Bidspirit auction | Manuscript Volume, Ledger of Banker

Manuscript Volume, Ledger of Banker David Teixeira d'Andrade – The Hague, 1742-1795 – Rare Documentation of Sephardic Jewish Banking Networks and Trade in the 18th Century – Trade Routes to the Americas and Trading Ties with Salvador Family in London - Manuscript volume, Manual de Transacções [Journal of Transactions] of banker and industrialist David Teixeira d'Andrade. The Hague, 1742-1795. Portuguese; cursive script, meticulously organized in accounting tables and columns. This journal, written continuously over the course of more than half a century, constitutes an important and exceptional historical source for study of the economic and social activities of the Sephardic Jewish elite in 18th-century Europe. David Teixeira d'Andrade (1723-1796) was a member of one of the most distinguished and wealthy families in the Spanish-Portuguese Chonen Dal community in The Hague, and conducted family and business ties with the noble banking families Lopes Suasso and De Pinto. His initial capital, 83,900 guilders (recorded in the entry at the beginning of the present journal), was given him by his father-in-law Antonio (Yitzchak) Lopes Suasso – son of the banker Don Francisco Lopes Suasso, second Baron d'Avernas – upon his marriage to his daughter Yehudit (Catharina). The pages of this journal paint a detailed portrait of the breadth and variety of the family's financial endeavors. Each page contains an average of 15-20 entries (about 45-60 business dealings per year), including: deposits and withdrawals, cash flows, bonds, trade in shares of the Dutch and British East India Companies, participation in French and Spanish government debt and lotteries, as well as real estate dealings in The Hague and Paris. Alongside these, the journal documents family properties and purchases of luxury goods, such as gold and pearl jewelry, porcelain ceramics, wall rugs and family portraits and art. Of special note are the entries detailing the trans-Atlantic trade network and the bodemarias system (bottomry or ship insurance). These entries detail the names of ships, their captains, the value of their policies, trade routes and navigation routes of the ships to the ports of the Americas and from there to European ports. The journal depicts the world-ranging network of ties woven by the Teixeira-d'Andrades with the bankers and tycoons of Europe, including the monetary agents of the King of Portugal and King Louis XV of France. It likewise presents the extensive trade network with the Sephardic Jewish communities in Amsterdam, London and Hamburg; his business ties with the merchants Joseph and Jacob Salvador of London (Jacob Salvador was the father of Francis Salvador, the first Jew to serve as a member of the South Carolina legislature, then a British colony, and was killed during the American War of Independence), as well as his ties with Tobias Boas, the most influential Jewish intercessor and banker in The Hague in the 18th century). Alongside his international affairs, the journal reveals Teixeira-d'Andrade's public and philanthropic activities as well as his contributions to Jewish community institutes: payments for the community's taxes, transfer of funds to the Jewish community of Venice (then drowning in debt and on the verge of bankruptcy), support for the needy, widows and orphans, and marriage expenses of poor girls. The journal is bound in the original fine leather binding, decorated on both sides with gilt decorations arranged in symmetric patterns, with three floral frames and corner decorations; at the center of the bindings is an engraved gilt medallion featuring a lion rampant – the Teixeira-d'Andrade family coat of arms. A label on the spine is inscribed: ”Manual De D. T.” [Journal of David Teixeira]. 111, 111-222 pages (and 28 blank leaves at beginning and end of volume). Approx. 36 cm. Overall good condition. Light stains and wear. Minor marginal tears to some leaves. Bookplate. Gilt edges. Original early leather binding; defects, peeling and rubbing to edges of binding and spine. Provenance: Collection of Mozes Heiman Gans.