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The ‘backbone’ of the Serenissima: Venice and the trade with the Holy Roman... 631

This sentence is only understandable when we consider its back-
ground. In the first three decades of the 18 century there had again
th
been a strong quarrel between the Grisolotti and the German nation.
In this litigation, the Grisolotti had found support from Swiss and Gri-
son traders and even some South German Faktoren, who resented be-
ing excluded from the privileges of the Fondaco. In the end, it resulted
in the Germans no longer being able to tax the Grisolotti as they had
been doing since the late 15 century. However, the Grisolotti also lost
th
in this litigation, as the Venetian Republic forced them to register in a
specific list as a separate nation. Hitherto they had sometimes used
the Fondaco (since 1671 without privileges) or the ordinary toll sta-
tions, depending on what was cheaper for the specific products. Once
registered as a separate nation, the Grisolotti would have lost access
to the ordinary toll stations and only the Fondaco would remain able
to use them. Thus, many Grisolotti, who had hitherto used the Fondaco
now formally became Venetians, and only used the ordinary toll sta-
tions. As the Grisolotti had contributed more than half of the income
of the Fondaco in the 1720s, their abandoning of the Fondaco seriously
impacted its revenues .
46
One further impact came in the 1760s, when Venice expelled a sub-
stantial number of Grison artisans from the territory of the Republic.
As these were mostly Protestants, they could not become Venetians
like the Grisolotti. They had in fact wandered seasonally to and from
the Republic, with substantial toll exemptions due to a military alli-
ance. However, this group had not just included artisans but also
small merchants, who usually had to use the Fondaco for their exports
fabricated in Venice. This explains why they hardly imported goods
and thus why their expulsion led only to a fall in the exports via the
Fondaco . The trade curve would look much more stable were it not
47
for the losses of the Grisolotti and Grisons, who no longer were able to
use the Fondaco toll especially after the 1730s and 1760s respectively.
The question remains as to what happened after 1770, as this is not
covered by the data assembled by Campos.
Looking at another diagram seemingly indicative of traffic from Ger-
many to Venice, we again have a picture of decaying commercial rela-
tions. Along Verona, the goods weighed in the toll station of the
Stadella halved in the second half of the 18 century (Diagram 2).
th

46 M. Ressel, Protestantische Händlernetze cit., pp. 339-360.
47 On the Grigioni and their expulsion in the 1760s, see: J. Jegerlehner, Die politi-
schen Beziehungen Venedigs zu den drei Bünden: vornehmlich im achtzehnten Jahrhun-
dert, «Jahrbuch für schweizerische Geschichte», A. 23 (1898), pp. 227-331.

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