Une économie de ghetto?

A ghetto economy? Jewish economic activities and actors in Italy during the seventeenth century* The history of the economic and social structures of the Jewish ghettos in Italy is still poorly known, especially with regards to the 17th century. The social and spatial segregation of the Jews went hand in hand with several restrictions in the economic sphere. This article aims to capture their varieties and modes of application in different regions of the Italian peninsula. It analyses how the Jews were able to get around or resist certain prohibitions by negotiating their rights with local or central authorities. It tries to measure the concrete impact ghettoization had on the economic and social life of different Jewish communities in Italy. The social stratification of the ghettos is compared with a priori more tolerant forms of interreligious coexistence, such as life without ghettos in the Tuscan cities of Pisa and Livorno. The Jewish presence in Tuscany is finally assessed through an in-depth study of the privileges granted by the Grand Dukes to 17th century Sephardic and Italian Jewish entrepreneurs.