98 Gasparis
The commute of military service to monetary contribution reflects not just
the gradual change of the feudatories’ mentality, but also that of the Venetian
state itself. It passed very easily and without any turbulence from a feudal
system imitating the western European ones (where landownership entailed
military service for the feudatory/knight) to a more flexible system of taxa-
tion and employment of mercenaries. Part of the reason for this development
was the subdivision of fiefs to such small segments that it was impossible to
determine what military service one owed for them. The sharing out of respon-
sibilities for military service between the owners of a formerly unified fief was
neither easy nor effective. On the contrary it was deemed a lot more effec-
tive to determine a suitable compensation payable to the fisc so that the state
might enlist its own army.
The subdivision of fiefs also entailed some problems for the feudatories
themselves, regarding the most advantageous ways of fulfilling their military
responsibilities. Particularly in the 14th century, when varnitio per socium was
the preferred method, there were petitions made to Venice for the consolida-
tion of serventarie into whole or half cavallarie and the enlistment of single
knights instead of multiple sergeants. Venice was favourably inclined towards
this plan and supervised it, taking care not to weaken the defensive system and
not to strengthen excessively the more powerful landowners.
As is evident, Venetian policy in the matter of landownership and in par-
ticular in the principle that the Republic should remain in direct ownership of
the land, remained stable. As regards the matter of who enjoyed useful owner-
ship, Venice showed herself more pragmatic, eventually accepting that Greeks
could own land under the same conditions as the Latins. The most important,
however, aspect of Venetian policy related to the broader aims that Venice had
set from the beginning. The whole venture was not an opportunistic exploita-
tion of a fertile and geographically important island; it was, rather, an inte-
grated plan with long-term prospects. Therefore, it was not enough to surround
the apparatus of government with a few powerful landowners representing
the metropolis and controlling agricultural production. It was necessary to
set up an entire class, with fully defined social and economic characteristics,
that would offer balance and prospects of growth in the new territory without,
however, threatening Venice’s central authority.
Venice’s next goal was to maintain, as far as possible, the distance between
colonists and natives in the political and (to an extent) the social field. She
eventually succeeded in excluding Greeks from high administrative and mili-
tary office, but not from landownership and economic activity. As regards the
social contacts of the two groups, it was inevitable that they would become
close, especially since most of the Venetians of Crete, after a certain period,