Reddit reviews Venice, A Maritime Republic

Oligarchies by nature seek political stability. They fear populist sentiments and the accumulation of too much power in the hands of a single individual. Especially, they fear excessive factionalism; that infighting amongst the elite could be exploited to collectively end their domination of political life. Oligarchies therefore tend to develop a very corporate identity, seeking unity of purpose and a relatively equal distribution of status across all members of the elite. I would expect your mercantile elite then to be very concerned with political stability.

One of the main countries in my world is governed by a mercantile oligarchy as well. The Numanthian ruling elite is obsessed with stability. Indeed, almost every facet of Numanthian governmental, social, and economic life is geared towards maintaining such stability. Over several centuries, this elite has consolidated its control over the state, slowly closing the senior offices of state off from provincial elites and the lower classes. This is not to say that social mobility is impossible in Numanthia. Indeed, the mercantile focus of the Numanthian economy makes it far less difficult to achieve wealth and status, even for foreigners, especially compared to other states. It is just extremely difficult to enter the established ruling elite. I strongly model this country on Venice, with elements of the Roman Republic as well.

I’m not sure what time period you’re basing this society off, but I would definitely look into Venetian political history for influence. Chapin Lane’s [Venice, A Maritime Republic] (http://www.amazon.com/Venice-Maritime-Republic-Frederic-Chapin/dp/080181460X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1412792305&sr=8-1&keywords=chapin+lane+venice) is still the best scholarly examination of Venetian political history, and is very readable. It’s the main text I reference for anything relating to Venetian politics.

I’ve also a few notes on slaves. The real advantages of owning a slave is that they cannot take their labor elsewhere to seek higher compensation. Remember, slaves aren’t cheap. Aside from the cost of acquiring them, slaves need to be fed (and when performing manual labor a sufficient diet is necessary), housed, clothed, and cared for if ill. You also need overseers to monitor them, a further cost. For unskilled work like mining, it’s much cheaper to hire free labor. Free labor needs only be paid for the work they do, with none of the upkeep costs listed above. Indeed, recent scholarship of Roman mining has deemphasized slave labor in favor of such free laborers. Just keep these costs in mind when determining the role you want slaves to play in this society’s economy. Apologies for the length, I hope this is helpful. Please feel free to ask any questions you have!

With regard to history generally, no -- I was already interested in that. But with regard to particular histories, absolutely.


For example, Civilization V sparked in me an obsession about Venice and its history. Since 2014:

• I've read through a small library of related books:
  
  • Venice: A New History
    
  • City of Fortune: How Venice Ruled the Seas
    
  • The Lion of St. Mark: A Tale of Venice in the 14th Century
    
  • Venice: A Maritime Republic
    
  • The Genius of Venice: Piazza San Marco and the Making of the Republic (currently reading)
    
    
• Made over 100 Venice related memes, showcased on my meme page.
  
• Modded Venice into Civilization VI.
  
• Spent a day in the city itself -- not nearly long enough
  
  I could go on, but that that should suffice to illustrate how big an impact the Serenissima's inclusion in V has had on my historical interests.

Well, Veneto as part of the Republic of Venice has a much longer history of independence than Scotland or Catalunya.

I understand you are a foresto (ehm) but if you are interested, I suggest a book I bought from Amazon that according to the guys at /r/history was probably the best on the subject: Venice, a Maritime Republic.