ABSTRACT
Whilst Venetian patricians pursued commercial advantage as ruthlessly as the humbler rulers of any purely mercantile city, they also displayed, when occasion offered, devotion as ardent as that of any Scandinavian chief or Iberian squire to the rewards of conquest and plunder. Venetian and Genoese trading stations indeed stretched from northern Europe into Africa and Asia. The total value and volume of Venetian imports from the east over any substantial period of time are uncertain. Overall, perhaps, they constituted a commerce richer in quality and variety than the comparable oceanic trades of the Iberians, and than that of the Hanse. The Venetian interest in the Levant was by the late Middle Ages complex, deep-rooted and accordingly tenacious, sustained not only by the legendary profits of the spice and luxury trades, but also by the exploitation of local markets and resources.
