Venetian Shipping from the Days of Glory to Decline, 1453–1571

Renard Gluzman, Ph.D. (2018), Tel-Aviv University, is an eager sea dog and research fellow at the Haifa Center for Mediterranean History (HCMH). His publications deal with legislative, operative, and economic aspects of shipping in early-modern Venice and the Mediterranean.

“Voilà un livre irremplaçable. Pour la première fois, un auteur choisit de traiter de la navigation vénitienne sous ses multiples aspects, politique, commercial, social, fiscal, du marché protégé au marché noir ou, si l’on préfère, de l’observation stricte des lois votées par les Conseils de la République, très attentifs à sauvegarder les positions commerciales de leur ville, à la contrebande durement réprimée, de la construction au naufrage provoqué et compensé par l’assurance maritime.” – Jean-Claude Hocquet, in: Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales (June 2023) 78(2): pp. 389 - 391 “[…] an essential tool for all those interested in Venice and the major source of her influence and her prosperity, her ships of all kinds.”– Susan Rose, in: The Mariner's Mirror (2022) 108(4): pp.480-481 "Renard Gluzman has written an essential contribution to the history of Venetian shipping in the late medieval and early modern period, spanning several centuries, and providing an up-to-date account of Venetian ships and shipping, alongside an eco-history of sixteenth-century Venice."– Nicola Carotenuto, in: The English Historical Review (December 2022) 137(589): pp. 1821-1822

• ContentsAcknowledgementsList of Figures and TablesIntroduction1 Structure2 Caution3 Editorial Matters4 Currenciespart 1: The Legal, Executive, and Judicial Framework1 Venice’s Privilege-Based Merchant Marine1 Ship Registries and the San Marco Flag2 Ships with Privileges and Those Without2 The Corridors of Power: Venice’s Maritime Authorities1 The Major State Authorities2 Executive Authorities Involved in Commercial Shipping3 The Enforcement of Sea Laws Overseas3 The Protagonists: The Division of Ships into Classes and Groups1 Ship Classes and Privileged-Based Ship Groups2 The Carrack-Type Round Ship3 Other Types of Vessels4 Volume, Size, and Loading Lines1 The botte and Other Units of Capacity2 Overall and Partial Capacities of Vessels3 Techniques to Calculate a Ship’s Capacity4 The Relative Capacity of the Hold5 Calculating the Carrying Capacity by Using Stowage Factors6 The stimadori and the Administration5 ‘Safety First’: Rules for the Safety and Security at Sea1 Regulations against Overloading and Overcrowding2 The Military Potential3 The Quota of Professional Mariners and Crew on Board4 The Quota of Professional Soldiers5 Arms and Artillery Requirements6 Convoys of Merchant Ships (conserva)7 Mandatory Pilotage Services8 Venetian Safety Standards for Hawsers, Cordage, and Anchors6 Navigating Fiscal Chaos1 The Vicissitudes of the Imposts on Ships2 Duties on Ships in the Port of Venice3 Negotiating Fiscal Privileges and Tax Concessions4 The Tax Burden and the Incentive Structure It Gave Rise Topart 2: Shipping Enterprise and the World of Round Ships7 From Forming to Dissolving a Shipping Company1 The Organizational Structure of the Shipping Enterprise2 Insuring Ship and Freightage3 Settling the Accounts4 The Unloading Procedure in Venice’s Port8 Ship Biographies1 The nave grossa Marcella, 1496–15032 Riding Out the Storm: The Biography of the Ship Dolfina, 1525–293 The Short History of the Priula, 1545–479 The Lifespan and Life-Cycle of Mediterranean Ships1 Shipworms and the Maintenance of Wooden Vessels2 Life-Expectancy Estimates3 The Economic Viability of Round Ships4 Costs of Construction, and the Depreciation of Value of Wooden Vessels10 Can We Assess Profitability?1 The Services Provided by the Shipping Industry2 Sustaining a Liner Service against the Backdrop of Cargo Imbalance3 The Role of the State in Providing Freights for Its Round Ships4 Profits from Freightage and the ufficiali all’estraordinario5 Was Shipping a Long-Term Profitable Business?part 3: ‘Venetian Shipping during the Commercial Revolution’ Reconsidered11 Fortunes Begin to Ebb, 1453–891 The Golden Age of Shipping, c. 1423–322 The Shipping Markets Following the Fall of Constantinople3 The War That Triggered the Downturn, 1463–794 Shipping Fails to Rally in Response to Emerging New Realities, 1480–895 The Eclipse of Venice’s Oceanic Sea Lanes12 The Roaring Nineties and the War with the Turks, 1490–15021 A Positive Trend in Shipping during the Last Decade of the 15th Century2 The Merchant Marine c. July–August 1499: The War Effort3 The Detrimental Effects of the War with the Turks on Shipping, 1499–150213 Venetian Shipping in Crisis, 1503–261 Venice’s Levant Trade in the First Quarter of the 16th Century2 Dwindling Traffic in Port and the Loss of Hegemony over the Adriatic Sea3 The Liberalization of Maritime Transport in the Western Mediterranean4 ‘Venice Is Drying Up’14 A Period of Stagnation, 1527–401 The Effects of a Rise in Natural Disasters on Shipping, 1527–332 The Shipping Reform Act of 1534/515 The Emergence of New Players in Maritime Transport, 1541–711 Regaining Momentum: Shipping and Trade Undergoing Liberalization2 A New Golden Age or an Indian Summer?3 The New Protagonists in Shipping and Trade4 Digest of Tables and GraphsConclusions 3561 The Aggregation of Vessels Hoisting the San Marco Flag2 Resiliency or Decline?3 Deforestation Was Not a Major Factor4 The Agency of Environmental Factors in Venice’s Decline5 Could the Senators Have Steered towards a Different Ending?Appendix A: Snapshots of Venice’s Merchant Marine, 1480–1558Appendix B: Estimates of the Size of Four Colonial Fleets, c. 1499Appendix C: The Itinerary and Life Expectancy of Selected Round ShipsAppendix D: The Cost of Construction and the Value of Wooden VesselsAppendix E: Net Incomes from Freights Transferred by the Cashier of the EstraordinarioAppendix F: Gross Incomes from FreightsSources and BibliographyIndex