from Milan seventeen to eighteen thousand ducats; from Como, Tortona, Novara, Pavia, Cremona, Palermo, two thousand ducats each; from Bergamo, one thousand and five hundred ducats; and from Monza, Alexandria, and Piacenza, one thousand each. . . . The bankers, also, declare that in every year the Milanese owe us a balance of one million six hundred thousand ducats." "The same and other cities," he adds, "import from us cloths to the value of nine hundred thousand ducats; while France, Lombardy, and other countries receive annually from Venice, pepper, ginger, woods for dyeing, slaves, and soap to the value of one million eight hundred and seventy-one thousand ducats." The entire commercial wealth of Venice the Doge estimated at twenty-eight millions and eight hundred thousand ducats. But he expressly states that he does not include in this the duty on salt, which Filiasi values at one hundred thousand ducats (47,500l.), or that derived from conquered districts, which he reckoned (in a subsequent speech) at four hundred and sixty-four thousand (220,400l.). "Consider how many ships," exclaims the Doge, "the collection and delivery of these goods maintain in activity; whether to deliver them in Lombardy, whether to seek them in Syria, Roumania, Catalonia, Flanders, Cyprus, or Sicily, and all parts of the world. Venice gains from two and a half to three per cent. on the freight. See how many persons gain a livelihood by this business—brokers, artificers, sailors, thousands of
- [Footnote: These amounts, however, do not represent the exact sums which flowed
into the Venetian exchequer, as we are ignorant of the relative value of gold and silver at the period.]
