ABSTRACT
The presentation sheds much light on the activities of the Jewish merchants, on the attitude of the Venetian government toward them, on the conditions which they themselves desired both for their everyday life as Jews and also in order to maximize their potential commercial activity and, finally, on their relationship with the other group of Jews living in Venice, the so-called Tedeschi Jewish moneylenders. Additionally, motivated apparently not only by Venetian commercial concerns but also by the political desire to accommodate the Ottoman Empire, 9 the legislation devoted a paragraph to Jewish merchants coming from the Levant. As far as maritime trade was concerned, the new charter merely stated that, for its duration, the Jews could engage in it as they already did, buying, selling, and contracting for all goods, except grain on the Terra Ferma which was forbidden to them.
