CHAPTER II — THE JEWS COME TO HOLLAND "However, as the influence and power of the Dutch East India Company grew, the Jews gradually bought up its shares, and by the end of the seventeenth century became the principal stockholders in Holland, controlling a quarter of its stock."

"Some of the earliest refugees from Spain and Portugal fled to the Canary Islands and from there to Flanders. Not long after the beginning of the sixteenth century, colonies of New Christians established their headquarters at Bruges and Antwerp, and, strong in faith, secretly attended organized services conducted by rabbis especially invited and smuggled in from Italy. "

"The continual widespread dispersion of the Portuguese Marranos to every part of the globe unquestionably resulted in a marked contribution by the Jews to the rise of Portugal as a great maritime nation. As soon as the crypto-Jews arrived in a new settlement they opened up trade with their relatives and brethren who had remained on the Portuguese seaboard. Bonds of blood, faith, struggle and persecution held the Marranos close together, each hoping that eventually they would attain a country where freedom would be found and where they could practise their religion without hindrance. The Marranos in Portugal through their wealth, position and experience would help their brethren overseas until they had established themselves in their new abode. "

"These good tidings, through the usual mysterious channels, reached Spain and Portugal, and immigrants poured into Holland where they immediately discarded the uncomfortable cloak of Christianity which they had worn. Among the immigrants came a youth, Menasseh ben Israel who, later in life as the Rabbi of Amsterdam, was destined to be the prophetic messenger who petitioned the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell, to permit the Jews to return to England. Holland had been an exceedingly poor country. The wars with Spain impoverished it still more. The capital, therefore, which the Jews brought into Amsterdam became particularly welcome and made possible the organization of great trans-Atlantic companies and the equipping of trading expeditions." http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-GolHist-t1-body1-d2.html

According to Sir Henry Neville (AKA "Shakespeare," possible iligitimate son of Elizabeth I, original East India Co. investor and author of THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, was an Elizabethan diplomat/courtier and secret propagandist to the masses via the theater) the merchants of Venice relied on the Venetian Jewish moneylenders for capitol loans. In the play THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, the CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH view of the Venetian Jewish moneylenders is presented in the character of Shylock. He was considered to be ruthless and immoral in his business transactions- hence "a pound of flesh" as the price of loan forfeiture. Yet, the real goal of the play is to subtly appeal to Christian conscience and create sympathy for the Jews, who ultimately wished to be allowed back into England for banking business. This was ultimately accomplished by the sephardi diaspora Dutch Jewish backed William of Orange.

"“To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs,dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villany you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.” ― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice"

"“The quality of mercy is not strain'd, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes: 'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown; His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, The attribute to awe and majesty, Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; But mercy is above this sceptred sway; It is enthroned in the hearts of kings, It is an attribute to God himself; And earthly power doth then show likest God's When mercy seasons justice.” ― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice"

"In 1603, Venice and Genoa assumed direction of the finances of Stuart England, and imparted their characteristic method to the British East India Company. It is also this tandem that was present at the creation of the great Amsterdam Bank, the financial hinge of the seventeenth century, and of the Dutch East India Company. Venice and Genoa were also the midwives for the great financial power growing up in Geneva, which specialized in controlling the French public debt and in fostering the delphic spirits of the Enlightenment." extracted from: THE VENETIAN CONSPIRACY by Webster G. Tarpley, U.S. president of the Schiller Institute

"The Case for Sir Henry Neville as the Real Shakespeare William D. Rubinstein The case for Sir Henry Neville as the real Shakespeare is one of the newest posited for any authorship candidate, having been made in print only since 2005. It was originated by an independent scholar in England, Brenda James. Sometime after I published an article in History Today in 2001 on the Shakespeare Authorship Question, I was contacted by a friend of hers, and intro- duced to her theory. I quickly became convinced that, astonishingly, she had probably hit on the identity of the real author of Shakespeare’s works. In 2005 we collaborated on a biography of Neville as Shakespeare, The Truth Will Out, published by Longman in London and Regan Books in America, which received a good deal of press publicity. A number of further books, especially by Dr John Casson, have appeared arguing the case for Neville. I continue to be surprised that Neville was never mentioned by anyone prior to 2005 as the real Shakespeare, since he fits so extraordinarily well every criterion for being the real author."

Neville’s Biography "He was probably born in 1562—the exact date is unclear—and died in July 1615. He was thus an almost exact contemporary of William Shakespeare (1564-1616)"

"Our Henry’s mother, Elizabeth, was the daughter of Sir John Gresham, Lord Mayor of London, and a close relative of Sir Thomas Gresham, the great merchant who founded Gresham College in London." https://shakespeareoxfordfellowship.org/wp-content/uploads/Oxfordian2012_Rubenstein_Neville.pdf

"Sir Thomas be such a serious purchaser of insurance? I have already shown that the merchants of the city, including the senior merchants, the Lords Mayor and Aldermen, were at least familiar with the instrument. Thomas Gresham came from a family of such people. More pertinently, though, he had an underwriter in his family. I have found the proof here – on a policy preserved in the records of the High Court of the Admiralty.

Taking a close look, we can see clearly – clearly, that is, depending on your palaeography skills – that the second underwriter here is John Gresham. The policy is dated December 1557, so the underwriter cannot have been Sir John Gresham, Thomas’s uncle and the man to whom he was apprenticed, because the older man died in 1556. This John Gresham is also unlikely to have been Thomas’s elder brother, who was alive at the time, but was probably at his estates in Norfolk, which he preferred to business life. That leaves his cousin, John Gresham, son of Sir John, who like his father was a Flanders merchant. This conclusion is strengthened by the fact the policy covers a shipment of goods from Malaga to Antwerp, the traditional trading territory of the Greshams." Read more at https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/gresham-and-defoe-underwriters-the-origins-of-london-marine-insurance#JD5k4IifxBOzFf2m.99

MORE ON SIR THOMAS GRESHAM "Sir Thomas Gresham the Elder (/ˈɡrɛʃəm/; c. 1519 – 21 November 1579), was an English merchant and financier who acted on behalf of King Edward VI (1547–1553) and Edward's half-sisters, queens Mary I (1553–1558) and Elizabeth I (1558–1603).

In 1565 Gresham founded the Royal Exchange in the City of London." "In 1543 the Mercers' Company admitted the 24-year-old Gresham as a liveryman, and later that year he left England for the Low Countries, where, either on his own account or that of his father or uncle, he both carried on business as a merchant whilst acting in various matters as agent for King Henry VIII." Low countries include Holland and Belgium."

"Rescues the pound When in 1551 the mismanagement of Sir William Dansell, King's Merchant to the Low Countries, had caused the English Government much financial embarrassment, the authorities called Gresham for advice, thereafter following his proposals. Gresham advocated the adoption of various methods – highly ingenious, but quite arbitrary and unfair — for raising the value of the pound sterling on the bourse of Antwerp which proved so successful that in just a few years King Edward VI had discharged almost all of his debts. The Government sought Gresham's advice in all their money difficulties, and also frequently employed him in various diplomatic missions." "Under Queen Elizabeth's reign (1558–1603), besides continuing in his post as financial agent of the Crown, Gresham acted as Ambassador Plenipotentiary to the Court of Duchess Margaret of Parma, Governor of the Netherlands, and was appointed a Knight Bachelor in 1559 prior to his departure. The unsettled times preceding the Dutch revolt compelled him to leave Antwerp on 10 March 1567; but, though he spent the remainder of his life in London, he continued his business as merchant and government financial agent in much the same way as he had always done. His enterprises made him one of the richest men of his generation in England." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Gresham

Here's another - it includes the founding English Rothschild:

DRAGONS: Ten Entrepreneurs Who Built Britain by Liam Byrne

"Britain's rise to global dominance from the 16th century owed as much to the vision and creativity of traders, industrialists and bankers as it did to wars of conquest fought by military men.

DRAGONS tells the story of British business endeavour through the lives of ten titans of commerce. Beginning with the Tudor merchants who transformed England's economy via trade with the New World, Liam Byrne traces an entrepreneurial golden line through men such as Thomas Pitt, saviour of the East India Company; financier Nathan Rothschild, creator of the modern bond market; William Lever, brand-builder, philanthropist, and creator of Britain's first great multinational; and John Spedan Lewis, founder of the employee-owned John Lewis Partnership." https://www.ama zon.co.uk/Dragons-Ten-Entrepreneurs-Built-Britain/dp/1781857474

That's the marketing hook. It's actually a well researched history by a Sephardi. Read it. You'll finally understand who Captain Sparrow is.....Christopher Columbus is in there too. I have a "coffee table" photo book (Sephardi photographer) with photos of the synagogues and graveyards they built on the Caribbean Islands (including Barbados sugar plantations- where my ancestors emigrated from). Here's another one for you:

James DeWolf and the Rhode Island Slave Trade

"Over thirty thousand slaves were brought to the shores of colonial America on ships owned and captained by James DeWolf. When the United States took action to abolish slavery, this Bristol native manipulated the legal system and became actively involved in Rhode Island politics in order to pursue his trading ventures. He served as a member of the House of Representatives in the state of Rhode Island and as a United States senator, all while continuing the slave trade years after passage of the Federal Slave Trade Act of 1808. DeWolf's political power and central role in sustaining the state's economy allowed him to evade prosecution from local and federal authorities--even on counts of murder. Through archival records, author Cynthia Mestad Johnson uncovers the secrets of James DeWolf and tells an unsettling story of corruption and exploitation in the Ocean State from slave ships to politics." https://www.am azon.com/James-DeWolf-Rhode-Island-Slave/dp/1626194793?SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&tag=duckduckgo-osx-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1626194793