the venetian economy 267
The 16th century witnessed a change in the social profile of the pro-
tagonists of Venetian long-distance commerce. Until mid-century, people
who embarked on the galleys, lived in the fondaci, and traded in the great
marketplaces of southern Europe and the eastern Mediterreanean were
largely patricians. The figure of Andrea Barbarigo can rightly be taken as
representative of the 15th-century Venetian patrician, involved from his
youth in the search for profit through commerce.28 In the space of only
a few generations, however, most of the patricians would shed the aus-
tere garb of the merchant and choose instead the comfortable life of the
landed aristocracy. Throughout the 16th century, in fact, there was a huge
wave of Venetian investments in the terraferma. The phenomenon had
already manifested itself in the previous century, but in the 16th century
it assumed more significant proportions. These investments first regarded
areas closer to the lagoon (the regions of Padua, Treviso, and the south-
western part of the Friuli) and eventually penetrated the regions around
Vicenza and south of Verona.29 A long historiographical tradition has
accused the Venetian patriciate of having betrayed its mercantile voca-
tion in order to enjoy the easy revenues of a landed income, thus causing
the decline of the great maritime republic. However, numerous elements
justify and legitimize the patriciate’s choices. First, the 16th century was
characterized by a marked increase in food prices, which consequently
made agrarian production particularly profitable. Since the rates of return
to agriculture were close to those to commerce, land acquisition was con-
sidered an excellent investment.30 Second, the availability of land, facili-
tated by the political control of the hinterland, represented a fundamental
tool in ensuring the patrimonial transmission, which was becoming a par-
ticular concern for 16th-century nobles. Third, in Renaissance Venice there
1470–1800 (Aldershot, 2003), pp. 1–34; John H. Munro, “South German Silver, European
Textiles, and Venetian Trade with the Levant and Ottoman Empire, c. 1370 to c. 1720: A
Non-Mercantilistic Approach to the Balance of Payments Problem,” in Cavaciocchi, ed.,
Relazioni economiche tra Europa e mondo islamico, 2:905–60; Frederic C. Lane, “Exporta-
tions vénitiennes d’or et d’argent de 1200 à 1450,” in Day, ed., Etudes d’histoire monétaire,
pp. 29–48; Stahl, “European Minting,” pp. 889–904.
28 Frederic C. Lane, Andrea Barbarigo, Merchant of Venice, 1418–1449 (Baltimore, 1944).
29 Gian Maria Varanini, “Proprietà fondiaria e agricoltura,” in Storia di Venezia, vol. 5
(1985): Il Rinascimento. Società ed economia, ed. Alberto Tenenti and Ugo Tucci, pp. 807–
79; Daniele Beltrami, La penetrazione economica dei veneziani in terraferma. Forze di lavoro
e proprietà fondiaria nella campagne venete dei secoli XVII e XVIII (Venice, 1961).
30 Richard T. Rapp, “Real Estate and Rational Investment in Early Modern Venice,”
Journal of European Economic History 8 (1979), 269–90; Luciano Pezzolo, “Sistema di valori
e attività economica a Venezia, 1530–1630,” in Simonetta Cavaciocchi, ed., L’impresa. Indu-
stria, commercio, banca, secc. XIII–XVIII (Florence, 1991), pp. 981–88.