ABSTRACT
Abraham Israel Pereyra was one of many Converso merchants and industrialists who, having fled the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions, continued developing their economic power base after arrival in the Low Countries. Pereyra, who settled in Amsterdam in about 1644, started up a silk industry. Tobacco and diamond factories and sugar refineries were also begun by Jews, while Amsterdam became the global centre of Hebrew and Yiddish printing. Portuguese Jews often traded internationally, making use of their contacts on the Iberian Peninsula and in other countries in Europe and beyond. They also functioned as suppliers to the armed forces, or as bankers.
