Page 103 - 1

The ‘backbone’ of the Serenissima: Venice and the trade with the Holy Roman... 629

hostile environment, as they had been met with substantial opposition
within the state and from the immediate neighbours in the north,
namely the county of Tyrol and the bishopric of Trent .
42
The need for such reforms had been intense. Transalpine long-dis-
tance trade and the one group that was mostly responsible for it, the
German nation in Venice, had been in some peril from the early 17
th
century onwards. The Thirty Years War had been problematic due to
its destructiveness, and afterwards transalpine trade could only re-
cover for a short time span, as Dutch and English shipping in the
Mediterranean increased from the mid-century onwards to a degree
hitherto unimaginable.
We may even presume that the reform package of the Republic of
Venice would not have sufficed to turn the tides. However, geopolitical
factors came to its aid. From 1688 to 1713, an intense corsair war was
fought, interrupted for just four years, from 1697 to 1701. This pushed
again a substantial amount of North-South trade on the transalpine
routes. In these years we see also improvements of the logistics be-
tween the Netherlands and Italy, effectuated by several haulers in Ger-
many. Trade over land was experiencing a structural resurgence as
compared with trade over the oceans. This held especially true for val-
uable textile products .
43
Nevertheless, we seemingly see after the war a substantial decline
in trade relations. As the corsair wars in the 18 century were rather
th
mitigated by the activities of neutral shipping, especially Dutch or
Scandinavian, trade over the Alps did not again receive such a boost
as it did between 1688 and 1713 until the Revolutionary Wars. The
result was apparently clear if we follow the customs revenues of the
Fondaco along the 18 century (Diagram 1).
th
The overall impression is one of constant decline. The sudden rise
in imports in 1751 can be explained by a toll reform that increased
many Venetian tolls. This does not, then, reflect rising trade. The same
holds true for rapidly sinking export values in 1736: these reflect a
reduction in this toll and not a sudden drop in activity. Excluding
these two external factors, we see a constantly decreasing yield. Thus,
it may seem legitimate to conclude, like other authors who saw these
figures did, that German-Venetian trading relations were shrinking
during the 18 century, to eventually become marginal at its end .
44
th

42 On the opposition of the Venetian magistracy of the Regolatori sopra li dazi, not
touched on here, see: ibidem, pp. 285-286, 298-301, 335-367.
43 On these aspects see in detail: ibidem, pp. 121-129.
44 One author who came to such a conclusion was: M. Costantini, Commercio e ma-
rina, in P. del Negro, P. Preto (eds.), Storia di Venezia. Dalle origini alla caduta della
Serenissima: L’ultima fase della Serenissima, Treccani, Rome, pp. 555-612.

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