Joseph de la Vega

File:Gerrit Berckheyde - View of the Two Synagogues of Amsterdam 259.jpg. ]]

File:Pieter Schenk, Afb 010094005216.jpg by Peter Schenk the Elder It is the area where De la Vega grew up. ]]

Joseph Penso Felix was born about 1650 into a family of Spanish and Portuguese Jews; it is unknown where.{{Cite web|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/penso-de-la-vega-joseph|title=Penso de la Vega, Joseph}} He was the son of Isaac Penso Félix (1608-1683) a merchant, and of Esther de la Vega (-1679). His father was a converso from Espejo, a small town in Córdoba province (Andalusia), who had made a solemn vow in the dungeon of the Inquisition that within a year after regaining his liberty he would openly profess Judaism. This oath he fulfilled in Middelburg after his escape to Antwerp.[https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/vega002conf01_01/vega002conf01_01_0009.php Confusion de Confusiones(1939)–Joseph de la Vega by G.J. Geers] He moved to Hamburg, where he married Esther de la Vega; Sara, their first child, was born there in 1645. In 1655 he was appointed [[Gabbai|

parnas]], not long after the family settled in Amsterdam.[https://www.gwern.net/docs/economics/1688-delavega-confusionofconfusions.pdf Portions Descriptive of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange Selected and Translated by Professor Hermann Kellenbenz Hochschule fur Wirtschafts und Sozialwissenschaften] According to the marriage certificates in the Amsterdam City Archives, Joseph had three younger brothers and four younger sisters: Abraham Penso Felix (ca 1656-1710) was a schoolmaster, a diamond seller and traded in slaves;{{Cite journal |last=Samuel |first=Edgar |date=1978 |title=Manuel Levy Duarte (1631-1714): An Amsterdam Merchant Jeweller and His Trade With London |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/29778893 |journal=Transactions & Miscellanies (Jewish Historical Society of England) |volume=27 |pages=11–31 |issn=0962-9688}}[https://archief.amsterdam/archief/5075/4774 Notariële archieven, archiefnummer 5075, inventarisnummer 4774, aktenummer 62648] David (1654-) and Raphael Penso (ca 1659-) were merchants, who moved to London; Jochebet Pensa (1655-1718), Ribca Penso (1662-1720), Abigail Penso (ca 1663-1708) and Lea Pensa (1664-1710) lived in Amsterdam.https://www.dutchjewry.org/genealogy/vega/281.shtml; https://www.dutchjewry.org/portuguese_israelite_cemetery/p.shtml

Joseph was taught by Isaac Aboab da Fonseca and Moses Raphael de Aguilar, members of the Talmud Torah community.[https://books.google.com/books?id=NCvyi5_m6ScC&dq=joseph+Amsterdam+%22de+la+Vega%22&pg=PA451 The Anglo-Dutch Moment: Essays on the Glorious Revolution and Its World Impact by Jonathan Irvine Israel, 451] He completed his first Hebrew drama, "Asire ha-Tiḳwah" ("The prisoner of hope"), in three acts, which appeared in Amsterdam in 1673 at Joseph Athias and in which he allegorically depicted the victory of the will over the passions.[https://www.gwern.net/docs/economics/1688-delavega-confusionofconfusions.pdf Portions Descriptive of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange Selected and Translated by Professor Hermann Kellenbenz Hochschule fur Wirtschafts und Sozialwissenschaften] He married Raquel Alvares Vega from Antwerp, unknown is when.[https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/vega002conf01_01/vega002conf01_01_0009.php Confusion de Confusiones(1939)–Joseph de la Vega by G.J. Geers]Rachel Penso Felix died on 12 September 1703.[https://archief.amsterdam/archief/5075/5890 Notariële archieven, archiefnummer 5075, inventarisnummer 5890, aktenummer 606589] His commercial life began in Amsterdam in 1679 with a bill protest on Portugal; it is the only record on his name.[https://archief.amsterdam/archief/5075/4875 Notariële archieven, archiefnummer 5075, inventarisnummer 4875, aktenummer 48786]Teresa Corzo, Margarita Prat & Esther Vaquero (2014) Behavioral Finance in Joseph de la Vega's Confusion de Confusiones, Journal of Behavioral Finance, 15:4, 341-350, DOI: 10.1080/15427560.2014.968722 He filled the honorary offices of president of the Academia de los Sitibundos and in 1685 as secretary of the Academia de los Floridos, founded by Manuel de Belmonte (-1705), a court jew from 1674 resident of the Spanish king (who organized slave trades between 1679 and 1691).[https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/vega002conf01_01/vega002conf01_01_0009.php Confusion de Confusiones(1939)–Joseph de la Vega by G.J. Geers]Conectores sefarditas en una monarquía policéntrica. El caso Belmonte/Schonenberg en la articulación de las relaciones hispano-neerlandesas durante la segunda mitad del siglo XVII by Manuel Herrero Sánchez

In August 1688 Joseph de la Vega lived through the collapse of the Dutch East India Company and Dutch West India Company, which financially ruined him.Teresa Corzo, Margarita Prat & Esther Vaquero (2014) Behavioral Finance in Joseph de la Vega's Confusion de Confusiones, Journal of Behavioral Finance, 15:4, 341-350, DOI: 10.1080/15427560.2014.968722J.I. Israel. ‘The Amsterdam Stock Exchange and the English Revolution of 1688.’ In: Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 103 (1990): 412-440 The funding of the armed invasion of William III in England caused a financial crisis in the Dutch Republic.[https://books.google.com/books?id=NCvyi5_m6ScC&dq=crash+amsterdam+august+1688&pg=PA353 The Anglo-Dutch Moment: Essays on the Glorious Revolution and Its World Impact by Jonathan Irvine Israel] Consequently, the financiers following William III to Britain possessed a full range of financial techniques, and for which they found a ready market indeed. This transfer of know-how formed the basis of derivatives trading in London, firmly linking Amsterdam's pioneering work to the emergence of modern markets.[https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/20528807/amsterdam-as-the-cradle-of-modern-futures-and-options-trading- Amsterdam as the cradle of modern futures and options (1550-1650), p. 15 by Oscar Gelderblom and Joost Jonker. Utrecht University, 2005] He was buried at Beth Haim of Ouderkerk aan de Amstel.

File:Emanuel de Witte - De binnenplaats van de beurs te Amsterdam.jpg (1653)]]

File:Job Adriaensz. Berckheyde 001.jpg, circa 1670.]]

Written in Spanish under the title {{lang|es|Confusión de Confusiones}},It is possible to read it in a full view mode here [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?view=1up;size=100;id=uc1.32106019504239;page=root;seq=1;orient=0]. the volume was printed in Amsterdam and published in Antwerp. Although he did not provide a descriptive account of the process of stock trading, Joseph presented a history of speculation in stocks and ducatons, acquainting the reader with the sophisticated financial instruments used. He employed a dialogue format that enabled the reader to understand the respective perspectives of the various market participants and the intricacies of speculation and trading. There is evidence in {{lang|es|Confusión de Confusiones}} of three major biases: herd behavior, overconfidence, and regret aversion.Teresa Corzo, Margarita Prat & Esther Vaquero (2014) Behavioral Finance in Joseph de la Vega's Confusion de Confusiones, Journal of Behavioral Finance, 15:4, 341-350, DOI: 10.1080/15427560.2014.968722

Joseph also came up with four basic principles that remain relevant today:[https://www.gwern.net/docs/economics/1688-delavega-confusionofconfusions.pdf Portions Descriptive of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange Selected and Translated by Professor Hermann Kellenbenz Hochschule fur Wirtschafts und Sozialwissenschaften]

The first rule in speculation is: Never advise anyone to buy or sell shares. Where guessing correctly is a form of witchcraft, counsel cannot be put on airs.

The second rule: Accept both your profits and regrets. It is best to seize what comes to hand when it comes, and not expect that your good fortune and the favorable circumstances will last.

The third rule: Profit in the share market is goblin treasure: at one moment, it is carbuncles, the next it is coal; one moment diamonds, and the next pebbles. Sometimes, they are the tears that Aurora leaves on the sweet morning's grass, at other times, they are just tears.

The fourth rule: He who wishes to become rich from this game must have both money and patience.

Joseph de la Vega, who used his mother′s last name, wrote over 200 letters to different princes and statesmen. {{lang|es|Confusión de Confusiones}} remained little known until 1892, when German economist Richard Ehrenberg published an influential essay in the Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik entitled "Die Amsterdamer Aktienspekulation im 17. Jahrhundert."[https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/the-first-book-to-describe-a-stock-exchange The First Book to Describe a Stock Exchange By Sotheby's] According to L. Petram, Joseph devoted a disproportionate amount of attention to tricks and schemes; his book is riddled with too much drama and too many technical shortcomings to be useful as an instruction manual. Joseph wrote Confusión primarily for the entertainment of educated members of the Sephardic community (the Academia de los Floridos).[https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/1427415/85973_12.pdf Petram, L.O. (2011) The world's first stock exchange: how the Amsterdam market for Dutch East India Company shares became a modern securities market, 1602-1700]

Since 2000, the {{Interlanguage link multi|Federation of European Securities Exchanges|de}} has awarded the annual De La Vega Prize to "young European researchers who distinguish themselves by outstanding research on the securities markets in Europe".{{cite web |author=Antoine Gattolliat |url=http://www.fese.be/en/?inc=cat&id=16 |title=FESE - De la Vega Prize |publisher=Fese.be |date=2011-06-16 |accessdate=2012-10-18 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121023033600/http://www.fese.be/en/?inc=cat&id=16 |archivedate=2012-10-23 }}

Other of his works include:

• Discurso académico moral. Hecho en la Insigne Academia de los Sitibundos (Amsterdam, 1683; dedicated to Isaac Senior Texeira in Hamburg).
• Triunfos del águila y eclipses de la luna (ib. 1683).
• La Rosa, Panegírico Sacro, Hecho en la Insigne Academia de los Sitibundos (ib. 1683).
• Rumbos peligrosos por donde navega con título de novelas la zozobrante nave de la temeridad (Antwerp, 1684).
• Discursos académicos, morales, retóricos, y sagrados. Recitados en la Florida Academia de los Floridos (ib. 1685).
• Retrato de la Prudencia, y simulacro del Valor, al Augusto Monarca Guilielmo Tercero, Rey de la Gran Bretaña (ib. 1690), printed by Joan Bus, using the rare ascendonica italic.Detail from John A. Lane
• {{cite book|title=Ideas possibles de que se compone un curioso ramillete de fragrantes flores, cultivadas y regidas por Don José de la Vega|location=Antwerp|year=1692|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u0TzokE6iOUC|last1=Vega |first1=José La }} This collection of short essays includes a section of five essays translated from Italian authors (Giovanni Battista Manzini, Ferrante Pallavicino, Vicenzo Pasqualigo, Antonio Lupis and Giovanni Francesco Loredan), followed by seven more that the author wrote himself.

{{Reflist}}

• {{JewishEncyclopedia|title=Penso, Joseph (known also as Penso Vega or de la Vega)|first1=Isidore|last1=Singer|author-link1=Isidore Singer|first2=Meyer|last2=Kayserling|author-link2=Meyer Kayserling|url=https://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/14655-vega-joseph-de-la|volume=9|page=589}}
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=khk8DQAAQBAJ&dq=Esther+de+la+Vega+Hamburg&pg=PA120 Valuation Of Equity Securities: History, Theory And Application by Geoffrey Poitras]

• [https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789004392489/BP000033.xml Penso de la Vega and the Question of Jewish Baroque by Einat Davidi. In: Religious Changes and Cultural Transformations in the Early Modern Western Sephardic Communities (2019)] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004392489_020
• [https://fese.eu/blog/fese-de-la-vega-prize/ FESE prize]
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=B1E4DgAAQBAJ&dq=de+la+Vega+Livorno+Talmud&pg=PT28 Pricing the Future: Finance, Physics, and the 300-year Journey to the Black ...by George G. Szpiro]
• [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41482458?seq=1 Penso's Roots: The Politics and Poetics of Cultural Fusion by Eleazar Gutwirth. Studia Rosenthaliana, Vol. 35, No. 2 (2001), pp. 269-284.] Published by: Peeters Publishers. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41482458

{{Economic history of the Netherlands}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vega, Joseph de la}}

Category:1650s births

Category:1692 deaths

Category:17th century in Amsterdam

Category:17th-century Sephardi Jews

Category:17th-century Dutch non-fiction writers

Category:17th-century merchants

Category:Dutch Sephardi Jews

Category:Jewish poets

Category:Dutch male poets

Category:Dutch Jews

Category:Dutch people of Spanish-Jewish descent

Category:People from the Province of Córdoba (Spain)

Category:Writers from Amsterdam

Category:Immigrants to the Dutch Republic

Category:Dutch merchants