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The ‘backbone’ of the Serenissima: Venice and the trade with the Holy Roman... 637

following years. The picture is thus overall one of a solid growth that
fits well with the data from table 2 .
57
However, the exportations stand in stark contradiction to table
2. While we saw there a rise in the silk trade, a trade that tradition-
ally went over land and thus northwards, here, we see a constant
shrinking, with a short-lived flicker of growth in the years of the
war of American Independence. However, also this may be rather
easily explained. Silk came only from the Terraferma and it went
directly northwards without touching the city of Venice. Thus, we
most likely see here the result of a substantial (proto-)industrial
growth on the Terraferma while the city of Venice was less and less
producing products in demand on the German market. This has to
remain at the moment a likely hypothesis to which some indications
can be added. Looking at the growth of transit traffic via Tyrol in
the last quarter of the 18 century, we see a rise especially in silk
th
products . And this came mostly from the territory of Venice.
58
Andrea Bonoldi showed that in 1803 only 37 percent of the weight
and 15 percent of the values of all goods transported on the Tyro-
lean routes came from Trieste; the rest came from the former
Serenissima . Very likely these figures had probably been even
59
more favourable for Venice before the fall of the Republic. Thus,
also the exportations from the Republic of Venice towards Germany
developed in most likelihood in a rather solid direction in the last
third of the century, and only the city of Venice did here less well.
This brings us back to one important aspect mentioned at the
beginning. Commerce between Germany and Venice always stood
in close relation to maritime commerce. This relation changed from
the 17 to the 18 centuries. While in the 17 century, the compe-
th
th
th
tition between both transportation media was more pronounced, in
the 18 , the aspect of complementarity came more to the fore. Silk,
th
a high value textile product, was exported via land northwards,
while the cheaper textiles from Germany went over the Alps to the
Italian harbour cities for their further re-exportation via the sea.
The Venetian-German trade relations were now less threatened by
cheap maritime transport, they were more integrated into the global
circuits based on it.
60

57 This is also confirmed by: A. Sambo, La balance de commerce de la République de
Venise: sources et méthodes, «Cahiers de la Méditerranée», A. 84 (2012), pp. 396-399.
58 A. Bonoldi, La fiera cit., pp. 382-394.
59 Ibidem, p. 365.
60 I have treated the subject in: M. Ressel, The Global Presence, cit.

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