yearly eight hundred thousand ducats’ worth between ‘grossetti, mezzanini, and soldoni.’ Fifty thousand ducats of ‘grossetti’ go every year to Soria, and to the mainland, and other parts; of ‘mezzanini’ and ‘soldoni’ one hundred thousand ducats; the rest remains in the country (Venice). You know that the Florentines send us each year sixteen thousand pieces of cloth, which we make use of (in commerce) in Barbary, in Egypt, in Soria, in Cyprus, in Rhodes, in Roumania, in Candia, in the Morea, and in Istria, and every month the Florentines bring into this city seventy thousand ducats’ worth of all sorts of merchandise, which amounts to eight hundred and forty thousand ducats yearly and more; and they take back French woollens, Catalans, and crimson, and fine corded wool and silk, gold and silver thread and jewellery, with great advantage to the city. Therefore, be wise in governing such a State, and be careful to watch it and to see that it is not diminished by negligence. You must be very careful as to who is to succeed in my place, for by him the Republic may have much good and much evil. Many of you are inclined to Messer Marino Caravello, who is a worthy man, and deserves that honour for his worthy qualities. Messer Francesco Bembo is a good man, and the same is Messer Giacomo Trevisan; Messer Antonio Contarini, Messer Faustin Michiel, and Messer Alban Badoer, all these are wise and deserving. Many are inclined to Messer Francesco Foscari, and do not know that he is proud and untruthful; he has no principle in his affairs, he has an exaggerated disposition, he grasps at much and holds but little. If he be Doge you will always be at war; he who has ten thousand ducats will not be master of one thousand, he who has two houses will not be the master of one; you will spend gold and silver, reputation and honour, and where you are now the chiefs, you will be the slaves of your soldiers and men-at-arms and of their captains. I could not resist the desire to tell you this opinion of mine. God grant that you may elect the best man, and direct you, and preserve you in peace. Mocenigo died on the fourth of April 1423. In spite of his admonitions and of a considerable opposition, the electors chose Francesco Foscari to succeed him, and henceforth war with Milan became a certainty. It was on the occasion of his election that the last remnant of the people’s right of interference was done away with. Hitherto it had been customary to announce each election to the people, adding the words ‘if such be your pleasure.’ This time the High Chancellor, who, it will be remembered, was never a noble, inquired, with a smile, what would happen if the people answered that it was not their pleasure. The result was that the formula was never used again.