Venice Company

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The Venice Company is an English merchants' association under royal privilege, which existed between 1583 and 1592 (possibly only until 1589). She played an essential role in the enforcement of English trade interests in the colonies of Venice in the eastern Mediterranean, in particular on Kephalonia and Zakynthos , which was called Zante at the time. It was mainly about the trade in raisins, more precisely black currants , and olive oil and wine, which, however, mainly came from Crete . The Venice Company emerged from an initial trade monopoly, but after a few years it led to the Levant Company, which was more broadly based and only open to the British.

classification

Between 1555 and 1609, in addition to the Venice Company, a number of English trading companies with new destinations emerged, such as the Muscovy Company , the Eastland Company for trade with Scandinavia and the Baltic States , the Turkey Company founded in 1581 , which became the Levant Company in 1592 with the Venice Company was merged, the East India Company or the Virginia Company , but also the Barbary Company , which existed from 1585 to 1597 for trade with Morocco, or the Africa Company, which was created in 1588 . These companies were supposed to provide an organizational and legal framework for the retail trade, which had already existed for decades, and prevent internal disputes, as well as establishing a powerful alliance of English traders in the respective metropolitan areas. Four of these companies were active in the Mediterranean .

As early as the late 15th century, the English were regularly active in trade in the Mediterranean region and competed with Venice, albeit to a lesser extent. This applied, for example, to the Ionian Islands , which were visited as early as the 1530s. But during the fiercest phase of the war between the Ottomans on the one hand and Venice and Spain on the other, i.e. in the years 1566 to 1573, the English had largely left the trading area of ​​the Mediterranean. The penetration of non-Venetian traders into the eastern Mediterranean was on the one hand connected to the enormous expansion of the Ottoman Empire, on the other hand Venice had given up its state convoy system, the Mudue , which sailed annually to Northern Europe , which until then had monopolized trade with Northern Europe. In addition, the colonies in Greece became increasingly important to Venice inasmuch as it lost Cyprus to the Ottomans in 1571.

First monopoly under Acerbo Velutelli (1573–1582)

While English traders appeared again in Livorno and Venice from 1573 , there was initially only an extremely thin trade with the Ottomans, which only took place under French protection. Shortly thereafter, Acerbo Velutelli (in the English sources "Mr. Asharbo"), a trader from Lucca , received a ten-year monopoly on the trade in currants and olive oil . At that time, Acerbo was considered the richest Italian trader in England. He imported goods worth £ 30,000 a year, but this also showed his competitors how profitable the raisin and oil trade could be. As a result, both the English traders and Venice tried to intervene against the monopoly. Its envoy in Paris , Giovanni Francesco Morosini, assured the local senate that the English envoy would be happy to mediate so that direct contacts could be established between the English court and Venice. But this did not succeed for decades. The English traders, for their part, turned against the license money, which Velutelli levied on the basis of his monopoly from other traders who wanted to trade “his” goods in the Mediterranean. The fact that a foreigner "taxed" Englishmen in their own country created particular resentment. Accordingly, the Queen forbade Velutelli's action, which, however, meant that Venetian traders were supposed to pay taxes for goods from Venetian colonies. This was also unacceptable. Venice therefore imposed a drastically increased Nuova Imposta on currant exports in 1581 . Velutelli's position became politically and economically untenable, so that Queen Elizabeth I revoked his privilege in 1582.

Venice Company

Instead, in the following year 1583, Elizabeth transferred the same monopoly to a group of English traders who were united in the Venice Company . Velutelli fought for years against this transfer of the rights he still claimed, but fell on deaf ears, even if his argument that the local Greeks in the colonies had fought for the tax increase in Venice was heard. At the same time, the English traders complained about the high costs that the permanent embassy in Constantinople, the Ottoman capital, caused. In London, for example, the English traders with a focus on the Venetian colonies were merged with those of the rest of the Mediterranean in January 1592 (or as early as 1589) to form a single trading company, the Levant Company , which was initially even responsible for the "recently discovered" East Indies should be responsible. The company initially consisted of 53 members and was scheduled for twelve years. The Society was only allowed to issue licenses to Englishmen and Venetians, but the latter were only to be allowed on condition that direct diplomatic contacts between London and Venice were established. This happened in 1603, but the second condition, the abolition of the Nuova Imposta , was never met, so the English kept to themselves.

As early as 1581, the company was operating 10 to 12 ships a year carrying 2,550 tons; the largest alone 350 tons. Their ships had a crew of over 500 men. But in September 1588 the society's first privilege expired and a renewal should take place in April 1589.

The role of the Ionian Islands

On Zante and Kephalonia, the Rectori there had repeatedly complained about the commercial activities of "foreigners" since the 1530s (on Crete as early as the 15th century), but from 1580 the Rectori Gabriele Emo and Alvise Lando explicitly named "Englishmen" against them a higher tax should be levied. They stated that four or five of their ships have exported significant quantities of currants every year since 1576. The Nuova Imposta was introduced on January 26, 1581 (1580 more veneto ). Also on Crete, the typical English export goods, such as woolen fabrics and pewter , were subject to higher taxes. In addition, partnerships that have already been entered should be reported and terminated within six months.

In Venice it was feared that England would become the mediator of trade between the Ottoman Empire and northern and western Europe. Ever since the bankruptcies of the 1570s that struck several Venetian companies in London, the majority of Venice's subjects staying in the English capital were of Greek descent. As an agent, Zuanne da Riviera represented the two main families of Zante, namely the Sumacchi and Seguro families. In addition, he represented a few families in Crete, in particular Theodorin Lombardo. Also involved were two brothers, the Cittadini Giacomo and Placido Ragazzoni. They maintained good contacts with both English and Florentine traders, headed by Filippo and Bartolomeo Corsini. At the same time, the Greeks brought their good contacts to Venetian and Portuguese Jews into the trade network, which in connection with the conflict between Spain, where the Jews had been expelled in 1492, and England entailed enormous risks, as studies and requisitions in Palermo and Cadíz have shown. Ships of the Greeks and Jews were always suspected of trading in English goods or of trading in English goods, or of shipping goods from the Mediterranean to London.

literature

  • Maria Fusaro: Political Economies of Empire in the Early Modern Mediterranean. The Decline of Venice and the Rise of England 1450-1700 , Cambridge University Press, 2015.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Christine Woodhead: England, the Ottomans and the Barbary Coast in the late Sixteenth Century ( Memento of the original from March 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , State Papers Online. The Government of Britain, 1509-1714 . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / gale.cengage.co.uk
  2. ^ Maria Fusaro: Political Economies of Empire in the Early Modern Mediterranean. The Decline of Venice and the Rise of England 1450-1700 , Cambridge University Press, 2015, p. 49.
  3. ↑ According to the current sources, it is not possible to determine the date of foundation. Maria Fusaro points this out (Maria Fusaro: Political Economies of Empire in the Early Modern Mediterranean. The Decline of Venice and the Rise of England 1450–1700 , Cambridge University Press, 2015, p. 50 note 46).
  4. ↑ Mortimer Epstein: The Early History of the Levant Company , Routledge, 2015, p. 5 and p. 9 f., Note 9.
  5. ^ Maria Fusaro: Political Economies of Empire in the Early Modern Mediterranean. The Decline of Venice and the Rise of England 1450-1700 , Cambridge University Press, 2015, p. 55.