the venetian economy 263
might gather more than 20,000 ducats to rent a galley. As to the number
of active ships, the peak was reached in the 15th century, with 180 galleys
in circulation in the 1430s and 1440s. Successively, some routes were aban-
doned (such as those for the Balkans), and other voyages occurred less
frequently, though in some cases commercial exchange intensified in the
late 15th century (the routes for Aigues Mortes, Valencia, and the Barbary
states).17 But by the 16th century only a few galleys annually embarked
for the traditional ports of Alexandria and Beirut. In 1569 the last state
convoy was prepared for Beirut; from that moment, the system which had
endured for centuries and represented one of the pillars of Venetian over-
seas commerce, was abandoned.
The advantages the galley system offered to Venetian merchants in the
1400s were destined to vanish in the next century. Despite government
subsidies offered to contractors, management costs of the convoys ended
up being quite burdensome, while roundships were able to transport
goods at lower prices. Moreover, their vast employment of artillery made
the roundships easy to defend, while the galleys displayed serious limits
in their capacity to carry adequate weapons for the new forms of naval
warfare. Moreover, it would be wrong to see the diminishing activity of
the merchant galleys as a sign of crisis in Venetian maritime commerce.
Silk, spices, and precious metals previously transported by the galleys now
found a place in the capacious holds of the great sailing ships. In truth, in
terms of tonnage, these vessels had always constituted a great majority of
the mercantile fleet. It has been estimated that in the mid-15th century,
the merchant galleys amounted to 3000–3500 tons, while there were 300
ships that exceeded 120 tons each. Roughly one century later, the fleet
had 37 ships of more than 240 tons, 11 of which had a tonnage between
600 and 900 tons.18 However, the disappearance of the merchant galley
did notably reduce the predictability of the market. Since the schedule
of departures and arrivals in Venice determined the flow of supply and
demand, the eclipse of the galleys meant that the arrival of even a single
vessel was enough to provoke strong fluctuations in the marketplace.
17 Igual Luis, David, “Las galeras mercantiles venecianas y el puerto de Valencia (1391–
1534),” Anuario de estudios medievales 24 (1994), 179–99.
18 Gino Luzzatto, “Navigazione di linea e navigazione libera nelle grandi città marinare
del Medio Evo,” in Luzzatto, Studi di storia economica veneziana (Padua, 1954), p. 55; Lane,
Navires et constructeurs, p. 228.