ABSTRACT
In order to meet the expenses which weighed down upon it, this community began contracting loans at the beginning of the seventeenth century, principally with monasteries and Christian charitable institutions. The debt, which amounted to 166,000 scudi in 1647, was then funded as a result of intervention by the Apostolic Chamber, which allowed Jews to participate in the 'second established Monte Annona' by the issue of 1,660 credits secured by the taxes paid by the ghetto which, therefore, from the financial point of view, tended to become nothing but a cog in the papal administration. The interest charges and its other expenses forced the community to contract new debts in the course of the following years. In 1668 a sort of concordat was concluded-again under the aegis of the Apostolic Chamberbetween the representatives of the Christian 'Montisti' and the
fattori of the community. According to this concordat, the community's debt amounted
to 259,000 scudi, comprising 237,000 to the 'Montisti' and 22,000 to Jewish creditors. The interest, to which certain other fixed
charges were added, amounted to 14,560 scudi annually; apart from this, besides, was 9,770 scudi in annual contributions levied by the communal buon governo (welfare charities and social assistance). The total property of the ghetto was valued at 400,000 scudi; finally, it was specified that the Jews were to hold 150,000 scudi ready in their lending banks.1
