in Bohemia who knew how to take advantage of the new business opportunities offered by the war.