Mark Koyama: evaluation

Transcript context

…At least since Cromwell, England has been relatively tolerant toward the Jews, compared to much of Europe. And if you’re trying to build out a broader theory, compare some amount of English or British tolerance. But then compare that to how the Irish are treated, or how the colonies or India is treated. Is there a unified approach that ties this all together? Or are the British just schizophrenic in some way, with respect to tolerance? I think my quick answer would be that rules in Britain are very different than rules outside Britain. For example, slavery — you couldn’t have slavery in England, to the best of my knowledge, at least from the 16th century onwards. Slavery is a huge part of the British Empire. It’s something which is done outside of Britain. But it’s not something which is practiced within the kingdom itself, even in the 17th, 18th century. I don’t know all the ins and outs of why that’s the case. But the Jews — they’re invited in, in a favorable time. There’s a lot of anti-Semitism in English history. Shakespeare. There’s a crypto-Jewish doctor of Elizabeth I who’s hung, drawn, and quartered or burnt alive — I can’t remember which — in the 1590s. So a lot of anti-Semitism. But the Puritans, the religious independents, of whom Cromwell is basically the leader, they identify with Zion and Israel. They give their kids Israelite and Abrahamic and Old Testament names. And the Jews who petitioned Cromwell to settle in England — Sephardic Jews from Amsterdam — they have capital. They have money. They’re allied in a war against Spain and the Spanish Empire. So it’s a very politically opportune moment for them to come, and they secure good terms. Then subsequently, there’s really not many problems with them. There are some issues. There are some riots. But in general, they’re allies with the Protestants. And they’re small. They’re a small community. So at least until the late 18th century, there’s not really much reason to be really hostile to them unless you’re a virulent anti-Semite. Whereas other cases, it’s a little bit different. The Irish are coming in large numbers. They’re Catholic, and Catholicism is seen as suspect because of the geopolitical consequences of it. So they’re just less favored for those reasons. Similarly, the British behavior in the colonies is very repressive, often. But that’s again . . . the schizophrenia is not within Britain. It’s between what’s inside and what’s outside. Today, why have so many parts of northern England declined so steeply compared to the industrial parts of Germany, parts of the Netherlands, arguably France? It seems worse in northern England. What’s your account of that?…

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