Aaron of Lincoln

Aaron of Lincoln was a rich Jewish financier of medieval England. He had dealings with the highest members of society, but besides financing capital projects he invested in farming operations and loans to small lenders. His wealth was estimated at 2.5 percent of the national income of the period.

Aaron of Lincoln first appears in documents around 1166 in regard to money being paid to him by King Henry II (r. 1154 – 1189) through a transaction with the sheriff of Lincoln, almost certainly as the result of a loan. He also had dealings with major Cistercian monasteries and other Christian foundations, including the Cathedral and Abbey Church of St. Alban’s and Lincoln Minster. It is clear that Aaron had dealings with the highest members of society, but besides financing capital projects he invested in farming operations and loans to small lenders. The charged interest rates of the period were often very high, as much as 60 percent, but Aaron is also known to have loaned a small amount to a female debtor named Truue at no interest at all.

Aaron organized a vast network of assistants throughout England, but was not in partnership with other Jewish lenders of the period, as the king generally forbade such partnerships. This kind of partnership was forbidden because the estates of Jewish moneylenders reverted to the Crown upon their deaths. Partner claiming part of the estates would certainly delay the acquisition of wealth by the Crown.

Usually, the monarch took only a percentage of the estate, allowing heirs to continue the business of lending, but at Aaron’s death in 1186, the king chose to take the whole of his property that has been approximated at 2.5 percent of the national income of the period, the equivalent of almost £28 billion in 2010. Aaron’s treasure was shipped to France by King Henry and was lost when the ship sank in the English Channel.