Society, Administration And Identities In Latin Greece 131
Recognising the ineffectiveness of the system at the economic level as well as
the risk to the Venetian state sustained because of the constantly mounting
dissatisfaction of the rural populations, in 1589 the provveditor general of
Crete, Zuanne Mocenigo, proposed the redistribution of land and the allo-
cation of small lots to landless farmers.28 However, Mocenigo’s proposals,
as well as other Venetian plans for the reformation of the landowning sys-
tem, clashed with the Venetian state’s conservatism and were, in fact, never
applied. Nevertheless, apart from the feudal demesnes, from the first centuries
of Venetian rule in the Greek lands there is evidence of both large-scale and
small-scale full landownership. This came to the fore during the final centuries
of Venetian dominion, especially in the Ionian Islands.
The second factor contributing to the moulding of the social dynamics of
the Greek-Venetian East was the “city”. Venice assigned especial weight to the
creation of urban hubs, mainly city-ports, which functioned as administrative,
economic, religious and cultural centres. The population sizes of these cities
differed widely from region to region. For example, while the population of
the capital of Crete, Candia, at certain periods exceeded the number of 20,000,
those of many of the Aegean island-fortresses were as small as a few hundred.
The social origins of the city populations were diverse. Initially, the obli-
gation of settling the developing urban centres fell to the upper social stra-
tum, the nobles/feudatories or cittadini (depending on the region) who were
usually organised into urban communities, notwithstanding that their basic
economic activity was agrarian exploitation. Gradually, their residence in the
cities transitioned from being a coercive obligation towards the state to being
a potent badge of social prestige. Meanwhile, already from the earliest days of
Venetian rule the economic opportunities provided by the cities conduced to
the increase of their population and to the formation of the three social strata,
as noted above: a) nobles or citizens (cittadini), b) citizens (cittadini, civili),
c) populace (popolo, plebe).29
The urban landscape differed vastly from the rural environment, with its
massive city walls, impressive public and religious buildings, rich private pal-
aces, but also densely-populated neighbourhoods of humble dwellings, quar-
ters occupied by particular population groups (first and foremost the Jewish
quarter), commercial streets as well as a coastal commercial zone dominated
by dockyards, customs houses, warehouses for goods and supplies, taverns and
28 Stergios G. Spanakis, ed., Μνημεία Κρητικής Ιστορίας [Monuments of Cretan History] 6 vols.
(Herakleio, 1940), 1:45–49.
29 Papadia-Lala, “Κοινωνική συγκρότηση στις πόλεις.”