?66 



NA TURE 



[August 8, 1907 



threatened. But so necessary had the commerce of \"enice 

 become to the inhabitants of the territory acknowledging 

 the authority of Aquileia that in order to bring about the 

 submission of the Patriarch of Aquileia it was enough to 

 close or blockade the port of Pilo, on the mainland oppo- 

 site the hit. The subjects of Aquileia then forced the 

 patriarch to sue for peace.' On another occasion, in a 

 dispute with the Bishops of Belluno and Treviso, the 

 matter was again partly settled through the eRicacy of 

 the measures taken by the Doge Orseolo II., with the 

 consent of the people, to stop commerce with the territory 

 of the bishops, by which the inhabilsnts found themselves 

 without supplies of salt, and without the means of ex- 

 changing their leather and meat for Venetian wares or 

 selling the abundant timber of their forests for the build- 

 ing of Venetian ships.' In holding the outlets for mari- 

 time commerce Venice fell herself to be in the possession 

 of " the keys of trade," to use the expression employed 

 by Sir William Petty in speaking of the analogous position 

 of Holland in later times at the mouths of the Rhine, 

 Meuse, and Scheldt. 



But while possession on the mainland was not necessary 

 to Venice she always recognised and sought the advantage 

 of good relations with the occupants of the plains behind 

 her, whoever these occupants might be, and on every 

 occasion endeavoured to turn to her own benefit the 

 vicissitudes of tiiose plains. In her early days she is found 

 now in alliance with the Greeks, now with the Pope, now 

 with the archbishops of Ravenna, and now with the 

 Lombards, just as it happened to suit her interests, and 

 in any case taking every opportunity of obtaining direct 

 and indirect advantages from trade with the most profit- 

 able customers in the plains. When famine pursued the 

 steps of the Lombard invaders of Italy in the sixth century 

 " the Venetians in their pacific retreat," says Mutinelli," 

 " could send their ships to the ports of Apulia and else- 

 where to obtain victuals and corn for the famished 

 barbarians," and in consequence the Lombards took them 

 under their protection and granted them security and 

 favours throughout the Lombard kingdom. When Charle- 

 magne, at the invitation of the Pope, invaded Italy to 

 deliver the Church from its subjection to the Lombards, 

 Venetian traders promptly appeared in the camp of the 

 Franks at Pavia and sold to the Prankish chiefs all the 

 riches of the East — Tyrian purples, the plumage of gay 

 birds, siiks, and other ornaments, pranked in which the 

 purchasers stalked about in their pride, feeling, no doubt, 

 that now at last they had conquered a land the wealth of 

 which would reward all their labours and hardships.' 

 Charlemagne, it is true, was inclined to look with little 

 favour on the Venetians, whom he regarded as supporters 

 of the Greeks, but an attack by his son Pepin in 8og 

 on the islands of the lagoon only served to establish the 

 strength and security of their position, at least on the 

 inner islands of the lagoon. By closing the passages of 

 the canals, removing the navigation beacons, and fortify- 

 ing and barring the chief entrances to the land they 

 succeeded in holding out during a siege of six months, 

 until the heats of summer began to decimate the troops 

 of Pepin, who, on hearing also of the approach of a Greek 

 fleet, came to terms with the Venetians on conditions 

 similar to those which had been maintained with the 

 Lombards. The Venetians agreed to a tribute, but solely 

 for the narrow strip of territory held on the mainland 

 and in return for commercial privileges in the Prankish 

 dominion, not for any recognition of the existence of the 

 State. The tribute was afterwards paid or withheld 

 according to the power which the Emperors showed of 

 enforcing it; but one permanent result of this incident 

 was that the Venetians, perceiving the smaller security 

 belonging to the islands nearer the mainland, of their own 

 choice made the Rialto the capital of their little State' 

 (Sio). 



.^s a last illustration of the nature of the relations of 

 Venice to the North Italian plains we may refer to some 



1 Ronianin, "Storia documenlata di Venezia," vol. i., pp. 107-8. 



- Ibiil., pp. 270-1. 



s *' Del Ccminercio dei Veneziani," p. 12. 



■* " De rebus bellicis Caroli Magni," L. iii., qucted by Romanln, as above. 



130. 



;abo 





, pp. 144-9. 



NO. 1 97 I, VOL. 76] 



)07l 



of the points mentioned in a celebrated and often quoted 

 address delivered to the principal senators of Venice by 

 the Doge Mocenigo just before his death {1423), at the 

 time at which Venetian trade was at the very height of its 

 prosperity. At that time Venice was in possession of a 

 considerable tract of adjacent territory on the mainland, 

 and there was a parly favourable to further action on the 

 part of Venice against the growing power of .Milan. The 

 aged and sagacious Doge feared that this party was going 

 to gain the upper hand and elect as his successor 

 Francesco Foscari, who, he thought, would involve them 

 in dangerous and disastrous as well as useless enterprises. 

 The immediate occasion of the conflict of views in the 

 Venetian Senate was a request of the Florentines for sup- 

 port against alleged designs of the Duke of Milan. 

 Mocenigo, however, not only warned the senators in the 

 most earnest and urgent language against Foscari person- 

 ally, but also advised them against the particular enter- 

 prise, maintaining that it was of no consequence even if 

 the Duke of Milan made himself master of Florence, since 

 the artisans of Milan would continue to send their manu- 

 factures to Venice, and the Venetians would be enriched 

 to the loss of the Florentines. He then went on to give 

 particulars of the trade of Venice at that time, dwelling 

 specially on the value of that with Lombardy. To 

 Lombardy alone, it appears, Venice sold every year cloths 

 to the value of 400,000 ducats, tele (? linens) to the value 

 of 10,000 ducats : wools of France and Spain to the value 

 of 240,000 duc:its, cotton to the value of 250,000 ducats, 

 wine to the value of 30,000 ducats, cloth of gold and silk 

 to the value of 250,000 ducats, soap to the same value, 

 spices and sugar to the value of 539,000 ducats, dye-woods 

 to the value of 120,000 ducats, other articles 110,000 

 ducats : in all, goods to the value of more than 2,500,000 

 ducats, the profit amounting to quite half a million ducats. 

 With the exaggeration that comes natural to a lover of 

 his country .Mocenigo goes on to say rather grandiloquently 

 that to the Venetians alone land and sea were equally 

 open; to them only belonged the carriage of all riches, 

 they were the providers of the entire world. 



All this trade, as well as that of Genoa and othe' 

 Italian ports wliich shared with others in the spice trade 

 must have had a remarkably fructifying effect in North 

 Italy generally. .Agriculture and manufactures would be 

 alike promolcd. and in consequence of that the growth 

 of population ; and wlien war, with its attendant scourges, 

 led to a diminution both of industry and population, this 

 commerce could not fail to assist in bringing about a 

 speedy recovery. It has already been hinted that in manu- 

 factures both Milan and Florence took a prominent place 

 in the time of iMocenigo. In truth, manufactures in both 

 cities are of much older date, and it may be interesting 

 to mention here that even in the thirteenth century English 

 wool was a commodity sufficiently valuable to bear thp 

 cost of transport to Florence. A letter has come down 

 to us,' dated London, January 6, 12S4, from the repre- 

 sentative of a Florentine house, giving particulars as to 

 purcha.scs that he had made, in many cases for several 

 years in advance, of all or a portion of the wool of manv 

 English monasteries from Netley and Titchfield, in Hants, 

 and Robertsbridgc, in Sussex, to Grimsby, in Lincoln- 

 shire, and Sawley, on the Ribble, in the county of York 

 (one of these monasteries, you may be interested to learn, 

 as near Leicester as Monks Kirby, about midway between 

 Rugby and Nuneaton) ; and from the work in which this 

 letter is published we also get particulars" as to the cost 

 of conveying wool from London by way of Libourne to 

 the Mediterranean port of Aigues Mortes in the same or 



1 Published (176s') in a work having r-o authors name, hut staled in the 

 Kriti'h Museum Caialoeue 10 be by G. F. Pagnini della Ventura, and 

 bearing the title " Delia Decima e delle altre Cravezze della Moneta. 

 e della Mercatura de' Fiorentini fino al secolo XVI." the third v.ilume nf 

 which contains " I.a Praties della Mercatura " of Balducci Peeolotti 

 (ascribed to the first half of the fourteenth century), under whose name the 

 work is entered in the British Museum Cataloeue. The date of the letter 

 is given on p. 04 of vol. ii., and the letter itself on pp. 324-7 of the same 

 volume. For the identifiration of the names of monasteries in Iheir much 

 [•isKuised Itali.-in forms and spelling I am indebted to mv friend Mr. .A. B. 

 Hinds, M A., editor of the last issued volume of the "Calendar of Sta'e 

 Papers (Venice)." iVIosl of Them, however, are entered and identified in 

 the list eiven from Pegolotti on pp. 6!Q-4t of Cunningham's " Growth of 

 English Industry and Commerce, Early and Middle Ages," 4th edition- 



■■: Ibht, 



, pp. 261-3. 



