SocietyEurope
Venice
A republic of merchants that ruled the Mediterranean
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The Arsenale was probably the world's first industrial plant on an assembly-line principle, employing several thousand. Venice also invented much of modern finance: government bonds, double-entry bookkeeping, marine insurance and patent law. The republic lasted over a thousand years and fell only to Napoleon.
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Venice was built on piles in a lagoon and had almost no farmland. Everything came from trade. The Arsenale shipyard could build a whole ship in a day by assembling prefabricated parts.
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Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org