Venetian Survival

Well maybe Venice can become a medival ship manufacture? They don't have the population for a colonial empire, but a colonial company is doable. One of the problems OTL was that they refused to abandon the galley until essentially the end of the republic, but in the adraitic the galley did fine.
 
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I'm not sure how much more Venice could do along those lines than it did OTL - you need lots of timber for lots of ship manufacturing, and that would be a problem.
 
But that's the idea, if Venetians only used what they had they would've never been rich (salt and a lagoon), instead they brought wine from Sciliy and traded it for wool from England to make textiles in Italy. I'm trying to set up conditions for Venice to become a financial center or tourist resort, just like the Hebrews when they were excluded from most traditional jobs and went into finance instead.

Unfortunately this probably means I have to cut the lucrative salt trade in the Po valley from Venice sometime much earlier to introduce more incentitives.

The main problem with the manufacutre idea is that your still going to need locals to maintain the ships, although the Arsenal was capable of making ships much cheaper since what they had was essentially an early assembly line.

Or maybe something like the book-printer of Europe, or at least mediterranean.
 
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The point is, somehow Venice has to get access to the quantity and quality of timber necessary for major construction - above and beyond its existing merchant fleet.

Among other ship building resources obviously, but ship timber is surprisingly difficult - masts especially - thus being mentioned.

Its hardly impossible, but its still not easy.

So the question is, where do they find the forests necessary?

If there's a good answer, you're well on the way to setting up a way Venice can do this. I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination on southern Europe and Italy in particular, so this is just being brought up so its addressed, not to say your idea is impossible.
 
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The point is, somehow Venice has to get access to the quantity and quality of timber necessary for major construction - above and beyond its existing merchant fleet.

Among other ship building resources obviously, but ship timber is surprisingly difficult - masts especially - thus being mentioned.

Its hardly impossible, but its still not easy.

So the question is, where do they find the forests necessary?

If there's a good answer, you're well on the way to setting up a way Venice can do this. I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination on southern Europe and Italy in particular, so this is just being brought up so its addressed, not to say your idea is impossible.

Now keep in mind that galleys and cogs do not need tall trees, just the sea-faring sail dependant ones.

The trees sufficient for masts by then are locked up in reserves of aristocrats of europe, the best I can think of is southern Germany (now gettin that across the Alps :D), eastern Europe, and the New World. Best European idea would be something like Genovan Caffa with timber from up-river. Or maybe a second Venice built resembling the first in an enclave on what we now call Manhatten.
 
Now keep in mind that galleys and cogs do not need tall trees, just the sea-faring sail dependant ones.

Cogs, unless you're using the term in a sense different than this: http://www.abc.se/~m10354/mar/cog.htm are seafaring sail dependent ones.

And a colonial company (plus the implication of your comment on "one of the problems" being the refusal to abandon galleys) would need them in any case.

The trees sufficient for masts by then are locked up in reserves of aristocrats of europe, the best I can think of is southern Germany (now gettin that across the Alps :D), eastern Europe, and the New World. Best European idea would be something like Genovan Caffa with timber from up-river.

Yeah. Maybe in this timeline Venice has that area. That would be useful and not undoable.

The Baltic has good ship timber, but that's not really feasible for Venice to depend on.
 
Cogs, unless you're using the term in a sense different than this: http://www.abc.se/~m10354/mar/cog.htm are seafaring sail dependent ones.

And a colonial company (plus the implication of your comment on "one of the problems" being the refusal to abandon galleys) would need them in any case.



Yeah. Maybe in this timeline Venice has that area. That would be useful and not undoable.

The Baltic has good ship timber, but that's not really feasible for Venice to depend on.

Venice doesn't need to possess the area, the area just need an way to accept Venetian ducrats and some way to bring the wood to Venice. Maybe something like a playhouse/resort for the aristocrats of Europe, something to leave a good impression upon the next generation of ruling elites.

Venice for the better part of the centuries was the richest city in Europe, too bad they didn't use it for long-term constructive purposes. I suppose they could've easily started some corporations, and unlike most successful foriengers Venetians have no where to go but back to Venice for a better quality of life.
 
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