venice’s maritime empire in the early modern period 189
the election of new members. In Cyprus, the Council of Nicosia was also
allowed to elect several district governors from among its members, to
elect the Greek Orthodox bishop of Nicosia, and to propose candidates
for money fiefs offered by the Dominante to needy members of the higher
classes.240
Most of these councils had an income of their own, which served for
the management of several local institutions, such as the Monte di Pietà,
which provided consumption loans for the poor; the Fondaco delle biave,
which was in charge of local grain supply for civil purposes; the Lazzaretto,
or quarantine institution and plague hospital; as well as various sorts of other
hospitals. Public schools were also maintained by the communities.241
The election to offices was an important activity, considering that
nearly all of them entitled their holders to receive salaries and other forms
of income. The number of offices tended to rise in the course of Venetian
rule of the territories concerned. Even a small center such as Umago, in
Istria, a town that in 1790 had merely 1534 inhabitants, counted 26 public
offices in the second half of the 18th century, and their salaries absorbed
about 50 per cent of the commune’s expenses.242
The plethora of offices held by local subjects, including those in the
Venetian colonial administration itself, could hardly be controlled by the
Venetian governors and often proved to be rather harmful to the public
administration. For example, the financial officers who were elected by
the community of Corfu to serve in the colony’s treasury (camera fiscale)
often lacked financial or administrative capabilities, which was a source of
great disorder in the treasury’s bookkeeping. The Republic’s consequent
inability to control these books opened the gate for further corruption. In
1606, the Provveditore Generale da Mar authorized the governors of Corfu
and their successors to dismiss incompetant treasury officers and to ask
the community council to elect others instead.243
240 Arbel, “Urban assemblies”; Arbel, “L’elezione dei prelati greci.”
241 Ε.g. Marianna Kolyva-Karaleka, “Για το “Fontego” της Ζακύνθου (16οσ–17os αι.). Το
πρόβλημα του επισιτισμού,” “Ο άρτος ημών.” Από το σιτάρι sto ψσωμί. Γ’ Τριήμερο Εργασίας.
Πήλιο, 10–12 Απριλιου 1992 (Athens, 1994), pp. 200–04; Anastasia Papadia-Lala, Ευαγή και
νοσοκομειακά ιδρύματα στη βενετοκρατούμενη Κρήτη (Venice, 1996); Christos Th. Desyllas, H
τράπεζα των φτωχών. Το Monte di Pietà της Κέρκυρας (1630–1864) (Athens, 2006); Pederin,
“Die venezianische Verwaltung... (XVI–XVIII Jh.),” p. 192 (Sebenico, 1624), p. 193 (Cattaro,
1636), p. 199 (Spalato, 1680).
242 Gullino, Atlante, CD-Rom; Ivetic, L’Istria moderna, p. 54.
243 Zannini, “Problemi di contabilità pubblica,” p. 93.