Werner Sombart wrote in his book 'Jews and Modern Capitalism' that European merchant ordinances in the 17th and 18th centuries prohibited shopkeepers from calling away customers from other shops.
Posted by The Pete Quiñones Show, Checked
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The Pete Quiñones ShowOct 1, 2026
The sources confirm that Sombart wrote 'Die Juden und das Wirtschaftsleben' (The Jews and Modern Capitalism, 1911) and that it argues Jewish traders broke up the medieval system of fixed prices and limits, but none of them mention the 17th–18th century merchant ordinances about calling away customers.
What was said
… No one shall interfere in another's business undertaking, or carry out his own on so large a scale as to ruin the other traders. In Saxony, it's the same thing: No shopkeeper can call away the customers from another shop, nor shall he be signed, uh, by signs or emotions, keep them from buying. Even having a sign outside your shop was out of the question. Advertising was out of the question. It was stability, not profit, that was the ideal of European commerce. Advertising was vulgar. That was something also brought in by Jewish traders. …
The Pete Quiñones Show · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Supports. The book is confirmed as Sombart's 1911 work, first published in Leipzig as Die Juden und das Wirtschaftsleben and translated into English as The Jews and Modern Capitalism.[1][2][3]
Context. Secondary descriptions say Sombart argued Jewish traders, excluded from the guilds, rejected the medieval system of 'just' fixed wages and prices, shares of the market agreed in advance, and limits on production, which is the broader context the claim sits in.[2][4]
Context. No source quotes or describes the specific merchant ordinances (Mainz, Saxony) prohibiting shopkeepers from calling away customers or advertising, so the central assertion about what the book cites is not addressed.[2][4][5][6]
Context. Scholarly sources describe Sombart's thesis as a contested argument about Jewish roles in capitalism, but none verify his citations of specific local ordinances.[3][7][8]
Sources
8 sources: 1 primary, 7 not rated
- 1The Jews and Modern Capitalism, by Werner Sombart et al.onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu · primary source · cited for: supports
- 2Werner Sombart - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org · not rated · cited for: supports, context
- 3Anxieties of Distinctiveness: Werner Sombart's The Jews and ...kclpure.kcl.ac.uk · not rated · cited for: supports, context
- 4The Jews And Modern Capitalism book by Werner Sombartthriftbooks.com · not rated · cited for: context
- 5The Jews and Modern Capitalismroutledge.com · not rated · cited for: context
- 6Why Is Werner Sombart Not Part of the Core of Classical Sociology? - Reiner Grundmann, Nico Stehr, 2001journals.sagepub.com · not rated · cited for: context
- 7Sombart and Capitalism 1911–1915 | Springer Nature Linklink.springer.com · not rated · cited for: context
- 8[PDF] The German-Jewish Economic Elite (1900 – 1933) - Universität Trieruni-trier.de · not rated · cited for: context
Where this claim was made
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Related claims
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