hundred and
fifty-two allowed by law, and that there were fifty-one too many.
Consequently a stringent decree was issued that they should no longer
be counted by families, but by heads, and that when the poll exceeded
the permitted number, the poorest and lowest of them should be
shipped off.[1] Gold was therefore to the rich Jew a certificate of
naturalization, while the poorer ones had no certainty of a home. They
could at any moment be turned off, driven out of Berlin, if a richer
one should by his wealth and trading acquire the right to take to
himself a wife, and by her have a child. But even he, the rich one,
could only have one child; only one child was allowed to him by law.
For one child only could he obtain legal protection, and only in
exceptional cases, as when their factories and firms succeeded
remarkably well, did the king, in the fulness of his grace, allow a
second child to inherit its guardianship.[2]

Of what avail, then, was it to the poor Jews to have toiled and
worked so hard, driven by the necessity of paying the hateful
_Jewish poll-tax,_ and thereby procuring for themselves a temporary
toleration? At any moment they could be driven off in case the rich
Ephraim or the rich David Itzig, in the arrogance of their wealth,
should venture to give to the world more than one child, and
purchase for the sum of three thousand dollars another certificate of
protection for the second! Of what avail was their wealth even to the
rich Jews Ephraim and Itzig? They were nevertheless under the ban of
their proscribed race. No privileges, no offices existed for them.
They could only build factories or carry on commerce. All other paths
of life, even agriculture and horticulture, were forbidden to them.
And now they were called on to give up to the Russians their very
life, the nerve of their existence, the heart which carried blood and
warmth to their entire organization--their money.

Ephraim and Itzig were rich and powerful in Berlin; they could build
houses, found factories, and even determine the value of money, for
the mint was in their hands. They had farmed it from the king, and
paid him an enormous rent for the same, which had increased each year,
and in 1760 amounted to seven millions. But, thanks to this farming,
the value of money had increased exorbitantly. Twenty dollars were
paid for a Frederick d'or, and five-and-thirty for the mark of fine
silver. Owing to the labors of these Jewish lessees, ther