the venetian economy 281
reduced in scope, limited mainly to the Adriatic with an occasional foray
into the Levant. Consequently, the size of the commercial fleet and, par-
ticularly, its composition had changed. If in the second half of the 16th
century there were numerous ships of great capacity, in the next century
the trend is unclear because of the influence of the War of Candia. In the
second half of the 18th century, however, a reduction clearly appears in
the average tonnage of the vessels of St Mark. Its ships nonetheless con-
tinued to operate intensely in the Adriatic, and the level of this activity
would remain significant for the entire last century of the Republic.59
Some manufacturing sectors, however, had witnessed a consistent
growth. The production of items in silk and silk-gold weaves developed
throughout the 17th century, to the extent that they likely surpassed
the production levels of the 15th century, considered the golden age of
Venetian silk. The spread of the mulberry in the countryside of the ter-
raferma during the last two centuries of the Republic witnesses the rise
in demand of raw material for manufactures. Numerous merchants made
their fortunes in the silk trade and were able to accumulate enormous
patrimonies. It is significant that, of the 128 families that acquired a title
of Venetian nobility between 1646 and 1718, 78 (57 per cent) of them came
from the merchant class. Even the printing industry, which had experi-
enced a significant decline between the 16th and 17th centuries, recovered
in the following decades. Venice maintained its preeminent position in
the Italian market, publishing one-third of all titles in the 17th century;
and later, the sector displayed a notable ability to respond to changes in
demand.60 Despite losing ground to foreign competition, the glassmakers
of Murano were able to maintain an important role in specific sectors.61
The characteristics of 18th-century Venice were markedly different from
those of the Renaissance city. Though its international activities had been
reduced, there were still many merchants operating there, but now they
were mainly Jews, Greeks, and Armenians. The service sector (grocers,
hospitality) was now at least as important as the traditional cloth sector.62
59 Sella, Commerci e industrie, pp. 103–10; Massimo Costantini, Una Repubblica nata sul
mare. Navigazione e commercio a Venezia (Venice, 2005), pp. 145–47.
60 Brendan Dooley, “Printing and Entrepreneurialism in Seventeenth-Century Italy,”
Journal of European Economic History 25 (1996), 585; Mario Infelise, L’editoria veneziana
nel ’700 (Milan, 1989).
61 Francesca Trivellato, Fondamenta dei vetrai. Lavoro, tecnologia e mercato a Venezia
tra Sei e Settecento (Rome, 2000).
62 Beltrami, Storia della popolazione, pp. 206–12; Rapp, Industry and Economic Decline,
p. 97.