ues: I owe above two hundred thousand marks; and if I had
said three hundred thousand, I should not exceed the truth: I am
obliged to pay my son, Prince Edward, fifteen thousand marks a year: I
have not a farthing; and I must have money, from any hand, from any
quarter, or by any means." He then delivered over the Jews to the
Earl of Cornwall, that those whom the one brother had flayed, the
other might embowel, to make use of the words of the historian [f].
King John, his father, once demanded ten thousand marks from a Jew of
Bristol; and on his refusal, ordered one of his teeth to be drawn
every day till he should comply. The Jew lost seven teeth, and then
paid the sum required of him [g]. One talliage paid upon the Jews in
1243 amounted to sixty thousand marks [h]; a sum equal to the whole
yearly revenue of the crown.
[FN [a] M. Paris, p. 586. [b] Brussel, Traite des Fiefs, vol. i. p.
576 [c] M. Paris, p. 372. [d] Ibid. p. 410. [e] Ibid. p. 525. [f]
M. Paris, p. 606. [g] Ibid. p. 160. [h] Madox, p. 152.]

To give a better pretence for extortions, the improbable and absurd
accusation, which has been at different times advanced against that
nation, was revived in England, that they had crucified a child in
derision of the sufferings of Christ. Eighteen of them were hanged at
once for this crime [i]: though it is nowise credible, that even the
antipathy borne them by the Christians, and the oppressions under
which they laboured, would ever have pushed them to be guilty of that
dangerous enormity. But it is natural to imagine, that a race,
exposed to such insults and indignities, both from king and people,
and who had so uncertain an enjoyment of their riches, would carry
usury to the utmost extremity, and by their great profits make
themselves some compensation for their continual perils.
[FN [i] M. Paris, p. 613.]

Though these acts of violence against the Jews proceeded much from
bigotry, they were still more derived from avidity and rapine. So far
from desiring in that age to convert them, it was enacted by law in
France, that if any Jew embraced Christianity, he forfeited all his
goods, without exception, to the king, or his superior lord. These
plunderers were careful, lest the profits, accruing from their
dominion over that unhappy race, should be diminished by their
conversion [k].
[FN [k] Brussel, vol. i. p. 622. Du Cange, verbo JUDAEI.]

Commerce must be in a wretched condition, where interest