Military food supply in the Republic of Venice in the eighteenth century: Entrepreneurs, merchants, and the state

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyse the economic effects of the development of military logistical structures – especially food supply structures – in the state-building process in the Early Modern period, using the Republic of Venice as a case study. It will consider both technical elements (officials, structures, laws) and economic dynamics (grain purchasing and bread production contracts).

The article will also profile the grain merchants who traded with Venetian officials and took on bread production contracts. It will trace the circumstances, many of them outside of the control of the state, which shaped the fundamental role played by merchants and entrepreneurs in directing the evolution of supply structures: these developments were influenced primarily by military needs and the competences required to fulfil them, but also by market forces and the rewards available to entrepreneurs.

Keywords:

• Military Revolution
• Military Food Supply
• Grain Market
• Grain Trade
• Republic of Venice¹

Notes

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 In this article, we will use units of measurement for liquids (that were used for cereals) as they were used in the provinces of the Venetian Mainland Dominion. In the province of Verona the unit was the sacco (around 114.65 litres), divided into three minali, each composed of four quarte. In the province of Brescia the unit of measurement was the soma (145.92 litres), divided into 12 quarte, while in Venice there was the moggio (333.26 litres), divided into four staia, each composed of four quarte. Martini, Manuale di metrologia, 101, 818, 822.

2 For summaries of the military revolution see well-known books by Roberts, The Military Revolution; Parker, The Military Revolution; Black, A military revolution?; Rogers, The Military Revolution Debate; and of more recent vintage, an interesting contribution by Glete, War and the State in Early Modern Europe.

3 For a discussion of the “fiscal-military state” and the role played by military entrepreneurs see Torres-Sánchez, Brandon, and ‘t Hart, War and economy, pp. 9–11.

4 Relevant examples include the English case study analysis by Bannerman, Merchants and the Military, or Torres-Sánchez’s Spanish case study, Military Entrepreneurs. Research on the Italian península in the eighteenth century is limited but valuable examples include Alessandra Dattero on the State of Milan (Dattero, “Riforme militari e costituzionali”; Dattero, “Commissario dello stato ed intendenti”; Dattero, “«Con un nuovo incanto è da sperarsi un ribasso maggiore nel prezzo»”).

5 This does not mean that the collection of revenues was not important but it has been closely if not exhaustively studied and questions remain to be answered. See for example Torres-Sánchez (ed.), War, State and Development.

6 On this topic see also Torres-Sánchez, Brandon, and ‘t Hart, War and economy, pp. 6–7, 13.

7 The Republic of Venice has never been considered from this point of view, especially looking at its land army. Hale and, recently, Peter January and Michael Knapton refer to this topic in the context of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but there are no studies specifically devoted to the analysis of the logistical military structure of the Republic in the Mainland Dominion (Hale, L’organizzazione militare di Venezia; January and Knapton, “The Demands Made on Venetian Terraferma”).

8 The War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714), the War of Polish Succession (1733–1738) and the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748). In summary, see Hochedlinger, Austria’s wars of emergence, 174–194, 203–212, 246–264; Veenendaal, “The War of the Spanish Succession in Europe”; Perini, La difesa militare, 153–169; Perini, “La neutralità della Repubblica veneta”; Perini, “Venezia e la guerra di successione austriaca”.

9 The number of soldiers in the Venetian Mainland Dominion increased from around 3,500–4,000 men in peacetime, up to 11,000–15,000 men in the years 1734–1737 and 1741–1745 (more precise data is available in Perini, La difesa militare, 41–43).

10 On the Napoleonic campaign in the Venetian territory, a useful summary is provided in Panciera, Napoleone nel Veneto, 15–26.

11 On England see Bannerman, Merchants and the Military, 16, 21; on the Dutch Republic see Brandon, War, Capital, 83–138, 139–209 and Bruijn, The Dutch Navy. On the relevance and on the organisation of supplies for the Venetian fleet see Sambo, “I rifornimenti militari”; Vertecchi, Il «Masser ai Formenti in Terra Nova», 40, 46–48, 55–57, 61–69, 83–85, 128–129, 146, 155–157. The relative importance of the fleet can be measured by comparing the number of men enrolled; while in the Mainland Dominion there were a few thousand soldiers (and more during military crises), there were 10,000 soldiers in both the Levanter and in Dalmazia (included those provisionally quartered at the Lido of Venice). Perini, La difesa militare, 41–43.

12 Given the number of men under arms, and excluding patrols and cases of transfers, they were usually lodged in the fortresses, especially in the western borderlands of the Republic (Brescia, Orzinuovi, Lonato, Asola, Peschiera, Verona and Legnago). The archival research focused on this area, because it was the zone of greatest military commitment. On the Venetian fortresses see Ongaro, Peasants and Soldiers, 42–47 and Perini, La difesa militare, 25–29.

13 Along with this new office, the engineering core came into being in order to maintain military structures (storehouses, barracks and fortresses). On this new office see State Archives of Verona (herein ASVr), Atti dei Rettori Veneti, b. 1370, fos. 124^v–125^r, 128^r-v.

14 On the effects of eighteenth-century administrative centralisation in the Austrian Lombardy see Dattero, “Riforme militari e costituzionali” and to Dattero, “Commissario dello stato ed intendenti”. On the management of supplies in the Austrian Low Countries see Goossens, “The Grip of the State?”. On France see Lynn, Giant of the Grand Siècle, Rowlands, “Agency Government in Louis XIV’s France” and Plouviez, “The French navy”.

15 Perini tells us that around 25% of the salary was withheld for food. See also Lynn, “The History of Logistics and Supplying War”, 16–17; Bannerman, Merchants and the Military, 67.

16 ASVr, Atti dei Rettori Veneti, b. 1366, fo. 178^r. On the importance of biscuit supplies, especially in relation to the fleet see Vertecchi, Il «Masser ai Formenti in Terra Nova», 25, 40, 46–47, 55–57, 63, 67–69, 83–85, 128–129, 146, 155–157.

17 ASVr, Atti dei Rettori Veneti, b. 1366, fo. 107^v.

18 State Archives of Brescia (from now ASBs), Cancelleria Prefettizia Superiore, b. 81, fo. 48^r. Regarding the unit of measurement, we refer to the Venetian once (12 once grosse corresponded to 0,477 g).

19 The Adige River flows from the south Tirol and then runs along the Po River before entering the Adriatic Sea. Since antiquity, it has been a crucial route for the movement of men and goods between the Mediterranean and north European markets. From the sixteenth century, the Adige River became a valid substitute for section of the Po River in the province of Ferrara that became difficult to navigate (Corritore, La naturale “abbondanza” del Mantovano, 61–64). See also Fanfani, L’Adige come arteria principale, 571–629; Moioli, “Aspetti del commercio di transito nel Tirolo”; Verona, Tirol.; Bonoldi, “La risorsa mutevole”.

20 ASVr, Atti dei Rettori Veneti, b. 818, fo. 20 August 1722.

21 Ibid, fos. 3 April 1723, 13 August 1723, 12 January 1724; b. 1367, fo. 108^r.

22 ASVr, Rettori di Legnago, b. 27, fo. 24 February 1735; b. 41, fo. 15 December 1735; Atti dei Rettori Veneti, b. 881, fos. 27 September 1736, 8 November 1736, 12 November 1736.

23 There are many examples from the eighteenth century because all shipping was registered. In general, receipts for the shipping of wheat to Peschiera and Legnago are held in ASVr, Atti dei Rettori Veneti, bb. 881, 951, 993, 1005, 1332; Rettori di Legnago, bb. 27, 29, 39, 50, 80; ASVr, Valmarana, b. 1, fasc. 3; b. 2, fasc. 5; b. 2, fasc. 6.

24 ASVr, Valmarana, b. 2, fasc. 5, fo. 3 September 1749.

25 There are no specific studies of the Legnago grain market even though it was one of the main markets in the Venetian Mainland Dominion. For occasional references see Vecchiato, Pane e politica annonaria in Terraferma Veneta, 58; Zalin, L’economia veronese in età napoleonica, 160–169; and Barbieri, “Introduzione alle relazioni dei provveditori di Legnago”. On the fertility of the province of Rovigo see Corritore, La naturale “abbondanza” del Mantovano, 66 and Vecchiato, “L’Ubertoso granaio della Repubblica nostra sovrana”. The Venetian Podestà of Verona (Girolamo Polani) testified to the Senate in 1724 that the province of Verona would never suffer famines because of its proximity to Padua and Rovigo, two provinces that would always make Verona ‘rich with food’. Borelli (ed.), Relazioni dei Rettori Veneti, 499.

26 ASBs, Cancelleria Prefettizia Superiore, b. 44, fos. August–November 1734; b. 78, fos. February–March 1734; ASVr, Atti dei Rettori Veneti, b. 881, fos. 11 December 1736, 6–10–11–17 January 1737; Relazioni dei Rettori Veneti. Brescia, 591–592. Another 6,000 staia of cereals were sent to the province of Bergamo (Costantini, «In tutto differente dalle altre città», 54).

27 Relazioni dei Rettori Veneti. Brescia, 649–651.

28 ASBs, Cancelleria Prefettizia Superiore, b. 81, fos. 6^r–v.

29 On the importance of personal networks in shaping the ‘contacts between the state and the markets’ in the naval administration in the Dutch Republic see Brandon, War, Capital, 148–154.

30 On the duration of contracts and the relationship between short-term agreements and price movements see the English case study in Bannerman, Merchants and the Military, 53, 57, 66, 86. According to Bannerman, ‘annual renewal of contracts was sensible and well-tailored towards meeting variable economic and military conditions’ (Ibid, 86).

31 ASBs, Cancelleria Prefettizia Superiore, b. 81, fos. 92^r–v.

32 Ibid, fos. 95^r–96^r, 99^r.

33 The War of the Austrian Succession – while it did not involve the territories of the Republic in contrast to wars of previous decades – caused ‘systematic malfunctioning in the supplying of food and clothes’ for the troops (Perini, “Venezia e la guerra di successione austriaca”, 44). Broadly, on the role of early eighteenth-century conflicts in hindering the supply of cereals in Brescian markets (particularly in Desenzano) see Zalin, Approvvigionamento e commercio dei cereali, 41.

34 ASBs, Cancelleria Prefettizia Superiore, b. 81, fos. 4, 6 and 15 July 1707. On the cleaning of wheat in order to achieve a better flour see Corritore, La naturale “abbondanza” del Mantovano, 118–122 and Vertecchi, Il «Masser ai Formenti in Terra Nova», 137.

35 On the Gambara family see Valseriati, Tra Venezia e l’Impero, 28–30, 48, 82–86 and the bibliography he furnishes in the endnotes.

36 ASBs, Cancelleria Prefettizia Superiore, b. 81, fo. ‘Miglio provisto per li depositi di questa Città e Castello nell’anno 1731’.

37 ASBs, Cancelleria Prefettizia Superiore, b. 81, fos. ‘Foglio che contiene il debito, e credito del Monte del Miglio tanto di quello esisteva ne publici depositi al tempo della passata revisione …’; ‘Foglio Generale in cui si contiene l’intiero debito del Publico Munitioner Bracco…’; ‘Foglio che contiene quanto apparisce formato debitore in Quaderno a Bartolomeo Bracco attual monitionere…’.

38 Transport costs were fundamental in evaluating the convenience of purchases. For an approximate calculation of transport costs in the eastern Po valley see Corritore, La naturale “abbondanza” del Mantovano, 51–60, while for the mountain areas see Fornasin, “Lontano dal mercato”.

39 ASBs, Cancelleria Prefettizia Superiore, b. 81, fos. 8, 9 and 11 August 1707.

40 ASBs, Cancelleria Prefettizia Superiore, b. 44, fo. 17 August 1734; b. 78, fos. 3 February, 14, 20 and 24 March 1735; ASVr, Rettori di Legnago, b. 27, fo. 7 May 1734.

41 On the Lechi family see Mocarelli, Le “industrie” bresciane, p. 34; Onger, “Vita, viaggi e avventure”; Pegrari, “Le reti del credito”, p. 361; Lechi, Le dimore bresciane, vol. III, p. 208; Lumbroso, “Il generale d’armata”.

42 ASVr, Rettori di Legnago, b. 27, fo. 16 April 1739.

43 Ibid., b. 50, fo. 10 November 1738; Atti dei Rettori Veneti, b. 881, fo. 16 October 1737.

44 ASVr, Rettori di Legnago, b. 60, fo. 30 April 1735.

45 ASVr, Atti dei Rettori Veneti, b. 1332, fo. 30 August 1795.

46 ASVr, Rettori di Legnago, b. 29, fo. 22 February 1766; Atti dei Rettori Veneti, b. 1036, fo. 22 February 1766.

47 ASVr, Rettori di Legnago, b. 29, fos. 21 and 28 June and 12 July 1766. On land purchases by Venetian noble families in the Mainland Dominion and particularly in the provinces close to the lagoon such as Padua, Treviso and Rovigo see Beltrami, Forze di lavoro e proprietà fondiaria and Gullino, I Pisani dal Banco e Moretta.

48 ASVr, Atti dei Rettori Veneti, b. 1005, fos. 2, 16, 23 and 30 August 1760. On Barbarigo’s properties in the province of Verona see also Mometto, L’azienda agricola Barbarigo a Carpi.

49 ASVr, Rettori di Legnago, b. 20, fo. 29 September 1707; b. 23, fos. 27–28 August 1718; b. 30, fo. 30 August 1794; b. 72, fo. 26 April 1729; b. 61, fo. 25 November 1739; b. 50, fo. 8 May 1751; Atti dei Rettori Veneti, b. 1005, fo. 15 September 1762; b. 1315, fo. 27 August 1794; b. 1366, fos. 88^v, 152^r, 154^v, 189^v–190^r; Valmarana, b. 1, fasc. 3, fo. 22 April 1749.

50 ASVr, Rettori di Legnago, b. 72, fo. 26 April 1729; b. 61, fo. 25 November 1739; b. 50, fo. 8 May 1751; Atti dei Rettori Veneti, b. 1005, fo. 15 September 1762; b. 1315, fo. 27 August 1794.

51 ASVr, Atti dei Rettori Veneti, b. 1366, fos. 154^v, 189^v–190^r. On the Barbieri family see Ferrari, Nobili di provincia, 181; Chilese, Una città nel Seicento veneto, 229; Lorenzini, Credito e notai, 228; Zalin, L’economia veronese in età napoleonica, 31.

52 ASVr, Rettori di Legnago, b. 50, fo. 8 May 1751. Bevilacqua, “Mercanti e capitali a Verona”, 77.

53 ASVr, Atti dei Rettori Veneti, b. 1005, fo. 26 July 1760. Chilese, Una città nel Seicento veneto, 141; Lorenzini, Credito e notai, 88, 128–129, 1131–132, 134–138, 149, 158, 161, 166, 217, 236, 291.

54 ASVr, Atti dei Rettori Veneti, b. 1005, fo. 15 September 1762. Chilese, Una città nel Seicento veneto, 291; Lanaro Sartori, Un’oligarchia urbana, 241.

55 Such troops, according with Perini, ‘were fed almost exclusively with food coming from Venetian provinces’ (S. Perini, La difesa militare, 158, 160–161).

56 ASBs, Cancelleria Prefettizia Superiore, b. 81, fasc. 10–22; fasc. ‘Danni recati dalle truppe imperiali, francesi e spagnole in città e provincia di Brescia 1705’.

57 ASVr, Rettori di Legnago, b. 19, fo. 17 August 1704.

58 ASBs, Cancelleria Prefettizia Superiore, b. 78, fos. 22, 24, and 26 October 1734.

59 Ibid., b. 73, fo. 11 September 1796; Borelli (ed.), Relazioni dei Rettori Veneti, 515–516, 603.

60 On the connection between war and increasing cereal prices see also Gullino, “Venezia e le campagne”, 666, 671.

61 ASBs, Cancelleria Prefettizia Superiore, b. 73, fo. 11 September 1796; b. 78, fos. 14 October, 24 November, 1, 19, 26, 28 and 31 December 1734, 3 February 1735; b. 79, fo. 16 March 1746; ASVr, Rettori di Legnago, b. 19, fo. 26 June 1702; b. 41, fo. 16 December 1735; Atti dei Rettori Veneti, b. 1367, fo. 160^v; Borelli (ed.), Relazioni dei Rettori, 515–516, 603. Sergio Perini wrote that ‘the Venetian government […] preferred trade […] to take place on the basis of private negotiations between merchants and paymasters’. This would mean competitors could not accuse the Republic of favouring one side over the other (Perini, “La neutralità della Repubblica Veneta”, 101–103).

62 ASBs, Cancelleria Prefettizia Superiore, b. 78, fo. 3 February 1735.

63 ASBs, Cancelleria Prefettizia Superiore, b. 78, fo. 16 February 1734. The Archetti family continued trading in the grain market, supplying their forges on the Brescian shore of Lake Garda with cereals from the province of Rovigo (ASVr, Atti dei Rettori Veneti, b. 1043; b. 137, fos. 7^r–8^r). There were further cases of merchant contracts for the supplying of belligerent troops at this time in Piacenza (Cattanei, “Piacenza Città Fortezza”).

64 On this topic see the well-known book by Trivellato, The Familiarity of Strangers. Broadly, on the presence of Jewish merchants in the management of military supplies in the Republic of Venice see the case of the Grego family in Verona (Porto, Una piazzaforte in età moderna, 193–201) or similar cases in the provinces of Vicenza, Brescia and Padua in the previous centuries (Ongaro, Peasants and Soldiers, 146). Specifically on their role in supplying wheat to foreign troops in the Republic see the cases of the families Treves, Luzzatto and Bonfil in Zalin, “La politica annonaria veneta”, 228 and in Berengo, La società veneta alla fine del Settecento, 31–32. Jewish military entrepreneurs were also involved in food supply structures in England; according to Bannerman, their central position was based on ‘their European mercantile experience, connections, and financal credit’ (Bannerman, Merchants and the Military, 11, 31, 48, 63–64; Bannerman, “The impact of war”, 25).

65 ASBs, Cancelleria Prefettizia Superiore, b. 78, fo. 27 January 1735.

66 Ibid., b. 81, fos. 22 and 30 June 1796.

67 According to Bannerman (Bannerman, Merchants and the Military, 2, 13, 32–33, 42, 48–49, 53, 60, 62–63, 89, 94, 107, 123–124, 142–143, 145–146) and Conway (Conway, Checking and Controlling, 63–64), trade experience, capital, credit and an international network were typical characteristics of military contractors.

68 ASVr, Cancelleria Prefettizia Superiore, b. 81, fos. 23 and 31 January, 18 February 1797. There was a similar situation in Piacenza (Cattanei, “Piacenza Città Fortezza”).

69 On the role of Trieste as a commercial port during the Austrian period, particularly in the context of the wheat trade between Italy and Central Europe, see Daniele Andreozzi’s work, especially Andreozzi, “«Ne pas celui de la Nation»”.

70 On the Vivante family generally see Vivante, La memoria dei padri, while on their involvement in the supplying of the French troops see references in Zalin, L’economia veronese in età napoleonica, 84–92.

71 On the Vivante contract, see ASBs, Cancelleria Prefettizia Superiore, b. 73, fos. 3 October, 7, 15, 27 December 1796; b. 81, fos. 16 September, 4, 29 December 1796.

72 Ibid, fo. 14 Frimaio, year 5° (4 December 1796).

73 Ibid, fo. 4 December 1796.

74 Ibid.; b. 73, fo. 7 December 1796.

75 On these topics generally see Luzzatto, “Sulla condizione economica degli ebrei”; Berengo, “Gli ebrei veneziani”; Ciriacono, Olio ed ebrei a Venezia. On military contracts as an incentive for social mobility among individual and families – through the purchase of land – see Bannerman, Merchants and the Military, 90, 95, 102, 121–136.

76 The centralising process enacted by the Austrian authorities from the mid-eighteenth century – which involved state military structures – was successful in removing the Lombard élites from the economic management of the state and of military contracts. Dattero, “Riforme militari e costituzionali”.

77 The authors use the term ‘efficiency’ in the context of state needs exclusively, but we would like to suggest that this perspective could be integrated to apply to private interests also, in terms of more or less ‘efficient’ investments.

78 It is pertinent here to consider Aaron Graham’s invitation to reflect on the ‘concept of entrepreneurship’ and how it can be refined. Research must move on from focusing solely ‘upon discrete, clearly delineated forms of contracting, which can be separated out and analysed in isolation, or contrasted with comparable bureaucratic structures’ (Graham, “Public Service and Private Profit”, 109).

79 Consider here the model proposed by Charles Tilly of imposition of the will of a public authority on its territory through ‘capital’ and ‘coercion’. Tilly, Coercion, capital.