the venetian economy 271
Because of these continuous financial difficulties, the need emerged to
make regular recourse to direct taxation, traditionally considered viable
only in extraordinary circumstances. In 1463 the government imposed the
decima, a semi-regular direct tax without obligations of restitution that
targeted mostly real estate holdings both in Venice and in the terraferma,
and the tansa, which hit other forms of income (trade, manufactures). Pre-
viously, various direct taxes had been decreed extraordinarily and largely
had targeted those citizens not obliged to fund state loans, but beginning
in the 1460s, this practice became ever more routine and institutionalized.
The basis for collection remained the estimo (or catasto), a fiscal docu-
ment that registered how much each individual might be taxed and which
was supposed to be updated periodically so as to reflect fluctuations in
wealth as they occurred. As for the decima, it was the taxpayer that
declared his landed income, and only afterwards did the fiscal authority
(the Dieci savi alle decime in Rialto) verify its accuracy. The amount of the
tansa, in contrast, was determined with greater margins for personal judg-
ment by a commission which considered the taxpayer’s total income and
expenses. The system would have functioned well if the catasti had not
been updated as infrequently as they were: despite the legislation order-
ing a new evaluation every decade, the redecime (as they were defined in
the administative language of the time) were carried out four times in the
16th century and only once in both the 17th and 18th centuries.
In the final period of the Italian Wars, between 1520 and 1530, crucial
innovations were introduced in the debt system.36 From this period,
the government looked more and more frequently to the market of free
capital and progressively abandoned the forced nature of loans. The new
bonds, known as Depositi in zecca [Deposits in the mint], met with great
success, thanks also to their attractive interest rates (14 per cent for life
annuities and 6–7 per cent on long-term loans). The Depositi in zecca pro-
vided the majority of the liquidity to fight the Turkish wars of the 16th
and 17th centuries. The Venetian government’s excellent reputation was
further strengthened with the great operation of debt payout which took
place betwen 1577 and the early 17th century. Roughly 10 million ducats,
equal to about four times the state’s annual income, were paid back to
the state’s creditors. Thus a huge stream of money came to fill Venetian
purses, from where it could be invested in the land or in private loans. The
military conflicts of the 17th century, however, revived the financial needs
36 For what follows, see Pezzolo, Una finanza d’ancien régime.