Tony Harding discovered ref 166, which shows that the estate of Aaron Baruh Lousada #125 1706-68 held over £100,000 of debts, or 91% of estate value. Aaron Baruh Lousada was a nephew of Isaac Lamego #38 1685-1767, whose son-in-law Jacob Lopes Torres #174 1714-68 was almost as big a financier for his estate held over £70,000 of debts, or 96% of estate value. Isaac Lamego's father Aaron Lamego probably descended from the Rouen Lamegos, one of whom paid a vast sum for the Spanish slave contract 1623-30. Aaron Lamego went to London by 1714, and probably left his Jamaican business in the hands of his son Isaac, who then probably left it in the hands of the above nephew and son-in-law when he in turn went to London some time after 1728.

Tony Harding then proceeded to calculate the present day worth of £100,000 as follows:

These sums show how valuable such capital accumulation was. It helps us understand why the Baruh Lousadas could return wealthy to England and have social aspirations. Merchants acted as financiers to plantation owners - to be repaid when the crops were harvested and sold. When crops failed, the secure creditor stood to take possession. This helps us understand how Aaron's Emanuel Baruh Lousada #135 1740-97 could have become owner of the Richmond sugar estates - and why he onsold the property. However, later Lousadas owned Banks and Carlisle Estates for an extended period reaching past abolition of slavery - and they were caught holding the properties at a time of falling values.  

Ref 117 p155 also provides an earlier view of the wealth of Aaron Baruh Lousada #125 who in the 1760s was 'the chief creditor in Jamaica.....Jamaican debtors owed him £69,484 and owed him and five Jewish associates £148,498, nearly one-tenth of all debts owed by Jamaican businessmen at that time'. It is not clear however that the five merchants cited as Jewish were in fact Jewish, and the activity of Jacob Lopes Torres noted above seems to constitute the bulk of the Jewish loan-book.