=106. Strict control over German merchants in Venice.=—On reaching Venice the merchant was put at once under strict supervision. He could not choose his own lodgings, but must stay at the “Fondaco dei Tedeschi” (German factory, using that word in its earlier sense of a trading post). This was a building (in its later form a handsome palace now used as a government office) which belonged to the city, and which served at once as a hotel, a warehouse, and an office for controlling the trade. When a merchant arrived he was disarmed and given a room; a careful list was made of all his wares, which served as a basis for the government dues; and an inspector was assigned to him. This inspector acted as an interpreter and as a broker, helping the merchant make his bargains, but it would be a great mistake to suppose that he was appointed mainly to serve the merchant’s convenience; his main business was to “shadow” the merchant constantly, to see that he broke none of the numerous regulations designed to assure to the government its dues and to the Venetian people their profits. Germans could bring to Venice only the wares of their own country and of northeastern Europe, because the Venetians wanted to carry on themselves the trade with Flanders; Germans could trade with no other foreigners in Venice, and could not trade even among themselves, in order that the Venetians might have the sole market; they must sell out their whole stock in Venice, without the option of withdrawing part of it and carrying it further. One is tempted to ask why the Germans came to Venice at all, to submit to such severe restrictions. The answer is easy; they had no other place to go to, for the wares they wanted. Thanks to her position and to her skill in trade and war Venice had a monopoly of Oriental wares which enabled her for some time to make what regulations she pleased without fear of losing her customers. =107. Importance of the trade between Venice and Germany.=—The German trade in Venice amounted, according to an estimate of the fifteenth century, to a million ducats a year, and the ducat of this period was worth considerably more than the modern dollar. It supplied Germany with the coveted eastern wares which we have already enumerated, and, moreover, with some of the products of Venetian manufactures, which were then highly developed and which were stimulated by protective tariffs. These manufactures included glass, which is even now a specialty of the city, fine textiles, weapons, paper, etc. The Venetian trade, on the other hand, furnished to Germany a market for her metals (gold, silver, iron, copper, lead, tin), furs, twine, rosaries, and manufactures of leather and horn, and the coarser textiles.