Venice |
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Author:
| Molmenti, Pompeo |
ISBN: | 978-0-217-65076-2 |
Publication Date: | Aug 2009 |
Publisher: | General Books LLC
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Book Format: | Paperback |
List Price: | USD $19.99 |
Book Description:
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II FINANCE ? COMMERCE ? INDUSTRY LONG and frequently disastrous wars, coupled with the decline of commerce and industry, gradually exhausted the treasury. Public burdens, though numerous in their minute subdivisions,1 were on the whole not oppressive. During the eighteenth century they brought in a...
More DescriptionPurchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II FINANCE ? COMMERCE ? INDUSTRY LONG and frequently disastrous wars, coupled with the decline of commerce and industry, gradually exhausted the treasury. Public burdens, though numerous in their minute subdivisions,1 were on the whole not oppressive. During the eighteenth century they brought in a revenue which varied between five and five and a half millions of ducats yearly.2 The income did not cover the expenditure, which, as we have seen, was very heavy as regards the forces, even in time of unarmed neutrality, and considerable as regardsthe upkeep of the diplomatic service.1 The Republic insisted on the maintenance of official state, but, like its citizens, it counterbalanced this display by parsimony in private. Public charities and public instruction received adequate support, but the pay of the magistrates from the highest to the lowest was very small,2 and the expenditure in every department of the State was equally light.3 In face of a steadily growing expenditure we cannot help admiring the efforts which were made to check extravagance. In 1576 the Board of Revisers (scansadori) was established, and in 1754 it was entrusted with the administration of the Monti di Piet, or Public Pawnshops. Nevertheless the budgets usually closed with a heavy deficit, while the national debt gradually mounted till it reached the capital sum of eighty million ducats, entailing a yearly outlay of two and a half million ducats to meet the interest and the sinking fund.4 In these financial straits the traditional wisdom of the Republic did not fail her. Determined efforts were made to reduce the debt, and in fact by 1797 it was considerably diminished. Equable incidence of taxation was steadily sought, public credit safeguarded, the administration of public moneys 1 The dire...