Intimate Affairs

Abstract

The chapter investigates processes that allowed Jewish merchants in the eighteenth-century Mediterranean area to sustain familial and commercial obligation over time and space. Primarily based on the correspondence of Tunis-based Joseph Franchetti to his sons and associates in Livorno and Smyrna, this investigation shows that the intersection of family and trade was both a constructed practice and a deeply held moral belief. Strategies employed to preserve a feeling of familial commitment and to educate younger relatives – such as the circulation of gifts, the emphatic identification of love with obligation, and the reliance on surrogate kin – are examined alongside parental fears regarding the risks that young merchants away from home could pose to a family’s reputation and credit.