Jacob ben-Samuel Bassevi of Treuenberg

Jacob ben-Samuel Bassevi of Treuenberg, popularly known as Jacob Schmieles, was a member of a consortium founded in 1622 to gain a monopoly of old silver coins minted in Bohemia, Moravia and Lower Austria. It was a period of extreme financial instability, brought about by the emperor’s continual need for money to fight the Thirty Years’War (1618–48). For his in the consortium, Bassevi was raised to the nobility, granted freedom to trade in any merchandise and to reside in any locality at a time when the Jews of the Austrian empire were severely restricted as to occupation, and their residence in several cities prohibited.

With the devaluation resulting from the activities of the consortium, Bassevi became extremely unpopular and he was believed to be responsible for the misery caused to the general public by the monetary changes. He played an active part in Jewish affairs and in 1623 organized a guard to defend the Jews of Prague, but as a result of his activities, resentment against the Jews greatly increased. Eventually Bassevi fell from favor with the emperor, and was arrested in 1631, but released in the following year through the intervention of General Wallenstein.