How to influence Venetian economic policy: collective petitions of the Netherlandish merchant community in the early seventeenth century

Abstract

Protectionist legislation traditionally excluded immigrant merchants from Venetian trade, yet by 1600 the commercial balance of power had changed. This article argues that immigrant merchants with strong ties to the northern trading world were able directly to influence Venetian legislation. It does so by examining the collective petitions for commercial privileges submitted by Netherlandish merchants and the ensuing reactions of Venetian institutions, such as the Venetian Board of Trade (Cinque Savi alla Mercanzia). Through targeted collective actions, the Netherlandish merchants found ways to mitigate the inequalities imposed by the Venetian government on immigrant traders and to obtain significant communal trading privileges.