Conflicting Interests

For modern people, city-entry taxes were something unfamiliar. But in the Middle Ages, they were a very important source of revenue.

Cities in those days all had high walls for defense and were built along major routes. Anyone who wanted to take the convenient road had to pay the city-entry tax. If merchants found that their profits did not even cover the tax, they would not come again.

Two competing devils were better than one angel. Lords wanted to raise taxes, but then merchants would stop coming. Besides the meager taxes from farmland, inland cities had city-entry taxes, and salt was the only thing that could guarantee a stable income.

People had to eat salt. Without it, they would become like The White-Haired Girl. If they owed the Venetians money and could not repay it, they had no choice but to sign a contract allowing only Venetians to sell salt, while merchants from elsewhere were forbidden from buying salt there.

Genoese banking started later than Venetian banking. The first big prize had already been snatched by the Venetians, but the Genoese could offer kings favorable terms. Owed the Venetians money? No problem. The Genoese would help repay it, and you could deposit and borrow money through Genoa.

Sieges were not easy. Venice was surrounded by the sea on all sides, forming a natural moat. Without the help of ships, an army could not enter the city by land. At the very least, knights in armor riding warhorses might not think of something called a "pontoon bridge."

Venice had no city walls because it was a trading city. But ships entering Venice for trade had to pay taxes. The customs building in front of the Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute was used to stop merchant vessels that entered the city