ABSTRACT
The data congured and analysed in Chapter 1 underlined the important changes in the nature of the involvement of rural communities in the management of the Venetian military structure during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, shedding new light on the state’s changing military needs and costs, which differed from province to province. To analyse the evolution of the Venetian military apparatus, its management in the Mainland Dominion and the interaction between state and local needs (especially in economic terms), it is important to understand the character of the changes. This chapter will concentrate on changes that occurred during the sixteenth century. Unsurprisingly, conditions of war affected the trend of military costs in this century; apart from the particularly expensive defence of the Dominio da Mar against the Ottoman Empire in the 1570s, the second half of the sixteenth century generally was a period of quiet in the military affairs of the Republic. If we attempt to establish a denite chronology, it is accurate to suggest that until about the War of Gradisca in 1615 the military foundation of the Republic was under construction (Hale 1990). Looking at the province of Vicenza, as at the province of Brescia, military expenses revolved around the enrolment and the equipment of the rural militia, the payment of labourers sent to build fortresses, the erection of saltpetre storehouses and the payment of oarsmen for the War of Cyprus. An analysis of the nature of the costs incurred in the diverse provinces requires independent explorations of each cost.
