INDUSTRIAL AND POLITICAL HISTORY OF COMMERCE. 





horizon of commerce spread to its widest circumference 

 a Krr:it armament, starting in 1204 for the recovery of 

 Jerusalem, took advantage of factions in Constantinople, and 

 1 <>ut of its routo to soize that city. Blind old Dandolo, 

 u:e, headed this enterprise, in which a French 

 roiitiir^.'ut, had hocn persuaded to take part. In the division 

 of the spoil the Venetians looked chiefly to themselves. Henry 

 Dandolo took the curious title, accurately descriptive of the 

 ::ins' share, of " Lord of Three-eighths of the Roman 

 ." They also made bargains with the needy crusaders, 

 tuul thus increased their share of the capital and its provinces. 

 In this way they became possessed of the Peloponnesus, Cyprus, 

 .1, and the Ionian Islands places which they long re 

 tained. 



The revolution brought about by the Genoese and Greeks in 

 IJi'-l led to the banishment of the Venetians from Constanti- 

 nople and the Black Sea. Venice now turned her attention to 

 Alexandria, with which port so profitable a trade was carried on 

 that the merchants were able to disarm ecclesiastical threaten- 

 ing by large bribes, and yet to enrich themselves. But a 

 few years later the Venetians again asserted their pre-eminence 

 over the Genoese in a great naval battle, and once more opened 

 to themselves the trade with the Black Sea. The fruits of this 

 victory were subsequently lost to them, for the Turks took 

 Constantinople, and with their chilling apathy deadened at once 

 every form of industry and enterprise. Yet the Venetians were 

 loft supremo in the Mediterranean. Alexandria, the rendezvous 

 of their Barbary fleet, received olive-oil, fruits both fresh and 

 dried, and honey ; cloths, velvet, and furs ; copper, lead, ver- 

 milion, and quicksilver ; giving in return the products of Africa 

 and Asia. From Dalmatia, which under Doge Orseolo II. (997) 

 became a possession of Venice, were obtained timber, wines, oil, 

 flax, hemp, grain, and dried fruits ; fat cattle, wool, and furs ; 

 lead and quicksilver ; and finally, slaves. Orseolo II. gave 

 a new impulse to navigation. He formed trade relations with 

 distant parts, farmed out the customs, and obtained the abolition 

 of inland duties in Germany. 



Commerce is so identified with the history of this aristocratic 

 republic, that an account of its government throws light upon 

 its trade and advancement. There were, at the end of the 

 fourteenth century, 1,000 nobles a number which subsequently 

 increased to 1,500 who grew so haughty that the saying 

 went round on the birth of a son, " A lord is born into the 

 world." At the head of the government was the Doge, and 

 under him six lords (signoria) or councillors. A senate, often 

 chosen from the citizens, formed a permanent council, and 

 under them three inquisitors completed the legislative and 

 executive power. The policy of the government was to extend 

 trade. A powerful navy was formed for defence, for war, and 

 for colonisation. Industry was encouraged, so that the city at 

 length prospered as much from manufactures as from commerce. 

 A quarter of a million of people crowded its thoroughfares. The 

 mud hovels built at first were transformed into marble palaces, 

 and the few poor shrinking fishermen hiding for their lives 

 became the wealthiest people in Europe; masters, for a time, 

 of Candia, Greece, and Constantinople ; celebrated for their 

 treasures of art, the perfection of their manufactures, and the 

 vast ness of their commerce. Hotels arose for the accommoda- 

 tion of strangers, and the boundaries expanded to meet the 

 wants of the growing population. Water-highways, skimmed 

 D 7 gay gondolas and lined with princely residences, intersected 

 the city everywhere. The flags of every nation waved at the 

 quays, and the merchants who met on the Rialto eagerly offered 

 enormous rents for the smallest vacant counter. The very first 

 bank guaranteed by a state was an institution founded in this 

 " City of Waters," in 1157. Pope Innocent IV. made use of it 

 to pay 25,000 silver marks to a Frankfort burgher. Venice 

 coined large amounts of money for its trade, and for that 

 purpose received at its mint gold and silver bars from various 

 countries. 



In the fourteenth century Venice had 3,000 merchantmen 

 manned by 25,000 sailors. A tenth part of these were ships 

 exceeding 700 tons' burden. There were besides 45 war-galleys 

 manned by 11,000 hands ; and 10,000 workmen, as well as 36,000 

 seamen, were employed in the arsenals. The largest of the war- 

 galleys was called the Bucentaur : it was a state or municipal 

 barge of the most gorgeous description. Every year the Doge 

 of V .nice, seated upon a magnificent throne surmounted by a 



regal canopy, dropped from this rectal a ring into the Adriatic., 

 to symbolise the fact that land and sea were united under the 

 Venetian flag. This ceremony commemorated the victory gained 

 over the fleet of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in 1177, 

 when the Venetian* obliged him to roe for peace. Ascension 

 Day was selected for its celebration, and the Bucentaur, glorious 

 with new scarlet and gold, its deck and teat* inlaid with costly 

 woods, and rowed with long banks of burnished oars, for many 

 years bore the Doge to plight bis troth with the words, " We 

 espouse thee, O Sea ! in token of true and eternal sovereignty." 

 The merchant fleet of Venice was divided into companies 

 sailing together according to their trade. Their routes, and 

 the days for departure and return, their size, armament, crew, and 

 amount of cargo, were all rigidly defined. In those times toe 

 seas were as much infested with pirates as the deserts with 

 robbers ; each squadron therefore hired a convoy of war-galleys 

 for its protection on the voyage. There were six or seven such 

 squadrons in regular employment. The argosies of Cyprus and 

 Egypt, and the vessels engaged in the Barbary and Syrian com' 

 merce, concentrated their traffic chiefly at Alexandria and Cairo. 

 The Armenian fleet proceeded to Constantinople and the Enxine, 

 visiting Kaffa and the Gulf of Alexandretta. A Catalonian fleet 

 traded with Spain and Portugal, and another with France ; while 

 the most famous of all, the Flanders galleys, connected the sea- 

 ports of France, England, and Holland with the great commercial 

 city of Bruges. 



Great as was the attention paid to the maritime trade, the 

 internal traffic with Germany and Italy was just as carefully 

 encouraged. Oriental produce arriving from Constantinople and 

 Egypt, and many other commodities, were distributed through- 

 out Germany, at first by way of Carinthia, and afterwards by way 

 of the Tyrol. Germans, Hungarians, and Bohemians conducted 

 this distribution. In Venice a sort of bonded warehouse (Fon. 

 daco dei Tedeschi), or custom-house, was accorded to the Ger- 

 mans, where they were allowed to offer their wares for sale, though 

 only to Venetian dealers. Similar privileges were granted to the 

 Armenians, Moors, and Turks, but not to the Greeks, against 

 whom a strong animosity prevailed, and who were only tolerated 

 for the sake of the profit they brought. 



From a state paper of the Doge Moncenigo, we learn some par- 

 ticulars of the inland trade with Italy. All the towns of Lom- 

 bardy were active buyers of Eastern commodities and Venetian 

 manufactures, but Florence was the best customer. Ten million 

 sequins (zechins) were thus annually brought into circulation. 

 Addressing the Venetians, ths Doge Moncenigo warily dissuades 

 them from war, by describing the value of their trade. " Ye are 

 the channel," he says, " through which all riches flow. Ye provide 

 'or the whole world. Everywhere men have a common concern 

 Ji our welfare, and gold from every source flows hither. Through 

 peace, our noble city has yearly 10,000,000 ducats employed as 

 mercantile capital in different parts of the world ; the annual 

 profit of our traders amounts to 4,000,000 ducats. Our hous- 

 ing is valued at 7,000,000 ducats, its rental at 500,000 ; 3,000 

 merchant ships carry on our trade ; 43 galleys, and 300 smaller 

 vessels, manned by 10,000 sailors, secure our naval power ; our 

 mint has coined 1,000,000 ducats within the year. From the 

 Milanese dominions alone we draw 1,000,000 ducats in coin, and 

 ;he value of 900,000 more in clothes ; our profit upon this traffic 

 may be reckoned at 600,000 ducats. Proceeding as you have 

 done, you will become masters of all the gold in Christendom ; 

 )ut war, and especially unjust war, will infallibly lead to ruin." 



It was not until 1272 that the citizens were permitted to 

 >ecome merchants on their own account. Foreign trade till 

 ;hen had been the sole prerogative of the nobles. Now, however, 

 permission was given for voyages to Marseilles, Montpelier, and 

 Aigues-Mortes, for the disposal of Venetian goods. 



Venetian commerce was very soon greatly enlarged by the enter- 

 prise of the citizens. Wool was brought by the Flanders gal- 

 eys, and made into black cloth for inland trade, and into scarlet 

 iextures for the Levant. This branch of industry was protected 

 by the prohibition of French and Flemish cloth, aa soon as the 

 superior cheapness of the last threatened the home produce. 

 Manufactures of linen, cotton, and camels' hair employed many 

 of the inhabitants. Silk-weavers, ostracised from their native 

 ity of Lucca for political reasons, found refuge in Venice, and 

 repaid their welcome by introducing an important branch of 

 .ndustry. Charlemagne usually wore a Venetian robe, and 

 his courtiers were filled "ritb wonder at the richness of the 



