capital. Young entrepreneurs who did not have wealth
themselves could then get into the trading business by
traveling with the merchandise. It was a key channel of
upward social mobility. Any losses in the voyage were
shared according to the amount of capital the partners had
put in. If the voyage made money, profits were based on
two types of commenda contracts. If the commenda was
unilateral, then the sedentary merchant provided 100
percent of the capital and received 75 percent of the
profits. If it was bilateral, the sedentary merchant provided
67 percent of the capital and received 50 percent of the
profits. Studying official documents, one sees how powerful
a force the commenda was in fostering upward social
mobility: these documents are full of new names, people
who had previously not been among the Venetian elite. In
government documents of AD 960, 971, and 982, the
number of new names comprise 69 percent, 81 percent,
and 65 percent, respectively, of those recorded.
This economic inclusiveness and the rise of new families
through trade forced the political system to become even
more open. The doge, who governed Venice, was selected
for life by the General Assembly. Though a general
gathering of all citizens, in practice the General Assembly
was dominated by a core group of powerful families.
Though the doge was very powerful, his power was
gradually reduced over time by changes in political
institutions. After 1032 the doge was elected along with a
newly created Ducal Council, whose job was also to ensure
that the doge did not acquire absolute power. The first
doge hemmed in by this council, Domenico Flabianico,
was a wealthy silk merchant from a family that had not
previously held high office. This institutional change was
followed by a huge expansion of Venetian mercantile and
naval power. In 1082 Venice was granted extensive trade
privileges in Constantinople, and a Venetian Quarter was
created in that city. It soon housed ten thousand Venetians.
Here we see inclusive economic and political institutions
beginning to work in tandem.
The economic expansion of Venice, which created more
pressure for political change, exploded after the changes in
political and economic institutions that followed the murder
of the doge in 1171. The first important innovation was the