A Hidden Place

Venice was a commercial empire. People from different countries and faiths came here for the same purpose, guided by the same creed—making money—and became trading partners.

As long as everyone had money to make, cultural differences did not matter.

Armenians, Persians, greeks, and Germanic peoples became neighbors along the Grand Canal. Trade provided a common bond, filling the city with golden mosaics and rustling spices.

Yet beneath the surface peace, there was still no shortage of scheming. Even after the Crusaders had sacked Constantinople, it continued trading with Venice; even after seizing one another's merchant ships, Genoese and Venetians still linked arms.

Meanwhile, Genoa colluded with Constantinople to oppose Venice together.

Venetians were skilled at weaving lace. The Republic's ruling class, dressed in red velvet coats, concocted intrigues just as they wove lace.

No one knew who had first thought of using lace for women's underwear, but now there were few adults who did not know about it.

Venice produced luxury goods. At popular tourist spots nowadays, masks, handmade glass, and lace were sold everywhere, but one rule was absolutely true—cheap goods were never good goods.

The most authentic Venetian lace was found behind St. Mark's Basilica on the main island, in a market called Kerer, not on Burano Island. Eight or nine out of ten items sold there were mass-produced machine-made goods imported from Yiwu, China.

Naturally, it felt awful to pay luxury prices for something cheap. But that was how Venetian profiteers operated: they kept the good things hidden away. The techniques and formulas for making handmade glass were still closely guarded.

The technique of using glasswort to make transparent glass had been a top secret in the Middle Ages. Only after everyone could make transparent glass was the formula revealed. Turning sand into gold—there could hardly be