Page 90 - 1

616 Magnus Ressel

second one was the oceanic trade between the North Sea and the Me-
diterranean along the Iberian and French coasts. This system stood in
competition with the transalpine trades but also complemented it.
Here, too, the comparative perspective is crucial to understanding the
developments of German Venetian trade.
A problem that is particularly evident in Italian research was the
underestimation of Venice’s potential to act proactively as a political
entity with regard to trade with Germany. Especially Italian histori-
ans of the second half of the 20 century highlighted the ossified
th
nature of the Venetian political system and its resulting incapacity
to properly react to problems in the economic field. With such a con-
viction they stood among a long tradition of historians from the early
19 century onwards who regarded the Venetian state as having
th
been incapable of fundamental reforms. A dysfunctional intensity
and number of complex structures hindered decision-making and re-
sulted in an overall paralysis .
7
In the following, I shall attempt an overview that gives a coherent
picture of the dynamics that characterised German-Venetian trade in
the last century and a half of the Republic’s existence, with an empha-
sis on the second half of the 17 century. As the topic is as vast as the
th
time span covered, only a summary overview can be striven for. High-
lighted shall be crucial aspects that shaped the further developments
profoundly. The article is structured as follows: firstly, the fundamen-
tal aspects of the mid-17 century crisis of German-Italian trade shall
th
be carved out. Afterwards follows an analysis of the measures put in
place by the affected political entities to cope with the problems of this
time span, with a focus on the Republic of Venice. The resulting de-
velopments of the 18 century shall be summarily indicated at in the
th
following chapter. A conclusion binds the findings together and asks
whether we can still speak of the German trade of Venice in the 18
th
century as “somewhat the backbone” of the Serenissima – and, if so,
how much of this was due to its political activities in the economic
sphere.

7 Exemplary for many writings in this vein may be the following citation: «La realtà
sei-settecentesca della Dominante, esprime più l’ipotesi di uno stato economicamente
legato ad aree che configurano una sorta di arcipelago e la cui autonomie si rinforza alla
luce stessa di un ceto di governo, incapace a rinnovare se stesso e ad attuare concreta-
mente quei programmi riformistici, che pura animavano il dibattito politico», P. Lanaro,
I mercati nella Repubblica veneta: Economie cittadine e stato territoriale (secoli XV-XVIII),
Marsilio, Venice, 1999, p. 125.

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