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622 Magnus Ressel

Verona and in Rovereto. These changes came into force in March
1657. The Habsburgs also managed to enter into a favourable customs
treaty with the Electorate of Bavaria a year later, which was especially
aimed at facilitating the trade between Germany and Venice .
25
The success was soon visible in a slight increase in the customs
revenues of Tyrol, whose rates had not changed – only in Rovereto had
the Austrians reduced their charges . Thus, the Venetian and Tyro-
26
lean politicians had shown themselves capable of identifying a prob-
lem and solving it within a relatively short time span. Moreover, the
Venetian decision-making structures had proven to be up to the chal-
lenge. The entire affair had been handled by the Cinque Savi alla Mer-
canzia, an influential board charged with economic politics . It seems
27
that Verona, a relatively important city within the Republic of Venice
with prerogatives for its tolls, was not asked for its opinion, let alone
given a say in this matter of Veronese toll charges.
However, the states along the other alpine pass systems soon re-
acted towards the reinvigorated traffic along Tyrol. In the late 1650s,
the city of Chur granted very substantial toll reductions to merchants
from Zurich and Lindau. This did not result in growth of transalpine
trade via the Splügen, but it did ensure a continuing competitiveness
of traffic over this pass . Furthermore, maritime trade between the
28
North Sea and the Mediterranean grew significantly in the late 1650s.
While England had sent only 150 ships to Livorno between 1652 and
1656 and the Dutch Republic 125, the numbers were 259 English
ships and 203 Dutch ships between 1657 and 1661 . Even after sig-
29
nificant cost reductions, trade over the Alps was still too expensive.
Tyrol fell to the Viennese line of the house of Habsburg in 1665.
Soon after the takeover, some merchants and officials of Tyrol ap-
proached Vienna to help them stimulate trade between Augsburg and
Venice. According to the Tyrolians, the traffic was still abandoning Ty-
rol to the benefit of the Gotthard and Grison passes. They asked the
emperor as nominal head of Frankfurt and Augsburg as well as other
territories in between, and especially as direct ruler of Tyrol, to ensure
that the traffic from Naples, Sicily, Genoa, Florence, Bologna, and

25 M. Ressel, Protestantische Händlernetze im langen 18. Jahrhundert. Die deutschen
Kaufmannsgruppierungen und ihre Korporationen in Venedig und Livorno von 1648 bis
1806, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 2021, pp. 110-111.
26 C. Redolfi Bragagna, Die Finanzgebarung cit., pp. 66-67.
27 On this magistracy see still: M. Borgherini-Scarabellin, Il Magistrato dei Cinque
Savi alla Mercanzia dalla istituzione alla caduta della Repubblica: Studi storico su docu-
menti d’archivio, Deputazione di storia patria, Venice, 1925.
28 M. Ressel, Protestantische Händlernetze cit., pp. 112-114.
29 R. Ghezzi, Livorno e l’Atlantico cit., p. 42.

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