Over a period of decades, however, the economic condition of the Jewish community as a whole improved considerably. The street-seller might end up with his own shop, the hawker as an entrepreneur running a team of 'travellers', the retailer as a wholesaler, the craftsman running a small factory.

By the middle of the 19th century, the Jewish population in England had a settled, aspiring, increasingly middle-class character. Although Charles Dickens was now breathing new life into the old stereotype in the character of Fagin, in reality Jewish criminality was probably decreasing.

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