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.
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