Baron Diego Pereira d'Aguilar

Baron d' Aguilar Diego, Moses Lopes Pereira Pereira d' Aguilar or Diego, (* 1699 in Portugal; † August 10, 1759 in London ) was a financier and marranischer Court Jew in Vienna.

Life

Diego d' Aguilar was probably born in Porto, son of a Marrano tobacconist in 1699. In 1722 he left Portugal and came to London to Amsterdam, where he devoted himself to the tobacco trade. When Moses Lopes Pereira he had returned to Judaism. 1725 he was appointed by Charles VI. summoned to Vienna. He reorganized the Austrian tobacco monopoly new. From 1726 to 1747 he was a tenant of this monopoly, and came to ansehnlichem assets. 1726, he received from Charles VI. the Spanish barony. He was a central figure in the economic life of his time. In 1732, he borrowed 300,000 guilders the yard, so that Maria Theresa was able to extend the Schönbrunn Palace.

Multiple Aguilar took his influence at court to help persecuted Jews of Eastern Europe. So he helped the expulsion of the Jews from Bohemia ( 1742) and Prague ( 1744/1748 ) averted. He is considered the founder of the Turkish ( Sephardic ) community of Vienna (1735 ), which steadily grew and became an important interface between the western and eastern Sephardic culture since 1750.

As in 1757, the Spanish Inquisition demanded his extradition, Aguilar left Vienna with his 14 children and moved to London. Again, he was an active member of the Sephardic community. He died on 10 August 1759.

His eldest son, Baron d' Aguilar Ephraim Lópes Pereira (1739-1802), the second Baron d' Aguilar, inherited the title and some of his fortune, which he since by marrying the daughter of the Anglo- Jewish bankers Moses Mendes Costa still increased, due to his eccentric behavior was one in the story.