the terraferma state 103
influence between grain prices had probably only affected Venice and the
eastern terraferma in the 15th century, but their alignment now covered
a more extensive area.37 Though government action included more sys-
tematic surveys of provincial stocks, in important fringe areas it could not
control but only guess at the extent of largely illicit imports (from Span-
ish Lombardy to the Bergamasco) and exports (from the Venetian shores
of lake Garda to the Trentino). Mainland governors were constantly con-
cerned with food supply, especially urban; their task was complicated in
the eastern provinces by grain flows towards the capital, both spontane-
ous and imposed, and everywhere by conflicting local interests, including
landowning civic aristocracies’ profit priorities, and consequent conduct
of supply policy.
The creation of the Savi alla Mercanzia (1507) heralded more resolute
trade and industry policy towards the mainland too, especially pressure to
route via Venice long-distance trade flows concerning the provinces, and
partly to favor the capital’s textile production over the terraferma’s, as in
silk-weaving.38 Nonetheless, such pressure was only partly successful, and
commerce and manufacturing in the dominion continued to evolve, over-
all, less in relation to state policy and more in relation to complex market
forces. As well as encouraging the diversification of the wool industry,
booming production and export of silk thread, and—with belated Vene-
tian assent—the development of silk-weaving too, such forces favored
the higher profile of manufacturing and trade in locations other than the
major cities: primarily the valleys north of Bergamo and Brescia, the Salò
Riviera, and the foothill swathe from the Vicentino (including Schio) east-
wards via Bassano to the Trevigiano (including Asolo and Follina)—areas
mostly characterized by advantages in the availability and/or cost of raw
materials, labor, and hydraulic energy.
età moderna (Milan, 1994). More generally, Andrea Zannini, “Sempre più agricola, sempre
più regionale. L’economia della Repubblica di Venezia da Agnadello al Lombardo-Veneto
(1509–1817),” in Del Torre and Viggiano, eds., 1509–2009. L’ombra di Agnadello, pp. 137–71;
Danilo Gasparini, Serenissime campagne. Terre, contadini, paesaggi nella Terraferma veneta
(Verona, 2011).
37 Francesco Vecchiato, Pane e politica annonaria in terraferma veneta tra secolo XV
e secolo XVIII (il caso di Verona) (Verona, 1979); Gigi Corazzol, Fitti e livelli a grano. Un
aspetto del credito rurale nel Veneto del ’500 (Milan, 1979).
38 Lanaro, ed., At the Centre; Lanaro, I mercati; Anna Bellavitis, “Quasi-città e terre
murate in area veneta: un bilancio per l’età moderna,” in Elena Svalduz, ed., L’ambizione
di essere città. Piccoli, grandi centri nell’Italia rinascimentale (Venice, 2004), pp. 97–114.