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August 20 - November 13, 2022
This institutional change was followed by a huge expansion of Venetian merc...
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The first important innovation was the creation of a Great Council,
The second innovation was the creation of yet another council, chosen by the Great Council by lot, to nominate the doge.
The third innovation was that a new doge had to swear an oath of office that circumscribed ducal power.
in law, the creation of independent magistrates, courts, a court of appeals, and new private contract and bankruptcy laws.
new legal business forms and new types of contracts.
selected. On October 3, 1286, a proposal was made to the Great Council that the rules be amended so that nominations had to be confirmed by a majority in the Council of Forty, which was tightly controlled by elite families.
On October 5, 1286, another proposal was put forth; this time it passed.
On October 17 another change in the rules was passed stipulating that an appointment to the Great Council must be approved by the Council of Forty, the doge, and the Ducal Council.
The debates and constitutional amendments of 1286 presaged La Serrata (“The Closure”) of Venice.
The seal on this came in 1315, with the Libro d’Oro, or “Gold Book,” which was an official registry of the Venetian nobility.
A police force was introduced for the first time in 1310,
Most important, they banned the use of commenda contracts, one of the great institutional innovations that had made Venice rich.
in 1314, the Venetian state began to take over and nationalize trade.
1324 on, began to charge individuals high levels of taxes if they wanted to engage in trade. Long-distance trade became the preserve of the nobility.
By 1500 the population had shrunk to one hundred thousand. Between 1650 and 1800, when the population of Europe rapidly expanded, that of Venice contracted.
IN THIS CHAPTER we focus on the historical development of institutions in different parts of the world and explain why they evolved in different ways.
no simple cumulative process of institutional improvement.
small institutional differences that play a crucial role during critical junctures are by their nature ephemeral.
In understanding the path to England’s Industrial Revolution and the countries that followed it, Rome’s legacy is nonetheless important for several reasons.
these institutions became decidedly more extractive over time. With Rome, this was a consequence of the change from the Republic (510 BC–49 BC) to the Empire (49 BC–AD 476).
It was upon this feudal foundation that the Black Death would create havoc and further strengthen independent cities and peasants at the expense of monarchs, aristocrats, and large landowners.
Roman plebeian tribune Tiberius Gracchus was clubbed to death in 133 BC by Roman senators
the allocation of land and the rights of plebeians, common Roman citizens.
Roman citizens created the republic by overthrowing their king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, known as Tarquin the Proud, around 510 BC.
It was governed by magistrates elected for a year.
The republic’s institutions contained a system of checks and balances that distributed power fairly widely.
The plebeians had their own assembly, which could elect the plebeian tribune, who had the power to veto actions by the magistrates, call the Plebeian Assembly, and propose legislation.
“secession,”
It was supposedly during such a secession in the fifth century BC that citizens gained the right to elect their tribune and enact laws that would govern their community.
As a result, trade throughout the Mediterranean flourished under the Roman Republic.
The empire the Romans built was in a sense a web of port cities—from Athens, Antioch, and Alexandria in the east; via Rome, Carthage, and Cadiz; all the way to London in the far west.
Amphorae, sealed vessels made of clay, often contained information on who had made them and when.
Monte Testaccio, also known as Monte dei Cocci (“Pottery Mountain”),
radiocarbon dating,
Greenland Ice Core Project.
distinct increase in atmospheric pollutants starting around 500 BC. Atmospheric quantities of lead, silver, and copper then increased steadily, reaching a peak in the first century AD.
example, real power rested with the Senate, whose members came from the large landowners constituting the senatorial class.
Roman historian Livy, the Senate was created by Rome’s first king, Romulus, and consisted of one hundred men.
Rome’s armies during the Republic consisted of citizen-soldiers who were small landowners,
As Rome expanded and the campaigns got longer, this model ceased to work.
With no land to return to, they sought work in Rome. By the late second century BC,
Roman historian Plutarch,
Tiberius Gracchus,
He stood for plebeian tribune in 133 BC, then used his office to propose land reform: a commission would investigate whether public lands were being illegally occupied and would redistribute land in excess of the legal limit of three hundred acres to landless Roman citizens.
The Senate, though, prevented implementation by starving the commission of funds.
These tensions would surface again periodically during the next century—for example, leading to the “Social War” between 91 BC and 87 BC.
The aggressive defender of the senatorial interests, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, not only viciously suppressed the demands for change but also severely curtailed the powers of the plebeian tribune.
The political institutions forming the core of the Roman Republic were overthrown by Julius Caesar in 49 BC
murdered by disgruntled senators, led by Brutus and Cassius, in 44 BC.
