Weapons’ production in the Republic of Venice in the Early Modern period: the manufacturing centre of Brescia between military needs and economic equilibrium

ABSTRACT

The aim of the paper is to analyse the functioning of weapons’ production in the province of Brescia in the Early Modern period. The article will underline the delicate equilibrium between productive capacity, international market and military and political needs of the Republic of Venice. In the Republic of Venice, but generally in every time and area, war affected weapons’ production in different ways: in a positive way, stimulating the growth of the Brescian productive system, with internal and external demands that fostered investments. However, when the system was big enough to face both these demands (internal and external), the level of production had to remain high; otherwise, masters would emigrate to find markets that were more profitable. From this point of view, war could be a great limit, because the Republic of Venice restricted the export (of men and products) to maintain inside its borders the know-how and the weapons for its own use. Moreover, there was the will to not supply arms to the enemy States.

KEYWORDS:

• Republic of Venice
• weapons’ production
• weapons’ trade
• Early Modern economic history
• war economy
• iron and steel production

JEL-CODES:

• N4
• N73
• N93

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Specifically, the War of Gradisca (1615–1617), the Valtellina uprising (1620–1626), the War of Mantuan Succession (1629–1630), the first War of Castro (1641–1644) and the War of Candia (1645–1669).

2 One Ducato di conto corresponded to 6 lire8 and 4 soldi (20 soldi ₌ 1 lira). In order to give an order of scale, in the three centuries considered, the price of a staio trevisano (87 litres) of wheat fluctuated between around 10 and 25 lire. The price of one rifle for the army was around 20 lire at the beginning of the seventeenth century (Rossi, 1969) and 30 lire in the sixties of the following one.

3 State Archives of Venice, Senato, Dispacci, Dispacci dei Rettori, Brescia e Bresciano (from now ASVe, Dispacci), b. 15, letters dated 12, 22, 29, 31 December 1615 and 1, 2, 22 January and 4 and 10 February 1616.

4 ASVe, Dispacci, b. 16, letters dated 16 April, 28 May, 1, 4, 15, 25 June 21, 31 August, 6 September, 24 December 1616.

5 ASVe, Dispacci, b. 24, letter dated 4 September 1624.

6 In his relation to the Senate in 1631, the Captain of Brescia, Alvise Mocenigo, wrote that he sent to Venice and other cities of the Mainland Dominion in one year around 24,000 muskets and carbines and 1000 pikes (Tagliaferri, 1978, p. 355).

7 The complete sequence of events was reported in a communication of Vincenzo Galli dated 21 November 1763, in State Archives of Brescia (from now ASBs), Cancelleria Prefettizia Superiore, b. 76.

8 About the production of weapons in Milan see Leydi (2003).

9 ASVe, Dispacci, b. 16, letters dated 4 and 15 June 21 and 31 August 1616.

10 ASVe, Dispacci, b. 25, letter dated 31 August 1624.

11 ASVe, Dispacci, b. 25, letter dated 4 September 1624.

12 ASVe, Dispacci, b. 25, letter dated 13 February 1625.

13 ASVe, Dispacci, b. 16, letter dated 31 August 1616.

14 ASVe, Dispacci, b. 16, letter dated 30 September 1616.

15 ASVe, Dispacci, b. 16, letter dated 29 November 1616.

16 ASVe, Dispacci, b. 25, letter dated 31 August 1624, 18 January 1625.

17 ASVe, Dispacci, b. 15, letter dated 3 January 1616.

18 ASVe, Dispacci, b. 15, letter dated 15 September 1609; b. 25, letter dated 13 and 26 February 1625.

19 ASVe, Dispacci, b. 16, 21 January 1617.

20 As a letter from the local Venetian officials to the Senate on this topic (ASVe, Dispacci, b. 15, 15 September 1609) also testifies.

21 ASVe, Dispacci, b. 16, letter dated 28 September 1616.

22 ASVe, Dispacci, b. 25, letter dated 13 February 1625.

23 Such as in 1621 when, in spite of ongoing wars that impeded the export of weapons, Captain Lorenzo Capello allowed the export to Genoa of ‘many barrels da uccellar [i.e. bird catching]’ (Tagliaferri, 1978, p. 257).

24 ASVe, Dispacci, b. 15, letters dated 20 December 1607, 31 May 1608 and 15 September 1609; b. 17, letters dated 17 July and 23 September 1617.

25 ASVe, Dispacci, b. 15, letter dated 13 February 1616.

26 ASVe, Dispacci, b. 15, letters dated 15 September 1609, 3 January 1616.

27 The absence of such a competition had been a quite important element in the primate of Brescian weapons’ manufacturing from the fifteenth century onward (Gaier, 1981). Some examples of the commerce of weapons in northern Europe in the seventeenth century in can be found in Jørgensen (1963), especially pages 87–88 and in van Winter (1966), especially pages 190–200.

28 On the contrary, recently it was the topic of a special issue of the Journal of Institutional Economics (March 2016).