Rural merchants in the Early Modern Republic of Venice

This article innovatively analyses the economic structure of sixteenth century Venetian rural areas, specifically the countryside of the province of Vicenza. Many studies have proposed general reconstructions of the manufacturing and agricultural characterisation of the Venetian rural areas in the Early Modern period, but little is known about the behaviour of the rural merchants, organisation of rural enterprises, scope of their businesses, and their relationship with urban entrepreneurs. Apart from shedding new light on these topics, this article will also permit a comparison of the characteristics of Vicentine rural merchants with those of rural entrepreneurs operating in other European regions, based on information gathered from accounting books and trials. Consequently, this article will contribute to the discussion of Mendel’s proto-industrialization theory and, more generally, it will offer new insights into the ‘ruralization’ of the Italian economy during the sixteenth century.