History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce, Volume 1 (of 4)

by W. S. Lindsay

The public navy of Florence, consisting originally of only two galleys, had been now increased to eleven, besides fifteen “Fuste,” or smaller vessels.[707] Though manned and armed as ships of war, they were principally employed in the conveyance of merchandise to all places beyond Rome on the one side, and Genoa on the other, trading eastward with Constantinople, Kaffa, Trebizond, Alexandria, Tunis, Tripoli, and Sicily; and westward with Minorca, Majorca, Bona, and the western coast of Barbary, as well as with Catalonia, England, and Flanders. These voyages were timed so as not to interfere with each other. When there were no private bidders for the public galleys put up to auction for hire, which seldom happened, the voyage was made on account of the government. The sea-consuls settled the number of the crew and the armament of each galley, and nominated the captain, supercargo, and other officers, none of whom were allowed to be in any way connected with the consuls, or to own any part of the cargo: the consuls, too, were not permitted to share in this trade, except when the vessels were freighted on account of the government. The galleys bound westward sailed in September, and those for the Levant in February.

“On the day of sailing,” remarks Napier,[708] “the various ports at which the galleys were to touch, the period of their stay at each, their ultimate destination, the rates of freight, the names of the officers, and the number of the crews were duly published, except for the voyages to Catalonia and Sicily, which were kept secret for fear of pirates, by whom these coasts were particularly infested. A loan of seven thousand five hundred florins was advanced to the conductor for his expenses, but on good security; and the hire of a galley for the Levant, in 1458, amounted to one thousand four hundred and fifty-eight florins, all charges being paid by the conductor. A hundred and thirty men formed the crew and combatants of one galley, and the conductors of those in the Levant trade were bound to present a carpet, worth not less than fifteen florins, to the seignory on their return, also to carry public ambassadors, and those young men who were sent abroad to learn the art of trading.”

Under the rule, however, of the enlightened Lorenzo, the privileges conferred on these public galleys in their trading operations were entirely abolished, and the public permitted to build, freight, and sail such vessels as they pleased. Under his rule, also, the commercial relations with England were firmly established, and fresh treaties, more liberal in their character than even those of 1385, were made in 1490 and 1491.

Consular agents.

So far back as 1339, the Consulates of Florence, established in various European countries, are mentioned as old and widely-extended institutions. The appointment of the consul was for three years only; and he had to see that treaties were strictly observed, to administer justice, maintain order and reputable conduct amongst the merchants, and, besides other miscellaneous duties, to prevent “gambling and swearing.” Every Eastern consul was allowed a secretary at four florins a month, two attendants, three horses, and a dragoman, with an annual salary of four thousand aspers.[709] He was strictly prohibited from carrying on trade of any kind on his own account, and was not allowed, under a heavy penalty, to act as consul for other nations or advocate the cause of strangers.

Extent of the Florentine commerce, and cause of its decline.

In London, the Florentine consul received by way of remuneration one-twelfth of a penny for every pound sterling of exchange; a penny and half-penny on every pound sterling value of merchandize bought and sold; a penny and half-farthing on every pound sterling of securities; and ten pounds sterling on the cargo of any Florentine galley that arrived in England, on board of which the merchants were compelled to embark their goods, or were subject to the freight if they did not do so.[710] Similar privileges were granted to the consuls at Lyons and in Flanders: in Bruges they were even more specially favoured, as there the Florentine establishments, as we have seen, had flourished since the commencement of the thirteenth century, and her merchants were the most wealthy, and probably also the most numerous and influential in the city. Indeed, so powerful had the Florentine merchants and bankers become in foreign ports that, during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, they held a large portion of the trade of Europe in their hands. The whole of the banking of France was then monopolised by them, and a considerable part of her commerce. Spain, Portugal, Flanders, England, and even Venice, her proud competitor, were full of them. The Medici alone had at one time no fewer than sixteen banking establishments in different parts of Europe; and such was the extent and consequent credit of the Florentines, that many of the European mints, towards the close of the thirteenth century, including that of Edward I. of England, were mainly under their control.

Although the western nations, towards the close of the fifteenth century, resolved to direct more attention than they had hitherto done to commercial and maritime pursuits, their opposition would have produced little effect in depriving the Italian republics of those valuable branches of trade, of which they had long held almost an exclusive monopoly, had not the discoveries of the Portuguese, and the consequent alteration of the route of the trade with India, given to them an advantage, against which the Italians, with all their wealth, skill, and knowledge were unable to compete.

Nor were there wanting other causes beyond the discovery of a new route to India to bring about the decline and, at last, the annihilation of the once great republics of Italy. In spite of legislative enactments in favour of frugality, the Florentines, as they increased in wealth, became proud and haughty. There seems, indeed, to be a point in the career of nations as well as of prosperous individuals, when every move is attended with danger. Wealth, though a source of power, is fraught with evil. It as often makes men as nations, vain, presumptuous, and arrogant. Wealth is then no longer an instrument for its increase by the development of new sources of trade and commerce, or of the natural resources of a nation, but is made subservient to individual vanity in the erection of magnificent houses, in luxurious entertainments, or in other modes of extravagance prejudicial to the interests of the state.

Purse-proud men consider wealth essential to their greatness, and its lavish expenditure necessary to the maintenance of their position. They vie with each other in their houses, equipages, dress, dinners, and fêtes of every kind. As it is with individuals so it is with nations; and such was essentially the case with the Italian republics in their career after the fifteenth century. Each of the great cities then claimed for herself the honour of being the foremost in wealth, in power, and in splendour. Independent of each other, they became rivals, not merely for ascendancy, but in empty show. Trifling matters of etiquette were too frequently magnified into national insults. The most frivolous individual complaints were dealt with as matters requiring the serious consideration of the respective states. These petty animosities, the offsprings of overgrown wealth, and of its too frequent accompaniments, arrogance and vanity, imperceptibly increased in time into national jealousies and into a political rivalry, of a character dangerous to the well-being of all the republics. Their differences, craftily fermented by their more military neighbours, made them at last an easy prey to the despotism of an overwhelming German potentate, under whom the people of that rich and sunny land were held in subjection until the sympathies of the free states of Europe and the arms of a near and powerful nation were able in our own time to restore Italy to independence.