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634 Magnus Ressel

Botestagno, either to Primolano and Bassano, or via Vittorio Veneto
and Treviso.
In order to analyse this direct traffic, we must thus turn our atten-
tion to Treviso and Bassano. Selected data from the Bilanci generali of
the Republic of Venice are helpful in this regard. We shall look at the
custom revenues from the silk tariffs at Treviso and Bassano as well
as the ones on freight wagons between Treviso and Mestre (Table 2).
This shall be compared to the incidental data we have on the custom
revenues of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi (Table 3).
53

Table 2: Income from customs offices of the Republic of Venice in ducats, 1760-1783
Camera di Treviso, Cassa obbligata
Dacio seda Treviso e Trevisan, Dacio carri Treviso
Bassan con Saraval e Mestre
1760 3,620 526
1765 3,500 470
1775 4,962 677
1780 5,110 677
1783 5,530 782
Source: A. Ventura, Bilanci generali della Repubblica di Venezia: Vol. 4. Bilanci dal 1753 al
1783, Antoniana, Padua, 1972, pp. 10-11, 262-265.

These figures show that the trade in silk from the Treviso and Bassano
areas clearly increased in these years. Customs on wagons between Tre-
viso and Mestre also yielded growing returns, indicating increasingly
dense traffic between the two locations after the 1760s. This may indicate
a stronger traffic to Germany in these years but it is yet too shaky a base
to directly conclude such a far reaching assertion. To get a clearer picture
in this regard, we shall compare this data with the import statistics for
goods between the city of Venice and Germany (Table 3).

Table 3: Import statistics of the official Venetian – Germany trade in ducats,
1772/73-1789/90
Total trade Total trade
Registro Nr. Years Importations Exportations
13 1772/73 1262977 562074
18 1773/74 1035844 692015
23 1774/75 1091595 643782
29 1775/76 780003 1021553
35 1776/77 728023 727481

53 The results here nuance, due to a better data set available to me now, some of my
assertions made in: M. Ressel, Protestantische Händlernetze cit.

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