Cornelia Aust specializes in the history of Jewish communities in Poland and German speaking lands from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century at the Leibniz Institute of European History in Mainz, Germany.

Aust's meticulous research will hopefully lead not only to further developments in economic history along the lines she has laid down, but to deeper thinking across religious studies, among historians, ethicists, theologians, and anthropologists or sociologists of religion.(Reading Religion) Aust's book is a significant addition to the field of Jewish economic history and to the study of eastern European Jewish history. It provides a new focus on mercantile elites beyond the Sephardic world and sets a high benchmark for future approaches to transregional studies.(AJS Review) The Jewish Economic Elite breaks new ground for historical research and should be of interest to historians working beyond Jewish history. It is rigorously researched and an original contribution to scholarship on a central topic of modern history.(American Historical Review)

• AcknowledgmentsNote on Spelling, Transcription, and TranslationIntroduction1. Amsterdam: A Center of Credit2. Frankfurt an der Oder: Central European Middlemen3. Border Lands: Legal Restrictions, Army Supplying, and Economic Success4. Praga: A Stepping Stone5. Warsaw: The Rise of a Jewish Economic EliteConclusionAbbreviationsBibliographyIndex