The trading empire of the Republic of Venice lasted longer than any other in history. From the beginnings of the eleventh century, when the famous ceremony symbolizing the city's marriage with the sea was instituted, and when the Doge assumed the title of Duke of Dalmatia (though Ragusa, the chief port, later broke away) until the end of the sixteen century, when the Ottoman Empire had captured all her overseas possessions, the oligarchy comprising the Signori of Venice dominated the Adriatic, the Aegean and the Black Seas.
The age of prosperity was opened by the transport facilities provided by Venice for the Crusaders. When those engaged on the Fourth Crusade in 1204 were unable to pay for these facilities, they were persuaded to direct their energies to the capure of Constantinople instead of the Holy Land, commercial considerations being ever uppermost in the minds of the Signori. Islands and trading stations soon fell into Venetian hands: Zara, Corfu and the Ionian Islands; Crete, Negropont (Euboea), Naxos and Lemnos. Venice controlled southern Greece (Morea), the entire trade from the Levant and part of that from the Crimea and Trebizond.
Her rival was the Republic of Genoa, with which many wars were fought. With Genoese help, Greek rulers regained their empire and Constantinople. The Genoese destroyed the Venetian fleet at Curzola near Ragusa in 1298, but were themselves defeated at Sapienza in Greece in 1354.
In the days of the Republic, commerce was a state business even though the Signori owned only the largest galleys for longer voyages. Shipbuilding of all kinds, freight rates, routes used and even the dates of sailings were regulated by the state, which was a joint stock company on a grand scale. At the Arsenal, founded in 1104, galleys were built, and huge stores of hemp and timber were kept. By 1423 there were 3,000 small craft owned by the citizens, 300 privately-owned cogs or nefs (round ships which carried most of the trade) and 45 great galleys owned by the state for fast passenger traffic, the transport of lighter freight, and above all for use as warships. Later galleys were generally of about 500 tons, 180 feet long, 20 feet broad, manned by five rowers to each 40-foot oar and carrying one or two lateen-rigged masts. Smaller vessels were called fregata or felucca.
The six main routes on which these state galleys, employing some 40,000 men, distributed goods imported from the east (spices, drugs, silks, carpets, etc.) and through which an extensive pilgrim traffic was conducted were as follows: to Syria and the Holy Land; to Alexandria and Egypt; to Byzantium and the Black Sea; to Aigues Mortes and southern France; to Spain and the Barbary coast; in addition the Flanders galleys sailed annually to Southampton (then called Hampton), London, Bruges, and Antwerp. This service ran continuously from 1317 to 1532.