Venice: December 1533 | British History Online

Pages 448-449

Calendar of State Papers Relating To English Affairs in the Archives of Venice, Volume 4, 1527-1533. Originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1871.

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Citation:

December 1533



Dec. 22. Senato Mar. v. xxii. p. 208.	983. The Same to Carlo Capello, Venetian Ambassador in England.
	Last December he wrote that the King was content that the Venetian galleys should be sent, but for the future proposed coming to an understanding and agreement about three things, viz: the quantity of gold brought, the quantity and quality of the spices, and the bowstaves.
	To confer with the King, and urge him to grant an unconditional safeconduct for another five years to galleys from Venice.
	Last year his Majesty and his agents knew the impossibility, owing to the Portuguese, of obtaining at Venice the same quantity of spices as heretofore. With regard to the bowstaves, the English well know that those which come from Denmark and Flanders are better than those from these parts; so that as they do not obtain a remunerating price for the merchants, it would not be possible to stipulate and promise a fixed number. Respecting the gold, the merchants are more disposed to send gold, than to export the wools by means of bills of exchange, and if before this last voyage some purchases were made by bills of exchange, this occurred because a sufficient supply of gold had not been provided, by reason of there being a scarcity of wools, or from other causes; but when the voyage is brought to its right course (redutto al suo bon corso) there will be no lack of gold or anything else, in the same quantity as heretofore. It would therefore be superfluous to subject the trade to the terms proposed, or the merchants would hesitate to risk their property, and the trade would be interrupted and diminished.
	To request his Majesty, as the five-years' safeconduct is about to expire, to prolong it for [another] five years, free, and without restriction, so as to encourage the merchants to undertake the voyage.
	Ayes, 150. Noes, 2. Neutrals, 0.
	[Italian.]