justice of the government of the country in which the offense was
committed. If the demand was refused, it was repeated by the Republic; if
still refused, then the Republic, although at peace with the nation from
which the offense came, seized any citizen of that country whom it could
find, and, through its College of Reprisals, spoiled him of sufficient
property to pay the damage done to its citizen. Finally, besides several
other magistracies resident in Venice, the Republic appointed Consuls in
its colonies and some foreign ports, to superintend the traffic of its
citizens, and to compose their controversies. The Consuls were paid out of
duties levied on the merchandise; they were usually nobles, and acted with
the advice and consent of twelve other Venetian nobles or merchants.

At this time, and, indeed, throughout its existence, the great lucrative
monopoly of the Republic was the salt manufactured in the lagoons, and
forced into every market, at rates that no other salt could compete with.
Wherever alien enterprise attempted rivalry, it was instantly discouraged
by Venice. There were troublesome salt mines, for example, in Croatia; and
in 1381 the Republic caused them to be closed by paying the King of
Hungary an annual pension of seven thousand crowns of gold. The exact
income of the State, however, from the monopoly of salt, or from the
various imposts and duties levied upon merchandise, it is now difficult to
know, and it is impossible to compute accurately the value or extent of
Venetian commerce at any one time. It reached the acme of its prosperity
under Tommaso Mocenigo, who was Doge from 1414 to 1423. There were then
three thousand and three hundred vessels of the mercantile marine, giving
employment to thirty-three thousand seamen, and netting to their owners a
profit of forty per cent, on the capital invested. How great has been the
decline of this trade may be understood from the fact that in 1863 it
amounted, according to the careful statistics of the Chamber of Commerce,
to only $60,229,740, and that the number of vessels now owned in Venice is