_THE COMMERCIAL INTERESTS AND POLICY OF THE GREATER GUILDS IN
FLORENCE._[338]
I.
The end of the thirteenth century marks the opening of a new era in
the history of Italy and of Europe. During the period of political
disorder prevailing throughout Northern Europe ever since the days of
Charlemagne, a literary culture was nevertheless developed, which,
although little heeded in past times, has been most clearly elucidated
by recent learned research. The literature of Provence, the romance of
chivalry, the poems arranged in the cycles of Charlemagne, the Round
Table, the Nibelungen Lied, the innumerable ballads, the splendid
cathedrals reared on both banks of the Rhine and constituting an art
never to be surpassed by its countless imitators, were one and all
the offspring of the mighty, primitive culture of the Middle Ages, in
which, for a long time, Italy had no share. In Northern Europe, where
conquerors and conquered amalgamated with less difficulty, national
art and literature were sooner able to spring into being. In Italy, on
the contrary, the conquered were oppressed, but never entirely fused
with their conquerors; gradually, rather, they began to assert their
individuality and their rights. The original rise of the communes was
the result of this struggle. Accordingly, at the time when France was
composing love-songs and poems of chivalry, Italy was absorbed in
founding political institutions and preparing to win freedom.
At the beginning of the fourteenth century the scene was completely
changed. Every branch of mediæval literature seemed smitten with an
instantaneous decay, northern imagination and fancy to be suddenly
withered. Even there, in the north, men begin to strive, slowly and
painfully, at the task of political organisation. Meanwhile, the
Italian communes being already constituted, our country had already
given birth to a national literature, of so dazzling a splendour as
to banish all others from view, and relegate to centuries of oblivion
the fruits of earlier culture elsewhere. It was precisely at this
moment that Florence, then the chief seat and centre of the new Italian
culture, was subject to the rule of the greater guilds. The Empire
seemed to have abandoned its pretensions with regard to Italy; the
Papacy, weakened and menaced, no longer dared to impose its commands on
the secular world in its former imperious fashion; the struggle between
conquerors and conquered had come to an end, all distinction between
the German and Latin races having utterly disappeared, and Italy being
peopled by Italians alone.
Now, too, the prolonged conflict waged by the democracy of Florence
against the feudal aristocracy was about to terminate in the former's
victory, and the Commonwealth could be justly entitled a Republic
of merchants, whose trade was soon to enrich them to an apparently
fabulous extent. All seemed to herald a new era of peace, prosperity,
and concord. But in the light of after events we perceive that the
Republic continued to be sorely harassed by internecine strife; also
that, in spite of the splendid results achieved in art and commerce,
political institutions were on the wane, and the loss of liberty
becoming almost a foregone conclusion. How was it that a Commune,
enabled to assert its existence at the beginning of the twelfth century
and steadily progress in the face of tremendous obstacles, should now
show symptoms of decline in the heyday of its triumph? How was it that
civil war should still be carried on when all motive for discord seemed
extinguished by the victory of the popular party now at the head of the
State? We shall discover the answer to this problem by investigating
more closely the new conditions of Florentine society, and more
particularly the conditions of the trade guilds constituting its chief
strength and nucleus.
The number of the Florentine guilds welded in associations had been,
after various changes, finally fixed at twenty-one: seven greater and
fourteen lesser guilds, although often found otherwise divided into
twelve greater and twelve lesser. At any rate, the guilds of first rank
and decidedly highest importance were the following:--
1. The Guild of Judges and Notaries.
2. The Guild of Calimala, or Dressers of Foreign Cloth.
3. The Guild of Wool.
4. The Guild of Silk, or of Porta Santa Maria.
5. The Guild of Money-changers.
6. The Guild of Doctors and Druggists.
7. The Guild of Skinners and Furriers.
As every one can see, the first on the list is altogether outside
the limits of trade and commerce, and seems rather to belong to the
learned professions. But it may be remarked that in those days judges
and notaries contributed very largely to the advancement of the
guilds, and were continually employed in their service. Together with
the consuls, they constituted the court or tribunal of every guild,
and gave judgment in all commercial suits tried there; they arranged
all disputes, pronounced or suggested penal sentences. Then, too, it
was the peculiar function of the notaries to draw up new statutes,
continually reform them, and provide for their due enforcement. They
were likewise engaged to prepare contracts, and were frequently the
mouthpieces of the consuls at the meetings of the greater and lesser
guilds. Good judges and notaries were in great demand throughout
Italy, and, as necessary instruments of prosperity, richly remunerated
for their services. Accordingly, their guild became one of the most
influential in Florence, and its notaries were reputed the best-skilled
in the world. Goro Dati speaks of this guild in his "Storia di
Firenze," saying that "it has a proconsul at the head of its consuls,
wields great authority, and may be considered the parent stem of the
whole notarial profession throughout Christendom, inasmuch as the great
masters of that profession have been leaders and members of this Guild.
Bologna is the fountain of doctors of the law, Florence of doctors of
the notariate."[339] At public functions the proconsul took precedence
over all the consuls, and came directly after the chief magistrate
of the Republic. As head of the judges and notaries he held judicial
authority, as it were, over all the guilds.
The four next in order--_i.e._, the Calimala, Wool, Silk, and
Exchange--commanded the largest share of Florentine commerce and
industry. They were of very ancient origin. Ammirato remarks that the
consuls of the guilds are mentioned in a Patent of 1204, but there
is documentary record of them at a much earlier date. But, although
boasting so old an existence, the guilds passed through a long period
of gradual formation, only developing their strength much later,
and each at a different time. The oldest and also the first to make
progress were the Calimala and Wool Guilds, virtually exercising almost
the same industry, inasmuch as both dressed woollen stuffs, and carried
on an extensive business with them. Nevertheless, seeing that each
pursued its trade in a way peculiar to itself, and achieved thereby a
special individual importance, the two guilds always remained separate
and distinct from each other.
From the earliest mediæval times the manners and customs of the
Italians had been more refined and civilised than those of barbarian
peoples, and their handicraft far more advanced. We learn from a
chronicler, quoted in Muratori, that when Charlemagne was in Italy he
wished to go out hunting one day, and suddenly summoned his courtiers
from Pavia. Precious Eastern stuffs having been already brought to that
town by the Venetians, the courtiers were able to appear before the
emperor clad in the richest attire. But during the hunt their precious
stuffs and feathers were totally spoiled by rain and thorns, whereas
the emperor's plain tunic of goatskin was as good as before. Thereupon
Charlemagne turned to his followers and said, rather jeeringly: "Why do
you throw away your money so fruitlessly, when you might wear skins,
the most convenient, lasting, and least expensive of garments?"[340]
We may certainly doubt the historic truth of this incident; but the
chronicler's tale proves two things at all events, _i.e._, that the
custom of wearing the skins of goats or lambs was so general in the
ninth century, that even an emperor might not disdain their use; and
that, although Italian industry was then very undeveloped, beautiful
stuffs were procured from the Levant through the Venetian traders.
II.
The art of weaving coarse woollen stuffs is, however, so easy that it
must have been soon revived in Italy, and was probably never completely
abandoned. It would seem to have first begun to progress by imitating
the simpler fabrics of the Eastern Empire, where cultivation and
industry had survived to a much later date. In fact, all the earlier
Italian stuffs bear names indicative of their Byzantine derivation,
such, for instance, as _Velum holosericum_, _Fundathum alithinum_,
_Vela tiria_, _bizantina_, _Crysoclava_, _&c._[341] Nevertheless,
although the craft of woollen manufacture is of very early origin,
and was even practised by pastoral tribes, there were many obstacles
to its development in Italy. Improvement in the breeding of sheep,
and consequently in pasturing and agriculture, was required for its
progress. But, whereas the Italian communes showed great solicitude
for the promotion of trade, they not only despised but often crushed
agriculture. The Republic was constituted and governed by artisans,
who, after overthrowing the feudal lords, rose to supremacy; but
the agricultural class, although far better treated in Tuscany than
elsewhere, remained long bound to the soil, and never enjoyed rights of
citizenship. This fact alone serves to indicate the rest. All laws and
decrees relating to trade are full of good sense and foresight; while
all concerning agriculture seem dictated by prejudice or jealousy.
Then, too, regarding pasturage and consequently the woollen industry,
it should be added that Tuscany, being a mountainous country, is
adapted to the culture of vines and olives and excellent cereals, but
deficient in meadowland, whether natural or artificial. Accordingly, it
was an exceedingly difficult task to improve the quality and quantity
of the wool produced there. Although the Florentines soon succeeded
in manufacturing the woollen stuffs called _pignolati_, _schiavini_,
and _villaneschi_, these very coarse fabrics, the names of which
sufficiently indicate their quality, only served for a limited trade in
the territory or just beyond the borders of the Republic. And when it
was attempted to improve the manufacture serious difficulties arose.
To weave fine cloth from coarse wool was a fruitless labour; while to
procure foreign wool from distant countries was no easy task in times
when industry and commerce had scarcely any existence, and the cost
of transport would have devoured the profits. Nevertheless, it was by
conquering all these obstacles that the Florentines gave the first
proofs of their genius for trade.
In Flanders, Holland, and Brabant far better wool was obtainable, and
the art of weaving it so long established there that, as in the case of
the linen webs of North Germany, the origin of the craft is lost in the
obscurity of almost pre-historic times. But, notwithstanding the good
quality of the yarn, the woollen stuffs manufactured in those countries
were decidedly coarse, sent to market undressed, badly-finished, and
dyed in very ugly and evanescent colours. Accordingly the Florentine
merchants conceived the idea of importing these foreign stuffs in
order to dress and dye them in their own workshops. Hence the origin
of the Calimala or Calimara craft.[342] Bales of cloth began to arrive
from Flanders, Holland, and Brabant, and these so-called _Frankish_
or _ultramontane_ stuffs were carded, shaved, dressed, and cut in
Florence. This treatment removed all the knots coarsening the surface,
and as the material was much finer than Italian wool it could be easily
dyed in very delicate tints, and the Florentines soon surpassed all
competitors in this particular art. Then, after being carefully ironed,
faced, and folded, the cloth was re-sold in a very different condition
and at a much higher price. From the first there was a great demand for
these goods in Italy, and they were afterwards sent to the East, and
bartered for drugs, dyes, and other Asiatic products. Finally, as their
quality went on improving, they found their way to France, England,
and the same markets whence they had originally come, and where they
were sold in exchange for undressed fabrics. Thus the lack of original
material was not only supplied, but foreign manufactures served to
swell Florentine gains. A very extensive trade was carried on with
comparatively little trouble, and as the process of wool-dressing gave
employment to many hands, the Calimala Guild attained a position of
great influence that was naturally shared by the Guild of Wool.[343]
In fact, the latter being stirred by emulation and greed for profit,
used the utmost care to improve its manufactures. And the development
of the craft was equally assisted by the labours of private individuals
and the wise measures decreed by the State. At that time there was a
monastic order in Italy known as the Humble Friars, originally founded
by a few Lombard exiles, who, on being banished to North Germany in
1014 by Henry I., had learnt the very ancient craft of wool-weaving
practised there. Later on, having formed a pious association, the
exiles laboured at the trade for their bread, and after five years'
absence returned home a united band of workers. Down to the year
1140 they remained laymen, but then decided to form a religious
order, afterwards sanctioned by Pope Innocent III. Once admitted
to the priesthood, they no longer worked with their own hands, but
retained the management of the business, had it carried on by laymen
under the direction of a _mercatore_, and continually introduced new
improvements. It was natural that cultivated men, with members of their
order scattered over various provinces, should be able to forward
the progress of the trade they had founded. In fact, they acquired
so much celebrity for their administrative talents that we find them
engaged at Florence and elsewhere as treasurers of the public revenue
(_camarlinghi_) and as army contractors in time of war. Wherever a
house of their order was established the wool-weaving craft immediately
made advance. Hence, with its usual sharpsighted wisdom touching all
questions of trade and commerce, the Florentine Republic, considering
the houses of the _Umiliati_ to be great industrial schools, invited
the friars to establish a branch in the neighbourhood of Florence.
Accordingly in 1239 the Humble Brethren arrived and settled near the
city in the Church of San Donato a Torri, granted to them by the State.
Their presence led to the expected result. Before long their house
became one of the principal centres of Florentine industry, so that the
guild-masters complained of the friars' distance from the town, and
urged them to move their establishment nearer to the walls. In 1250
they obtained buildings and land in the suburb of Sta Lucia sul Prato,
and exemption from all taxes on their property, the which privilege
was usually accorded by the Florentines to any one introducing a new
branch of trade in the city. Then, in 1256, the Umiliati founded the
church and monastery of Sta Caterina, in Borgo Ognissanti, and carved
their arms over the entrance, _i.e._, a wool-pack fastened crosswise
by ropes. From that moment the wool craft made enormous advance in
Florence, and in every European market Florentine cloths began to rank
above all others. Efforts were made to improve the rough material and
to use additional care in dressing it, finer wools being imported
from Tunis, Barbary, Spain, Portugal, Flanders, and lastly even from
England. Thus so vast a trade was established, such great wealth
accumulated, that the wool craft rivalled and surpassed the Calimala
itself. Both guilds became great commercial powers in Europe, while in
Florence the government dared not oppose their decisions.[344]
Giovanni Villani informs us, in his valuable account of Florentine
statistics during the year 1338, that there were more than two hundred
wool factories, turning out from seventy thousand to eighty thousand
pieces of cloth, of the total value of one million two hundred thousand
florins, "of the which sum a good third was kept at home for the works,
without counting the earnings of the wool dressers in the said works,
the which supplied a living to over thirty thousand persons." The chief
profits of the trade were obtained by perfection of manufacture, rather
than by any increase of produce. Even Villani remarked that thirty
years earlier, that is, in 1308, the factories were more numerous,
actually as many as three hundred, and producing one hundred thousand
pieces of cloth: "but these stuffs were coarser, and of only half
the value, having no intermixture of English wool, the which indeed
they had not yet learnt to dress with the skill since acquired."[345]
This clearly shows that the craft owed its first improvement in the
thirteenth century to the Humble Friars, and was carried to perfection
in the fifteenth century by the introduction of English woollens.
In the same year of 1338 the Calimala Guild owned twenty warehouses
in Florence, "yearly receiving more than ten thousand pieces of
cloth, to the value of three hundred thousand florins, all sold in
Florence, and without including those sent out of the city."[346] The
Calimala craftsmen were exceedingly skilled as refiners and dyers,
and particularly successful in preparing the crimson cloth for which
there was a great demand in Florence, as it was used for the _lucco_,
a hooded robe worn by all citizens entitled to enter the Public Palace
and sit in the tribunals or councils of the Republic. The two guilds
afterwards made a division of labour in order to avoid infringing each
others rights. The statutes absolutely prohibited the Calimala from
dying anything save foreign stuffs, and the Woollen Guild had dyers
of its own, forming, as it were, a subordinate association. These
dyers were bound to deposit three hundred florins with the guild as
a warranty, and fines were deducted from this sum whenever the goods
delivered were soiled or dyed a bad colour. The officers of the guilds
were exceedingly severe on these points. Every inch of cloth underwent
the minutest examination, and the least defect in colour, quality, or
measure exposed the workman to heavy penalties. Some of these great
Florentine guilds were not composed solely of one trade, but were often
agglomerations of various crafts, particularly in the case of the Wool
Guild, which included many kinds of workmen, ranging from carders of
the rough material to dyers and finers of the most costly fabrics.
Thus, the guild being able to carry on the manufacture in all its
details, and the different craftsmen required for the common end being
all bonded together, there was no fear that any one branch of the trade
would raise its prices to the detriment of the rest. The emblem of the
Wool Guild was a lamb bearing a flag (_Agnus Dei_), while the Calimala
showed a red eagle on a white bale corded with many twists.
During the whole of the fourteenth and a considerable part of
the fifteenth century these two guilds continued to progress, and
maintained their supremacy in the markets of Europe. Nevertheless,
they were always in a difficult position, since Italy could not supply
them with sufficient raw material, nor could they obtain the number
of hands required to carry on all the work connected with their
business. To establish branches of the trade in neighbouring states
and subject cities was an idea that found no place in the economic and
political theories of the Middle Ages. In those days trade formed the
chief strength and social power of the communes: hence every commune
wished to have the monopoly of its advantages, and the statutes
bristled with decrees inspired by this blindly jealous exclusiveness.
For this reason, while pursuing the system of keeping the finer and
more profitable processes of the manufacture in their own hands, the
Florentines had opened factories for the first and coarser stages of
the work in every place where the best wool could be found, that is
in Holland, Brabant, England, and France. And even in these factories
they took care that the more difficult and profitable share of the
process should be done only by Florentine hands. Their chronicles prove
that they then spoke of foreigners in the same terms now used by the
latter with regard to ourselves: jeering at the indolence and stupidity
of the northerners, who even on their own soil allowed strangers to
snatch the bread from their mouths. But this state of things could
not last long. From very early times the Flemings had always been a
strong, hard-working race, and were very soon equalled by the French
and English. So gradually the eyes of the northerners were opened, and
the Florentines saw new factories rising abroad, side by side with and
soon rivalling their own, and were obliged to admit that, to their own
despite, they had taught foreigners the very trade of which they had
meant to preserve the monopoly. Nor was this the end of the matter.
Being now on the alert, the northerners tried to check the exportation
of their wools and of their uncut, or rather undressed, cloths; and
from the end of the fifteenth century Henry VII. of England began
to take measures to that effect. Thenceforth the Guilds of Wool and
Calimala were doomed to decline in Florence. Fortunately, however,
before this came about, the silk trade had assumed the same importance
in Florentine commerce that was gradually slipping away from the other
two crafts.
As every one is aware, the art of silk-weaving, though of very early
origin in the East, was only introduced much later to the Western
world. The Romans obtained a few silk stuffs from Persia, India, and
China at an enormous expense; they also had certain insects from
which material for highly esteemed fabrics was procured; but until
the closing years of the Middle Ages the real silkworm was unknown
in Italy, and the details of its first introduction in the West have
not yet been fully ascertained. It is related that during the sixth
century B.C. two Persian monks concealed some silkworm seed inside
their staffs, and thus succeeded in bearing it to Constantinople,
where they taught the art of rearing the insects. In this wise the
silk trade is supposed to have been originated in the dominions of the
Byzantine Empire, and carried thence by Arabs and Mahomedans to Sicily
and Greece. When Roger II., Count of Sicily, conquered the Ionian
islands, he returned to Palermo with numerous prisoners (1147-48),
who greatly assisted the progress of the silk trade there. Thence it
easily penetrated to Lombardy and Tuscany; but was first established
and perfected in Lucca, all the Florentines being still devoted to the
profitable wool trade.
The consuls of the Silk Guild--or of Por' Santa Maria, as it was
designated in Florence, from the name of its street--are mentioned
among other guild-masters in public treaties; but although this craft
too may be of ancient date, it certainly began to flourish much later
than the rest. Noting the fact that Giovanni Villani makes no allusion
to the Silk Guild in his very minute account of Florentine trade and
commerce in 1338, we are inclined to believe that it had made very
little advance at that period.[347]
We know that when Uguccioni della Faggiola besieged and took Lucca
(1314), fugitives from that city brought their improved method of
silk-weaving to Lombardy, Venice, and Tuscany, and the art being
particularly undeveloped in Florence, many chroniclers gave the
Lucchese the credit of having first introduced it there. Nevertheless,
for many years afterwards the silk trade was carried on by importing
the raw material from the East. But as the wool craft began to decline,
Florence gave its whole attention to silk, and the trade speedily
began to prosper. In the early years of the fifteenth century, Gino
Capponi--he who was commissary to the camp at the siege of Pisa--taught
the Florentines the art of spinning the gold thread they had hitherto
imported from Cologne or from Cyprus to interweave with their silk.
This was the beginning of that delicate manufacture of gold and silver
brocades, in which by the combination of technical skill with artistic
sense, the Florentines soon surpassed all rival manufacturers. The
markets from which their woollen stuffs had been ousted, were speedily
reconquered by their silken cloths and brocades. During the latter half
of the fifteenth century, in fact, we find Benedetto Dei, a merchant
of the Bardi Company, writing a letter to Venice praising the glory
and greatness of Florentine commerce and saying: "We have two crafts
worthier and greater than any four contained in your city of Venice."
And the gist of his subsequent remarks was to this effect: "Our
woollen stuffs go to Rome, Naples, Sicily, the Morea, Constantinople,
Broussa, Pera, Gallipoli, Schio, Rhodes, and Salonica. Then, as to the
silk and gold brocades, we produce more than Venice, Genoa, and Lucca
combined, and you see that we have houses, banks, and warehouses at
Lyons, Bruges, London, Antwerp, Avignon, Geneva, Marseilles, and in
Provence."[348] This long list of cities plainly shows that in Dei's
time Florentine woollens, though still prized in the East, had been
driven from the principal markets of the West, and replaced by silk
stuffs; and thus the two guilds shared commerce between them, one in
the East, the other in the West. Also, according to Dei, Florence
then possessed eighty-three factories, where various tissues of silk,
gold, and silver were produced known by the names of damasks, velvets,
satins, taffetas, and _maremmati_, and most of the raw silk used in
their fabrication was still imported from the East by Florentine
galleys.[349]
This is one of the trades longest preserved in Florence and other parts
of Italy, and to this day silk is among the most important of our
products. With this difference, however, that whereas in past times
the weaving of the silk was our chief source of profit, at present
we frequently export the raw material, repurchasing at an enormously
increased price the fabrics returned to us from foreign looms. In old
times we imported woollen and silk yarn, and exported Italian cloth
and brocade; in these days, on the contrary, we send no small portion
of our raw silk to Lyons, and receive it back in a manufactured state.
In the same way other raw materials, which we might easily work up
ourselves, are despatched to foreign factories.
III.
There was one branch of industry, however, almost solely the product
of human talent and energy, in which the Florentines stood positively
first. From the opening of the thirteenth to the end of the fifteenth
century the money-changers' craft was an essentially Florentine
business. For as soon as the merchants had established commercial
relations with all the markets of the East and the West, they naturally
put into circulation a large quantity of specie. Therefore it naturally
ensued that if any trader of Antwerp or Bruges wished to forward
money to Italy or Constantinople, the easiest and safest plan was to
apply to some of the Florentine merchants in his own town. The latter
bought up the wool and rough cloths, which, after being dressed in
Florence, either returned to Northern Europe, or found their way to
Constantinople, Caffa, or Tana (Azov), in exchange for silks, dyes,
and spices. Accordingly the transmittal of any sum to any part of the
then known world cost them little more trouble than the despatch of an
ordinary letter, and was always a source of gain. For they received
_agio_ on their money, and by sending it in the form of merchandise,
reaped a second profit. When, on the contrary, any Florentine wished
to send a hundred florins to London, he had only to walk a few steps
to find some merchant of the Calimala or Por' Santa Maria, who, by a
line to his correspondent in Lombard Street, caused the payment to be
made. These so-called letters of exchange (_lettere di cambio_) proved
one of the most useful of inventions for the advancement of modern
trade. There has been much discussion as to whom this discovery was
originally owed. Some attribute it to the fugitive, persecuted Jews in
France and England; while others ascribe it, at a much later date, to
the Guelphs banished from Florence in the thirteenth century. But it is
very difficult to ascertain who was the first author of what cannot be
justly styled a discovery, seeing that it is an arrangement so readily
occurring to the mind, that examples of it are even to be found in
very remote antiquity. Besides, the real importance of the letter of
exchange consists not in its invention, but in its legally authorised
value, its extensive use, and the thousand different ways in which it
may be turned to account for the speedy transmission and increase of
capital. On these points the Florentines of the period were altogether
unforestalled and unsurpassed, being superior masters of the art of
finance.
When the exiled Guelphs went wandering about the world in the
thirteenth century they strengthened the widespreading commercial
ties established by Florence, and founding banks in all parts, gave a
tremendous impulse to the money-changers' trade. Accordingly they were
credited with the invention of the "letters of exchange," which now
being widely circulated, gained added importance. In fact, all subtle
and ingenious devices for multiplying gold, by despatching it to every
market where, being scarce, it consequently commanded the highest
price and interest, and almost all the complicated and difficult
operations practised by our modern bankers, were already familiar to
the Florentines. Whenever the Republic was obliged to borrow money
it obtained loans from the bankers of Florence on precisely the same
system and method in use at this day, no source of profit being
unknown to those financiers. Also, when the total of these loans was
formed into the so-called _Monte Comune_, paying interest on the
consolidated capital, the _luoghi del Monte_, which would nowadays go
by the name of "shares of the public debt," were negotiated precisely
as at present. We find the Florentine merchants under the Arcades of
the New Market, speculating on the rise and fall of stock, like modern
men on "'Change" in great capitals.[350] And the profits of similar
ventures were far greater at a time when lawful interest varied between
10 and 20 per cent., and few felt any scruples against carrying it
up to 40 per cent. by means of fictitious contracts. For instance,
the lenders would fix an impossibly early date for the receipt of the
lawful interest, and after that date took 40 per cent. with the pretext
that the extra amount was the fine agreed upon in case of non-payment.
It should be kept in mind that the Florentines reaped great advantages
in all these banking operations from the excellent quality of their
coinage, for the Republican Mint always kept the best interests of
commerce in view. To this end, in the year 1252, the gold florin of
twenty carats was struck, with the figure of St. John on one side and
the lily of Florence on the reverse; and, owing to the goodness of
the metal and its alloy, soon obtained currency in every Eastern as
well as European market. Eight of these florins weighed one ounce,
and a single florin was valued at about twelve Italian _lire_. The
Florentines, however, usually made their calculations in _lire_,
_soldi_, and _denari_. The silver _lira_, then the conventional
standard, consisted of twenty _soldi_, and the _soldo_ of twelve
_denari_. The florin seldom altered in value, but the _lira_, either
from the greater variability in the price of silver, or from other
causes, was constantly altering its rate with regard to the florin. In
1252 the latter was equivalent to the _lira_, and therefore similarly
divided into twenty _soldi_; in 1282 it already consisted of thirty-two
_soldi_; in 1331, of sixty _soldi_, or three _lire_, and always
changing in value, rose to four _lire_, eight _soldi_ by the year 1464.
The Florentines had discerned how greatly their commerce was benefited
by the use of a coin universally prized in all markets supplied with
their goods. But in the beginning of the fifteenth century, when
their trade penetrated farther into the East, they found themselves
forestalled by the Venetians, whose gold ducat, somewhat larger and
heavier than the florin, was already current there. Accordingly,
in 1422, they decreed the issue of another florin, equivalent to
the Venetian ducat in weight, size, and value, and therefore easily
exchanged for it. And as this new and larger florin was to be carried
to the Levant on board-ship, they named it the "broad florin," or the
"galley florin," to distinguish it from the older "sealed florin"
(_fiorino di suggello_). In 1471 the older coin only was re-issued, and
kept in circulation down to 1530, when it was held equivalent to seven
_lire_, and was then withdrawn for a time.[351] Thus we see that for a
considerable period two different florins were in use, that the _lira_
altered in value from one year to another; and if we likewise remember
that economists are still unagreed as to the exact difference between
the present value of gold and silver and their value in the days of the
Republic, we shall recognise the difficulty of making any calculation
sufficiently exact to afford any precise idea of the relative prices of
things. It is asserted by some writers that a given quantity of gold
was only worth in those days double its present value; while others
exaggerated its value to fortyfold. Sismondi believes that in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries gold must have been worth four times
as much as at present. Certainly the florin, or _zechin_, as it was
called later, is worth about twelve Italian _lire_. But the difference
in the value of gold remains involved in uncertainty. Besides, when old
writers reckon by _lire_, it is needful to remember that these coins
varied in value; that it is impossible to make even an approximative
calculation without knowing the exact date referred to.
Returning to the Guild of Changers, we must again insist on the point
that, in addition to the extended commercial relations, the wise
measures enforced by the Republic and the singular activity of the
citizens, the rapid prosperity of the Florentine bankers was also
greatly enhanced by their nearness to Rome. The revenues of the Holy
See and of its prelates in all parts of Christendom were all poured
into the Eternal City. There gathered the spiritual lords, bishops, and
cardinals, holding rich benefices in the East or the West; thither from
all the remotest ends of the known world believers sent sums of "St.
Peter's pence," together with the costly offerings suited to a period
of religious faith and fanaticism. The keen-witted Florentines quickly
recognised the advantage of becoming bankers to the Pope; for thus the
largest floating capital in the world would have to pass through their
hands. So, from the first, they used the most persistent efforts to
obtain that position. If we find them clinging to the Guelph cause
through all changes of time and circumstance, and preserving the name
of Guelphs, even when the term had lost all meaning, we must attribute
no little weight to commercial as well as to political motives. Placed
in the centre of Italy, and not far from Rome, they had to struggle
chiefly against the Siennese, who were still nearer to the Eternal
City. For this reason we soon find them engaged in warfare and jealous
strife with Sienna, the which republic was subsequently worsted,
not only in fight, but also by the wider-stretching enterprise of
Florentine commerce. It is proved by the correspondence of Gregory IX.
that even in 1233 the Tuscans were forwarding remittances to the Pope
from various parts of the world; and gradually the monopoly of this
business became more exclusively concentrated in Florentine hands. When
the Pontifical Seat was transferred from Rome to Avignon (1305), and on
its restoration later to Rome again, there occurred, twice at least,
an enormous displacement of interest, a great movement of capital,
and a necessity for large remittances in cash; and, according to the
best authorities, this was the favourable moment when the Florentine
contractors of the Papal revenues were enabled to become the principal
bankers of Rome. From that time their fortune was assured, the greatest
banking business in Europe passed through their hands, and they rose to
so high a repute, that all sought their help and advice on matters of
finance.
We see the Florentines invited to manage the mints, and fix the weights
and measures of various European states. In 1278 a convention between
the King of France and the Lombard and Tuscan _Universitates_ invites
both to find money for the former's government. In 1306 the Modenese
people issued a decree, appealing for the same purpose, to the notaries
and bankers of Florence. Then in 1302, when the King of France,
lacking funds wherewith to make war, decided on repeated debasement
of the coinage, this fatal step was attributed to the advice of two
Florentines, Bicci and Musciatto Franzesi. These men were severely
censured by their fellow-citizens, many of whom had been ruined by
the bad French currency. On all occasions when the French sovereigns
were on the eve of a great war, they were practically compelled to
first secure the aid of some known Florentine banker in bearing the
expense. Some of these bankers held the same position in Europe as
the Rothschilds of the present day, and accumulated fortunes of
apparently fabulous amounts. In 1260 the Salimbeni house lent twenty
thousand florins to the Siennese. In 1338 we find the Bardi and Peruzzi
creditors of King Edward III. of England for one million three hundred
and sixty-five florins, the which, without reckoning the difference in
the value of gold, would amount to about sixteen millions of Italian
_lire_; and allowing for that difference, would amount, as Sismondi
has calculated, to no less than sixty-four millions. Pagnini adds a
list of many other loans, amounting to a positively enormous total.
In 1321 the Peruzzi had a credit of 191,000 florins on the Order of
Jerusalem alone, and the Bardi another of 133,000 florins. In 1348 the
house of Tommaso di Carroccio degli Alberti and his kinsmen had banks
at Avignon, Brussells, Paris, Sienna, Perugia, Rome, Naples, Barletta,
Constantinople, and Venice.[352] And at the close of the fifteenth
century Philippe de Commines declared that Edward IV. of England owed
his crown to the help of Florentine bankers.
The Money-changers' Guild was one of the oldest in Florence, its
consuls being named on the same footing as the rest in all public
records; and a copy of its statutes, dated 1299 (1300 new style),
makes reference to an earlier code of 1280, that was not the earliest
of all. This craft prospered and waned with the commerce of Florence.
It was carried on in the New Market, where it had shops with counters
or _tavoletti_, money-bags, and ledgers. All business had to be
performed in the shop, and registered in the account book, and heavy
penalties were exacted for any infringement of the rule; nor was any
one allowed to exercise the craft without being inscribed on the
matriculation list, a privilege only to be obtained by having given
proofs of capacity and honesty during matriculation, and sworn to obey
the statutes of the guild. In 1338 there were about eighty of these
money-changers' stalls, and Florence coined from 350,000 to 400,000
gold florins.[353] In 1422 these stalls numbered seventy-two, while
it was calculated that Florence had a capital of two million florins
in circulation, without including the value of the merchandise in the
city.[354] In 1472, partly because the first signs of the decline of
trade were appearing, and partly because trade was becoming restricted
to a more and more limited number of firms, the banks were already
reduced to thirty-three,[355] although the chronicler Benedetto Dei
still remarked with pride that these bankers did business in the East
and the West, "as is well known to the Venetians and Genoese, and
likewise to the Court of Rome."[356] They were everywhere known by
the names of changers, lenders, usurers, Tuscans, and Lombards, and,
together with other Italian houses, had a street of their own both in
London and Paris.
IV.
In order to complete the list of the greater guilds, we must say a few
words concerning the Doctors and Druggists, and Skinners and Furriers,
and particularly the former. Although of less importance commercially
than the guilds already described, they had a great share in promoting
Florentine trade in the Levant, whence nearly all drugs and spices were
received in exchange, and no less than twenty-two different qualities
of fur, many of which, being the skins of rare animals, formed some of
the dearest articles of luxury. Therefore these two guilds likewise
rose to great influence, inasmuch as the Eastern trade has invariably
proved the main source of wealth for all nations, and most of all
for Italy. It served to sustain the high fortunes of Venice; it had
enriched Amalfi, Genoa, and Pisa; and accordingly was constantly
coveted by the Florentines, whose highest prosperity indeed was only
attained when the Black Sea being opened to their galleys, they could
enjoy the same rights as the Venetians in Egypt, Constantinople, and
the Crimea. This, so long their principal aim, was not, however,
quickly attained: they continued to wrestle for it throughout almost
the whole of the fourteenth century.
The struggles maintained by the Florentines for the extension of their
trade play a very important part in the history of the Republic, not
only demonstrating the progress of their wealth, but likewise the
ruling motives of their policy. In fact, the moment they had won
their first successes against the nobles of the _contado_ surrounding
them on all sides, they immediately tried to monopolise the whole
trade with Lombardy. One of the first treaties signed by them was
with the Ubaldini, lords of the Mugello, for the purpose of opening
that highway for their products; and shortly afterwards they made a
treaty with the Bölognese (1203). But in course of time the latter,
profiting by their position, exacted heavier tolls on the merchandise
now continually passing through their territory; whereupon the
Florentines promptly came to terms with Modena, opening a fresh road
for their commerce, and thus compelling Bölogna to respect the original
agreement. In 1282, at the time of the war against Pisa, they arranged
treaties guaranteeing free passage to their merchandise through Lucca,
Prato, Pistoia, and Volterra, and thus began their domination over the
commerce of Tuscany. Nearly all their wars were undertaken for purposes
of trade, and ended with trading agreements. In 1390 they entered into
conventions with Faenza and Ravenna, and then step by step with the
majority of the Italian cities.
The continual increase of Florentine commerce by land made the
necessity of free access to the sea ever more pressing and
indispensable. But to reach either Porto Pisano or Leghorn, the only
ports convenient for their trade, they must necessarily traverse the
republic of Pisa, their powerful neighbour and rival. For if the
Florentines were masters of nearly the whole Tuscan trade by land, the
Pisans were lords of the sea, and had no intention of allowing their
realm to be snatched from them by so industrious and energetic a race
as their competing neighbours. Accordingly the Pisans had only to
demand heavy tolls for the passage of those neighbours' goods, and the
Florentines were left with no remedy save recourse to arms. Hence the
continual warfare and perpetual rivalry of the two republics. After
the capture of Volterra by the Florentines in 1254, the threatening
attitude of their victorious troops drove the Pisans to grant free
passage to their merchandise, and in 1273, 1293, 1327, and 1329
similarly compelled them to adhere to the same terms. Pisa, however,
never yielded the point with a good grace, but merely to avoid war, or
in consequence of defeat.
Meanwhile the Florentines were continually extending their trade to
remoter parts of the East, and concluding fresh treaties there. This,
while increasing their desire to command the sea, fanned the jealousy
of Pisa to a fiercer flame. In Pagnini's work on "La Decima" we find an
essay on the "Practise of Trade" ("Pratica della Mercatura"), written
early in the fourteenth century by an agent of the Bardi firm, one
Balducci Pegolotti. Next to Marco Polo's "Milione," this work is one
of our most important sources of information regarding Italian travels
and trading enterprises in the Levant, and furnishes specially minute
details of Florentine traffic. From what Pegolotti tells us of his own
doings, we may judge what was done by his fellow-citizens in general.
In 1315 he succeeded in securing for them in Antwerp and Brabant
similar franchises to those already enjoyed by the Genoese, Germans,
and English. He afterwards went to the Levant, and found at Cyprus that
the Bardi and Peruzzi alone shared the privilege granted to the Pisans
of only paying 2 per cent. import and export duty; whereas all other
Florentines had either to pay 4 per cent., or feign to be Pisans, a
device exposing them to many spiteful reprisals from the latter, who
treated them _worse than slaves or Jews_. These proceedings aroused
Pegolotti's wrath, so that, although he was one of the Bardi firm,
he made great and successful efforts to have the same privilege of
franchise extended to the rest of the Florentines (1324). Thus, their
common interests being promoted no less by the energy of individuals
than by that of their government, these merchants continued to make
advance in the East, and stir the Pisans to greater envy. In fact, the
latter decided in 1343 to reduce the exemptions allowed on Florentine
merchandise, decreeing that goods only to the value of 200,000 florins
might pass untaxed through their city; all the rest being charged two
_soldi_ the _lira_--_i.e._, at the rate of 10 per cent. This left the
Florentines no choice save to make war, or find some mode of avoiding
the Pisan highway. To prove that their trade was not altogether at the
mercy of Pisa, they preferred the second alternative. By making treaty
with the Siennese, they obtained the concession of Porto Talamone,
and at great expense, and in the teeth of many difficulties, finally
succeeded in making it a vast emporium for their wares. The road to
Talamone was long and inconvenient; but the Pisans, soon perceiving
that they had done greater damage to themselves than to Florence, and
that although they might inflict annoyance on the latter, there was
no hope of destroying its trade, were therefore presently reduced to
permit the free passage of merchandise. Accordingly the Florentines
felt braced to more extensive enterprise in the Levant.[357]
The Egyptian route was the easiest and most direct for trading
purposes; but sultan and califs barred the road to Christians. The
Venetians alone, from having concluded treaties, it was said, "in the
holy name of God and Mahomet," had made some way in that country to
the jealous exclusion of all other Italians, who therefore usually
travelled by Constantinople and the Black Sea, where they, and more
especially the Genoese, had founded some populous and flourishing
cities. Farther on, by the Sea of Azoff, a mile or so from the mouth
of the Don, stood the town of Tana (Azov), a great business centre
for traders from Russia, Arabia, Persia, Armenia, Mogul, and Southern
China; and the chief place of exchange for Eastern and Western
products. The Italians brought silk or woollen fabrics, oil, wine,
pitch, tar, and common metals, and bartered them for precious stones,
pearls, gold, spices, sweetmeats, sugar, Eastern tissues of silk, wool,
or cotton, raw silk, goatskins, dye-woods, and likewise for Eastern
slaves of either sex, who were to be seen in Italy down to the end
of the fifteenth century.[358] All this varied commerce, originally
started by Amalfi and other southern states, was afterwards carried on
by the Venetians, Genoese, and Pisans. The argosies of those republics
traversed all parts of the Archipelago, the Bosphorus, and the Black
Sea. Italian was spoken in all the harbours of the East, where, besides
Italian banks, workshops, and factories, there were cities founded and
inhabited solely by Italians, with buildings in the Genoese or Venetian
style, but where Italian, and especially Venetian, architecture became
modified by Oriental influences. A great number of Genoese were settled
in those parts. To give some idea of the naval strength of Venice, it
will be enough to say that during the Crusade of 1202 that Republic
equipped a fleet able to convey 4,500 horsemen, 9,000 squires, 30,000
infantry, and stores for nine months. Their galleys, never less than
80 feet in length, sometimes measured 110 by 70 in width, and in the
fifteenth century were forty-five in number, with a total of 11,000
seamen. At the same time they also possessed 3,000 other vessels of
from ten to one hundred tons, with 17,000 men, and 300 big ships with
8,000 men. In all, therefore, 3,345 vessels, with 36,000 seamen,[359]
a strength that seems positively incredible, when we remember that
the 'Serenissima' Republic of Venice was a city built on the sandbanks
of the lagoons; that the entire management of its policy and trade was
in the hands of men born within the narrow bounds of those lagoons.
Accordingly we may imagine how great was the united strength of all the
maritime republics, and how signal the courage of the Florentines in
competing with them so obstinately for the Levantine trade.
Before launching a single galley, the Florentines had already
established many houses and banks in every place, and contrived to
introduce their merchandise in all the principal Eastern ports. We
not only find them doing a vast business at Tana with great energy
and enterprise, but also pushing on thence to far remoter regions.
Pegolotti minutely describes the route followed by them, their manner
of travelling, and the time employed in it. They journeyed, he tells
us, through Astracan (Gittarchan), to Saracanco (Sarai) on the Volga,
thence by Organci in Zagataio,[360] not far from the Caspian Sea, and
crossing Asia by many places of which the names cannot be identified
with any known at this day, they penetrated as far as Gambaluc, or
Gamulecco, the chief city of China, that is to say, the city of Pekin.
They employed eight or ten months to go from Tana to Pekin. Thus a
period of almost two years was required for the journey there and back
and time of sojourn, and when we also calculate the voyage from Porto
Pisano or Leghorn to Tana and back, it is plain that a Florentine bound
for Pekin could rarely count on returning home within three years.[361]
During the growth of this Eastern trade, carried on with such
indomitable energy, amid difficulties of all kinds, the Florentines
were always aiming at the command of the seaboard, and never losing
sight of the necessity of having a port of their own. And when, by the
capture of Pisa in 1406, that long-desired object was finally attained,
a new era began for their commerce. All their business concerns became
most rapidly extended, and the first half of the fifteenth century was
the time in which their greatest wealth was accumulated. In 1421 they
appointed "consuls of the sea," who were ordered to immediately build
two wide-beamed merchant galleons (_galee di mercato_) and six narrow
galleys, and to continue to launch one of either kind every six months,
for the which purpose a monthly sum of one hundred florins was assigned
from the revenues of the Pisan university. Accordingly Florence soon
possessed a merchant fleet of eleven stout galleons and fifteen narrow
galleys continually employed in the Eastern traffic by command of
the Republic. All these vessels had strict sailing orders as to the
course to be taken, the ports to be touched at, and the freight to be
carried. Announcements of their departure and arrival were hung in the
arcades of the New Market; and the vessels being chartered by private
individuals, the government was enabled to keep the Eastern routes open
to all, without any outlay. In 1422, when, as already related, the
"galley florin" was coined, the Florentines, at the instance of one
Taddeo Cenni, a merchant long established in Venice, despatched two
envoys to Egypt to obtain the right of having a church, warehouses,
dockmen, and porters of their own at Alexandria. The negotiation
proving successful, in 1423 they instructed the "consuls of the sea"
to appoint extra consuls at every port where their presence might be
useful to Florentine trade. Some had been established for more or less
time at Constantinople, Pera (1339), and London (1402); but from
this moment we find them at Alexandria, Majorca, Naples, and other
ports in all directions. These consuls had offices and clerks of their
own, interpreters, men-at-arms, and places of worship; and all their
expenses, salary included, were deducted from the freight dues received
by them.[362]
To fully understand to what extent and in what way the Florentines
profited by the new conditions resulting from their conquest of Pisa,
it is necessary to point out that this event not only marks the time
of their highest commercial prosperity, and the beginning of their
navy and merchant fleet, but also indicates the date of their first
attention to nautical and astronomical studies. We gain another proof
of their great intelligence and untiring activity when we see that
their first efforts in a branch of learning of which they had no
previous knowledge enabled them to initiate the era of scientific
triumphs, opening with Paolo Toscanelli, the first inspirer of
Christopher Columbus, continued by Amerigo Vespucci, and closing with
Galileo Galilei and his imperishable school.
V.
The seven guilds, already described by us, were styled the greater
guilds, as being those of most importance and having the chief
trade and wealth of the State in their hands. Several of these
guilds consisted, as we have seen, rather of different crafts banded
together, than of a single branch of industry; they gave employment to
many workers, gathered and made use of enormous funds. But Florence
also possessed the so-called lesser guilds numbering fourteen in
all, namely: Linenmakers and Mercers, Shoemakers, Smiths, Salters,
Butchers and Slaughterers, Wine-dealers, Innkeepers, Harnessmakers,
Leatherdressers, Armourers, Ironmongers, Masons, Carpenters,
Bakers.[363]
Certain smaller Florentine crafts had also obtained great repute in
Italy: for instance, that of the wood and stone carvers, who were
esteemed as some of the best in the world. In all work demanding
any share of artistic ability the Tuscans stood unrivalled. Thus
the Florentine moulders of waxen images were considered to have
incomparable skill, and we even find this remarked by the chronicler
Dei. But neither the carvers nor the wax moulders formed an
association, and were artists rather than artizans. But, leaving this
question aside, the lesser guilds, although numerous and energetic,
failed to achieve any noteworthy influence. Their difference from the
greater guilds mainly lay in the fact that, being solely concerned with
the local trade of the Republic, they were confined to a very limited
field of business and enterprise, while the others engaged in the trade
with the East and the West, were enabled to attain a high position even
in politics, and to finally become masters of the State.
Looking back on the period in which the greater guilds rose to power,
we shall see that they simultaneously held in their grasp the commerce,
wealth, and government of the Florentine Republic. We shall also
readily understand the enormous energy they must have displayed in
order to use politics as a means for increasing the opulence that, in
the existing conditions of Italy, had become the chief strength of our
communes. The Florentine merchants, having long divined that the future
would belong to them, were always the firmest supporters of the Guelph
party against the Imperial Ghibellinism of the nobles and had vowed
eternal hatred to the latter. We may now imagine Florence as a huge
house of business, situated in the centre of Tuscany, and surrounded by
others all competing with it in the race for success. International law
and equity were unknown to the Middle Ages: hence when any State felt
envious of its neighbour, the obvious course to adopt was to prohibit
that neighbour from traversing its territory, and exact unbearably
heavy dues from the rival it feared. Accordingly, the Republic of
Florence, being the object of still fiercer jealousy on account of the
continual increase of its commerce, and lacking room to breathe, as
it were, without access to the sea, would have been speedily reduced
to impotence had it not resisted its neighbours by force of arms.
Hence, the necessity of defending its existence involved the State in
an uninterrupted series of wars, invariably terminated by treaties of
commerce, in which the unfailing subtlety of the Florentines always won
the advantage.
We have seen from the beginning how Florence combated the neighbouring
barons in order to secure the progress of its dawning trade, and
subsequently obtained a passage through the Mugello for its increased
traffic with Romagna and Lombardy. Later on, we have seen it engaged in
fiercer struggles, and, after many vicissitudes, subduing almost all
the Ghibelline cities of Tuscany, as, for instance, Volterra, Sienna,
and Arezzo. And when inquiring why Florence should have remained so
obstinately Guelph, even in the face of Papal threats, and repeating
the same question Farinata put to Dante--
"Dimmi, perchè quel popolo è si empio
Incontro a' miei in ciascuna sua legge?"[364]
the invariable reply has been that in addition to political motives of
a more general nature, it must be kept in mind that the plutocracy now
risen to power had first attained wealth by doing its chief business
with Rome. Sienna, Arezzo, and Volterra being on the road and closer to
Rome, were doomed to defeat in any competition with Florence.
Then, as soon as the Republic had secured its hold on Roman affairs
and the Lombard trade, we saw its irresistible need of access to the
sea, and that a war of extermination with Pisa had become altogether
inevitable. To suppose that this prolonged, constantly renewed and
sanguinary conflict was solely caused by a blind instinctive hatred of
Pisa, when other and more serious reasons were so plainly existent,
would be to deny the evidence of facts. From beginning to end it was
simply the clash of violently opposed interests. The Pisans were
perfectly aware that to yield a free passage to the power already
commanding the chief trade in the interior of Italy--the power that,
without having as yet a single galley afloat, had already made its way
to all the harbours of the East--the power so persistently struggling
for absolute supremacy in Tuscany--could only lead to their own lasting
subjection. Therefore they resisted to the utmost of their strength.
Their resources were undoubtedly great, and as many other Italians were
equally hostile to the supremacy of Florence, the latter could never
have succeeded in reducing the Pisans, had it not constantly employed
the shrewdest devices in addition to its efforts in the field. In fact
there is no better proof of the political ability of the Florentines
than their mode of conducting this war and the means they employed to
attain the object that, throughout the whole course of their history,
had been their chief and invariable aim. We find them steadfast in
their friendship to Lucca, and always prompt to succour that city at
all costs, because Lucca was never well disposed to the Pisans, and
might prove a most useful ally in any campaign against them. So, too,
we always find Florence on good terms with Genoa, and avoiding every
risk of giving offence to a power that was Pisa's natural rival on the
seas. Indeed, the Florentines always did their best to foster that
rivalry, inasmuch as without an ally strong enough to assist them by
crushing Pisa's power by sea, they could never hope to overthrow it
by land. And at last the Pisans were defeated by the Genoese in the
naval battle of Meloria (August 6, 1284). From that day the conquest
of Pisa by the Florentines, although still to be long contested, was a
foregone conclusion, and from that moment also their friendship for the
Genoese began to lose warmth. While desiring assistance in overcoming
Pisa, they wished to avoid aggrandising the power of a Ghibelline
republic, already very mighty on the sea. Accordingly, after having
so furiously attacked and enfeebled Pisa, we find them aiding that
state to withstand the Genoese, until the moment came when the latter
having abandoned the idea of conquering Pisa, they could successfully
undertake its conquest on their own account.
With equal sagacity they pursued the same course in the years during
which they were menaced by the powerful Dukes of Milan who sought to
become masters of all Italy, and also when threatened from the south by
the enmity of King Ladislaus of Naples. The art of stirring division
among their foes, of supporting the weaker party against overbearing
neighbours, of constantly contriving to rouse half Italy against every
potentate risen to sufficient strength to be a terror to their own
Republic, was the invariable means by which Florence maintained her
independence in the midst of States who were losing their liberty, and
in the midst of the numerous and formidable foes pressing about her
on all sides. And this successful policy was the work of the greater
guilds, or rather of the prosperous trading class (_popolani grassi_).
These mercantile aristocrats ruled the Republic with so much energy and
zeal, precisely because the aggrandisement of Florence conduced at the
same time to the increase of their own wealth and commerce. Thus a city
whose population was seldom more than 100,000, and often shrank far
below that number, and whose narrow territory was surrounded by so many
enemies, was enabled to become a State feared by the rest of Italy, and
respected throughout Europe. These Florentine merchants were so jealous
of their liberty as to deem no sacrifice too vast for its preservation,
and were neither bewildered nor daunted by any danger, even when their
trade was at stake. In fact, although so obstinately Guelph, and
connected with Rome by so many commercial interests and ties, we find
them ready to combat the Pope himself, when he made attacks on their
liberty, and see them giving the name of the _Eight Saints_ to the
magistrates charged to conduct the campaign against Gregory XI. (1376).
In the like manner we find them carrying on a war with the Visconti of
Milan at a yearly cost of millions of florins, without the resources of
the Republic being exhausted, or the courage of its rulers worn out.
VI.
Nevertheless, it would be an error to suppose that the domination of
the greater guilds was assured and uncontested in the interior, at
least, of the city. On the day when the scheme was first mooted, in the
Calimala court, of placing these guilds at the head of the government,
they speedily recognised that the possibility of success was solely
owed to the fact of their having fought and conquered the nobles with
the help of the lesser arts. Hence, on the one hand, they had to face
their natural and inveterate foes, the survivors of the feudal order,
and on the other the lesser guilds coveting a share in the government
which they had helped to establish. Thus the Republic comprised three
classes of citizens and three separate parties. It is true that the
greater guilds constituted by far the stronger of the three factions,
but the others might become, if united, a very formidable opposition.
And their union was no impossible contingency.
The difference, in fact, between the greater and lesser guilds was
not merely one of degree as regarded their respective wealth and
power; what divided them was the diversity of interests urging them
to pursue an opposite policy. The wool-dresser or silk merchant was
always ready to sacrifice his last florin, provided the Republic could
gain possession of Leghorn or Porto Pisano. Accordingly he invariably
kept a strict watch on the policy of Lucca and Genoa, to prevent them
from making friendly advances to the Pisans. The Florentine banker was
anxious that his Republic should always possess skilful ambassadors
and consuls, able to supply full details of all that occurred in Rome,
Antwerp, or Caffa, and impede the Siennese, Genoese, Venetians, and
Lombards from gaining too much influence in those cities. Where any
question of this kind was concerned the members of the greater guilds
were always disposed to promote hostilities, no matter how prolonged,
expensive, or dangerous, and to subject both themselves and the State
to unlimited sacrifices. But financial and political interests weighed
little with the blacksmiths, masons, carpenters, and other members of
the fourteen lesser guilds, which nevertheless formed so considerable
a part of the Florentine population. It mattered far more to them
that Florence should be inhabited by rich and splendid gentry; that
sumptuous palaces, villas, and monumental churches should have to be
built; that there should be a continual increase of luxury and good
living among the citizens of rank and wealth, by whom they earned their
subsistence. Warfare, on the contrary, put a check upon luxury, and the
greater guilds were always issuing decrees against it, precisely on
account of the exigences of the wars they so constantly had on hand.
Hence the poorer classes detested the opulent burghers, whom they had
helped to raise to power, who had subsequently excluded them, as well
as the nobles, from the government, and who, while accumulating untold
millions, often lived in the city on a footing of Spartan frugality;
the men daily promulgating new edicts against female luxury in dress;
forbidding the use of gold and silver ornaments, prohibiting all lavish
expenditure for entertainments or wedding banquets, even going so far
as to limit the number and choice of viands, and exclude gold and
silver plate from festive tables; but who, nevertheless, were always
very ready to squander millions in attacks on the Pisans, the King of
Naples, the Visconti of Milan, or even for a church, or an additional
consul at Caffa or Pera. This difference of temper generated party
hatred. Nor should it be omitted that some of the bitterest outcries
against the greater guilds came from the women of Florence, who, being
naturally opposed to warfare, and addicted to extravagance, objected
to the vexatious restrictions imposed by law, while yet contriving to
evade them with indescribable ingenuity.[365]
It is very easy to realise how good an opportunity this afforded the
nobles of gaining the favour of the populace by stirring these germs of
discord. They exercised no trade, lived on their revenues, but spent
freely and lavishly in Florence. Accordingly, whenever engaged in fresh
attempts to seize the government, or preserve their remaining share
in it, they always allied themselves with the mob that lived--or at
least believed itself to live--solely at their expense, and roused its
resentment against the _popolani grassi_--or well-to-do burghers--by
dwelling on the fact that whereas all the guilds were equally engaged
in trade and commerce, a considerable number of them had no share in
the power exclusively monopolised by the rest. The democratic spirit
was far too lively in Florence for these devices to assure the safety
of the nobles, much less their return to power; but they had the effect
of stirring the masses to a burning and irresistible thirst for power,
and of awakening revolutionary passions in the mob. Thus, at the moment
of finally losing their old supremacy in the city, the nobles achieved
the revenge of bequeathing to Florence a prolonged inheritance of
strife that kept the Republic divided, and hastened its fall.
In fact, when at last the lesser guilds obtained a share in the
government, they were never at one with the greater trades. Their
hostility was continually shown in all councils, tribunals, and
public gatherings; and they sometimes resorted to the perilous means
of inflaming the worst passions of the mob which, as usual, served
as a ready tool for ambitious aims. In this way a spirit of anarchy
was unloosed, leading first to the revolt of the Ciompi, then to the
necessity of seeking a protector for the Republic, and finally to the
rule of the Medici. But before arriving at these extremities, there
were two centuries of struggle, during which Florentine affairs were
almost invariably in the hands of the burghers. On several occasions
the reins of power seemed to have slipped from their grasp, but they
always managed to retain enough influence to secure the election of
magistrates of their own choice. In this way victory was restored
to them, and they again took possession of the government. When, on
the other hand, the triumph of anarchy made it requisite to seek a
protector, and this protector, summoned to the defence of the Republic,
sided with the malcontents and tried to establish a tyranny, the
burghers then contrived to unite every faction in the interest of their
common freedom and reinstate the Republican government, thus giving
it a fresh lease of life. By dint of incredible sagacity, daring, and
steadfastness, they managed to struggle on amid a thousand dangers,
both within and without the walls. Although plunged in perpetual
conflict with those who desired peace and claimed ever wider rights;
although surrounded by most powerful external foes now attempting to
destroy their trade, now their Republic, their energy and patriotism
never wearied, never failed to be on the alert. It was a feverish time
of unceasing stress and strain, and freedom, though always on the
verge of annihilation, was kept alive for two centuries in the midst
of communities where it was perishing. And even as the burghers had
managed to create all sorts of financial combinations for the increase
of trade and multiplication of wealth, so they showed inexhaustible
ingenuity in devising new schemes and institutions to prolong the life
of their Republic.
In matters of foreign policy Florentine diplomats became so renowned
for sagacity and quick-wittedness, that on certain points they enjoyed
even higher repute than the famed ambassadors of Venice. The latter, in
fact, with their old traditions of statecraft, pursued the invariable
policy of a strong, calm and self-reliant government. Their strength
was the outcome of the strength and wisdom of a republic commanding
both fear and respect, and whose voice seemed to be heard in the
speech of its envoys. Every Florentine ambassador exercised, on the
contrary, a direct personal influence, due to his own sharpness of
intellect, extraordinary knowledge of mankind, and marvellous aptitude
for comprehending everything and making everything clearly understood.
Undoubtedly the State acted in him and by him; but less because he
served as its mouthpiece than because it had succeeded in evoking
and training all his mental powers and rendering him an intelligent
and independent personality. Florentine merchants, notaries,
administrators, and diplomats were universally prized, and seemed at
home in every corner of the globe. Hence it is said that one day Pope
Boniface VIII., seeing that the ambassadors sent to him from different
parts of the world were one and all Florentines, quietly remarked, "You
Florentines are the fifth element in creation."
It was in the midst of these political conflicts, of this ferment
of the human mind, that art and literature rose to such splendour,
that the whole world was, as it were, illuminated by the radiance
shed by Italian cities, and shining most brightly from Florence. The
far-reaching energy of this city of commerce and trade was felt almost
everywhere; but even at points where this had failed to penetrate, the
genius of Florentine literature and art seems to have asserted its
power and initiated modern culture in Europe.
VII.
All this, however, was carried on in the face of continual and new
dangers, threatening the very life of the Republic, and sometimes only
to be averted by super-human efforts. Memory instinctively carries
us back to the Florence of old with its council and its Consuls,
yearly taking the field united and agreed, for the purpose of abasing
the nobles and clearing the highways for the march of its trade;
and then, having reduced the hostile barons one by one, compelling
them to live within the walls, subject to the equal pressure of
republican laws;--to the times when the State could only overcome its
more powerful neighbours by emancipating the slaves of the soil and
granting political privileges to traders hitherto unpossessed of any
such rights. On recalling those times, we easily recognise that they
contained the germs of future greatness for the Commune that by dint
of continual warfare succeeded in augmenting its resources in every
direction. Later, however, things were radically changed, owing to
many causes, and above all in consequence of the new method of warfare
to which we have already alluded and which must now be more fully
described.
Down to the fourteenth century republican armies were composed of
foot soldiers, lightly equipped with sword, shield, and helmet, and
some slight defensive armour for leg or breast. The horse were few in
number and never decided the fate of a battle. All barbarian armies
had been composed much on the same plan, excepting those of the Huns
and Moors, who were almost always mounted, and of the Byzantines,
whose cavalry had frequently defeated the Goths. Frederic Barbarossa's
Italian campaigns had been chiefly carried on by infantry and withstood
by the infantry of our communes, who could then turn all able-bodied
citizens into soldiers at a moment's notice. But in the campaigns of
Frederic II., Manfred and Charles of Anjou, a new method of war had
been imported into Italy from Germany and France. The Florentines had
learnt this to their cost at the battle of Montaperti, when their
numerous army was routed by the charge of a few German horse. From
that moment the issue of all Italian battles began to be decided by
heavy cavalry or by men-at-arms. The mounted soldier was clad in steel
from head to foot, although not yet, as at the close of the fifteenth
century, encased, together with his steed, in such ponderous armour,
that, once fallen, neither could rise from the ground without help.
Armed with a very long lance, the horseman could overthrow the foot
soldier before the latter could approach him with his short sword.
Besides, this weapon never served to pierce the armour either of man or
horse; and the arrows of the bowmen were equally useless. Accordingly,
a few hundred men-at-arms pushed forward like a movable and impregnable
fortress into the midst of a host of infantry sufficed to rout it in
a very short time. This state of things lasted until the invention of
powder and firearms produced a radical change in the condition of the
Italian communes. For mounted troops required much training and great
expenditure. It was not enough to maintain great arsenals, to create
and train a new breed of horses, but every trooper had also to be kept
in steady practice, devote his whole time to warfare, and keep two
or three squires continuously drilled and employed. These squires
carried all the armour and weapons and led the knight's charger, which
was only used in battle. Only then, too, were knight and steed in
full harness, otherwise both would have been exhausted in the hour of
danger. Hence it was impossible for our republics to raise cavalry,
seeing that citizens, earning their living by trade and commerce, could
not forsake their daily work to acquire the art of war. Therefore,
soldiering became a regular trade, and all choosing it for their career
speedily began to put a price on their swords. Thus from the closing
years of the thirteenth century we begin to find _soldiers_ of various
nationalities--Catalans, Burgundians, Germans, and other foreign
horse--in the ranks of republican armies, and the number of these
mercenaries was continually on the increase.
Gradually, also, tradesmen were obliged to recognise that they had
become personally useless in the field. Accordingly, whenever the
republics were threatened with attack, they no longer ventured to
give battle without hiring some captain with a band of foreign
horse. Italian valour rapidly lost its prestige, and "Companies of
Adventure"--soon to be the cause of our direst calamities--began to be
formed. Later on, it is true that when Alberico da Barbiano, Attendolo
Sforza, Braccio da Montone, and others adopted the same career, they
rivalled and even surpassed the foreign adventurers, who had now often
to yield the palm to Italian courage. Soon, in fact, many came from
afar to learn the new art of war under these Italian captains whose
skill first reduced it to a science. Nevertheless, few citizens of free
states were able to devote their whole life to war. It was the nobles,
the exiles, the unemployed--knowing no other trade--and the subjects
of petty tyrants who joined the "Companies of Adventure." And whether
small bands or large, Italian or foreign, they invariably hastened
the ruin of all our communes, and more especially of Florence. The
continual wars in which this State was now engaged no longer served to
foster the military spirit and energy of its people. Always compelled
to rely on the help of foreign mercenaries, it soon lost all confidence
in its own resources, the which therefore rapidly declined. A campaign
simply implied some financial operation, or the levying of fresh taxes
to furnish sufficient capital for the hire of one of the captains of
adventure, who always closed with the highest bid. The money found, it
was often enough to send it to the State's surest and most powerful
ally, who undertook to complete the affair by engaging the captain best
able to hire the largest number of men. So the chief thing was to know
how to gain friends and excite enemies against the foe, and in this the
Florentines always showed masterly skill. But these devices were no
proof of military capacity. The most important personages despatched
by them to the seat of war were commissioners charged to superintend
the general proceedings, the administration of the army, and the
political object of the campaign, and although we sometimes find these
commissioners suddenly transformed into captains, taking command of the
forces and deciding the fate of a battle with singular daring, their
functions were always civil and diplomatic rather than military.
It is easy to foresee the final results of this method with regard
to the future of the Republic, and the morals of its inhabitants.
The stout burghers at the head of the government were engaged in the
continual practice of cunning and craft. It was requisite to show
adroitness in the council chamber; to thwart the nobles; to remain
constantly on the alert to prevent the populace from growing unruly,
while persuading it to furnish funds to carry on wars which were
indispensable to secure the safety and prosperity of the foreign trade.
Hence, still greater subtlety was needed in diplomatic negotiations
to avoid being isolated, and to continually maintain the equilibrium
of Italian States in the way most advantageous for the Republic. Even
actual warfare being now reduced, as we have seen, to a financial
operation, had come to be a fresh proof of ingenuity. There were no
longer any of those vast sacrifices of citizens' blood and citizens'
lives which serve towards the continued regeneration of a people, no
longer any deeds of open and generous violence. And at times when the
rich burghers were not absorbed in politics, they and all the rest
of the citizens were devoted heart and soul to commerce, employing
their leisure moments in the study of Tacitus, Virgil, or Homer, kept
ready to hand under their counters. But, invariably, it was only
the intelligence that was kept always in training, while the nobler
faculties remained strangled and atrophied by the constant use of
cunning and trickery. This was destined to lead, sooner or later, to
the inevitable decay of the Republic's moral and political life, and to
the decline of the highest mental culture. If the manner in which wars
were planned and conducted caused fatal results, no less fatal were the
ulterior consequences of victorious campaigns. For the hired troops
once paid off, changed from friends into foes, and instantly sought to
sell their services to some other employer. Failing to find one, and
therefore receiving no pay, they dispersed in armed bands, ravaging
town and country, by a species of military brigandage. Generally, it
was found requisite to come to terms with them, and bribe them to keep
the peace.
But the most important point to be noted at this juncture is that the
conquest of fresh territory, although become an absolute necessity
to the Republic, now began to be a serious danger and the source of
future calamities. During the Middle Ages the Italian Commune had been
a fertile cause of progress; but as its possessions outside the walls
began to increase, it proved wholly powerless to convert the free
city into what we call a State without working radical changes in its
constitution. In fact, even in Florence, the most democratic of our
communes, citizens were only to be found within the circuit of the
walls. Laws were framed to ameliorate the condition of the territory
outside and to abolish serfdom there, but no one contemplated endowing
inhabitants of the _contado_ with political rights. The title of
citizens always remained, as it were, a privilege only granted to a
minority, even of dwellers within the walls, and was never extended to
the people at large. Whenever a new city was conquered and subjected to
the Republic, it was governed more or less harshly; allowed to retain
more or fewer local privileges; sometimes even permitted to retain a
republican form of government, subject to the authority of a Podestà,
captain, or commissary, and paying the taxes imposed by them; but its
inhabitants never enjoyed the freedom of the City, nor were their
representatives by any chance admitted to the councils or political
offices of Florence. Accordingly, as the State became enlarged by
fresh conquests, the cluster of citizens monopolising the government,
and already very limited in number, sank to a still smaller minority
compared with the ever-increasing population subject to their rule.
Similarly to all other republicans of the Middle Ages, the Florentines
were altogether unable to conceive the idea of a State governed with
a view to the general welfare. On the contrary, the prosperity and
grandeur of Florence formed the one object and aim to which every
other consideration had to be subservient. Nor had the lower classes
and populace, who were always clamouring for increased freedom, any
different or wider views on the subject. Their ideas, indeed, being
restricted in a narrower circle, were even more prejudiced, as their
passions were blinder. Consequently it was considered at that time
a greater calamity to be subjugated by a fellow republic than by a
monarchy; inasmuch as princes brought their tyranny to bear equally
on all alike, and thus, at any rate as regarded politics, the chief
majority of the conquered suffered less injury. When Florence, however,
by achieving the long-desired conquest of Pisa, at last became mistress
of the sea, and witnessed the rapid increase of her commerce, she
discovered that the annexation of a great and powerful republic, full
of life and strength and possessed of so large a trade, brought her
none of the advantages which might have ensued from a union of a freer
kind with an equal distribution of political rights. The chief citizens
of Pisa and all the wealthier families left the country, preferring to
live in Lombardy, France, or even in Sicily under the Aragonese, where
at least they enjoyed civil equality, rather than remain in their own
city subject to the harsh and tyrannous rule of Florentine shopkeepers.
The commerce and industry of Pisa, her navy, her merchant-fleet, all
vanished when freedom fell; while her _Studio_, or university, one of
the old glories of Italy, and afterwards reconstituted by the Medici,
was done away with, and the city soon reduced to a state of squalid
desolation. All conquered cities suffered this fate; those once of the
richest and most powerful in the days of their freedom being treated
with still greater harshness than the rest.[366] This makes it easy
to understand why, when Florence was in danger, all conquered cities
in which life was not altogether extinguished invariably seized the
opportunity to try to regain their independence, and always preferred
a native or foreign tyrant to cowering beneath the yoke of a republic
that refused to learn from experience the wisdom of changing its
policy. Nor could it have effected such change without radically
altering its whole constitution and manner of existence.
Thus, in accumulating riches and power, Florence was only multiplying
the causes of her approaching and unavoidable decline. The Commune
seemed increasingly incapable of giving birth to the modern State, and
accordingly, when its chief support, commerce, began to decay, the
strength of the burghers was sapped, and the oppressed multitude, now
a formidable majority, speedily looked to monarchical rule for their
relief. Thus the Medici were enabled to attain supremacy in the name of
freedom, and with the support of people and populace. Thus, likewise,
by violence, or fraud, or by both combined, the communes of Italy
were all reduced to principalities; and wherever, from exceptional
causes, the republican order still lingered on for a while, it was only
as a shadow of its former self, and no longer rendering any of the
advantages for which it had been originally designed. Populations which
had failed to establish equality by means of free institutions, were
now forced to learn the lesson of equality beneath the undiscriminating
oppression of a despotic prince. Signories formed the necessary link
of transition between the mediæval commune and the modern state. For
these Signories traced a way towards the just administration and
method pursued by the vast kingdoms then in course of formation on the
continent of Europe, and which also remained absolute and despotic
monarchies until the French revolution effected in town, country, and
throughout every class that work of social emancipation which the
Italian communes had so admirably initiated, but had never learnt to
extend beyond the circuit of their walls.
Florence maintained a prolonged resistance, but finally shared the fate
of her fellow republics.
[Illustration]