Proud Merchant Race/Quotes

We bring no store of ingots, of spice or precious stones

But that which we have gathered, with sweat and aching bones

In flame beneath the tropics, in frost beneath the floe

And jeopardy of every wind, that doth between them go

And some we got by purchase, and some we got by trade

And some we got by courtesy, of pike and carronade

—Rudyard Kipling, The Merchantmen

In earliest times La Serinissima, the city of the Virgin, had been given a masculine identity by its citizens. It was the Lion City. The very conditions of its existence made warfare an inevitable part of its history. There was warfare against the natural world and then warfare against its competitors. It was obligated to fight for its survival. Venice had archers and oarsmen and maritime warriors. Sea powers are natural competitors. While land powers may agree to the division of land into frontiers, the ocean has no frontier. Wherever there is sea, there are hostile ships. Throughout its long history, Venice could never rest.

—Peter Ackroyd, Venice