the roots of anglo-dutch liberalism the evil of venice

The Roots of Anglo-Dutch Liberalism

The Evil of Venice

MEET THE VENETIANS“Prima son Vinizian, poi son cristian”

“The old Venetians never wanted to conquer territory for their empire, except when indispensable to maintain trade monopolies. Territory didn’t interest the Venetians. The idea of expanding borders is a stupid Anglo-Saxon concept, picked up by the Russians. Venice propagated its system through its bureaucracy in the nationalities it conquered.”

~Venetian Patrician Count Foscari

The Venetians have acted in their diplomacy “with the good faith characteristic of barbarians or after the manner of traders whose nature it is to weight everything by utility, paying no attention to honor. But what do fish care about law? As among brute beasts aquatic creatures have the least intelligence, so among human beings the Venetians are the least just and the least capable of humanity and naturally so, for they live on the sea and pass their lives in the water; they use ships instead of horses; they are not so much companions of men as of fish and comrades of marine monsters. They please only themselves and while they talk they listen to and admire themselves. … They are hypocrites. They wish to appear as Christians before the world but in reality they never think of God and, except for their state, which they regard as a deity, they hold nothing holy. To a Venetian that is just which is for the good of the state; that is pious which increases the empire. … What the senate approves is holy even though it is opposed to the gospel. … They are allowed to do anything that will bring them to supreme power. All law and right may be violated for the sake of power.

Pius II

“The Venetians were not thinkers: they were doers. Empiricists par excellence, they mistrusted abstract theories. Their genius was essentially visual and tactile – and later musical: it appealed to the senses rather than the intellect…. They always remained better at producing books than at actually writing them.”

John Julius Norwich

Venice from the air

Carnaval

“The Bravo”

The Winged Lion of Saint Mark

The Winged Lion of Babylon

The Basilica of San Marco

Friedrich Schiller

William Shakespeare

James Fennimore Cooper

The Crusades

1423, Doge Mocenigo:

“In peacetime this city puts a capital of 10 million ducats into trade throughout the world with ships and galleys, so that the profit of export in 2 million, the profit of import in 2 million, export and import together 4 million … You have seen our city mint every year 1,200,000 in gold, 800,000 in silver, of which 5,000 marks (20,000 ducats) go annually to Egypt and Syria, 100,000 to your places on the mainland of Italy, to your places beyond the sea 50,000 ducats, to England and France each 100,000 ducats.”

THE WAR OF THE LEAGUE OF CAMBRAI (1509-1516)

Preamble of the Treaty of Cambrai (1509)

“…to put an end to the losses, the injuries, the violations, the damages which the Venetians have inflicted not only on the Apostolic See, but on the Holy Roman Empire, on the House of Austria, on the Dukes of Milan, on the Kings of Naples and on divers other princes, occupying and tyrannically usurping their goods, their possessions, their cities and castles, as if they had deliberately conspired to do ill to all around them…

“Thus we have found it not only well-advised and honourable, but even necessary, to summon all people to take their just revenge and so to extinguish, like a great fire, the insatiable rapacity of the Venetians and their thirst for power.”

Pope Julius II

REFORMATION AND COUNTER-REFORMATION

Gasparo Contarini

•Leading member of the Spirituali•Secret supporter of Luther and the Reformation•Leader of the Counter-Reformation•Sponsor of Ignatius Loyola•Member of the Council of Three

Martin Luther (1483-1546)Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556)

(counterclockwise from top left) Duke of Norfolk, Cardinal Reginald Pole, Thomas Cromwell

The Triumph of Death, by Breugel (1562)

ENGLAND AND THE GIOVANNI

1582

• Powers of the Ten cut back drastically

• The Giunta disbanded• Power gravitates to the Senate (e.g.

ambassadors report to the Senate, not the Ten)

William Cecil, 1st Baron of Burghley (1520-1598)

•Chief advisor and close friend of Elizabeth I for 40 years•Dominated foreign and domestic policy of England, often over-riding the Queen herself•Created English Secret Service with Walsingham•Manipulative, engaged in many plots with Walsingham against other courtiers and foreign nations•Uncle of Francis Bacon•His closest friend and financial backer was the Venetian Horatio Pallavacini

Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester

Major player in the Levant Company and its predecessorsIntimate of Elizabeth I

Sir Francis Walsingham (1532-1590)

•Best remembered as the “spymaster” of Elizabeth I•Studied at Padua for 4-5 years•Worked on behalf of Cecil•Close associate with Thomas Smythe•Operated his intelligence service on the same basis as, and in league with, Venice

Sir Thomas Smythe

•First Governor of the East India Company•Associate of Walsingham

James Harrington (1611-1677)

•Wrote Oceana, arguing for England to become the New Venice

EMPIRICISMThe Destruction of the Human Mind

Paolo Sarpi (1552-1623)

•A leading member of the Ridotto Morosini•A one time Ambassador to the Vatican•Corresponded with Francis Bacon•His protégé, Fulganzio Micanzio, was a mentor to Thomas Hobbes•Case Officer for Galileo•Considered to be the first Empiricist•Sarpi’s Arte di Ben Pensare was the basis for the works of John Locke

Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

•Nephew of William Cecil•Revered Aristotle•Between 1577 and 1580 he toured Europe, spending time in Italy, particularly Venice.•He was a personal friend and correspondent of Paolo Sarpi•His publishing agent in Venice was Micanzio•Intelligence asset of Cecil and Walsingham•Lord Chancellor in 1618•Leading member of England’s Rosicrucians

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)

•Took his grand tour in 1610•Disciple of Micanzio, the protégé of Paolo Sarpi•Associate of Francis Bacon•Published Leviathan in 1651

1688 – THE GLORIOUS REVOLUTION

Anthony Ashley-Cooper, First Earl of Shaftesbury (1621-1683)

•Patron of John Locke•One of 8 Lords Proprietors of North Carolina, who introduced slavery to America•Leader of the Venetian Party until his death in 1683•Plotted to overthrow Charles II

John Locke

•Member of the “Venetian Party” of usury and permanent warfare•Member of the Board of Trade, which waged economic warfare against the American colonies•“Advocated revoking the charters of the American colonies, a royal dictatorship over their economic activity, and a ban on their manufacturing any finished goods.”

Charles Montagu, Earl of Fairfax

•Top operative of the “Venetian Party”•King William’s Lord Treasurer•Oversaw the founding of the Bank of England in 1694•Organized England’s first national debt on behalf of the “Venetian Party”, reaching ₤20 millions by 1696•Chancellor of the Exchequer•Appointed Newton to head the English Mint and oversaw the “Great Recoinage” of 1696•In 1697 he becomes Prime Minister, succeeding Lord Sidney Godolphin (1661-1715), who became lord treasurer under King William•Another crony, Robert Spencer, Lord of Sunderland, was named Lord Chamberlain in 1697, later acting as Secretary of State from 1708-1710•In 1707 Montagu is appointed Ambassador to Venice

John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough

•Captain General of English forces in War of the Spanish Succession•Ally of the “Venetian Party”•Key controller, along with his wife Sarah, of Queen Anne•Enemy of Leibniz, Swift, Harley and pro-American development faction•Proponent of “permanent war” doctrine in War of the Spanish Succession

Bank of England, est. 1694

“Venetian finance was the dominant power in England in the 18th century, and it worked through the Barings Bank.”

Prince Alexis Scherbatov

“I sit here like a spider in a web, and I wait. Sooner or later everyone who is anyone, must come through Venice…”

~Count Foscari