Jews were largely absent from the key beneficiary roles of the classic imperial economy

Evidence

According to most Marxist as well as many non-Marxist analysts, the classic imperialist economy imported raw materials and exported finished goods to the colonies. (It was this dependence on foreign manufactures that was opposed by Gandhi in his swadeshi movement.) The elements of the bourgeoisie who most benefited from the imperial system were, consequently, exporters of manufactured goods, importers of raw materials, owners of plantations and mines overseas and, finally, the financiers who provided the funds and the traders who mediated between producers and consumers. Jews did not figure prominently among these linchpins of imperialism. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 130

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to broader questions of Jewish economic history and antisemitic myths about Jewish control of finance — the counterargument to the stereotype that Jews dominated imperial capitalism.