They functioned as the financial agents of the exchequer, while the Jewish employees in their mills, store-houses, and offices acted as their sub-agents, forming a class of "officials" of their own.

The place next in importance to the liquor traffic was occupied by retail and wholesale commerce.

The crafts and the spiritual professions came last.

Pauperism was the inevitable companion of this economic organization, and "people without definite occupations" were counted by the hundreds of thousands.
6.

THE RITUAL MURDER TRIAL OF VELIZH The "ordinary" persecutions under which the Jews in Russia were groaning were accompanied by afflictions of an extraordinary kind.