Despised minorities often emerge as providers of credit to majority societies

Evidence

It must be a cause of some surprise to find some Moriscos were professional moneylenders, but such was undoubtedly the case, as C´ıscar (1993, 60–95) has documented. Obliged as they were to participate in the emerging capitalism of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, some seem to have been able to play the system to their advantage. As in so many other parts of the world, members of a despised minority emerge in the role of providers of credit. From the little that is known as yet about the integration of Morisco refugees into the societies of Islamic lands after the Expulsion of 1609–12, it is clear that some such rich ex-Moriscos took their entrepreneurial skills with them overseas and brought the economics of the plantation system to Tunisia (and perhaps elsewhere). — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 1165 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Despised minorities repeatedly emerge as credit providers in capitalist economies. — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 1165; Middleman minorities in similar niches get scapegoated across centuries; Prejudice propagates when privileged groups stand to gain from exploiting minorities — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 1480 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Despised minorities repeatedly emerge as credit providers in capitalist economies. #corroborates (0.97) — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 1165