Vous consultezFlexibilité et diversification : les investissements du patriciat de Venise et de la Terre Ferme (XV^e-XVIII^e siècles)

Flexibility and diversification : investments made by Venice’s and Mainland’s patricians (15th-18th centuries)
This paper aims at understanding the economic strategies pursued by noblemen from Venice and its Mainland between the fifteenth and eighteenth century. The reconfiguration of the European economy pushed Italy at the periphery of the ‘old world’, inviting the elites to reconfigure their economic activities. The main aspect concerns the diversification of investments that, although it was still present in the Venetian ‘golden age’ (14^th-15^th century), became a real ‘adaptation policy’ in front of the changing international trends during the early modern period. Investments in agriculture, finance and manufactures, as well as in the more traditional long-distance trade, showed how the Venetian patricians understood the new international equilibrium. Also applying innovative processes and products, these efforts tried to respond to the new patterns of both European and Eastern Mediterranean markets, although the latter being more conservative the first. The topic of the Venetian ‘decadence’ seems to be now less interesting. However, the wide range of economic strategies made by the patricians of the whole Republic invite further research by scholars that go beyond the qualitative analysis.

Keywords

Venice , Ancien Regime , patricians , investment , land , trade , manufactures