p.336 [...] The Republic of Venice has justly been compared to a joint-stock company for the exploitation of the East. The board of directors was the Senate, the citizens of Venice the sharehoders. The vast majority of the senators were men of business, engaged actively in traffic, and from them emanated the regulations which governed Venetian commerce [...] In short, the fundamental idea of 'the Mercantile System' prevailed in early Venice as it prevailed much later in Elizabethan England. [...]