Imagine a minority community so loyal to the state that they personally bankrolled the national defense and physically guarded the capital during an armed rebellion. In this episode of pplpod, we deconstruct the volatile rise and humiliating repeal of the Jewish Naturalization Act of 1753. This piece of 18th-century politics, often dismissed by the derogatory shorthand "the Jew Bill," offers a staggering look at the limits of the Age of Reason. We analyze the high-stakes financial maneuvers of Samson Gideon, who single-handedly stabilized the stock market during the 1745 Jacobite Rising, and the cold mercantilism used by political economists like Josiah Tucker to justify the law. Despite the efforts of the Whigs and Tories to navigate a path towa ...