[660] Sanuto mentions, so early as A.D. 1171, the establishment of a bank at Venice. On this occasion, the Doge Vitale enforced a loan from the wealthiest citizens, and for this purpose established a “Chamber of Loans” (Camera degl’ imprestiti). The contributors to the loan were to receive interest at four per cent. (Vita de’ Duchi, p. 502.)
[661] This remarkable oration, necessarily condensed in the text, is given at great length in Daru. Hist. de la Rép. de Venise, ii. pp. 293-308; cf. also Sanuto, Vita de’ Duchi. Ap. Muratori, Antiq. xx. Rendered into English money (reckoning the ducat at 9s. 6d.), the following amounts are (for the year)—
| Ducats. | Pounds sterling. | |
| 1. From the northern towns | 1,794,000 = | 852,150 |
| 2. Imports of cloth | 900,000 = | 427,500 |
| 3. Spices, &c. | 1,871,000 = | 888,725 |
| 4. From all sources | 28,800,000 = | 13,680,000 |
| 5. Debt due by Milan | 1,600,000 = | 850,000 |
These amounts, however, do not represent the exact sums which flowed into the Venetian exchequer, as we are ignorant of the relative value of gold and silver at the period.
[662] M. Jal has given, in his work on Naval Architecture, a drawing of one of these galleys, but of a much later period—A.D. 1620.
[663] It is stated by Cinnamis (p. 165) in his life of Manuel Comnenus, that this vessel was built by a private Venetian noble, then sold by the builder to his own republic, and then presented to Manuel. Nicetas adds, that this vessel was in the arsenal at Constantinople in 1172, when the emperor tried to imprison all the Venetians there; and that they took it and made their escape in it, in spite of the fire-ships immediately sent after it. M. Jal (ii. pp. 142-152) has given very interesting extracts on the subject of this great vessel from the treatises of Marino and Filiasi. Smedley shows that the Venetians had owned another enormous ship at the siege of Ancona in 1157, which was called from its magnitude “Il Mondo”—“The World.”—Sketches of Venet. Hist. pp. 63, 64.
[664] Dandolo. Chron. Venet.
[665] Cinnam. Vit. Manuel Comnen.
[666] St. Louis returned from the Holy Land in a “Nef,” which carried eight hundred persons. See M. Jal, “Mémoire sur les vaisseaux ronds de Saint Louis,” ii. pp. 347-446, where all the passages are collected which bear on this subject.
[667] Statut. Marseill. i. c. xxxiv.