Joseph Penso de la Vega
Joseph Penso de la Vega · Economics & Business
Auteur de Confusion de Confusiones (1688), premier livre au monde sur le fonctionnement d'une bourse de valeurs, écrit en dialogues sur la Bourse d'Amsterdam ; poète et dramaturge hébraïque
vers 1650, Espejo (Espagne) — 13 novembre 1692, Amsterdam
Espagne, Pays-Bas
Joseph Penso de la Vega is recognized among Jewish contributors to Economics & Business — Auteur de Confusion de Confusiones (1688), premier livre au monde sur le fonctionnement d'une bourse de valeurs, écrit en dialogues sur la Bourse d'Amsterdam ; poète et dramaturge hébraïque
Origins and early life
Joseph Penso de la Vega was born around 1650 at Espejo in Spain, the son of Isaac Penso Felix, a Marrano merchant who had been imprisoned by the Inquisition and vowed, in his cell, that if he escaped he would profess Judaism openly, a vow he kept at Middelburg after fleeing through Antwerp. Joseph therefore grew up as an openly practising Jew in the Sephardi community of Amsterdam, taught by Rabbi Isaac Aboab da Fonseca and Moses Raphael de Aguilar, both of whom have fiches on this site, and at seventeen he wrote a Hebrew drama, Asire ha-Tikvah, 'The Prisoners of Hope', one of the earliest Hebrew plays.
Work and career
He earned his living as a diamond merchant and served the Sephardi community as president of its literary academies. In 1688, in Spanish, he published Confusion de Confusiones, four dialogues between a philosopher, a merchant and a shareholder about the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, and it is the first book ever written about how a stock market actually works.
Recognition
He describes short selling, options, forward contracts, market rumours, bear raids and the psychology of speculators with an accuracy that has made the book required reading for economists ever since; the Dutch central bank and the New York Stock Exchange have both reprinted it, and the Federation of European Securities Exchanges named a prize after him. He also published moral and rhetorical works in Spanish, including Rumbos Peligrosos and a defence of the Jewish community's charities. He died in Amsterdam on 13 November 1692, and is buried in the Sephardi cemetery of Ouderkerk.
Verify and go deeper with these external references.
Source: Jewish Encyclopedia (1906) ; Encyclopaedia Judaica ; Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization
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Auteur de Confusion de Confusiones (1688), premier livre au monde sur le fonctionnement d'une bourse de valeurs, écrit en dialogues sur la Bourse d'Amsterdam ; poète et dramaturge hébraïque
Source: Jewish Encyclopedia (1906) ; Encyclopaedia Judaica ; Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization