which were protective generally, especially as regards her ships.
In the midst, however, of this liberal policy, the Venetians seem always to have kept clearly before them the interests of their own shipping. In the registers of Venice may be found numerous instances of the anxiety of the merchants to monopolize in their own ships their commercial intercourse with other countries. Thus, in the year 1319 there is a record of one Tomaso Loredano, a merchant of Venice, who had despatched eleven hundred tons of sugar to London, stipulating that the amount arising from its sale should be invested in English wool, to be shipped exclusively in Venetian vessels. Laws were also in force which levied differential duties equivalent to one-half their value upon certain goods imported in foreign vessels; while in some cases the ships of foreign nations were not allowed, under any circumstances, to enter the ports of Venetia.
Again, a special law provided that neither German, Hungarian, nor Bohemian traders should have any dealings with Venetian merchants except in Venice itself: these traders were, therefore, compelled to resort thither for the purchase of whatever goods they required, the Venetian merchants being at the same time forbidden to convey them inland, probably to avert any danger of plunder by the barbarians, by whom the interior was too frequently infested. But, perhaps, the most unwisely rigorous portion of this law consisted in the enactment which forbade the Germans, trading with Venetia, from showing their own goods to any foreigner before offering them to the Venetian merchants, and, at the same time, prohibiting those who had brought their goods to Venice to carry back to other places any portion of them that remained unsold. Nevertheless, in spite of such prohibitory laws, a very considerable foreign commerce was carried on with Venetia; the Germans, Armenians, Moors, and Greeks, having each their respective places of resort (fondas) in its capital, and the Jews from first to last being its leading bankers.
Official exposition of the trade of Venice, A.D. 1421.
From a speech which the Doge, Tomaso Moncenigo, delivered in the Senate of Venice to Francis Foscari and the Florentine ambassadors, who, in A.D. 1421, sought the aid of the Venetians against the Duke of Milan, some idea may be formed of the extent of the commerce of Venice in the days of her prosperity. “Every week,”[661] remarks the Doge, “there arrive from Milan seventeen to eighteen thousand ducats; from Como, Tortona, Novara, Pavia, Cremona, Palermo, two thousand ducats each; from Bergamo, one thousand and five hundred ducats; and from Monza, Alexandria, and Piacenza, one thousand each.... The bankers, also, declare that in every year the Milanese owe us a balance of one million six hundred thousand ducats.” “The same and other cities,” he adds, “import from us cloths to the value of nine hundred thousand ducats; while France, Lombardy, and other countries receive annually from Venice, pepper, ginger, woods for dyeing, slaves, and soap to the value of one million eight hundred and seventy-one thousand ducats.” The entire commercial wealth of Venice the Doge estimated at twenty-eight millions and eight hundred thousand ducats. But he expressly states that he does not include in this the duty on salt, which Filiasi values at one hundred thousand ducats (47,500l.), or that derived from conquered districts, which he reckoned (in a subsequent speech) at four hundred and sixty-four thousand (220,400l.). “Consider how many ships,” exclaims the Doge, “the collection and delivery of these goods maintain in activity; whether to deliver them in Lombardy, whether to seek them in Syria, Roumania, Catalonia, Flanders, Cyprus, or Sicily, and all parts of the world. Venice gains from two and a half to three per cent. on the freight. See how many persons gain a livelihood by this business—brokers, artificers, sailors, thousands of families, and at last the merchants, whose profits amount, at least, to six hundred thousand ducats.... This is the produce of your garden; do you wish to destroy it? Surely not; but we must defend it against all attacks; seeing that you are the only people to whom the land and the sea are equally open; you are the channel through which all riches flow; the whole universe is interested in your prosperity; all the gold and silver in the world come into your hands.”
Nor, indeed, though as Count Daru has suggested there may be some inaccuracies in these numbers owing to the errors of copyists, were the words of the old Doge those of merely idle bombast. Besides the revenues recapitulated by him, in the home manufacture of silk, cloth, arras, glass, gold, silver work, and wax, the Venetians, by means of their wealth and skill, assisted in some measure by their system of protection, and by their geographical position, carried on a very extensive and lucrative trade, which, with other branches of their commerce, greatly increased when they obtained the supremacy over their commercial rivals, the Pisans and Genoese. Not the least valuable object of merchandise at that period was the traffic in slaves; for, strange inconsistency! while the Popes rigorously prohibited all commerce with the Infidels, a prohibition to which the Venetians reluctantly submitted, the Church allowed the purchase and sale of slaves without hindrance in the open markets of Europe!
Her ships and dockyards.
Merchant galleys.
The arsenal of Venice, which included also the dockyards, had long been the admiration of foreigners; and when that city reached the plenitude of her power, there was nothing of the kind superior to it in the world. Embracing a vast area of land and water, surrounded by walls, and flanked with towers, it presented the appearance of a stupendous fortress. The preparation and equipment of the fleets, destined either for the service of the republic, or for trading purposes, were here effected, as all commercial vessels trading to foreign ports were then, and long afterwards, armed for defence. Some of their galleys employed in distant voyages, such as to Flanders or England, are described as having had two sails only, one on each mast, of very great dimensions, the masts being of extraordinary length.[662]
A.D. 1172.