"KW" wrote in message
ps.com...

In older England the merchant class had many easy-going traditions. One
tradition was that a respectable tradesman would never seek business
but wait for it to come to him. Another tradition was . . .
The Jews' stores became bazaars, forerunners of our modern department
stores, and the old English custom of one store for one line of goods
was broken up. The Jew went after trade, pursued it, persuaded it. He
was the originator of "a quick turnover and small profits." He
originated the installment plan. . . .
As a matter of fact he was playing the game to get it
all in his own hands-which he has practically done.

1. When trade was regulated (i.e. maximum prices
were fixed by the town guild) it made perfect sense for
businessmen to wait for trade. This characterized English
business up to the 17th century.
2. Except in seaports, foreigners were rare in England
before the 19th century. The most obvious foreigners
were Scotsmen resident in England (permissible only
after the Act of Union approx. 1700), as noticed with
amused contempt by commentators like Samuel Johnson.
3. The pioneer of the department store in England was
Gordon Selfridge, a foreigner (American) but not Jewish.
It was called "department" store because it included
various departments for such items as clothing, food
and furniture, all under one roof. Traditional businesses
(Jewish or not) did not sell (e.g.) clothing and furniture
under the same roof.
4. The poster's suggestion that "the Jew" now controls
retail trade appears challenged by Arab ownership of
retail businesses in England today. (Of course both
groups are Semites; but someone born in Arabia is
more obviously foreign than someone born in Bradford.)
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)