Page 107 - 1

The ‘backbone’ of the Serenissima: Venice and the trade with the Holy Roman... 633

the contrary. I thus follow up on Angelo Moioli, who expressed already
in 1985 doubts about the reliability of Venetian customs statistics. Im-
plicitly he sees them as largely detached from the reality of trade, prob-
ably due to intensive smuggling . But even without assuming heavy
51
smuggling, we can be sceptical on the representativeness of the Stadella
of Verona for German-Venetian traffic in the 18 century.
th
A contemporary from the 18 century shall be quoted in more detail
th
on this. The Tübingen professor Johann Friedrich LeBret (1732-1807),
who himself lived in Venice for a few years (1757-1761) and who had
particularly intensive contact with the German merchants in Venice,
analysed in one of his historical works on Venice the three different
routes of Venetian-German trade. He regarded the one about the Adige
and Verona as relatively unimportant, which confirms the picture we
got from the volumes handled at the Stadella. The route along Pon-
tebba and Friuli he saw as weakened by the rise of Trieste and its
hinterland trade. For the third route, LeBret drew a nuanced image:

The third pass, Primolano, received its goods from two sources. One was
northern Germany [= north of the Alps; MR], from where they came to Mestre
on wagons, where these were unloaded and loaded with other goods in return.
The second was Bolzano and the annual fairs there. These goods went from
there to Bassano via Primolano, and then to Trevisio, Padova and other places.
The second source has greatly decreased in our century. The first still exists
and serves partly for internal traffic of [the Republic of] Venice, partly for ship-
ments to Italy and the Levant 52 .

LeBret was certainly correct in his observation that traffic between
Venice and Germany had become independent of the Bolzano fairs.
The expression “still exists” for direct traffic, however, leaves a wide
scope for interpretation. Also, LeBret was vague about the routes here.
Of course, an important part of the direct traffic to Primolano came via
Bolzano. Alternatively, however, it could go towards Venice from

51 A. Moioli, Aspetti del commercio di transito nel Tirolo della seconda metà del Sette-
cento, in: G. Olmi, C. Mozzarelli (eds.), Il Trentino nel settecento fra Sacro Romano Impero e
antichi stati italiani, Il Mulino, Bologna, 1985, pp. 805-899, here pp. 831-832, 863-867.
52 LeBret, Staatsgeschichte der Republik Venedig […], Vol. 3, Hartknoch, Leipzig, Riga
1777, pp. 676-677: “Der dritte Paß Primolano empfieng seine Waaren aus einer gedoppelten
Quelle. Die eine war das nördliche Deutschland, das sie auf Wagen bis nach Mestre brachte,
sie auslud, und dagegen andere Waren einlud. Die zwote war Bozen und die dortigen
Jahrmärkte. Diese Waaren giengen über Primolano nach Bassano, und breitete sich her-
nach nach Trevigi, Padova und andere Orte aus. Die zwote Quelle hat in unserm Jahrhun-
dert sehr abgenommen. Die erste besteht noch, und dient theils zum innern Verkehr von
Venedig, theils zu Versendungen nach Italien und der Levante.”

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