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628 Magnus Ressel

The Venetian side had, however, also looked closely at its advantage
when giving these strong privileges. Henceforth, only German resi-
dents as independent merchants in Venice were to enjoy them. Hith-
erto, so-called Faktoren, meaning employees of companies that had
their headquarters in Germany had also benefited from the privileges
of the German nation in Venice. Now the Faktoren lost access to the
German nation in Venice. The Venetians thus gave a strong incentive
for a “residentialisation” of Germans, which in fact soon happened in
substantial numbers.
Over the next seven years, the Venetian state continued the enlarge-
ment of the privileges under further lobbying from the German nation in
Venice, coupled with some external pressure. In 1672, the city of Lindau
and the Austrian authorities in Vorarlberg had concluded the Feldkircher
Abred, a kind of informal treaty, which eased the traffic from Lindau in
the direction of the Splügen pass . And in 1676, Livorno formally de-
39
clared itself a free-port, which resulted in a staggering growth of attrac-
tiveness . Thus, the Tyrolian routes remained under pressure from com-
40
petitors over land (Splügen route) as well as over sea (Livorno). Finally, in
1682, the Germans were allowed to use the Fondaco, with its privileges
for all trades with every part of Europe except for the imports from the
seaside. Here, the Germans always had to use the Stallaggio custom, just
like every other merchant of the city. For their exports over sea, they could
use the privileged Fondaco .
41

4. Glimpses into the 18 century
th

In a time span of 26 years, from 1656 to 1682, the Republic of Ven-
ice had substantially changed its toll system in the direction going over
the Alps as well as the Fondaco dei Tedeschi and the German nation
that resided inside it. The reforms had been far-reaching and pro-
found; they had not just been simple toll reductions. They were con-
nected to complex diplomatic negotiations with several partners along
the transalpine routes. Within Venice, they had been fine-tuned, sin-
gling out the German nation and granting many of their wishes but at
the same time moulding them to the interest of the Republic. The re-
forms with regard to the German nation had been made against a

39 Stadtarchiv Lindau, A III, 100,2, Concept Schreibens an die geheimbe Räth zu
Innsprugg de dato 8. Juny 1696.
40 C. Tazzara, The free port of Livorno and the transformation of the Mediterranean
world, 1574-1790, OUP, Oxford, 2017, pp. 137-165.
41 M. Ressel, Protestantische Händlernetze cit., pp. 298-301.

Mediterranea – ricerche storiche – Anno XIX – Dicembre 2022
ISSN 1824-3010 (stampa) ISSN 1828-230X (online)